Impacting Student's Learning Evidence
Planning for Differentiation & Modification
Rationale:
Planning for diverse learners is key in modern education. Ensuring that your end of unit assessment, performance assessment, and self-assessment meet all your students needs requires time and planning. I chose the selected responses to the right based on the learning I have seen happening within our classroom, as well as a performance task to engage prior knowledge as well as skills such as estimation. Finally selecting a source of self-assessment for students allows students to take ownership of their learning and foster metacognition.
I have found that throughout this year I have changed my thinking in regards to differentiation, greatly in part to Backwards Design coupled with planning being done in my Special Education courses. This has proven valuable in my practice mainly because I have started to think of learning in a different way in order to reach all students’ needs.
Guided Reading
Rationale:
Guided Reading scaffolds young readers as they negotiate texts and develop independent reading strategies. This requires a lot of flexibility and monitoring. In the clip to the left, the students have been grouped at the same reading level. We are navigating through an informational text using knowledge of language patterns, sound-symbol relationships, and background knowledge to glean the most information. Using predicting skills the students are able to develop a deeper, real world understanding of the text. Prior to this year I had not focused greatly on guided reading groups with my students, however, after taking multiple literacy classes I began to realize the extreme importance that small group guided reading carries for young learners. At 1:52 seconds in the clip it is clear that my questioning in small group guided reading has grown stronger.
Instructional Commentary
Rationale:
The instructional strategies shown in the clip below is aimed to engage students in learning tasks to develop skills and strategies to comprehend information. These strategies include using the I do, We do, You do Model, Cold Call, No Opt Out, J-Factor, Check for Understanding, as well as Think, Pair, Share. All of these strategies help assist student learning and general cognition as they develop as learners. In this video, about two months into my residency year, it is clear that my practice as a teacher is progressing into a more sophisticated practice through the use of signature strategies that help to keep students engaged, as made evidence at 2:34 minutes. Though this clip was taken at the beginning of the year it shows my growth from my prior teaching experience until now. Reflecting on this video I can tell that the practices I am demonstrating are even more rich now and more beneficial for my students due to engagement and lack of wasted instruction time thanks to a solid Behavior Management Cycle.
TPA Lesson Plan
TPA Reflective Paper
