Standard 3 - Planning for Differentiated Instruction

Self-contained Instructional class: Exit Slip

Description: This was an exit slip that I created. The purpose of this was to assess if students were understanding what they were taught from the current day's lesson. 

Connection to Illinois learning standard 3: This quick assessment is of learning is directly connected to the "understanding when and how to adjust plans based on outcome data, as well as student needs, goals, and responses" as stated in learning indicator (3D). Collecting these exit slips and assessing them for accuracy, allows me to gather data about each individual and as a whole group. This data is responsible letting me know my pacing for lesson planning. A few possibilities can be, adjust the lesson for the future, reteach or take more time to go over the material, or even change my questions or lesson entirely to accommodate to the needs of our students.  The data that is collected during this assessment helped me "develop plans based on student responses and provides for different pathways based on student needs" as stated in the performance indicator (3M).  

Self-evaluation: Using these types of quick and easy assessments are a nice way of making decisions about the direction you can or will take based on how well I can meet the needs of the whole class.  I thought this exit slip was a clear example of what was taught in the lesson for that day. If I'm not mistaken, I believe that I decided to spend an extra day on this due to the fact that the majority of the class got the second half of the exit slip wrong based on the accuracy of their answers. 

English as a Second Langauge (ESL) Paper

Description: I paper I wrote was about the understanding and ways to work with English language learners. The strategies that are talked about come from a few articles that I read about incorporating both English and the native language a specific student uses to help speed up the English learning process. 

Connection to Illinois learning standard 3: This essay explores strategies for English language learning students and allows them to attempt learning English in a more personalized and natural way in the classroom. My experience of allowing natural social interactions among native English speaking students and English learners is a better way to "understand cultural, linguistic, cognitive, physical, and social and emotional differences, and considers the needs of each student when planning instruction" from knowledge indicator (3C). I knew allowing these natural interactions will help with a faster understanding of what is being asked of all students and not just the English language learners. This would push my kids to continue to try and learn from each other. 

Self-evaluation: In this paper, I felt as though there was a lot to learn before presenting this strategy and effectively make sure my English learning students were getting the most out of their natural interactions with their peers. Moving forward I may take time on a specific day to allow them to interact socially on their own and see how my English learners are adapting to and figuring out what is being asked of them. Overall, I thought the strategies in this paper could be used effectively to possibly develop a smooth adjustment into learning English at a faster pace while also improving student performance in the classroom.