Reflect upon your experiences this semester with meeting the competencies under Domain #3 (Instruction). Consider what artifacts and documents you have which fulfill this domain. You can reflect upon experiences from your field placement and your methods block courses.
Consider the instructional strategies and methods you have used to facilitate powerful teaching and learning in social studies, mathematics, reading/language arts, and science.
This blog represents the first draft of the reflective essay you will use for Domain #3 in your professional portfolio.
Domain 3, instruction, is the hardest yet to choose artifacts to put into my portfolio. I feel that I have not had much experience yet actually teaching. I have taught one lesson, which was very successful at my field placement thus far. In addition, I have “taught” four lessons this semester in my classes. My most successful was my math lesson. It was a challenge to write and I had to plan and organize a lesson plan that would last three days. It was also on one of my most hated topics, fractions. Overall, the lesson plan itself was great and the actual teaching experience was even better. I thought that it went smoothly and everyone understood fractions a little bit better after it was complete. I also have worked hard on creating a hook for every lesson. I want to say or show something interesting to draw the students in and make them want to learn any topic, not just their favorites.
ReplyDeleteIn addition to teaching, I have created many assessments in the assessment and evaluation course. The levels of questioning and expectations were different for every assessment created. I know that I have become a better test maker and now understand it is important to test students, not just on factual knowledge, but also how they can apply that knowledge in life.
In all of my classes, I learned how important it is to engage students in hands-on learning. Just sitting there and reading the textbook is not going to work as well as getting the students involved in the learning. This comes in many different forms. You can use manipulatives in math, role-play in social studies, active reading, and hands-on demonstrations in science. It is very important to do everything possible to make the learning as concrete and real as possible so that students remember the information for life, not just for the text on Friday.
Under Domain #3 Instruction, I have many artifacts that fulfill this domain. First of all, a math activity lesson plan that I created in methods refers to communicating with students. In my lesson, I would show students how to make five different ABAB letter patterns on the overhead projector. The students would then create more patterns on a blank paper.
ReplyDeleteThe science lesson that I created from Foss Balance and Motion uses questioning and discussion techniques. I created a lesson on tops and students were asked questions while making tops.
The students were engaged in learning during a shared reading about wolves. The students read the story “The Three Little Pigs.” They created a Venn diagram comparing and contrasting two stories about wolves.
Lastly, I have a storm paper of a student in which students had to match a picture of a storm with the name such as hurricane, tornado, thunderstorm, and dust storm. I also have a sample of a student’s Venn diagram comparing and contrasting two stories on wolves. All of these samples show what a student understands about a concept and what to improve on in teaching.
By having all of these artifacts, teaching will be easier in reading, mathematics, science, and social studies. Students will be engaged in learning and motivated to learn. My work will get easier since I already planned these lessons and I have a better outlook on instruction.
I have gained experience in Instruction in my college classes, in my placements, and through various other experiences.
ReplyDeleteI have taught Math, Science, Social Studies, and Reading lessons in groups as part of my method’s block. I have also had the privilege of teaching math and language arts to third graders at my Methods block placement throughout this semester.
FOSS focuses on questioning and student discussion. As part of Methods of Teaching Science, we examined different FOSS kits. We wrote up officially lesson plans including a literacy connection. Four students examined each FOSS kit and then worked in groups to teach the rest of the class parts of several investigations from their FOSS kit.
At my placement, my students were learning about Ghana, Africa; the story in their basal was about a cloth made in Ghana. I found a book of Nigerian folktales and talked about how Ghana and Nigeria are both in Africa. I then proceeded to teach a lesson on folktales using the folktale: Test of a Friendship from the book I had found. I created a powerpoint to teach the location of Nigeria and to facilitate a discussion on the characteristics of a folktale. After this discussion, I read Test of a Friendship. The students then completed a worksheet which we discussed as a group. I felt that this was one of the best lessons I had ever taught, and my supervisor, who happened to be observing me that day, seemed to agree that it went extremely well.
