Instructional Decision Making

Instructional Change No. One

This instructional change occurred before lesson #2 started. For lesson one, the students met objectives 1 and O2. Students did this by focusing on strong vs weak pushes and pulls by pushing a popsicle stick through egg cartons. When I first wrote the lesson I wanted to group students up in pairs of two because the rest of the unit is done in pairs so I wanted this to feel comfortable for them. This changed when I only had 7 students present for this lesson. Two students were sick and three were all pulled out for special services. I then figured that students would be able to work back at their tables independently with their materials but turn and talk with their table mates.

As a result of this change I was able to get more specific data from each student rather than combining two students' sets of data. This allowed me to understand each student's thought process and understanding of the lesson and material being presented. I feel that if I were to have kept the students in pairs some students would have been more glazed over if they were struggling because they could have gotten the information from their peers and made it seem like they were understanding.

If I were to re-teach this lesson in the future I would not have the students be in partners. The responses I got from the students were much more accurate and students were able to take their time with explaining themselves and did not have to talk with or over one of their classmates who were also trying to explain their understanding.

Instructional Change No. Two

This instructional change I made here was done in lesson 4 during the formative assessment. I had students illustrate a prediction on their paper and then after they completed the activity the students then illustrated what happened. I originally was just going to have students hand their work into me and not explain what was happening. I then decided that I wanted to get their full understanding so I had the students bring their papers up to the front of the class and share what they had drawn for a prediction. While they were sharing I wrote notes and then transferred my notes onto their paper.

If I had not done this instructional change I would not have gotten the same level of understanding that I did of what the students were thinking through the activity. Some of the illustrations were not easy to decode and see what they were trying to show since they are in kindergarten and their drawing is not yet to that level. By having them explain what they drew this decoded it for me. The students also could work on their sharing skills and get ideas on how to word their own thinking through other students' examples. I feel that the sharing responses I got from students made for a more detailed and educated description of their work and the thinking through the activity.

If I were to implement this lesson again I would have them share their work. It gave me a chance to observe my students progress, and understanding that I will use while implementing the rest of the lessons presented in this unit.

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