Slowly Going

Slowly going down hill is the best way to describe my first proper hour of teaching.

I was confident, I walked in and I was looking forward to teaching 'Advertising in Magazines' and I was reflecting as the lesson was ending...

Resources: I used a PowerPoint and this time I tried to make sure it catered to my teaching needs as well as the students

1st page: Title
Next time: I will consider setting out my aims and objectives for the lesson
so learners are aware of what they need to complete and achieve. 

2nd Page: Outline of task
Good: Clear layout and outline of task
Bad: Although learners were required to design advertisements,
 they didn't have to do this with the film adverts and I did not make that very clear.
Next time:  I need to be clearer with my instructions. I can do this by addressing the aims
and objectives of the lesson. 

3rd Page: Explaining 2 page spread card advert
Good: I was able, through Q&A, to make connections between audiences and advertisements:
"Would you find this car advertisement in a kids magazine? Why not?
What kind of magazine do you think you will find it in? Why?
Who would buy this car? So what does this say about your target audience?"
Bad: I could have used this advertisement to talk about lighting and angle shots.
Next time: I need to think more deeply about how to use images to their full potential.
Possibly use basic semiotics as a method. This might get students to think more critically. 

4th Page: Cosmetics & Themes
Good:  I used Q&A to get students to think about the connections I made between the advert and film themes.
I heard a few 'ahhh' (light bulb moments) from students.
Bad: Again, I need to take the opportunity to ask questions about the lighting
Next time: Start using targeted Q&A to get everyone involved or move the quieter students to the front. 

5th Page: Cosmetics & Film
Good: I made the class guess what film the Mac advert might relate to
and tried to make a connection between this and genre. 

6th Page: Perfume, Genre & Technique
Good: I tried to show learners how creative they can be when considering
their magazine genre by showing them this advert
and how an illusion has been incorporated into it.
Next time: I could have linked this more deeply to camera/photoshop/green room
strategies and techniques to give students ideas. 

7th Page: Film ads
Good: I managed to make connections between magazine genre and film selection.
I checked learners understanding through Q&A.
Bad:  When I told students to take a note of the film website,
I didn't give learners enough time to take it down before I moved onto the next slide. 

8th Page: My example
Good: I tried to show them that creating ad advert is not difficult
and that they can be as creative as they want.
Next time: I should of went through how I made this
and highlighted lighting, angle shots and exposure...etc
This would have highlighted the importance of these factors
and possibly given them ideas for their adverts.  

The PowerPoint: 

All in all I was happy with the presentation but I thought I should of got actual photocopies of advertisements and films in a magazine so students had actual examples. I could have also possibly looked at how these ads were advertised and the magazine layout. 

Other Resources & Assessment Method:  This is where I started reflecting as the lesson was going on...

After the PowerPoint I asked the group to do a spider diagram of their ideas but I noticed this started to fizzle out and students started drifting off. I should of:

• Used a story board like hand out that allowed learners to draw their ideas 
• Encouraged students to research adverts and make a mood board of their ideas 
• Got students to write a couple of paragraphs about: a) what kind of magazine genre they are doing b) what kinds of adverts they might use c) their target audience d) what techniques and strategies they might use when creating their adverts 

In order to ensure my assessment methods are better in the future, I will change the order in which I complete my lesson plan and start with the assessment methods first.

I need to also make sure that I follow up learning and touch on previous lessons.  This will be a good method to check learning from previous teachings. I can do this at the beginning of the class through Q&A: "What were we discussing last week? / Do you remember what tasks you need to complete?"