As an assignment for my Methods of Teaching Social Studies class, I came up with the idea for a research project on roles in society in Ancient Greece as an integrated Social Studies and Language Arts assignment for a fifth or sixth grade class. After being taught general information about life in Sparta and Athens students would choose a role in Spartan or Athenian society that they wish to research to learn more about. Student will then present what they learned about their self-selected role in society to the class using any approved format that they chose to use (i.e. powerpoint, oral report, drawing and explanation, etc.).
Under Danielson's Domain 3, Instruction, I sought to choose artifacts that showed best practices in teaching from a variety of academic subjects.
ReplyDelete2nd Grade Science – For my methods of teaching science class, I was one of four people to write and implement a 5E lesson that was adapted from a GEMS basal. The GEMS Mystery Festival emphasized student observation and making conclusions during a simulated crime investigation, “The Case of the Missing Bear.” Although this lesson was not taught to children, it keeps students engaged in the investigation because their success in solving the crime depends on active participation and observation. Students observed a crime scene and conducted four experiments in centers, which required students to draw conclusions to discover who borrowed Mr. Bear.
4th Grade Reading - Thick and Thin Questions: This language arts lesson was tailored to teach students how to ask “thick” and “thin” questions. Students identified “thick” and “thin” questions in small groups using a T-chart, then worked in pairs to develop their own questions according to category that they wrote on two different sized sticky notes.
3rd Grade Social Studies - United Nations Lesson: This lesson plan, demonstrating flexibility and responsiveness, was adapted to meet both a 45-minute or 30-minute time block. It was taught in front of pre-service teachers with two team teachers. The lesson focuses on teaching the goals of the United Nations by transferring student knowledge about problems that occur in schools. After a brief video, this lesson challenges students to work together to create a viable solution to a school-wide problem.
2nd Grade Social Studies – Economy Unit Assessment: After mapping a 2nd grade curriculum unit, “The Economy,” I created appropriate assessments ranging from formative to summative in my ED 258 class. I demonstrated assessment in instruction by assessing students using all six levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy.
Each of these artifacts on instruction shows my growth as an educator, and have represented the practices that I plan to continue in my future teaching.
This domain is probably the easiest one to reflect on since there are so many artifacts and documents that can be included. To start off, I have 2 lessons from ED250 and many from methods block. In Math, I have my individual lesson plan on place value and my big co-teaching place value unit that was actually taught to the class. I have created lesson plans directed around an interactive website and a game.
ReplyDeleteIn social studies, I have the lesson plan that was integrated with another subject and the lesson plan that was presented and taught to the class with our group. I have all the materials and resources needed for these lessons that could be used in an actual classroom.
In language arts, I have a lesson that was taught in my elementary school along with a reflection. I taught this lesson and was observed by my supervisor so I have his feedback and reflections as well.
In science, I have the FOSS: Sun, Moon, and Stars unit that was created by our group and the individual parts of the unit that were taught to the class. This shows that I can use materials and kits and replicate them in the classroom. In my field placement, the first lesson I ever did with the class was by using a FOSS kit on Pebbles, Sand, and Silt. I have a lesson plan for this lesson and all materials were from the kit.
I have learned many techniques from my field placement and methods block courses that will help me when I have my own classroom. I have learned management techniques to use while I am instructing that will keep the lesson flowing. By teaching all these lessons, I have become much more comfortable in front of the classroom and other peers. I feel that my instruction is not so rehearsed as it used to be but more casual and realistic.
There are several artifacts that meet the different competences for Domain 3 that I have completed. In Method’s Block I created several lesson plans in math teaching students about shape characteristics. Students work towards creating three characteristics of a shape. These characteristics are then used to play bingo. Students have to be thinking about the characteristics that are being read to match it to a shape on their board. This has students engaged in a fun game but at the same time they are learning. In the other lessons, students are doing hands-on activities to learn about shape characteristics. All of the lessons in the unit are designed to meet the individual needs of the students in my class and some accommodations were made. At the end of the unit on geometry, I created an assessment for students. There is a combination of multiple choice as well as open-ended questions.
