Standard 3: Plans and delivers effective instruction and creates an environment for a diverse population of students
Artifact #1:
AVID Reflection:
Tutoring through AVID was truly one of the best teaching experiences that I’ve had. There were 8 students in my group, and this allowed me to get to know each one of them individually. I got to know about their personal lives as well as their unique abilities. One of the best parts was that it was all under my control. For that 50 minute period of time, they were “my students” and I lead the whole operation. We talked about how our days were going, what was hard for them with school, what they were excited about in life, anything. So not only did I get to connect to them on those levels, but also had the opportunity to help them academically. It was my main priority from the beginning to have these sessions be a time for them to unwind and unpack what they feel they need to work on academically, or otherwise.
This experience gave me a good perspective on how I intend to operate my own classroom, with relationships built off of respect and openness. The structure of AVID is something I will definitely carry into my style of teaching. That is, having students understand content on their own, without simply telling them the answer or what they can do. It involves giving them the confidence and ability to think through a problem by asking a series of questions. Learning comes through problem solving. Problem solving comes from trial and error, asking yourself questions, testing those, and moving on from there. This is what AVID is based on, and I was able to test this theory and be emerged into this type of learning. As with any experience, we all got out of it as much as we put in.
Rationale:
In this reflection of my AVID experience, I include the importance of working in teams, problem solving, and creating an environment that facilitates learning. It was small group, so it was easier to implement these things. But, it proved to me the validity and importance of it all. It made me all the more excited to implement problem solving skills as well as "intellectual, social and emotional development."
AVID Reflection:
Tutoring through AVID was truly one of the best teaching experiences that I’ve had. There were 8 students in my group, and this allowed me to get to know each one of them individually. I got to know about their personal lives as well as their unique abilities. One of the best parts was that it was all under my control. For that 50 minute period of time, they were “my students” and I lead the whole operation. We talked about how our days were going, what was hard for them with school, what they were excited about in life, anything. So not only did I get to connect to them on those levels, but also had the opportunity to help them academically. It was my main priority from the beginning to have these sessions be a time for them to unwind and unpack what they feel they need to work on academically, or otherwise.
This experience gave me a good perspective on how I intend to operate my own classroom, with relationships built off of respect and openness. The structure of AVID is something I will definitely carry into my style of teaching. That is, having students understand content on their own, without simply telling them the answer or what they can do. It involves giving them the confidence and ability to think through a problem by asking a series of questions. Learning comes through problem solving. Problem solving comes from trial and error, asking yourself questions, testing those, and moving on from there. This is what AVID is based on, and I was able to test this theory and be emerged into this type of learning. As with any experience, we all got out of it as much as we put in.
Rationale:
In this reflection of my AVID experience, I include the importance of working in teams, problem solving, and creating an environment that facilitates learning. It was small group, so it was easier to implement these things. But, it proved to me the validity and importance of it all. It made me all the more excited to implement problem solving skills as well as "intellectual, social and emotional development."
These are photos of the planning I did for my Instructional Strategy Lesson in which I taught the "Explanation Game" strategy. (chicken scratch..but thoughtful chicken scratch). Anyway, it shows my ability to implement effective instructional strategies as well as providing student with the ability to work in teams. This activity strategy that was meant for students to learn about observation by observing a piece of artwork and answering questions to guide their thinking and understanding.
Artifact #2:
Lesson 1 Reflection:
My first lesson was a mid-way critique for an assignment in which students drew a self portrait based off of a photo. They were learning how to manipulate graphite in order to create a realistic drawing using a grid-system. So, my lesson started out by going over what we focused on in the lesson (value, line, proportion). Then, the class did an activity that involved critiquing their peer’s drawings. Each drawing had a worksheet that asked them to address the use of line, value, proportion, etc. Finally, each student reflected on what was said about their drawing and wrote what their next move(s) were.
