Standard 4: Instructional Strategies
A teacher must understand and use a variety of instructional strategies to encourage student development of critical thinking, problem solving, and performance skills.
Artifact Descriptions
Artifact 1: 2nd Grade Social Studies Lesson
This artifact is a social studies lesson created for After School Academy. This lesson is part of an entire unit about communities. In this lesson, students are learning about urban, suburban, and rural communities. Students are completing an interactive notebook to aid in learning about these communities. |
Artifact 2: 1st Grade Math Mini Unit
This artifact is a math unit I created for first grade students. The lesson pulls from prior knowledge of frames and arrows and introduces the new skill of function machines. The unit begins with a pre-assessment and follows with three lessons and a post-assessment. |
Analysis
Artifact 1: 2nd Grade Social Studies Lesson
I chose this lesson for Standard 4 to show many things. The first thing being the implementation of an interactive notebook. The interactive notebook caught the students interests and kept their attention. The interactive notebook aided in great results of learning. Another piece that was added into this lesson was the extension. I feel that each lesson should have an extension. Teachers should be prepared for all abilities. More often than not, students will take longer than planned to get through the materials. I added the extension to this lesson because I had not worked with these students prior to the lesson and I wanted to be prepared to take the lesson farther if necessary. |
Artifact 2: 1st Grade Math Mini Unit
This math unit, shows differentiation and variation in instruction. Lesson three groups the students by ability level and gives students the chance to learn at stations in a small group setting. The students are also given a chance to practice the new skills many different ways. Each lesson has instruction, guided practice, and independent practice. During the guided and independent practice, I was able to assess the students to ensure they are learning the new material. After assessing the students, I was able to mold my instruction for the next lesson. |
Synthesis
Artifact 1: Social Studies Lesson
Since I have created this lesson, I have spent many more hours in the classroom with students of all abilities. When I wrote the social studies lesson, I did not know the students that I was working with. While student teaching, I got to know the students I was working with and I better understood the ability levels, because of this I was able to better customize the lessons for those students. Writing the lesson for students that I was unfamiliar with forced me to look at the lesson from all angles. Doing this, I was prepared for many outcomes as I met and began to teach these students. After feedback, I know that I was well prepared for this lesson My professors were confident in my abilities to teach as well as my preparation. |
Artifact 2: 1st Grade Mini Math Unit
I created this lesson just recently. This is a lesson that I did a lot of research for and am proud of. I created this for my edTPA assessment and it received a high score. When creating the lessons, I had built relationships with the students I was working with which helped me mold the lesson. The pre-assessment was also helpful when molding the lesson because I was able to see the students' abilities for this specific skill. After gaining feedback from my cooperating teacher and reflecting on my lessons, I feel confident with this lesson and I will take the skills of lesson planning that I learned from this and apply it to my future planning. |