ReplyDeleteFor my science method’s class, I created a 5-E lesson plan from the FOSS unit Air and Weather. In a group, we taught a demonstration on different lesson from this FOSS unit. For my demonstration, students made an anemometer and explored how the instrument worked using supplies in the classroom. Then we went outside to use the anemometer to determine wind speed. Throughout the lesson, I was asking students both implicit and explicit questions. At the end of 5-E lesson I also included an assessment.
In my 2nd grade field placement, I taught a reading and writing lesson to the students. I read them the book “Legends of the Indian Paintbrush”. Throughout the reading I stopped to have a discussion with the students about what was happening in the story. Students became really involved with the discussion, which demonstrates the questioning techniques I used were effective. Afterwards, students wrote and drew about their favorite part of the story. This was used as the assessment of the lesson to make sure that students were staying on topic as well as using proper grammatical rules as well as spelling sight words correctly. During the whole lesson students were engaged in the reading as well as their reflection on the story.
In my technology class, I created a whole unit on solar systems. For this unit, I integrated math into the lessons. Students were engaged in hands-on activities to learn about difficult concepts such as the rotation of planets and the distance between planets. At the beginning of the unit, I posted a summary of all the lesson plans on the classroom blog. Students are able to look at the blog at the beginning of the week to see what is coming up. On the blog, students are able to post comments to communicate with me and other students.
For my social studies methods class, my group created a lesson plan on a classroom election. Students were voting for a new classroom representative. The day before this lesson, everyone in the class would be brainstorming ideas of the responsibilities and qualities that they want in a classroom representative. The students who wanted to run for classroom representative created a short speech to share with the class, which was presented in a video. Students were learned that their vote counts in any election. At the end of the lesson, students were part of a discussion of what happened in the election as well as what they learned at the end of the lesson.
Under Domain #3, Instruction, I believe that I have valuable knowledge and experience. Over the course of my field placement I have been able to further develop and perform efficient, effective, and meaningful instruction. Instruction in the educational field requires one to develop and deliver instructional strategies and methods by communicating with students, using question and discussion techniques, engaging students in learning, using assessment in instruction, and demonstrating flexibility and responsiveness.
ReplyDeleteFor Social Studies, I have been fortunate enough to become informed about the effective nature of integrated lesson plans. By integrating Social Studies material into a Reading activity, I was able to instruct the necessary Social Studies and Reading information that I wanted the students to understand. This artifact demonstrates instruction of a lesson on trading and bartering using a Leveled Reader Book, entitled It’s A Fair Swap, with a below-level reading group of students in a third grade classroom. The students worked with a partner in putting sequencing strips and sequencing cards in the correct order. The sequence strips required the students to reflect on the terms of study: “trading” and “bartering”. In addition, it reviewed Social Studies material discussed earlier in the lesson; this included the fact that people rely on others to trade them for things that they need or want, that there has to be an equal agreement between trades for bartering to occur, and that there was transition from people bartering to using paper money and coins. The sequencing cards were used as a whole group and were used to refresh students’ memory of the exact steps and transformation when discussing bartering. It is a meaningful artifact because it shows the integration of both Social Studies and Reading into one lesson. It demonstrates student involvement and participation, hands on opportunities, as well as, the importance of being able to summarize and sequence a book while also understanding a Social Studies concept of Economics.
In addition, I have instructed a lesson on penguins to an on-level reading group in a third grade classroom. I feel that this artifact communicates my capability, flexibility, and responsiveness when instructing a lesson. Through this entire lesson I was able to adapt instruction, materials, and activities in order for these aspects to provide the most meaningful information and experiences for the students. This artifact demonstrates my ability to develop an environment where students enjoy learning and participating; so much so that they gave up some of their recess time in order to complete the final assignment of the lesson. This lesson is a reflection of my ability to perform as a beneficial teacher.
