Standard 4: USING DEVELOPMENTALLY EFFECTIVE APPROACHES

1. Description

The artifact below labeled "Thursday lesson 8 JK" is a lesson plan I prepared and implemented during my most recent spring semester of student teaching. The artifact labeled "Reflection 6" is one of my 12 weekly reflections that I completed during student teaching. The context for both of these artifacts was a mixed-aged preschool/pre-k classroom at American Community Schools: Athens in Athens, Greece. The 15 students in this classroom were very diverse both in age and culture. Their ages ranged from 3 years 1 month to 5 years 4 months. Approximately half of the students were Greek, while one was from the U.S., two were from Kazakhstan, one was from Norway, two were from China, and one was from Turkey. The children spoke varying degrees of English, with the most advanced students being fully bilingual and the newest students speaking only a few words of English and only understanding some simple statements/directions. By the time I implemented this specific lesson plan, it was my last week of student teaching so the students were very comfortable with me as a lead teacher, although at this point I was slowly fading out since it was almost time for me to leave.

The lesson plan details a writing lesson with an interdisciplinary connection of science. The standards I used were all specific to ACS Athens; and involved using drawing and forms of emergent writing to express ideas, and describing animals' characteristics. Since all of the children in this class use drawing as their primary form of writing, we created a class book of zoo animals after visiting the zoo on a class trip. After reviewing our trip and looking at some zoo animals on the interactive whiteboard, each student selected an animal they wanted to draw. During center time I worked with students in small groups to draw their animals on their page, and then they labeled the animal's name with varying levels of support from me (depending on their age and writing/fine motor abilities). To tie in the science standards, we then used an iPad to research one interesting fact about their animal.

The reflection I selected is unique from my other weekly reflections and better demonstrates my competency for this standard because it is specifically my reflection on a video of my teaching. Typically, I will reflect on my teaching based on what I remember and what I believe I did, but in this case I saw myself from a different point of view and I could more clearly see what was going well or poorly. The particular lesson I was reflecting on was a small group reading lesson, in which I was working with children on their emergent reading skills and supporting their understanding of concepts of print. The children were supposed to select their favorite book from the bookshelf and after we identified the basic parts of the book, the children took turns "reading" their story to us as if they were the teacher. In my reflection, I discussed how some of the children did not want to participate, and this was a consistent behavior for this group when it came to reading. I also addressed other aspects of the lesson that I could have done differently, such as changing the setting to make the children feel more comfortable reading aloud to the group. I reflected that overall the lesson went well and there were a number of positives, and after watching the video of my instruction I was able to reflect on the strategies and approaches I used to promote each child's learning.

2. Analysis

The two artifacts I have selected for this standard each highlight specific key elements of the standard. Elements 4a-c apply to my lesson plan artifact, while element 4d applies directly to my reflection artifact.

By the time I implemented this lesson plan, it was my last week of student teaching and I had gotten to know my students very well. I had developed a rapport with each of them and built strong, positive relationships. Element 4a, which is "understanding positive relationships and supportive interactions as the foundation of their work with children," can be clearly connected to my lesson because I used these relationships I had made with my students to influence my planning. I took a topic that I knew all of the students enjoyed based on my conversations with them and my observations of them during our recent zoo field trip, and planned a relevant, interesting learning experience that would be engaging and effective. I also knew which children needed more support and who needed additional challenges. Throughout the semester as I worked with individuals and got to know them, I learned that one of the youngest children who was easily distracted actually just needed more stimulation and challenge in his activities because he is very academically advanced. Similarly, I learned that one of the older students struggled with fine motor skills because in his previous school he was forced to write with his right hand even though he was left-handed, and now needs more support in building fine motor skills in his dominant hand. I took knowledge such as this into account when planning my learning experience, and my positive relationships with my students allowed me to understand their strengths and needs on a deeper level.

Element 4b of Standard 4 is "knowing and understanding effective strategies and tools for early education, including appropriate uses of technology." I feel that I definitely incorporated this element in my lesson plan by using developmentally appropriate technology throughout the lesson. I understand that technology can be controversial when used with young children, but I strongly believe that when used appropriately it can have a very positive impact on children's engagement and learning. In my classroom, we had an interactive whiteboard called a Starboard. It was rarely used when I first joined the class for my student teaching placement, except for occasional brain break dances or educational videos to supplement lessons. Throughout my placement, I tried to use it whenever it was appropriate because I knew that it really interested the children and increased their engagement level in the activity significantly. For this particular activity, I used it to display photos of various zoo animals at the beginning of my lesson when I introduced the activity. As a whole group we identified each animal, then during center time when the children were completing the writing portion of the activity I left the photos up so they could use them as a reference. Even though in this particular instance the children did not use the Starboard themselves, having it on and incorporated in some way with our lesson piqued their interest and set the tone for the rest of the activity. I also used developmentally appropriate technology when the children were creating their pages for the class book, by helping the children look up on an iPad pictures and facts about the animal they drew. We used National Geographic Kids to search for their animal, looked at a few pictures of the animal, then I asked them if they already knew anything about their animal or what they would like to know. I read to them a brief list of fun facts such as what the animal eats, where it lives, and other interesting information, and it was amazing to see the children's fascinated reactions.

