P1 – Practice intentional inquiry and planning for instruction

P1 – Practice intentional inquiry and planning for instruction

This is an incredibly important principle. When thinking about everything I do with my students I should always be planning intentionally. This year I have had the opportunity to not only plan lessons, but have them reviewed by both my mentor teacher and coordinator. This has given me feedback and ideas that I may not have otherwise gotten. I have been teaching for several years (11) and I have not written full lesson plans in a while. Having the opportunity to revisit this process has really allowed me to reflect on my teaching and planning. It helped me take a step back and reminded me that it is a helpful tool to periodically plan full lessons with such intense intent. I do not think it is a sustainable model, it took a lot of time to put together these lessons and I think that the purpose was not so much that should take with us the idea that we need to fill out a lesson plan like this each lesson, but more about reminding us about all the areas in each lesson that we should be intentional about. For example, there were a lot of sections on the lesson plan asking about academic language. When I first saw the lesson plan with this on it, it was not clear to me what that meant. After some conversations with my mentor teacher and coordinator, I better understood what was meant by academic language and realized that this was something I usually do incorporate into my lessons, the lesson plan was just asking me to be more intentional and explicit about explaining why and how I am using it. Here is a copy of a blank lesson plan that I used: Long_Lesson_Plan_Template

Weekly Reflection 11: Math Lesson- H2

H2- Honor Student access to content material

To me this is a form of differentiation. When we think about the purpose we serve as teachers, it is about giving our students access, tools, and skills to survive and thrive in the world. Often content tends to be a tool to teach skills that students can then apply to a variety of subjects and situations in their future. That being said, the content is still important and making sure it is accessible to students is important. This particular student I work with is able to learn most of the material that her classmates can, but needs the content presented to her differently so that she can access the material. I work with her four days a week to give her access to the material. In this particular lesson we worked on prime and composite numbers and word problems. Her classmates were doing the same thing, but moved through this topic quicker and with less explanation.

Here are some excerpts from a recent lesson of a student I work with in the Learning Center:

3.6-Rephrase your learning targets using student-friendly language:

By the end of the lesson you will be able to tell the difference between prime and composite numbers and be able to tell me why. You will practice using the problem solving strategies:  (We wrote this together before approaching the word problem)

3.7 – How will students demonstrate this? Describe observable actions. – e.g. Given (learning activities or teaching strategies), the students will (assessable behaviors) in order to demonstrate (connection to EALRs/Standards).

Student will be able to tell me whether a number is prime or composite. She will be able to explain how she knows this by telling me factors of given numbers. She will be able to tell me how knowing the factors will allow her to decide whether a number is prime or composite. She will also demonstrate for me how she will use our problem solving strategies as applied to a word problem.

3.10 – Academic Language – What are the linguistic demands embedded in the learning targets? (Consider what language and literacy skills students may need to know in order to demonstrate their competency on the learning targets successfully.)

Strategy-ways to approach a word problem in order to find the answer

Factors- numbers that divide into a given number

3.11 – Academic Language – What key vocabulary (content-specific terms) do you need to teach?

Prime Number-A number divisible only by itself and 1

Composite Number- A number that is divisible by 1, itself, and at least one other number 

5.5-Learning experiences:

Anticipatory Set: We will learn the difference between prime and composite numbers by defining them and putting examples up on the board

Statement of Objective: Student will be able to differentiate between prime and composite numbers. Student will be able to label them. Student will be able to solve a word problem using specific strategies.

Input: Student will be shown definitions for prime and composite numbers. I will give her examples, using factors to explain the difference.

Guided practice: Student will go to worksheet and begin to identify which numbers are prime and which are composite. Student will write on the board to figure out the factors of a given number and I will be able to help her through it.

Independent practice: She will work through labeling numbers prime or composite on her own, using the white board as work space

Input: I will remind her of the problem solving strategies we learned. Writing them down together on a white board

Guided Practice: We will read through the word problem together. I will remind her of he steps as she works through the problem. I will make sure she writes down her thinking each step of the way.

Here is the word problem and the work she completed on the word problem:

5.6 – Closure – How will the key points of the lesson be articulated?

We will review the definitions of prime and composite numbers. We will review how to find/use factors to determine whether a number is prime or composite. We will review the steps we went through to solve the problem

5.6 – Closure – How will the key points of the lesson be articulated?

We will review the definitions of prime and composite numbers. We will review how to find/use factors to determine whether a number is prime or composite. We will review the steps we went through to solve the problem

5.7 – Closure – What questions or prompts will you use to elicit student articulation of their progress towards the attaining the learning target(s)?