Finally, I have successfully engaged students in learning by instructing a Coteaching Math lesson on Place-Value. Through this lesson, the coteacher and I were able to successfully inform and engage students in activities, worksheets, and discussions about the concept of Place-Value. The lesson involved using materials, such as Place Value Mats, that transformed an abstract concept into activities that involved concrete manipulation and experimentation.
As a result of my experience, I feel that Danielson’s third domain, Instruction, is a key factor in becoming an efficient and successful teacher. It is through this domain that I have showed my ability to present material that it modified, adapted, and delivered in a way that all students are able to understand the material of study.
There are several artifacts from my methods fieldwork, education classes, and other fieldwork experiences that I feel represent the competences under Domain # 3, Instruction. This semester alone I have been able to instruct numerous lessons in my methods block classes, as well as in my fieldwork classroom. Under this domain I have demonstrated the ability to communicate with students, engage students in learning, use question and discussion techniques, use assessment in instruction, and demonstrate flexibility and responsiveness.
ReplyDeleteThe first artifact in this domain is an integration lesson for social studies and language arts that I taught during my methods block fieldwork. I created and taught a lesson on sequencing main events in a story and physical characteristics of countries and states. This lesson demonstrated my ability to engage students in learning, as well as demonstrated my ability to use effective question and discussion techniques with the students in the classroom.
The second artifact in the domain is a fraction math lesson that I taught during my methods block fieldwork. For this lesson I taught students about fractions using three different kinds of apples. At the end of the lesson the students were able to have a taste test and create a chart to figure out which of the three apples tasted the best. Fractions are sometimes a difficult concept for younger students to grasp, so during this lesson I had to make sure I communicated with the students the main concept of the lesson and use appropriate language that was developmentally appropriate to their grade level. This lesson demonstrated my ability to engage students in learning, as well as demonstrated my ability to be flexibility and responsive by paying attention to what the students understood and what I needed to further explain based on responses to the questions I asked during the lesson.
The third artifact in this domain is a grammar lesson that I taught during my methods field placement and the evaluation that my methods supervisor wrote after my lesson. The lesson focused on identifying plural nouns that change spelling. The evaluation includes several recognitions that include by ability to use effective questions in the lesson, engage students in the lesson, and recognition of my concluding instruction to make sure that at the end of the lesson that all my students could identify plural nouns that change spelling. This grammar lesson and evaluation demonstrate my ability to effectively teach a lesson in a second grade classroom.
The fourth artifact in this domain is a read aloud lesson that I taught during my fieldwork at Scott Elementary School in Harrisburg. The lesson introduced preschool students to different emotions. With preschool students you always have to be able to be flexible and responsive to how they are responding to the lesson, and change parts of the lesson around based on their responses. I feel that this lesson effectively represents by ability to be flexible and responsive, as well as how to use effective assessment in instruction. At the end of my read aloud I had my students pick an emotion in the story and draw a picture of themselves feeling that way. This was an age appropriate way of assessing students on what they learned from the read aloud.
Each artifact in this domain demonstrates the competences under Domain # 3, Instruction. I feel that these four artifacts represent effective ways of instructing lessons and activities in the classroom environment.
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ReplyDeleteLast week I accidentally wrote about Domain 3 so this week I’ll right about Domain 2…
ReplyDeleteFor Domain #2, pertaining to Classroom Management I have had an assortment of experiences. I am a very well organized person and when it comes to running a lesson, teachers must not only prepare the lesson and material, but the classroom environment as well. We need to think about how the students act towards certain types of lessons versus others. We need to have a set of rules that students can follow and understand so that the classroom is a safe and caring place to grown physically, socially, and mentally. We need to set up our classroom so that the room is not crowded, the students can be engaged in learning and not distracted, and a welcoming environment that the students feel safe in.
