Standard 8: Instructional Strategies
The teacher understands and uses a variety of instructional strategies to encourage learners to develop deep understanding of content areas and their connections, and to build skills to apply knowledge in meaningful ways.
Instructional strategies are the tools used by a teacher in order to shape meaningful lessons that engage and instruct students in developmentally appropriate content. These strategies allow students and teachers to make deeper level connections with skills and concepts and to apply them in a variety of ways over time.
Below is a video, lesson plan, and reflection on the lesson from a lesson I taught to a fifth grade class at St. Columbkille in October of 2013 on the book Number the Stars. The lesson was taught after I had worked with the students for 5 weeks, and had already taught several lessons on previous sections of the book. Therefore, since I was aware of where most of the students were at with their comprehension level on the text, I was able to target the level of my questions and how I extended the lesson to the needs of the students in my class. I began by leading a class discussion designed to review key ideas from the book, important terminology, and background on the concept of themes. Then, I grouped students in heterogeneous groups so that more advanced peers could assist peers that were struggling more. Additionally, students in the group had specific jobs to contribute to the group work which allowed focus on their strengths in the discussion and during whole class sharing after. Students were then assessed by their contributions in group discussions, the presentation to the whole class, and the information written on the worksheet turned in after the lesson. This lesson allowed students to learn about the concept of themes and apply it to a text they had worked extensively with making it meaningful to them.
This lesson highlights my ability to present content in a variety of formats within one lessons. It demonstrates my growth to become a teacher who is able to scaffold activities in a way that leads students to experience success with a concept and to not only articulate what a literacy concept such as themes are but also to apply them in their reading.
Below is a video, lesson plan, and reflection on the lesson from a lesson I taught to a fifth grade class at St. Columbkille in October of 2013 on the book Number the Stars. The lesson was taught after I had worked with the students for 5 weeks, and had already taught several lessons on previous sections of the book. Therefore, since I was aware of where most of the students were at with their comprehension level on the text, I was able to target the level of my questions and how I extended the lesson to the needs of the students in my class. I began by leading a class discussion designed to review key ideas from the book, important terminology, and background on the concept of themes. Then, I grouped students in heterogeneous groups so that more advanced peers could assist peers that were struggling more. Additionally, students in the group had specific jobs to contribute to the group work which allowed focus on their strengths in the discussion and during whole class sharing after. Students were then assessed by their contributions in group discussions, the presentation to the whole class, and the information written on the worksheet turned in after the lesson. This lesson allowed students to learn about the concept of themes and apply it to a text they had worked extensively with making it meaningful to them.
This lesson highlights my ability to present content in a variety of formats within one lessons. It demonstrates my growth to become a teacher who is able to scaffold activities in a way that leads students to experience success with a concept and to not only articulate what a literacy concept such as themes are but also to apply them in their reading.
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