Standard Five | Instructional Delivery
The competent teacher differentiates instruction by using a variety of strategies that support critical and creative thinking, problem-solving, and continuous growth and learning. This teacher understands that the classroom is a dynamic environment requiring ongoing modification of instruction to enhance learning for each student.
Artifacts
Spring 2012 | Compare/Contrast Mini-Lesson
Knowledge Indicators
G) Knows how to evaluate and use student performance data to adjust instruction while teaching; and
H) Understands when and how to adapt or modify instruction based on outcome data, as well as student needs, goals, and responses
Knowledge Indicators
G) Knows how to evaluate and use student performance data to adjust instruction while teaching; and
H) Understands when and how to adapt or modify instruction based on outcome data, as well as student needs, goals, and responses
2-22ccppt.pptx | |
File Size: | 77 kb |
File Type: | pptx |
2-22cchandout.docx | |
File Size: | 66 kb |
File Type: | docx |
Spring 2012 | Music Visualization Activity
Knowledge Indicator
C) Knows how to implement effective differentiated instruction through the use of a wide variety of materials, technologies, and resources
Knowledge Indicator
C) Knows how to implement effective differentiated instruction through the use of a wide variety of materials, technologies, and resources
3-6musicvisualization.docx | |
File Size: | 65 kb |
File Type: | docx |
3-6musicpredictionsforact5scene3.docx | |
File Size: | 85 kb |
File Type: | docx |
Reflections
Spring 2012 | Compare/Contrast Mini-Lesson
This mini-lesson on how to effectively use the organizational strategy of Compare/Contrast in writing definitely showcases me using multiple modes of instruction as well as having the ability to adapt instruction in order to respond to student needs.
I originally designed this lesson as a response to student writing samples I was receiving that were poorly organized. I handed back those samples with grades, alerted students to the most common problems I was seeing, and then launched into this lesson, using a PowerPoint. Students took notes on the handout I provided (making their learning experience multimodal – they were reading the PowerPoint, listening to my further explanations, and writing/summarizing what they were getting from the overall presentation). Using a variety of teaching tools therefore made the instruction varied and differentiated. I also was attentive to students during my teaching, and made changes in my explanations if I felt they weren’t grasping the topics well. After teaching my first of the two classes receiving this instruction, I actually overhauled the PowerPoint, adding more examples to the three different organizational options because I saw students getting them confused. The second time around, I also had learned to talk about these organizational strategies in their two different facts: “textbook” versus “real-world.” In the “real-world” writing samples (anonymous student work taken from the examples I had just handed back), frequently not just one but a combination of the organizational options had been used, and the author’s points were still easy to follow. Our admitting to and discussing this complexity in “real-world” writing helped students make a more concrete connection between what we’re learning about writing in school and how that knowledge can improve our writing throughout our lives.
Spring 2012 | Music Visualization Activity
This Music Visualization in-class activity showcases the variety of strategies I use in the classroom to help students think deeply and creatively about the material being covered. This activity successfully got students thinking about the events that had already occurred in Romeo and Juliet and helped them gather their ideas and make predictions about how the play would end.
This activity required students to listen to a piece of music (Beethoven’s String Quartet in F, Op.18, No. 1, Movement 2) that was composed based on the themes, plot, and emotions occurring in Act V of the play. At this point, students are well aware of the fact that Romeo and Juliet will die, so they are specifically encouraged to go further with their interpretation of the music in this activity – to really draw the scene(s) that they hear being played out in the music (i.e. do you hear a loud part with lots of fast and frantic-sounding notes? Is Romeo fighting Friar Lawrence at the tomb?). Students were then asked to write to describe their drawings, focusing in particular on the emotions they picked up on in the music. In general, the activity went over well with my classes. Students were engaged with listening hard to the music and then drawing detailed pictures portraying the scene(s). Some went further than just plot points and included details in their drawings like weather, showing they really internalized the mood of the song. From their pictures and descriptions, we made a class list of predictions about the scene and then dove into the text of the play.