My experience with this Domain comes in many forms. I have planned seating arrangements for lessons, whether I need my students sitting alone, in pairs, or small groups. I have set up an entire classroom and schedule of an Early Childhood Science Morning. I have thought about what decorations and materials I want in my classroom such as flags for diverse students, colored and meaningful posters to add warms to the cold white walls and engaging bulletin boards.
By taking a classroom management course, I have thought long and hard about all different parts of my classroom. I plan to create a set of classroom rules with the help of my students to make them more meaningful and easy to remember as well as have my students hold jobs in the classroom changing every week so that each student gets a chance at the jobs they want. I also plan to seat my students in anywhere from groups of 2 to 4 so that they can talk and help each other and make friends in the classroom. Creating a community in the classroom is a necessity if the class expects to learn and grow together.
Between creating a classroom community, a welcoming classroom and an environment full of learning, I hope that my students will grow in every way they can and test themselves to grow further.
Instruction is the Domain 3 in Danielson’s four domains. It has to deal with the core of teaching and how to effectively teach and instruct students. I learned through my junior block and field placement that asking questions, group discussions, modeling, and feedback are extremely important when it comes to teaching children. All of my teachers have always stressed the importance of an essential question in a lesson and to MAKE SURE you reflect back on it in your conclusion of your lesson. I would say I have done all of these in every subject. I think one of the best advice I have ever gotten from a teacher is when they told me “if you want your students to be excited about the material you are teaching, you must be excited about teaching it”! I always try and remember this when I am teaching/instructing.
ReplyDeleteIn meeting with the competencies under Domain #3: Instruction. I have taught and planned several lessons. The artifacts I would use are my co-teaching lesson in methods block mathematics class. I taught a lesson with a colleague about Patterns in math. We taught them different types of patterns--color, shape, and number. We instructed them how to use different manipulatives and teach patterns. We asked questions and created an assessment to go along with the lesson. I also taught a lesson on final blends in my methods block field placement. I interacted with students by reviewing what a final blend was and asked them several questions. As they played the game to go along with reviewing final blends I asked some of the following questions: “What is the final blend for this word?” “What does final blend mean?” I also taught a lesson on adding with zero in my methods block field placement. I taught the students how to add with zero by having them find the answer and find the addend (missing number). I communicated with students by asking them questions about what they were learning and if they could come up with their own problem. I used questioning and discussion techniques while teaching to see if students understood what they were learning. I engaged students by having them play a game and having them work in pairs with flash cards. I assessed their learning by having them come up with examples of final blends, adding with zero, and creating their own pattern. I demonstrated flexibility by having the students get up from their seats while playing the game to reach the board better and by having the use flash cards while the students were finishing up their worksheet in their math book.
ReplyDeleteDomain 3, Instruction, of Danielson’s model exhibits characteristics of assessment, questioning and conversing, and engaging students. I have compiled artifacts that include these characteristics.
ReplyDeleteMy first artifact is a math lesson for third grade. It uses a number line to teach that multiplication is repeated addition. This lesson has a problem of the day, which will focus the students on the lesson and engage them. Also in this lesson, the students are guided through the material by questions and some instruction. The questions allow the students to use their previous knowledge to create new ideas about the new concepts. The students work in groups in this lesson so they can discuss different methods to use the manipulative or they can use each other to clarify the information. Lastly, the multiplication lesson has formal and informal assessments built into it. For informal assessment, the teacher will question the students throughout the lesson to check comprehension about the manipulative and multiplication. For the formal assessment, students will be creating and solving multiplication problems using the number line and then handing in the corresponding worksheets.
My second artifact is for a second grade science class. It is a supplementary lesson from GEMS. The lesson engages the students because of its “crime scene”, need for observation and details, and for its intriguing lab stations where students conduct experiments. The students are constantly being questioned about the different materials being used, what they saw at the crime scene, and about how the clues come together to solve the mystery. Students are informal assessed for understanding through questioning at each station (brown stain test, PH test, thread test, and fingerprints).
