In the first video “Open-ended Questions to Encourage Conversation” the instruction that I observed, based upon the definition, did meet criteria 1 from the TPEP. The general idea of Criteria one is the expectations that teachers have for their students and is able to communicate those expectations. In the first video the teacher is using open-ended questions in order to have all students the chance to participate while doing a math activity with counting dots. In relationship to the first criteria from the TPEP this teacher allows the students to use cognitive and higher order thinking.
Having the students answer open-ended questions allow each student to have a different answer or opinion. It allows support not only from the teacher, but from the student’s peers. Using this activity does not require the teacher to communicate the expectations, but the activity itself presents those expectations. In the second video “Body Language: Reinforcing Learning” the teacher presents a similar way of expectations, it’s a little unclear whether this video demonstrates whether the criterion is present, but watching it you are able to see similar performances from the first video and the second video.
Though, in the second video the teacher uses body language to invite her students to participate, she uses positive reinforcement in order to encourage the students to participate. During my previous field work and practices in other classrooms I was able to do similar activities from the videos I was able to watch. In my EDLT 409 class I was able to work with a student one-on-one. During that time I was able to assess the student’s abilities and skills, and help me understand what the student is capable of achieving in literacy comprehension and reading skills.
I was able to create lesson plans, our professor for that class told us to teach a little above the students reading level. I was able to create lessons and activities that will best allow or require higher level thinking for the student, which will help push the student, but not make them feel uncomfortable, for example using strategies such as open ended questions. For every teacher, you need to know your students in order to create goals and expectations. You want to push your students to create higher level thinking, but you don’t want your students to feel uncomfortable in their learning experiences.
One thing that I notice I need to practice in relationship to this criterion is being able to create lessons that will be able to push each student’s different learning level. Working with different students in the same grade level allowed me to experience that all students learn differently and are at a different level of understanding and that not every lesson will work for every student because they are in the same grade or age. Criteria 4 In the same videos I was able to notice this criterion used by the teachers.
In the first video the teacher was able to show this, similar to criterion 1, through her activity. She was able to allow the students to use open-ended questions to help the students understand the content. The teacher understand that not every student visualizes the problem the same way. In the video she used dots on a paper which had two different sides on the paper with different amounts of dots. Using those dots she would ask the students “how do you see the dots on this paper.
The students would say different answers for example, they would count one side and the other side then add them together, some would add all of them together at once, and others would count all the dots individually and add those induvial dots to make a whole. This gives all students a better way to understand counting and adding and making sense of it in their own way. Which match with the Common Core Standards in Kindergarten which is, CCSS. MATH. CONTENT. K. CC. B. 4 Understand the relationship between numbers and quantities; connect counting to cardinality.
Here she is delivering her instruction to fit all students’ needs and a way that all students can achieve that standard and goal. In another video “Teaching Kids, Not Just Math. ” A teacher introduces his thought process behind teaching as a whole. In this video he covers that, as a teacher you must engage the students in the subject matter and make the course interesting. He also discusses making the content interesting using real life sceneries and how those subject matters affect our communities.
Which all of these fit with a variety of the mathematical Common Core Standards? Criteria 4 focuses on the knowledge a teacher has in the content, standards, pedagogy, and resources to design and deliver curricula. This is a criteria that I need work on. The most practice I have with this is in the El Ed science class here when we were able to teach a lesson at the Damman School here in Ellensburg. My group and I had to create a lesson that would best fit the Standards and would be interesting for the students.
Every day we learn strategies and different ways to teach a lesson, but it does not always match the Standards and it may seem appealing and interesting to us teachers, but may not be for the students. I learned that when creating lesson plans for my EDLT class, the science class, and a variety of the field work. There were many times in which I saw that my practicum teacher from 330 had to improvise the lesson because she felt that the activity she planned was helping the students meet the Standard or goal.
Just like the video “Teaching Kids, Not Just Math” we have to understand that we need to have the students achieve the standards, but we also need to remember that we are teaching the students, and we need to deliver that content in a way that will help the students be interested and beneficial to their learning. Like I mentioned this Criteria is one that I know I need to work on the most. There are many times when I have an activity that I want to do that would be fun, but I always have to go back to think, is it beneficial to the students learning?
Does it fit the Standards I want? Is it not only fun, but it will help the students get the point of the lesson/ activity? Sometimes I only think of the fun part and not the learning part. That’s why I focus more on backward design and thinking of the standards I want and using those standards to create an activity or lesson. Criteria 5 Both the videos “Open-Ended Questions to Encourage Conversations” and “Body: Language: Reinforcing Learning” both are great examples of criteria 5 implemented into the instruction.
Criterion 5 focuses on the Learning Environment and creating a safe and productive environment that allows the students to feel comfortable physically, emotionally and intellectually. In the first video “Open-Ended Questions” the teacher allows students to create their own understanding of the content. By allowing the students to use the dots and explain how they counted or added the dots together allows for a variety of answers and allows the teacher to see all of the students thinking.
During the activity the students would also give hand signals that would allow them to respectfully add on to their peers answers. This allows students to participate and collaborate with their peers in a respectful and organized manner. In the “Body Language: Reinforcing Learning” instruction the teacher uses her body language to create an effective learning environment. The teacher uses positive reinforcement in order to invite the students to continue to participate and be more willing to share their knowledge with the class.
Making the students comfortable is important for any classroom. Like I mentioned in my EDLT class working one-on-one with the students we wanted to create lesson plans that were challenging for the student but at the same time not intimidating that it may hinder their confidence and willingness to learn. Also teaching AUAP students a lesson for my EDBL classes I was able to practice creating lessons that would allow them to feel comfortable even though they are not able to understand English as well as native English language speakers.
In many of the classrooms I did my practicum in, I was able to see a variety of ways to seat students and different types of posters or visuals to hang and post-up around the classroom. Many of the teachers changed their visuals to fit the content that they were covering, and included different people and information from different cultures. This allowed certain ELL students or students from different countries to relate. Every class is filled with different students and being able to create an environment is important especially for ELL students and students with disabilities.
In this criterion I would need to work on different strategies and ways to set up the classroom that would be inviting for the students, but also productive. Different seating strategies that would work for specific activities, and also strategies to help students support each other in the classroom. We are teaching students not just the content, and the environment can affect the way they learn, being able to create that safe environment will help them succeed in the classroom.
