Standard Four Artifact Reflection
Title: Lesson Plans
Date: January 21st, 2014-March 25th, 2014
Description:
My artifact for standard four are lessons that I created during my student teaching placement at Dodgeville Elementary School. I student taught at DES during the third quarter in a Kindergarten classroom. The two lessons that I have included are both formally written lesson plans, one is a Math lesson the other is a morning meeting/quiet zone lesson. In addition to these two formal lesson plans I was in charge of creating daily lesson plans for Language Arts, Science, Social Studies, Math and morning meeting.
Alignment:
Wisconsin Teacher Standard Alignment:
I aligned this artifact to standard four: teachers know how to teach, because it shows that I am able to plan and implement a variety of lessons that includes technology, hands on experiences, questioning and problem solving. I used the SMART Board during our morning meeting to engage the students in a variety of activities. I integrated Math concepts (tallies, money, skip counting) by using the number of days the students had been in school. I also taught Science concepts when we would talk about the weather. When the month of March started we talked about how the weather comes in like a lion and goes out like a lamb. The students had to use our graph of previously recorded days and their problem solving skills to predict what the weather in March was going to be like. Making predictions involves a lot of critical thinking, but it was engaging to students because it was something they were interested in.
Quiet zone is a time after morning meeting when students would rotate through ability leveled reading groups. When they weren’t in their reading group there were doing activities planned to complement what they were learning that day. For example if in Language Arts I would be teaching about the letter W, the students created a walrus and then researched walruses and wrote a fact about them. This started the students thinking about the sound of letter W before we even learned about it. In addition they were using their Science skills to look in books to find an interesting fact about walruses (with the help of a teacher).
In the Math lesson plan that I have included students explored 2D and 3D shapes by using toothpicks and marshmallows. The best part was that students were engaged in critical thinking, while having fun. Students had to think about how to take these two objects and create a 3D shape. They were encouraged to use cooperative learning and discuss the process with a friend. Then I posed the question of how to make a sphere using flat toothpicks and marshmallows. This created a lot of discussion between the students and in the end they were able to deduct that with the materials given they wouldn’t be able to make a sphere. Without those critical thinking skills, the students would have never come to the conclusion of why they couldn’t make a sphere. They may have been able to tell me that they couldn’t make one, but not why. That is the important part of critical thinking and problem solving.
UW-Platteville Knowledge, Skill and Disposition Statement Alignments:
I aligned this artifact with KS3.b: uses questioning and discussion techniques. During my 2D and 3D Math lesson questioning and discussion were extremely important. If I wouldn’t have posed the question to the students about creating a sphere, they may have never had that thought on their own. It is these types of questions that help develop student’s critical thinking and problem solving skills. Questioning is a skill that I worked on a lot in my Kindergarten placement. When I started teaching the Math portion of the day, I really struggled to find high order questions to ask the students. Another problem I had was finding a way to ask the questions so that the students would understand them. It’s one thing to ask those critical thinking questions, but if the students don’t understand them, then they won’t spark discussion. My cooperating teacher was a great model and gave a lot of good criticism in this area. So throughout my time there I was able to succeed in asking questions and leading discussions.
Secondary Alignments:
KS1.d Demonstrates knowledge of resources
KS1.e Designs coherent instruction
KS3.c Engages students in learning
Reflections:
What I learned about teaching/learning?
Through these lessons I have learned how important it is to have engaging discussions with your students. I can give a whole bunch of information to my students, but if they don’t get to have the conversations about it they aren’t going to remember it. Proposing engaging discussion questions allows students to develop those real world problem solving skills that they will need in the future. Another thing I learned is that these types of questions don’t always just come to you. These types of questions have to be planned in advance so that they are given the consideration they deserve. Not only do students have to have some exposure to high order questions but they need to be taught how to answer them. Asking a Kindergartner to explain how they got an answer may take some coaxing from the teacher the first few times. I can’t tell you how many times I have asked a student how they got an answer and they reply with I just thought it and it was right. They need to be taught how to explain their thought processes.
What I learned about myself as a prospective teacher?
I realized how important it is to use different instructional strategies and now with this experience I am able to do just that. I have gained so much knowledge from my cooperating teacher on how to engage every learner in my classroom. From kinesthetic, to visual every type of intelligence needs to be taught in every lesson for all students to understand and succeed. I took a lot of time reading through teachers manuals and going through my procedures to find areas where the questions should be and what questions should be asked. As a prospective teacher I believe I have come a long way in engaging multiple types of learners and through my career I will only get better.