The third artifact that encompassed the traits of Domain three is a proposal for what my ideal social studies class would include. Based on my field experience in methods block, I discovered that I want to use technology in my classroom to enhance social studies for my future students. This artifact includes several ideas about engaging activities for students to learn, such as virtual fieldtrips, utilizing books on tape, using movies, documentaries, and different news channels to track current events. These ideas can be tailored for any elementary level. Students will also be more likely to converse about these fieldtrips or movies because they are actually seeing it first- hand, which is a more authentic way to teach, rather than just talking about the material.
My last artifact that fit into this domain is a co-teaching assignment for math. It was created for a first grade class. It uses number lines to teach addition and subtraction in a kinesthetic and visual way. The students are engaged throughout the lesson because they are up and manipulating the number lines in groups, which allows students to interact with one another. The initial attention grabber of this lesson is when we create an addition problem using what the students are wearing as the two numbers of the number sentence. During this lesson, the students will also be assessed during the activity and after the activity by means of a completed worksheet. The teacher also moves around the room during the number line activity to answer questions and to ask the students how they did the problem and why they did it that way.
Instruction is Domain three of Danielson’s four Domains. This domain is important because the students must understand the instruction/teaching to understand the concepts and topics being taught. I have had a lot of experience with instruction both in my field placement and in my method block classes. During each methods class I worked on mapping students to the objectives and creating strong essential questions. This helped me to create very clear instructional goals. Methods block has also taught me how to integrate different disciplines into a lesson. Integration is very important because many schools (such as Donegal; the school I did my placement at) do not have a sufficient amount of time for science and social studies. Through integration I was able to do a great language arts lesson that also taught Japanese culture and tradition. During my placement I learned how important giving students feedback is. I also learned that through assessment I can measure what I need to spend more time on, as well as the topics that are already grasped. Engaging students in the lesson is extremely important because it creates active learners. One way I engaged students was through questioning, which was a great way to get everyone involved. My co-op taught me how important it is to be flexible in the classroom; things must be prioritized. Good instruction truly does make all the difference in the classroom. If children are interested and engaged they are capable of anything.
ReplyDeleteI plan on including some really great artifacts that truly show my instruction styles/strategies in my portfolio. For starters I will include a math lesson plan I did on multiplication. This lesson was great because I used student’s examples from the warm up to do the whole lesson. It was a really neat way to get everyone involved and thinking about what was being taught. I also plan to include the materials from designing a unit in my science methods class. My group had a gems lesson called mystery festivals. It was not only an extremely fun activity, but the students also learned a lot about observations and different types of basic forensic tests. This lesson is a great way to show that instruction and inquiry can go hand in hand. It is important to teach students, but it is equally important to give students the time to apply what they have learned.
Under Danielson’s Domain # 2, Instruction, I have many artifacts that I want to incorporate. The three that I am most proud of were completed during methods block. The first artifact that I believe shows instruction and uses questioning and discussion techniques is my lesson plan created under the FOSS Water. This science lesson plan and demonstration encourages student engagement and learning. My second artifact is my social studies lesson plan. This was created in a group, but the reason I believe it fits here is because it engages students and encourages them to move around the room to learn about a community. There was time to be flexible and could have added more if needed. My last artifact that shows instruction is my math co-teaching lesson plan. The amount of instruction dedicated to complete this lesson plan helped me as a future teacher see how much is needed to complete for a lesson plan. The math co-teaching plan communicates with students and demonstrates responsiveness with the students. The students were engaged as well as active in the lesson.
ReplyDeleteMy experience in a second grade classroom this semester has helped me to grow as a teacher, learn how to interact and communicate confidently with all students, and develop and practice effective instructional strategies that create powerful teaching and learning.
ReplyDeleteIn math methods class, I worked with a partner to develop a co-teaching lesson on shapes and characteristics. This geometry lesson that we planned, prepared, and taught to our peers included a Bingo game which kept students engaged and actively thinking throughout instruction.
