Safar Teacher's Guide for Islamic Studies: Level 4

Lesson planning is a vital component of the teaching and learning process. Sufficient classroom planning will keep teachers organized as well as on track while teaching, therefore allowing teachers to teach more and help students reach their learning objectives more easily. Lesson planning also ensures that there is a coherent framework for smooth and efficient teaching, as well as giving a sense of direction in relation to the overall syllabus. This guide maps the structure and content of a course. It sets out how class activities, assessment strategies, and resources will be used to ensure that the learning aims and objectives of the course are met successfully. The Safar Teacher‘s Guide serves as a working document to be used by teachers as a foundation for lesson planning. Our suggestions and ideas can be used and adapted by the teacher when thinking about the aims and delivery of a lesson. We actively encourage teachers to use these ideas and adapt their teaching to the needs of their children. To this end, we suggest teachers make their own notes in the schemes of work regarding activities that worked or did not work and provide this feedback to us. We also encourage teachers to be creative and share as many activity ideas as they can with us, in order to improve overall teaching and learning. Safar Schemes of Work (SoW) covers all teaching aspects and textbook material in a detailed manner for both Key Stage 1 and 2. From suggesting learning objectives, differentiated learning outcomes to detailed explanations of activities. Using the SoW is the easiest, time-efficient and the most effective way of planning and teaching the Safar Islamic Studies primary series syllabus. Safar Schemes of Work contain brief details about the contents of the lessons to act as a quick snapshot of what is to be covered. Also, to ensure that the syllabus is taught in a holistic manner, we have included links to previous learning activities/experiences where a subject or theme is revisited or extended, which is vital in facilitating students to consolidate their knowledge and learn coherently rather than simply learn through a fragmentary manner. Using the textbooks, workbooks and schemes of work, the teacher is able to ensure that teaching is dynamic, focused and clearly thought out; thus ensuring that the learning experience for the child is maximized as much as possible as well as coherent, reinforced and systematic. Developed with both teacher and student input, Safar Schemes of Work employ not only tried and tested methods but also utilize theoretical frameworks such as Bloom’s taxonomy of learning objectives whilst keeping in mind activities suited to all three main types of learners: visual, auditory and kinesthetic.