Lesson Plans Incorporating Video The Right Way
Author: k5blog
I happened to mention to a friend that I was going to show a video to my students. Her reply was, “Oh, easy day!” I must have looked at her a bit bewildered because she added, “I mean, you don’t even have to do a lesson plan.” Nothing could be further from the truth: a video doesn’t mean an “easy day.” Instead, it is a valuable method of teaching that can be tremendously effective and enhance the quality of learning in your classroom.
Using a video to its best advantage involves much more popping the DVD into the player and turning down the lights. Several techniques can help you maximize the great potential of videos in your classroom:
· Do some pre-video work. Talk with your students about the main points in the video or any new vocabulary. Give them a viewing activity. For elementary students, this can be as simple as watching for specific images or colors – whatever your teaching objective is. This will also keep them focused on the video.
· Use the video as part of your lesson but not the total lesson. Using an entire video when just a portion would do is counterproductive. Students lose focus, and you end up wasting valuable instructional time.
· You can break the video into smaller segments. In between segments, take breaks to discuss or do an activity. This allows for students to remain focus and not be lulled to sleep by the flickering lights.
· Feel free to stop the video any time. Ask a question. Highlight a particular point or image. This keeps focus and keeps students engaged. When they know they are responsible for the material and they will have to participate actively, it gives the video much more value.
· This brings us to a very important point: make the students responsible. A video is not just time to sit mindlessly and passively. Use videos for active learning by building tasks and opportunities for discussion into your lesson plan.
Teachers have to juggle several balls during each class. When using media, they have to make sure the videos are pertinent to the lesson, they have to provide quality activities, and they have to make sure the students are actively engaged.
Are you using videos as well as you could be? Improve your lessons right now by watching this video “The 7 Biggest Mistakes Teachers Make Using Video in the Classroom” and by downloading and following the techniques in the Free Expert Guide.
Tags: educational videos, lesson plan