The first lesson that I taught at my placement was a read aloud. Throughout the reading of An Extraordinary Egg by Leo Lioni, I kept students engaged by asking questions and facilitating think-pair-share discussions to help them develop prediction skills. After the story, students wrote and illustrated their own “mini-sequel” about what they think might happen next to the characters. For my portfolio, I included my lesson plan, lesson reflection, and some selections of students’ work during this lesson.
I taught a variety of spelling review lessons throughout my placement. One lesson that I did was a rhyming words activity in which students were given index cards with onsets and asked to decide whether their beginning sound, combined with the word family ending, would make a real word. This lesson did not work as planned with my students, a particularly chatty bunch, and as I noticed this throughout the lesson, I was constantly modifying it to keep students engaged and allow the movement required to flow smoothly.
In a mini-lesson that I taught called “Spelling the Best You Can,” I taught students a strategy to use when writing by modeling the technique for the class. Students watched as I practiced the strategy, coming to a word that I did not know how to spell, trying the best I could, and moving on; next, the students worked with me by continuing the story on their white boards so I could monitor their understanding. Finally, the students returned to their seats to practice on their own. In this lesson, I used P. David Pearson’s “To-With-By” framework as I gradually released the responsibility for learning from the teacher to the students.
Soon, I will also teach two science lessons on clouds as well. Due to the way this subject is taught in my placement, I will teach each lesson three times to three different second grade classes, allowing me to modify my instruction and improve my delivery of the material each time.
While I have not had extensive field experience in Danielson’s third domain, I have had a lot of practice teaching within my junior block classes. In our math class we were required to co- teach a math lesson plan on a specific topic. It was interesting to see how two very different teaching styles came together. Our lesson on fractions and decimals was well received by our peers, and I thought we did a very good job on instructing a group of students. We also had a group project in social studies where we had the opportunity to use the powerful teaching and learning methods we had learned throughout the semester. We used different sources of technology and simulated an election that we would have used in a third grade class. I also included an assessment activity plan that I completed in my assessment class. This was a detailed plan that would allow me to decide, before I would teach a unit on measurements, how I would assess the students; including, tests, homework, observations, group work, and class work. I did have one very good experience instructing the students in my junior block placement.
ReplyDeleteI taught a lesson plan to my third grade class on how to change singular nouns into plural nouns. Both my cooperating teacher, and my supervisor observed me during this lesson. Actually standing in front of the students and teaching was definitely a good experience that got me a step closer to becoming an effective teacher.
Domain 3, Instruction, seems to be the hardest area to select artifacts so far for teaching. I have had multiple experiences teaching at field work, however none have had formal lesson plans as all have been presented to me the day of teaching. I have many lessons planned during full time experience which I hopefully will be able to include in the future of my portfolio.
ReplyDeleteOne artifact that I knew I wanted to include is a lesson I taught in my Methods Block Science class. The lesson was based on the FOSS Water science kit. I had to create lesson plans using the 5E model and teach an part of an investigation to the class. This was a difficult but worthwhile challenge.
The second artifact is a co-teaching lesson developed to teach in Methods Block Math. A three-day lesson plan was created for teaching a specific subtraction strategy. Two of the three lessons were taught to the class using manipulatives, and technology.
A third artifact included is a Social Studies lesson plan which was taught to the Methods Block Social Studies class. The lesson focused on the aspect of community service and was focused toward a third grade class. The lesson teaches about volunteering and involves the class in making decisions about coming up with a community service the class can do together.
I think once I have more practice in the field during our two week experience I will be able to add even better artifacts to this section which really represent my teaching style.
For Danielson’s third domain, Instruction, I have a few artifacts that demonstrate my ability to engage students in activities and provide them with timely feedback.
