5. Instructional Delivery 

Here is a layout of the curriculum map that my school uses that my cooperating teacher color coded and shows the adapted nature of our school's content that we teach.  We of course align our content to the general education standards, but fit the material to the needs of the students that we serve.  You can also see that for each week of every month we work on core words and a few times throughout each month, we also incorporate community access words into our ELA work that we do with our students.  Our school is divided up into different programs based on student age/grade level and varying needs, which is how students are grouped into classrooms so that they are within the appropriate Tier level that they need to be in.  The Tier levels are 3, 2, and 1 and start with the least amount of support being provided in Tier 3 and as you move into Tier 2 there is a bit more support and assistance provided to students, and when you get into Tier 1, this is where there is the most amount of support, assistance, and prompting being given to students.  The goal overall within each tier is to still promote as much student independence as possible, while guiding students to where they need to be along the way as well. 

This artifact meets performance indicator 5P which states, "The competent teacher uses student data to adapt the curriculum and implement instructional strategies and materials according to the characteristics of each student."  This is shown through the adaptations that are evident on our school's curriculum map that we use to anchor our lesson activities and focus to guide the instructional delivery decisions that we make.  We still teach to the same standards as the general education schools do, but we modify it to fit our students' overall needs.  We ensure that they are still being provided with the exposure to each content area topic that we are responsible for teaching them, but tailor it in our own way to look and be implemented in the way that we need it to be.  It is nice to have the freedom to be able to modify information whenever needed for our students so that we can provide them with what they need in a more conducive manner that will allow for more overall student growth and achievement to take place. 

I learned a lot about curriculum maps and how to approach and break down content for different content areas for weekly lesson planning when I was first given this curriculum map at the beginning of my student teaching placement.  I appreciated having a structured outline of topics to serve as a guide for me to use in my planning process as I began to look for lesson activities that would not only address the topics on the map, but were also fun and engaging for my students as well.  I also enjoyed the fact that my school broke down each content area clearly into different categories of focus, which made it easier to create units of study for my students as well.  I learned a lot about how to approach curriculum and make it adapted, modify instruction, and set my students up for success in a way that met them where they are, while also providing them with access to the general education curriculum content standards. 

This detailed special education lesson plan focuses on the part of our school's curriculum that builds in language acquisition and vocabulary development through teaching core words to students.  These are similar in nature to sight words that students have probably seen before in other contexts, such as at home or in their communities in some way.  Teaching students these core words, along with the curriculum that focuses on instruction provided to students that teaches students community access words that are relevant to them and pertains to the aspect of this standard in the way of continued modification of instructional content to support student learning.  

This artifact meets knowledge indicator 5D which states, "The competent teacher understands disciplinary and interdisciplinary instructional approaches and how they relate to life and careeer experiences."  Throughout the creative process of planning and developing activities for this lesson plan, the focus was on the core word "like" and one of the activities was specifically geared towards students and their individual interests.  This was done through having students each complete a worksheet containing a "like/dislike" chart with visual pictures of a thumbs up and thumbs down for students to view as they sorted through images of food, animals, sports, etc.  Then students were asked "yes/no" questions to work on indicating preferences of what they like and things that they do not like.  This connects to the standard as a whole as it demonstrates the continuous modifcation that took place when making this lesson and determing the best way to make it relevant and practical for students to help support generalization of the learned core word to be applied to other settings outside of the classroom context.  It also highlights how I was able to meet knowledge indicator 5D by understanding the importance of the varying forms of instrucitonal approaches and how I was able to relate it to them in a way that was relevant, while also keeping in mind that I needed to relate it to life experiences too, as this standard outlines.  I was able to not only provide instructional content tied to our ELA curriculum, but I was also able to relate it to students' lives and the experiences they have had that have essentially shaped them into who they are, with their own preferences and likes/dislikes that they were able to share within this lesson plan.

In terms of what I learned from creating this lesson plan, I would say the main takeaway that I had was in relation to the importance of implemening instruction from the standpoint of supporting students in developing significant skills such as critical and creative thinking skills and problem-solving skills.  All of these skills and components connect to the indicator that this artifact meets and how it incorporates necessary life skills that will help students be set up for success and how to navigate and approach different life experiences that will come their way, especially as they move into adulthood.