DSE Telangana and SSA SPD issued instructions on Teacher Preparation and Annual/Lesson Plans for Improving the Quality of Teaching through teacher preparation and developing the lesson plans, and Certain instructions have been issued on teacher preparation and writing of the annual/ lesson plans
The Telangana State has implemented curricular and evaluation reforms as per the RTE-2009 and the National Curriculum Framework-2005.
Accordingly, the syllabus and textbooks have been revised with improved participatory approaches to learning and development.
The curriculum reforms ended with the revision of textbooks and shifts in the following areas.
- Evolved academic standards – class-wise and subject-wise, along with learning
indicators. - Developed appropriate teaching learning strategies and steps for effective transaction of subjects reflecting the nature of the subject.
- Revised and improved the annual and lesson plans focusing on common core standards.
- Development of standard-based assessment tools and strategies with a focus on
Formative Assessment under Continuous and Comprehensive Evaluation (CCE). - Develop standard-based means of reporting students’ progress to parents and others through Cumulative Records.
“The quality of children’s learning is based on the quality of teaching and the quality of teacher and his/ her preparation.”
Teacher preparation includes:
- Teacher preparation: adding value to the textual material in terms of new examples, activities, questions, etc. Regular reading of reference books and making notes help teachers deliver expert teaching and add value to textbooks.
- Resources for teaching new textbooks: The Teacher must collect/ develop required teaching and learning material for effective teaching and learning.
- Preparation of annual and unit cum lesson plans collecting conceptual matters in depth from resource books and other internet sources.
Annual/ Lesson Plan Features:
The following are the salient features of the annual/ lesson plan.
Teachers need not prepare annual and lesson plans every year. Once they develop these plans initially for the new textbooks, they will continue for successive years with additions in the conceptual information and Teacher reflections every year.
The Teachers must read the entire book to prepare an annual plan with expected outcomes/ competencies. Further, the Teachers shall read the entire lesson and some reference books for the depth of the concepts for preparing plans.
The Teacher shall focus on the why he/ she is teaching the lesson, the purpose/
expected outcomes/ competencies of the lesson and shall write in the plan.
The Teacher has to think and select an appropriate teaching learning strategy for active learning through the children’s participation in activities, dialogue, and discussion, which promotes thinking and other higher-order thinking skills.
Based on the nature of the concepts to be taught, the Teacher has to read appropriate reference books to understand the concepts in depth, take appropriate notes, and record them in the lesson plan. Further, Teachers should select appropriate resources and Teaching Learning Material (TLM) for use in the classroom.
The Teacher shall not copy the concepts/ content matter from the textbooks. However, he/ she should refer to the reference books, collect additional material, and collect examples of the concept, and make a note of it in the lesson plan. This adds value to the textbook.
The Teacher shall prepare the lesson plans and the same lesson plans may be used in the successive years except adding additional content matter in the form of teaching notes and his/ her reflections after the lesson is over in terms of effectiveness of the teaching, learning, using resources, response from the children etc. This forms reflective teaching and building on his/ her experiences.
The Field Visits of the State Level and SCERT Team Reveal in Following Things. However, the field visits of State Level Officers from the Department and SCERT reveal the following things.
Private publishers are publishing lesson plan books, and Teachers are purchasing the lesson plan books, copying the same into notebooks, and submitting them to the Headmasters as their lesson plans.
This is highly unprofessional. A lesson plan is a plan prepared by the Teacher himself based on the abilities of the children, the resources available for teaching, and his capability, keeping in view the purpose of the lesson.
In certain Districts, it is observed that the DEOs are printing lesson plan books prepared by expert Teachers and supplying them to the schools, where Teachers use them without any thinking or professional preparation.
In some schools, Teachers do not prepare lesson plans, and concerned supervisory officers do not focus on the preparation of lesson plans or the Teachers’ preparedness.
This makes Teachers become mechanical through the spoon-feeding approaches without focusing on their innate potentialities and initiative.
Therefore, all the DEOs and POs of SSA are hereby informed that they must focus on teacher preparation, make them refer to the books, read the Teacher Handbooks, and plan their lesson teaching through appropriate annual plans/ lesson plans prepared by them.
This gives the teacher an idea of why to teach, what to teach, how to teach, how to evaluate children’s performance, and how to provide proper feedback to the children and parents. Action may be initiated against the Headmasters and Teachers who do not prepare lesson plans or copy from the guides.
The DEOs and POs of SSA are requested not to take up printing of annual/ lesson plans and supply them to the Teachers to just follow, which is against the academic spirit of the profession where Teachers stop thinking of original ideas and just copy things.
They are also requested to bring the matter to the attention of the District Collector to stop such unacademic practices and implement academic reforms in the form of curriculum and evaluation reforms effectively as per the policy and efforts of the Govt. of Telangana to improve the quality of education. Let’s make teachers think for themselves and prepare for effective teaching.
All teachers have been orientated on preparing annual and lesson plans. Further, Teacher Handbooks have been provided with certain model annual and lesson plans @ 1 per subject.
During the training programmes, hands-on training on developing the annual/ lesson plans was provided. This enabled Teachers to start developing lesson plans and achieve expertise over time.
All the RJDSEs, DEOs, POs of SSA and Principals of DIETs, CTEs, and IASEs are requested to supervise the implementation of curricular and evaluation reforms and effective writing of the annual plans and lesson plans and their implementation in the classrooms.
Further, the HMs and other supervisory officers shall review the writing of the annual/ lesson plans by the Teachers regularly.
The State Level observation teams also visit the Districts and observe the schools for effective practices and aspects of teacher preparation and academic reviews by the Headmasters and other supervisory officers. Encl: Annual and lesson plans. Rc.405 Instructions on Teacher Preparation and Annual/Lesson Plans Writing