Professional Knowledge
Standard 2: Know the content and how to teach it

A Maths lesson plan for bilingual Kindergarten students where they construct their own paper clocks to explore how a clock tells time in hours.

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This lesson used an integrated curriculum approach where content-specific vocabulary was introduced explicitly in a Maths lesson as a literacy strategy to support students with advanced cognitive development and effective representation of their thinking. This approach to literacy has been adopted for its integrated learning potential in key learning areas. It also links advanced cognitive development to language development, as recommended by Woolfolk and Margetts (2013, p.97). Moreover, integrated learning opportunities allow learning through language and learning about language (Flint et al. 2020, p.37).

For Numeracy, a hands-on teaching strategy was integrated into the lesson to allow for deeper cognitive linkages through manipulation of materials (paper-plate clock), as suggested by Woolfolk and Margetts (2013). The paper clock gave students the opportunity to move the hands around and read times associated with their daily activities and events. Discussion and sharing of students’ thinking with teachers and peers during the creation of the clock artifact ensured that the activity was not just an add-on but was consciously aligned with the overall objective of the unit.