Wednesday, December 15, 2010

PHASE III

The final phase of the Blog reflection is due by the first day of finals week of class.  The Blog and then reflect on the overall experience.
Describe:
  1. (a) how your understandings for each the categories listed below changed based on your experiences this semester and
  2. (b) describe how this might impact your future teaching experiences.
    • Assessing Prior Knowledge
Using prior knowledge and relating the lesson to the students everyday life experience facilitates in enabling the teacher to get the students interest in the lesson that is about to be presented. Students have different life styles, come from different backgrounds and have different styles of learning. 
As a future teacher starting my lesson using prior knowledge will engage the students in the lesson.  Using prior knowledge as a support will help the student make connections to their own lives.  When connections are made the new knowledge will merge with the prior knowledge.    

    • Planning Instruction
Planning instruction was like the rough draft of all that was going to be taught.  Having to consider each step such as, prior knowledge, modeling, guided practice, independent practice, assessing, conclusion, and each step had to be thoroughly thought over and creativity had to kick in. 
As a teacher planning instruction for this lesson made me realize that students need to be taught step by step or scaffolding in order to get the main idea of lesson.  Once the main idea is taught, I will be able to add other lessons to their new knowledge.  As a future teacher I will be aware of lessons that work and don’t work or learn how to modify to be successful.   

    • Designing Instruction
Designing instruction was very tedious; the lesson had to be well thought out, accommodations for all students had to be considered.   Step by step PPT instruction is a considerable amount of thinking. 
·         Developing a rubric to assess the students when presenting and/or working together in groups.  
·         Designing work sheets, checking out websites that students can safely log into. 
·         Be sure all students are placed together in groups according to their learning styles.
As a future teacher I would connect myself with the computer lab tech. I would plan at least three lessons for students on how to complete a PPT.  I would plan this lesson to take at least four days and class time would be about 30-40 minutes.  Continually checking for understanding and modifying as needed according to the students needs.

    • Planning Assessment
Assessing daily progress is the key point to assessing to assure individual students partake in within their groups.  Giving feedback will make the students realize that they are accountable for their own actions and work. Developing a rubric alleviates the guessing of the students expectations. 
A checklist and a list of instructions were developed specifically to be able to complete tasks. Creating a folder with all their resources and items that they need to be successful and gain their new knowledge and to better prepare them for the final assessment. 
    • Instructional Decisions/Teaching
Instructional decisions made for this lesson were to be clearly defined to all students exactly what the lesson was about.  The lesson at first did not flow very well but collaborating with my peers help make the lesson engaging. 
As a future teacher I will need to collaborate with the members of my grade level.  Expect some constructive criticism and ideas on how the lesson will impact my students.  Be willing to start over and realize that I will learn from my mistakes. 
    • Assessment of Learning
Assessment of learning was clearly defined by the objectives. Using the objectives to guide my lesson helped develop the assessment. 

As a teacher I will carefully align the lesson to the objectives and use variety of ways to assess the students.  Effectively assessing students will help guide my future assessments and lessons.

Sunday, December 12, 2010

Phase II

Instructional Decisions/Teaching: Describe and justify modifications made :
  • for individual needs
  • to maintain alignment to goals and objectives 

Modifications for English language Learners: Providing background and context information, such as visiting websites with animation. Increase interaction by pairing students with a native English speaker as a model for English Language Development.  Checking often for understanding by having the students demonstrate their learning and highlighting key concepts and main ideas. during a lesson The teacher should often emphasize key vocabulary.  Also, the teacher should continually present information in a variety of ways.  

Modifications for special education: Allowing extra time to use of the computer and providing the student with a hand over hand instruction step by step.  Exploring different ways to build relationships with their peers.  Visuals will provide an easy reference and continually checking for understanding and repeat key concepts. 

Modifications for gifted students: Providing challenges with programs that will add to their creative talent.  Provide opportunities to work with other students whom are struggling with self-motivation and lack of skills. It will help both students to learn to work together and know that all students have different learning styles.

Modifications for at-risk students: Allowing extra time on the computer will help the at-risk student by helping him/her feel confident to work in groups and willing to take the lead to research on-line.  At-risk students need motivation and self-esteem working in groups, continually monitoring and asking if there are any questions, checking work day by day and providing constructive feedback and suggestions.

These are websites where we got some of our information from
www.wested.org/cs/tdl/view/tdl_tip/52 = Link to first artifact


 














www.teachervision.fen.com/special-education/resource/5347.html = Link to second artifact






Assessment of learning: Describe the evidence you have that indicates
  • your students level of success in achieving the lessons goal
  • the level of success you had in teaching the lesson
I know my students succeed in achieving the lessons goals because I the teacher graded their final project which was having the students make a power-point on the tribe they were given. Based on the power-point I was able to see that the students understood that they had to do research on the tribe given, that they had to make a power-point, and that each power-point had to have certain items in order to be successful.

I know that I the teacher was successful in teaching this lesson because as I was walking around I was able to see what the students were doing and answering any questions they may have. I also know that I was successful in this lesson because when I was grading the students power-points and they all did great I knew that they understood and got the objective. The rubric was a big help for us the teachers and for the students to make sure they succeeded and to make sure we the teachers succeeded in teaching the lesson.


Artifact #1 This is one of the power-points that a group made


Artifact #2 This is the rubric that we the teachers used to grade each power-point