FEAP 3 | sorayahg

FEAPS

3 A. DELIVER ENGAGING AND CHALLENGING LESSONS

Delivering engaging and challenging lessons to my students is very important because they are first graders and need to be stimulated constantly in order to pay attention during any given lesson. If the students do not feel challenged, interested, or that what they are learning is worth learning, they will not retain much of the information presented to them. Here is a photo of one of the videos that we played for the students as a recall of what they had been learning in math that week. They were learning about 3-d shapes. The students sing and dance to the video and recall the names and attributes of the shapes.

B. deepen students' understanding through content area literacy and application of the subject matter

c. IDENTIFY GAP IN STUDENT SUBJECT MATTER KNOWLEDGE

I have demonstrated this FEAP by teaching science to my students. This was the first subject that I taught them for my final internship. For science lessons, we usually start off by reading from the science big book or reading from electronic books on a system called MyOn. The students get to learn about science through literacy. Afterwards, we have the students either observe and record what they have learned that day or allow them to conduct their own scientific investigations or inquiries process. Here is a photo of my students conducting an investigation about sunflower seeds. They were able to use their math skills in this lesson by measureing the lessons of the seeds and recording the different lengths.

For my last US observation, I read a non-fiction text on how to adjust to a new town, new friends, and a new school if you were to move. Within in the text, there was a lot of vocabulary that I know the students in my class would not understand mostly because the jargon in the text seemed to come from another area of the country. For example, the text referred to looking back at the school directory to remember your friends at your old school. I explained to them that this would be the same as a school yearbook. During my post-observation, my supervisor explained that I worked around the complicated text to make it more understandable to the students in my class and their backgrounds. I explained difficult vocabulary to the students and also used the student’s own life experiences for them to understand what the text was trying to explain to them.

D. MODIFY INSTRUCTION TO RESPOND TO PRECONCEPTIONS OR MISCONCEPTIONS

Since my students are so young and many of them have not experienced much of the world outside of the rural area in which they live in, there is a lot of things that they may not understand. As a teacher, it is my job to understand what their misconceptions will be and have the ability to translate information in a way that is applicable to them and their own experiences. In the last US lesson observation that I conducted, I read an excerpt from a non-fiction text called, “New Town, New School, New Friends”. The text was an informational piece explaining what kids should do when they are leaving their old homes and going into a new environment. In the text, they used vocabulary such as “mementos”, “school directory”, and “climate”. I knew that most of my students would not understand these terms so I altered my instruction in order for the information to make sense to them.

E. RELATE & INTEGRATE THE SUBJECT MATTER WITH OTHER DISCIPLINES AND LIFE EXPERIENCES

This week in reading, we have been learning about comparing and contrasting two different types of texts that we had previously read. In science they learned the same discipline with comparing and contrasting themselves with the paper doll they created. Doing this shows the students that they can take this skill into different subjects and also into their own lives as a vital skill.

F. EMPLOY HIGHER -ORDER QUESTIONING TECHNIQUES

Higher-order questioning techniques is something that we present to the students in every lesson that I teach. It is important to give the students questions that are open ended and can have multiple answers to get them thinking. Here is a photo of my students engaging in a turn-and-talk in which they discussed why they knew a tree and a rose were both plants based upon the information given in the two different texts.

G. APPLY VARIED INSTRUCTIONAL STRATEGIES TO TEACH FOR STUDENT UNDERSTANDING

Our classroom has a wide range of learning levels within it so it is vital that as educators, I provide instruction that will serve each of my students at the place that they are at. One way in which I vary instruction for my students would be in reading. Each day during centers, my co-intern Ms. C and I pull students in groups based upon their reading levels. Ms. C pulls lower reading level students and instructs them in ways so that they can better read and sound out words and sounds. For my group, I have the higher reading level students. I instruct them by having them read harder texts and also ask them to do things such as compare and contrast, find the authors purpose, and write in response to reading.

H. DIFFERENTIATE INSTRUCTION BASED ON ASSESSMENT OF STUDENT LEARNING NEEDS

For math, we usually have the students tear our workbook pages so that they can practice the new math skill that we had taught them that day. First, model how to do a certain problem with the students and then have them practice 3-4 on their own. Based upon how well they do on their own, we give them certain colored sticks which indicate to them what other questions they should complete. The colored sticks represents if the students is completely understanding the new concept and needs questions with more of a challenge, students who show that they are gradually understanding the concept, to students who need more support.

I. SUPPORT, ENCOURAGE, AND PROVIDE IMMEDIATE AND SPECIFIC FEEDBACK TO STUDENTS TO PROMOTE STUDENT ACHIEV EMENT

One thing that I like that we do in our classroom is goals for the students. The students have a data binder in which they can track how well they are doing in subjects, where they should be in an allotted amount of time, and what future goals they want to read. The goals issued to them are all based upon previous assessments that help us to define what the students can grow in. One thing that I helped the students with was make writing goals. I graded and reviewed all of the students writing pieces and made a checklist which gave me an idea of what their writing showed they mastered and what they needed to work on. I conferenced with the students and reviewed what their last writing goal was. Afterwards, we either checked off that they had met that goal and created a new one or agreed that they still needed to work on that aspect of their writing.

j. UTILIZE STUDENT FEEDBACK TO MONITOR INSTRUCTIONAL NEEDS AND TO ADJUST INSTRUCTION

After instructing students, it is important that you know that they understand what is being asked of them. I usually explain to the students that what they have to do, ask them to retell to their shoulder partner what they are being asked to do then call on a few students to share what their partner said the directions were. After all that, I ask them to either give me a thumbs up or down if they understand the directions or ask them if to rate their understanding from a 5 (being the best) to a 1 (no understanding at all). For students who have an understanding of 3 or lower, I ask them to stay on the carpet so that I can better explain to them what they have to do and answer any questions that they may have.