Overall, I think that this lesson went well. Students understood the importance of critique and how beneficial it is for artists. I think it would have been more beneficial if my introduction to the lesson was more engaging, specifically when we talked about the visual elements we were focusing on. I think having them do something similar to a KWL would have gotten them to think deeper on what they were looking for in each drawing. We just went over it briefly, and I could tell from their responses that students were being very broad and not explaining HOW it was/wasn’t working. One a positive note, I think the activity did push students to see each element depicted in the drawings, and how they were working together, as well as separately.
I also could have explained the directions more clearly. A few students asked me some questions that I thought I explained. I learned that in order to set students up for success, the teacher must be extremely clear; to the point where it might be annoying. But I would be better off safe than sorry making sure EVERYONE knows what’s going on. I should also thoroughly think out each step in an activity so it runs smoother that way. This is something that I’m constantly trying improve; planning. If I want students to perform a certain way, I need to make it clear. And once again, set them up for success. Some students did not answer in depth or really at all like I had planned. So in this way, I should have modeled clearly what I expected (i.e. 3 sentences minimum, this sentence 1 is what you observe, sentence 2: Is it successful/needs work, sentence 3: HOW is it working/not working) With this, I would need to give students a good amount of time to really think.
Also I should have put more thought into what Daniel (a student in integrated services) would do in order to still have full participation. I thought afterwards to give him his own worksheet, that still provided him the opportunity to think about the same concepts.
Overall, I think the main concept of the lesson is strong. It is important for any artist to take a step back and analyze their work. The opinions and observations of others is beneficial. It was good to get everyone out of their seats as well.
Rationale:
In this reflection of my first lesson, I address what I could have done differently to make the lesson more effective within instruction. towards the end, I did not facilitate an environment that provided learning for all students. I reflected on how I could've changed that within the whole lesson to allow students to have more content knowledge.
Lesson 1 Reflection:
My first lesson was a mid-way critique for an assignment in which students drew a self portrait based off of a photo. They were learning how to manipulate graphite in order to create a realistic drawing using a grid-system. So, my lesson started out by going over what we focused on in the lesson (value, line, proportion). Then, the class did an activity that involved critiquing their peer’s drawings. Each drawing had a worksheet that asked them to address the use of line, value, proportion, etc. Finally, each student reflected on what was said about their drawing and wrote what their next move(s) were.
Overall, I think that this lesson went well. Students understood the importance of critique and how beneficial it is for artists. I think it would have been more beneficial if my introduction to the lesson was more engaging, specifically when we talked about the visual elements we were focusing on. I think having them do something similar to a KWL would have gotten them to think deeper on what they were looking for in each drawing. We just went over it briefly, and I could tell from their responses that students were being very broad and not explaining HOW it was/wasn’t working. One a positive note, I think the activity did push students to see each element depicted in the drawings, and how they were working together, as well as separately.
I also could have explained the directions more clearly. A few students asked me some questions that I thought I explained. I learned that in order to set students up for success, the teacher must be extremely clear; to the point where it might be annoying. But I would be better off safe than sorry making sure EVERYONE knows what’s going on. I should also thoroughly think out each step in an activity so it runs smoother that way. This is something that I’m constantly trying improve; planning. If I want students to perform a certain way, I need to make it clear. And once again, set them up for success. Some students did not answer in depth or really at all like I had planned. So in this way, I should have modeled clearly what I expected (i.e. 3 sentences minimum, this sentence 1 is what you observe, sentence 2: Is it successful/needs work, sentence 3: HOW is it working/not working) With this, I would need to give students a good amount of time to really think.
Also I should have put more thought into what Daniel (a student in integrated services) would do in order to still have full participation. I thought afterwards to give him his own worksheet, that still provided him the opportunity to think about the same concepts.
Overall, I think the main concept of the lesson is strong. It is important for any artist to take a step back and analyze their work. The opinions and observations of others is beneficial. It was good to get everyone out of their seats as well.
Rationale:
In this reflection of my first lesson, I address what I could have done differently to make the lesson more effective within instruction. towards the end, I did not facilitate an environment that provided learning for all students. I reflected on how I could've changed that within the whole lesson to allow students to have more content knowledge.