ReplyDeleteThe first artifact is a social studies lesson that I taught during my methods fieldwork experience. It focuses on America’s past in particular the American Indians who lived 500 years ago. Four American Indians were emphasized during the lesson. However, before I introduced the students to them I had to make the concept of time: past, present, future relatable to students. They also needed to be able to use time in order to define history. I allowed students to share examples of history that happened in their lives in order to help them make a personal connection to the term. After, students had gained enough of a fundamental understanding of these concepts they were divided into four small groups. Each group rotated to four different stations throughout the classroom and gained knowledge about each American Indian tribe. Every student was required to complete a worksheet that corresponded to the information being learned. This worksheet was evaluated to ensure students correctly recorded the information about each American Indian tribe. Once the student’s had rotated to all stations I decided to review the information because there was so confusion amongst students. By taking the extra time before comparing and contrasting the four groups of American Indians all students were able to have better insight into the way of life of these four groups. By being flexible and taking time to review the worksheet all students had a clearer understanding of the overall lesson and were able to make strong comparisons between American Indian groups. Plus, students even made comparisons about the American Indians way of life and their own.
The second artifact is a science lesson developed for second grade students at Bonfield Elementary. I utilized a Scholastic News to teach students about the life cycle of a pumpkin. Students were able to view a real pumpkin and describe characteristics using their five senses. Hand motions were developed so students could remember the various stages of the life cycle. I also read students a book that described the life cycle in greater detail. After reading about a part of the life cycle in the book I would introduce the hand motions to students. We would then put that motion and go back to the very first stage and run through it. This was done in the same format until all stages of the life cycle were added. Furthermore, I used the SMART board to create an activity where students had to put pictures of the life cycle in the correct order. The students really enjoyed being able to come up to the front of the room and manipulate the pictures. By using whole body motions and the SMART board students were engaged and active participants throughout the entire lesson.
The third artifact is a social studies lesson modeled in my methods block class at Elizabethtown College. This lesson emphasized the importance of democracy and elections. A simulated election was held for students to participate in the voting process. Before, the election took place students watched the two candidate campaign videos of the students that were running for class representative. I made sure to emphasize the important qualities and responsibilities we had discussed were important for our class representative to possess. The voting process was explained to them and sample ballots were shown. Students were then allowed to go to the back of the classroom where a voting booth was set up and cast their votes. After, the voting was complete the votes were tallied using an interactive bar graph. The students received their own bar graphs to fill in as the votes were read. Once the winner was declared, we discussed the process of the election and why the election resulted in how it did. Moreover, we also discussed the importance of voting and democracy. To conclude the lesson a learned section of a KWL chart was completed. This simulation allowed students to see firsthand the power of democracy and that every vote truly counts.
ReplyDeleteOverall, I feel I have effectively executed lessons that ensured hands-on learning and engagement as well as valuable feedback to the learners.
Domain 3 constitutes the core of teaching and I feel that I have gained the most experience in this domain. I have created many lesson plans and demonstrated them both in the classroom and in my field placement. In my portfolio I have included four artifacts to demonstrate my knowledge of instruction.
ReplyDeleteThe first artifact I have included is my co-teaching lesson plan for math. This is a 30-minute lesson that was taught to the methods block class. It includes a lesson plan and two adjacent days that teaches techniques for basic addition and subtraction. Two of the three lessons taught specific subtraction strategies using manipulatives and technology.
The second artifact I have included is a 5E model lesson plan that was adapted from a Foss kit. It includes three lesson plans for the first investigation of a water unit. The lessons include observations and properties of water, surface tension, and slope. This lesson was taught to the methods block class.
The third artifact is a social studies lesson plan on community service that was taught to the methods block class. This was a third grade lesson that focused on the meaning of volunteering and got students involved in developing and implementing their own service project.
The last artifact I have included is a reading lesson plan I taught at my field placement. The students were to determine how a reader finds a message in a story and they were to compare the message of the two stories after discussing the characters, setting, and plot of each story.
Through these four artifacts I feel that I have gained sufficient knowledge in instruction and they demonstrate my ability to communicate clearly and accurately, use questioning and discussion techniques, engage students in learning, and be flexible and responsive.