2. Adjustments to Practice

Adjusting the style and strategies one uses to teach is essential to creating an classroom with effective instruction. Adjustments can include altering how the information is presented, examples that are used, phrasing of words, and types of activities. Adjustments to practice includes the ways that teachers can potentially alter their lesson delivery. This can include changing supplementary materials, directions, phrasing of definitions, student groupings, or modes of delivery.

DESE Proficiency Standard

"Analyzes results from a variety of assessments to determine progress toward intended outcomes and uses these findings to adjust practice and identify and/or implement differentiated interventions and enhancements for students."

Contingency Plans

As I created my lessons, I made sure to include contingency plans, giving myself options to choose from depending on how the lesson is being received. As the lesson is progressing, I would consider how the class is responding to the information which would inform how I asked questions and presented actives including if the class would continue in individual, pairs, small groups, or as a whole class. If students were taking longer to understand a concept, I would have them work in pairs to answer a question, whereas if they seemed very comfortable, I would ask people to share their own ideas with the class or shift to independent work. Additionally, the contingency plans included the style of questions I could ask and how much scaffolding I could provide. There was an option where I could model and solve a problem with them, and one where I could let them be more independent and work by themselves or with a partner. I also ensured that I always had an option that could be supplemented in if the class was not responding to the lesson after multiple tries or understood it at a faster rate than anticipated. In many cases these were extra readings or videos that either expanded on a topic or provided a simple introduction depending on the needs of the class at that time.

Student Feedback

In assessing adjustments that need to be made, taking into account the student perspective is vital. Asking for student feedback to understand what they want and need creates an environment in which their interests and learning styles can support the curriculum. This information can come in a wide variety of forms such as asking questions, performance on assignments, informal polling, and other interactions.

Thumbs Up or Down?

One main method I used of gathering student data during class was asking the question: "How do you feel about this topic? Give me a thumbs up, middle, or down." After asking this question, students would then give me a thumbs up, middle, or down depending on how they felt and in general it felt like their honest assessment and they were comfortable showing me a thumbs down.

Tests

Pear Deck

Pear Deck allows for interactive questions and assessments to be added into a slide presentation. One important aspect of this program is the ability to ask students how they feel about a topic. Students can not see each others answers, taking away the pressure or potential embarrassment of not knowing a topic. After presenting information on specific content, this question could be presented and if there were a large number of dots that were on red or yellow, then I was quickly able to know that the information needed to be explained in a different way.

Question Variety and Gauging Understanding

A strategy that I used as I moved through each lesson was to promote questioning by the students. The goal of this was to have students develop their own discussions and connections between topics. As I guided these talks, I was able to answer questions, clear up misconceptions, and ask follow up questions to understand their range of knowledge. In response to these questions I could assess student understanding and choose a variety of methods to move the lesson forward. I could shift to direct instruction if the class seemed to be confused and lacking information they need, or I could allow for more student directed discussion if I saw that the class had a deeper understanding and did not need as much instructor assistance. This questioning style allowed me to tailor a lesson to each individual class. While I was teaching the same lesson multiple times, no two classes reacted in the same way, which made it important to be able to adjust how the information was being delivered and how the expectations for questions and answers shifted each day. When running games or asking the class questions, if students answered incorrectly, I would pause and explain the terminology or how to solve the question to the entire class. I would make sure to use a variety of phrasings so students had options they could choose from.

In my practicum, I met consistently with my mentor teacher after every class to discuss each lesson and how to improve. We discussed methods of participation, how to pose questions, organizational structure of presentations, and many other important elements of a lesson depending on the day. Immediately after each lesson I would implement the changes to the materials and make notes to ensure that I remembered what parts of the lesson needed to be adjusted as I was delivering them to ensure that in each class my instruction was improving.