This activity taught me as a teacher to be flexible and patient with student work. I quickly realized that students may hear more than one scene in the music and so allowed them to draw multiple if they wanted, not limiting them to just one. I also had to be patient and give ample time to complete the activity. The song is over 8 minutes long, which I initially thought would be much too long to hold students’ attention. However, they used all that time plus more to think, draw, and write – and if I had cut in sooner, their finished products would have definitely been lacking in quality.
I chose this artifact to represent this standard because it requires students to engage with our text using a variety of skills and intelligences. My instructional delivery with this activity therefore incorporated differentiation and a solid knowledge of my students (their learning needs and strengths). I knew that this activity would go over well with these particular classes because many of the students are in band – so they’re aware of musicality and have the vocabulary to talk about the different aspects of the music that made them “see” different actions occurring in the scene.
This mini-lesson on how to effectively use the organizational strategy of Compare/Contrast in writing definitely showcases me using multiple modes of instruction as well as having the ability to adapt instruction in order to respond to student needs.
I originally designed this lesson as a response to student writing samples I was receiving that were poorly organized. I handed back those samples with grades, alerted students to the most common problems I was seeing, and then launched into this lesson, using a PowerPoint. Students took notes on the handout I provided (making their learning experience multimodal – they were reading the PowerPoint, listening to my further explanations, and writing/summarizing what they were getting from the overall presentation). Using a variety of teaching tools therefore made the instruction varied and differentiated. I also was attentive to students during my teaching, and made changes in my explanations if I felt they weren’t grasping the topics well. After teaching my first of the two classes receiving this instruction, I actually overhauled the PowerPoint, adding more examples to the three different organizational options because I saw students getting them confused. The second time around, I also had learned to talk about these organizational strategies in their two different facts: “textbook” versus “real-world.” In the “real-world” writing samples (anonymous student work taken from the examples I had just handed back), frequently not just one but a combination of the organizational options had been used, and the author’s points were still easy to follow. Our admitting to and discussing this complexity in “real-world” writing helped students make a more concrete connection between what we’re learning about writing in school and how that knowledge can improve our writing throughout our lives.
Spring 2012 | Music Visualization Activity
This Music Visualization in-class activity showcases the variety of strategies I use in the classroom to help students think deeply and creatively about the material being covered. This activity successfully got students thinking about the events that had already occurred in Romeo and Juliet and helped them gather their ideas and make predictions about how the play would end.
This activity required students to listen to a piece of music (Beethoven’s String Quartet in F, Op.18, No. 1, Movement 2) that was composed based on the themes, plot, and emotions occurring in Act V of the play. At this point, students are well aware of the fact that Romeo and Juliet will die, so they are specifically encouraged to go further with their interpretation of the music in this activity – to really draw the scene(s) that they hear being played out in the music (i.e. do you hear a loud part with lots of fast and frantic-sounding notes? Is Romeo fighting Friar Lawrence at the tomb?). Students were then asked to write to describe their drawings, focusing in particular on the emotions they picked up on in the music. In general, the activity went over well with my classes. Students were engaged with listening hard to the music and then drawing detailed pictures portraying the scene(s). Some went further than just plot points and included details in their drawings like weather, showing they really internalized the mood of the song. From their pictures and descriptions, we made a class list of predictions about the scene and then dove into the text of the play.
This activity taught me as a teacher to be flexible and patient with student work. I quickly realized that students may hear more than one scene in the music and so allowed them to draw multiple if they wanted, not limiting them to just one. I also had to be patient and give ample time to complete the activity. The song is over 8 minutes long, which I initially thought would be much too long to hold students’ attention. However, they used all that time plus more to think, draw, and write – and if I had cut in sooner, their finished products would have definitely been lacking in quality.
I chose this artifact to represent this standard because it requires students to engage with our text using a variety of skills and intelligences. My instructional delivery with this activity therefore incorporated differentiation and a solid knowledge of my students (their learning needs and strengths). I knew that this activity would go over well with these particular classes because many of the students are in band – so they’re aware of musicality and have the vocabulary to talk about the different aspects of the music that made them “see” different actions occurring in the scene.