I will ask the student to tell me the difference between prime and composite and have her explain to me how finding the factors will help her tell the difference. I will have her tell me the problem solving steps and explain how she got her answer

~

In order to access the material the student needed the steps of problem solving to be explicitly restated. She also needed a warm up involving a review of prime and composite numbers. This student benefits from a review of previous lessons or skills learned in order for her to be successful. I am “honoring her access to the content material” by presenting the information to her in a way that will allow her to reach the learning target for the day.

 

Weekly Reflection 10

As part of my Internship Observation Assessment I was asked to fill out section 6.3 of the long form. This section asked me to look at three works samples from my lesson and answer a few question pertaining to them. Below are my answers and some screenshots of student work. The lesson was on finding the Least Common Multiple, using a certain method we learned in class involving prime factorization. Then they were to apply this to putting fractions in order.

Three work samples:

1- M- She is the strongest student in the class. She tends to work quickly so she sometimes misses directions or may make simple mistakes. However, she demonstrates understanding of concepts quickly and sometimes seems bored in class- this can make teaching her challenging. I am currently working on some enrichment projects for her.

M did meet the Learning Target of the lesson. She successfully demonstrated understanding of ordering fractions by finding the LCM of a given set of fractions and making the denominators the same.

In the above example it is clear she knows how to find LCM and use that to order fractions. She did have to be told to make sure to show all of her work and that her work is clear so that I could follow her train of thought. The assessment was appropriate because one goal she is working on is showing all of her work in a way that is organized and neat. She had to practice this a lot on this particular assignment.

2-E- She is not quite at grade level. She struggles with concepts, and works very slowly. This means that she does not often make it through all the practice that she really needs to solidify her understanding of topics. She is a slow starter, for example, one thing she did after I assigned the assignment, was to write out all the problem numbers.

This is a problem, because it is a way for E to pass time without actually doing any work. In addition to that, she does not really leave herself any room to do that work, and she forces herself to write in a small space. I had her start again on a fresh sheet of paper and just jump into the work, no writing out all the problem numbers first. Although she was able to demonstrate that she understood the overall concept, of making the denominators the same so that the fractions could be put in order, she did not go through all the steps to find the LCM that she was taught to do. And although she got the problems correct. I am concerned about her not showing all of her work because of her history of struggling when concepts become more challenging. She did meet the Learning Target of the lesson, but I will be watching her work carefully in review material of this topic.
3-S- This students has struggled with math for years, but in the last 1.5 years has begun to show more enthusiasm and less nervousness towards math. This in turn has led to more success for her. She is very hesitant to ask for help though or show when she does not understand something; unless I really push her to open up to me, which can take a lot of time. I do feel like I have made some headway though and that she has begun to be more open to asking for help, or at least taking it. S does NOT like to show her work. She will often work through problems in her head and then go back and show her work; this sort of defeats the purpose! At the beginning I made it clear that I needed to see her work along the way since one of our goals was to show how to find LCM and then use that to order fractions. She did that through the first ten problems or so, but did not on the last ten or so. In the following picture you can see how she was showing her work and then she stopped. She demonstrated understanding of the Learning Target, but it concerns me that she stopped showing her thinking. I will be watching her work carefully in review material of this topic.

6150 Blog Reflection #2

Today we had a discussion about lesson planning using an ITIP approach. The first part is the Lesson objective or goal of the lesson. This needs to be stated clearly and hung up somewhere in the classroom. The goal is standards driven.

The next part is the anticipatory set. This is the hook; this is to grab the attention of the students. It gets them thinking about the lesson. It is also a management technique for transitions and lesson beginnings.

Third is input and modeling. This is the main part of the lesson. This is where the teaching takes place. It could be a discussion, PowerPoint, showing the student how something works and so on. It is the middle outline portion of what is going to happen for the bulk of the lesson, the mini lesson part. It is the most detailed section of the lesson.

Guided practice is important because it checks for understanding. This can happen already from the hook.  It should not just be does everyone understand?

Closure is an important; it gives the students a sense of accomplishment. Even if the lesson is not over, there should be some sort of closing to each class. It is a recap of what was accomplished. This usually happens before the HW is assigned. This may also be a time when you can ask the students to reflect on their lesson.

Independent practice is another way to say HW. It is a chance to test the student’s ability to perform the task without help.

The basic idea here is:

I do

We do

You do

The idea of GRC (gradual release of control) resonated with me. I think so much of what we do, whether teaching skills or content is to lead students to be able to master them on their own. That is what GRC is all about.