Over time I have developed a repertoire of developmentally appropriate teaching/learning approaches, which is element 4c of this standard. Throughout my lesson I believe I implemented a variety of such approaches. At the beginning of my learning experience, I modeled the process of the writing activity by drawing my own animal and labeling it. In the past, I had shown the children a pre-made sample in an attempt to model the activity, but I realized that even if it takes more time it is much more beneficial for the students to model the actual process step by step so that the children can create a mental image of what they need to do. The main reason I chose to use the iPad to research each child's chosen animal in this writing activity was to add an interdisciplinary connection to science, which relates to element 4c of this standard. At the time of this lesson, our current science unit was land and ocean animals, so by planning a writing activity that related to the science unit's theme I was already making a small interdisciplinary connection. However, I wanted a way to explicitly address the science standards for this age group and curricular unit, which was to be able to describe animal's characteristics. Making interdisciplinary connections is a very important developmentally appropriate teaching approach, because by working with the children to research their chosen animal and learn some of its characteristics rather than just identifying and drawing it, I was supporting them in both the literacy and science domains and hopefully this helped solidify the concepts even more for the students. As I previously mentioned, another approach I used both in planning and practice was differentiation for both groups and individuals. Since my class was a mixed-aged preschool room of both 3-year-olds and 4-year-olds, we typically would have the younger age group trace their name and other words, while the older age group would copy words and their name (unless they could write their name independently). In addition to this, I also accommodated for individuals who did not fit within the needs of their age groups. For example, one of my youngest students was one of the most advanced developmentally and academically, so I had him write his own name and copy the name of his animal rather than tracing it, because I knew he needed that added challenge. I then scaffolded the abilities of one of the older students and had him write his own name, but had him trace the name of his animal because it was clear he needed additional support with writing and fine motor skills.

The final element of this standard is 4d: reflecting on own practice to promote positive outcomes for each child. While this element could certainly be connected to the reflections I did on my lesson plan, I felt that my second artifact more clearly highlights my competencies related to this element of Standard 4. Throughout my student teaching experience, I have completed weekly reflections. Each one details a different account of what happened in the classroom or around the school, and allows me to better understand what went well or poorly in a given situation and how I can use the experience to improve my own teaching. This particular reflection, being on a video of my own teaching, allowed me to reflect on my practice from a different perspective and assess how I promoted positive outcomes for each child, as well as how I could do so in the future. In my reflection, I gave myself specific feedback, addressing both strengths and areas of need. I acknowledged that sometimes things don't go according to plan, such as when one student refused to participate, and I reflected upon the strategies I attempted to use to engage her. In the moment, I felt as though my lesson was not going well because I could not engage this student in the activity, but reflecting back I realized that I used a number of developmentally effective approaches and I at least made a significant effort. I commented on other areas I realized I could improve in, such as being more aware of the rest of the class while engaged in a small group activity. I also made sure to recognize my strengths and areas in which I had improved since last time, such as increasing overall engagement, asking higher order questions, and accommodating for ELL students.

3. Reflection

Looking back at my lesson after it was implemented, I think it was very successful. Each of my students met my learning objectives, and I was able to offer developmentally appropriate accommodations for individuals and groups of children. I had to make some modifications on the fly throughout the activity, such as deciding whether or not to allow multiple students to choose the same animal or to extend the activity to the following day so that everyone would have enough time to complete their page of the book. Since the learning experience was relevant to the current science unit, our recent class trip to the zoo, and the children's personal interests, engagement was high and I think the lesson had a positive impact on the students. Many of them asked me if they would be able to take their page home with them, but when I explained that we were all putting our pages together to make a book that would stay in the classroom, they found that just as exciting. I briefly considered having the class vote on whether or not they wanted to take their pages home or keep them as a book, but decided against it since some students were absent that day and I felt it would be better in the long run for the students to be able to share their pages with each other as a class book and add to it as they learned more animals throughout the unit. If I were to change anything about this lesson it would be at the beginning, when I was introducing and modeling it. I think I was so focused on my pacing and making sure we finished whole group and got right into centers to start the activity that I didn't take into account the fact that the children had already been sitting on the carpet as a whole group for a little while, and they clearly needed a break. I should have taken the time to do a brain break or wiggle dance with them before making them sit back down and listen to me introduce and model the activity. Had I known that I would end up deciding to extend the activity to the next day anyway, I believe I would have done this to begin with.

Regarding my reflection artifact, I find it somewhat challenging to reflect on a reflection. Nevertheless, I do feel that my reflection was very effective in helping me to realize my areas of strength and need, as well as showing me what I can do differently in the future. Additionally, I think this particular reflection showed my growth over time. I mentioned in the beginning of the reflection that the lesson went well, and certainly better than the previous lesson I had implemented with similar objectives. Then, using this reflection as guidance, I can improve and progress even further by taking what I have learned from this particular lesson and applying it to future lessons. This artifact has impacted not only me, but also the children I worked with. By recognizing the developmentally appropriate approaches, strategies, and tools I used, as well as which ones actually were effective, I was able to utilize this information in providing better learning opportunities for my students. If I were to rewrite this reflection again based on the same video of my teaching, I think I would change a few things. Now that I have had more time to reflect on the lesson and on my own reflection, I think that I made note of a lot of areas of need or things that went wrong, but I did not take the extra step and try to think of how I would change it in the future. If I were to rewrite this reflection I would consider a few developmentally effective approaches I could have used or things I could have done differently to improve the situations I reflected upon.