3e:Demonstrating Flexibility and Responsiveness

“Flexibility and responsiveness” refer to a teacher’s skill in making adjustments in a lesson to respond to changing conditions. When a lesson is well planned, there may be no need for changes during the course of the lesson itself. Shifting the approach in midstream is not always necessary; in fact, with experience comes skill in accurately predicting how a lesson will go and being prepared for different possible scenarios. But even the most skilled, and best prepared, teachers will occasionally find either that a lesson is not proceeding as they would like or that a teachable moment has presented itself. They are ready for such situations. Furthermore, teachers who are committed to the learning of all students persist in their attempts to engage them in learning, even when confronted with initial setbacks.

Danielson, C. 2013

Artifact 3e-1

Zoom 11-30-21.mp4

Literacy Practicum Lesson

I taught this student as part of my Elementary Literacy Practicum. During my time with this student, I learned that often what worked one day with him would not work the next; so I had to be very flexible in my planning. Usually, I had multiple alternative activities planned. He was fairly advanced for his age and so the original lesson I had planned for him had turned out to be far too easy for him. Usually, we worked on a literacy skill and then we would take turns reading from a chapter book while I asked comprehension questions. During this lesson, we were having technical difficulties and as I taught the planned activity, I realized that what I had planned was not going to work. So, I adjusted and we spent the remainder of the lesson reading from the chapter book. I asked him comprehension questions throughout and he seemed very engaged in the lesson. He told me later that he thought the book we were reading (James and the Giant Peach, by Roald Dahl) was interesting and he really enjoyed the lesson. Adjusting my plan allowed us to have a productive discussion and lesson that we might not have otherwise had.

Artifact 3e-2

GMT20211206-151838_Recording_1920x1030.mp4

Writing Conference

Writing Conference Map Template (7) (1).pdf

Writing conferences are, by nature, an exercise in flexibility and responsiveness. The teacher’s goal in a writing conference is to follow the lead of the student to ensure that the conference is about something that the writer is genuinely interested in improving. The Writing Conference Instructional Map that I am demonstrating in this artifact was written before the conference took place. In the map, I discuss the various options for questions, mentor texts, and topics that we could potentially discuss in the conference. I did my best to predict what the student would want to go over based off of our previous conferences and my knowledge of the student. However, as the video can attest, the actual conference veered somewhat off script from the map. This particular student was a talker, so I often had to redirect our conferences to ensure we stayed on task. Additionally, he often was not sure what he wanted to conference about, or he wanted to learn about proper grammar. This meant that some days, I guided the conference more heavily, while other days it was led by him. At first, this was difficult for me, but as I learned to adjust to changes and work with him, our conferences became very successful.

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