Date: January 21st, 2014-March 25th, 2014
Description:
My artifact for standard four are lessons that I created during my student teaching placement at Dodgeville Elementary School. I student taught at DES during the third quarter in a Kindergarten classroom. The two lessons that I have included are both formally written lesson plans, one is a Math lesson the other is a morning meeting/quiet zone lesson. In addition to these two formal lesson plans I was in charge of creating daily lesson plans for Language Arts, Science, Social Studies, Math and morning meeting.
Alignment:
Wisconsin Teacher Standard Alignment:
I aligned this artifact to standard four: teachers know how to teach, because it shows that I am able to plan and implement a variety of lessons that includes technology, hands on experiences, questioning and problem solving. I used the SMART Board during our morning meeting to engage the students in a variety of activities. I integrated Math concepts (tallies, money, skip counting) by using the number of days the students had been in school. I also taught Science concepts when we would talk about the weather. When the month of March started we talked about how the weather comes in like a lion and goes out like a lamb. The students had to use our graph of previously recorded days and their problem solving skills to predict what the weather in March was going to be like. Making predictions involves a lot of critical thinking, but it was engaging to students because it was something they were interested in.
Quiet zone is a time after morning meeting when students would rotate through ability leveled reading groups. When they weren’t in their reading group there were doing activities planned to complement what they were learning that day. For example if in Language Arts I would be teaching about the letter W, the students created a walrus and then researched walruses and wrote a fact about them. This started the students thinking about the sound of letter W before we even learned about it. In addition they were using their Science skills to look in books to find an interesting fact about walruses (with the help of a teacher).
In the Math lesson plan that I have included students explored 2D and 3D shapes by using toothpicks and marshmallows. The best part was that students were engaged in critical thinking, while having fun. Students had to think about how to take these two objects and create a 3D shape. They were encouraged to use cooperative learning and discuss the process with a friend. Then I posed the question of how to make a sphere using flat toothpicks and marshmallows. This created a lot of discussion between the students and in the end they were able to deduct that with the materials given they wouldn’t be able to make a sphere. Without those critical thinking skills, the students would have never come to the conclusion of why they couldn’t make a sphere. They may have been able to tell me that they couldn’t make one, but not why. That is the important part of critical thinking and problem solving.
UW-Platteville Knowledge, Skill and Disposition Statement Alignments:
I aligned this artifact with KS3.b: uses questioning and discussion techniques. During my 2D and 3D Math lesson questioning and discussion were extremely important. If I wouldn’t have posed the question to the students about creating a sphere, they may have never had that thought on their own. It is these types of questions that help develop student’s critical thinking and problem solving skills. Questioning is a skill that I worked on a lot in my Kindergarten placement. When I started teaching the Math portion of the day, I really struggled to find high order questions to ask the students. Another problem I had was finding a way to ask the questions so that the students would understand them. It’s one thing to ask those critical thinking questions, but if the students don’t understand them, then they won’t spark discussion. My cooperating teacher was a great model and gave a lot of good criticism in this area. So throughout my time there I was able to succeed in asking questions and leading discussions.
Secondary Alignments:
KS1.d Demonstrates knowledge of resources
KS1.e Designs coherent instruction
KS3.c Engages students in learning
Reflections:
What I learned about teaching/learning?
Through these lessons I have learned how important it is to have engaging discussions with your students. I can give a whole bunch of information to my students, but if they don’t get to have the conversations about it they aren’t going to remember it. Proposing engaging discussion questions allows students to develop those real world problem solving skills that they will need in the future. Another thing I learned is that these types of questions don’t always just come to you. These types of questions have to be planned in advance so that they are given the consideration they deserve. Not only do students have to have some exposure to high order questions but they need to be taught how to answer them. Asking a Kindergartner to explain how they got an answer may take some coaxing from the teacher the first few times. I can’t tell you how many times I have asked a student how they got an answer and they reply with I just thought it and it was right. They need to be taught how to explain their thought processes.
What I learned about myself as a prospective teacher?
I realized how important it is to use different instructional strategies and now with this experience I am able to do just that. I have gained so much knowledge from my cooperating teacher on how to engage every learner in my classroom. From kinesthetic, to visual every type of intelligence needs to be taught in every lesson for all students to understand and succeed. I took a lot of time reading through teachers manuals and going through my procedures to find areas where the questions should be and what questions should be asked. As a prospective teacher I believe I have come a long way in engaging multiple types of learners and through my career I will only get better.