I completed my micro teach assessment today. This involved teaching a 30 minutes lesson with my peers acting as students.
The icebreaker that I performed enabled me to get a good understanding of how students interacted with each other – it also helped break down any barriers that they students may have had, as the topic that I choose for the icebreaker was one that the majority of learners could relate to. The topic was ‘Have you or anyone you know had the unfortunate experience of food poisoning?’ This helped ensure that all learners felt included. This icebreaker instigated a discussion, which allowed all learners to participate regardless of ability levels or learning styles.
I considered different learning styles when delivering the lesson. There are many different theories on learning styles – the overarching idea behind all of the learning style theories is inclusive learning. My ice breaker was one way of promoting inclusive learning. After the ice breaker I spoke to all learners about the procedures and practices that had to be followed for safe food preparation and handing. This catered for people who learnt by listening. I then moved onto another discussion about the practices ensuring that the information was injected with open ended questions to the learners. The session was rounded up with the learners working as groups on a multiple-choice handouts. The session was concluded with me asking a person from each group to read a questions and another member to answer it with the answer that the group had decided was correct. This gave another opportunity for a discussion and peer to peer learning. I feel that by catering to different learning styles I promoted an inclusive learning where all learns irrespective of age or ability were able to contribute and learn.