Activity Two: Planning for/Developing Routines and Procedures

Plan the routines for one of your classes. The activity expects that you will teach the class. It may be a class that you teach for an observation by
your MST/MCT or just a practice class that you teach with the permission of your MST. The lesson can be incorporated as one of your formal
observations if your MST/MCT decides. In order to complete the activity you are required (whether the lesson is one of your f ormal observations
or not) to fill in and submit the planning sheet below.
Before you begin to complete the table talk a little bit about the class/lesson in which this plan for routines is to be used. Include:
• Lesson objectives
• Main activities in the lesson
• Grouping of students during each main activity
• Behaviour expected during each activity (e.g. sharing resources; changing stations; presenting)
• Where are the transitions in the lesson? What are they: (e.g. moving from plenary to group work between main activity one and main
activity two)

Lesson Overview:

The following routines will be implemented during a science lesson. The lesson’s objective is to see if students can investigate the
rate at which chocolate melts, while conducting an experiment. The students will spend the beginning half of the class in the
classroom as the teacher explains the main points and new vocabulary, while the second half will be in the science lab. The students
will use a burner to melt three different types of chocolate (dark, white and milk) and see how long it takes for the chocola te to
melt. There are three levels of students in the class and the investigation planning sheets were created accordingly. The less able
students receive a planning sheet with more detail, while the other groups have less detail guiding them in their sheets. Transitions
in the lesson include: moving from the classroom to the science lab in which students are going to line up and walk with the teacher
to a different building, moving from planning sheets to main activity; they will be writing down notes of predictions and the n doing
the practical experiment. Another transition Is moving from the melting of the chocolate to the recording of the findings in their
recording sheets to note down the time it took for each chocolate type to melt.
Class/Year: Routine: Classroom helpers hand out Routine: Be respectful Routine: Tidy up
Year 5 notebooks.
Learning Quickens the pace of the lesson and Students must raise their It teaches students to return things where they
Objective of students learn to be responsible and hands when answering and belong and be neat and organized.
the do their duties as classroom helpers. not interrupt others when
routine/proced speaking.
ure
(what it hopes
to achieve)

Anecdotal
Evidence
(e.g. pictures of
your class
during the
routine;
posters of rules
etc.)
 Place in Start of the lesson During discussion time Last few minutes of the lesson
today’s class
(when will you
perform the
routine)
Importance to Assigning two students to do this task Students learn more when Students get ready for their next class/lesson
the smooth helps make the class more orderly and they can hear what is being without having a mess left behind.
functioning of less students are moving around, while said clearly, rather than
today’s class the teacher is able to move on with when everyone is talking
different explanations or activity over the other.
instructions.
How well did It worked well as students are It is important to take turns Students had break after the class, so it got a bit
this routine accustomed to having to hand out speaking so using this messy and they were eager to leave the class, so
work in today’s books at the start of each lesson. reminder, students know they did not completely tidy up before leaving.
class that it is respectful to let
others speak and raise their
hand before doing so.
If you had to I would ask the students to distribute I would remind students of I would remind the students that the class should
teach this class the books earlier than I did so that the way I expect them to be perfectly tidy before they think of leaving.
over, how nobody gets out of their seat and starts behave before beginning
would you searching for a pencil or other supplies. discussions.
adjust this
routine and
why
After the Task - Reflection
Choose 3 best practices you observed during your time in school. Reflect on these and consider why you could implement these in a UAE primary
classroom in the future. Explain how these practices will affect student learning in a primary class.

Classroom monitors: Each classroom has classroom monitors such as computer monitors, classroom helpers and line leaders. The students
change evert week and I find that it gives the students a sense of responsibility. Not only does it help the lesson move smoo thly to have students
helping the teacher, but it also allows the students to feel accountable for something.
Brain breaks: Students in the class really enjoyed having a brain break in which the teacher would play a video that has exercises for them to do
and they would dance along. It allowed them to get energized. Instead of overloading students with information, it’s good to give t hem a break
once in a while because it would be pointless to teach them everything at once if they can’t retain all of it.
Silent reading: Having students read every free second is a wonderful way to nourish the love of reading in students. They are making use of
their free time and are doing something useful while waiting. At the same time, students need quiet to read, so it’s a good w ay to sustain a quiet
atmosphere in the classroom.
All three of these practices create an orderly environment and are parts of students’ learning and growth. I believe that more schools should
implement different routines in the classroom and have students feel more involved rather than only being passive learners.