"Instructional strategies within a student-centered learning environment that support student attainment of relevant knowledge and skills."

Standard 5: Engaging Instructional Strategies (ACTE 5)

What?

When planning the plant science unit for my Intro to Ag class, I intentionally design the lesson plans to make sure that the content being taught has varied instruction. This unit was an introduction to plant science, focusing on foundational plant science concepts, parts, functions, and life cycles that align with the AFNR standards. The lesson plans were intentionally thought out to include different types of teaching strategies and assessments to address CTE Standard 5: Engaging instruction.

Throughout the lesson, I varied my strategies for my freshman class. These instructional strategies include: (think, pair, share), lecture, hands-on labs, Case study, etc. All to make sure that the students can be engaged in different ways to learn about plant science using student-centered language. The lesson plans ensure active engagement for the different learning types. 

So What?

The lesson plans have a direct shift from delivering the material to then engaging students in meaningful learning experiences. This is to ensure that the students are not just stuck with busy work or lectures all the time. There is a structure of direct instruction, especially at the beginning of the plant science, but there are activities included to try and break up the direct instruction with multiple strategies. For example, the students are not just learning which part is which for the plant, but also analyzing their functions and connecting those to real-world outcomes. This reinforced the course goal of getting scientific. Hands-on activities, such as labs, are important for linking content to application.

Student-centered learning is shifting the students into thinkers and problem solvers. The strategies, such as discussion between classmates and funneling keeps them actively involved. My instructional methods were planned to try to mix the different types of instruction. For example, when we look at the propagation methods, we are doing a case study. This gets the students actively thinking about the methods and the why behind it. 

Now What?

Moving forward, when I implement these lessons, I will assess my students' engagement through formative assessments. These will be strategies as questioning, exit tickets, observation, and bell ringers, the next day. If engagement is dipping or they are having a hard time with the information being taught, I will implement additional teaching strategies, such as more hands-on instead of a lecture or interactive charts and diagrams to help the student re-engage. 

Student feedback and performance data will be used as a guide to refine the units. Concepts that are challenging the students will be retaught using the alternative strategies, and successful strategies with the content will be expanded upon to see what worked well. To continue developing engaging instruction, I will ensure my lessons stay current with the changes in agriculture, particularly in career-focused or advanced units/courses, to stay aligned with CTE instruction and support students' knowledge and skills.

What

For practice teaching #3, I taught at Lefler Middle School in Lincoln. The topic of this lesson for the 7th-grade math was angle relationships. There were two objectives that I wanted the students to reach. Objective one was for students to classify the angle relationships. Objective two was for students to solve missing angle measures using their relationships. The CRA (Concrete-Representative- Abstract) method was used for this facilitation. This method is commonly used when it comes to math because it progresses students through concepts step-by-step. Many educators use this method in early math instruction, where students first use physical objects, then drawing, and finally solve math abstractly. During this lesson, I implemented a facilitation method routine to focus on student engagement by having the students use whiteboards to solve questions. 

So What

This instructional strategy is aligned with the ACTE Element 5: Engaging Instruction, which allows learners to be actively involved in the instructional process. Having the students work in groups to create angles, use whiteboards, and lead the discussion allowed the lesson to move beyond students just passively taking in information. Students demonstrated engagement by participating in activities and explaining their reasoning behind their answers. In a large school environment, the instructional method didn’t change, but being sure to have those engagement strategies was crucial. The structure of my lesson helped maintain momentum because this strategy had multiple steps that allowed smooth transitions and practice to occur at a clear, efficient pace. After going through the representative demonstration, students had the opportunity to immediately apply the skill. My instructional choices supported students in meeting the lesson objective because they repeatedly practiced their skills. Evidence from the artifact shows that students were consistently engaged throughout the class. I planned to keep the students engaged throughout each activity involving angles.

​Now What

The engagement strategy reduced the strain on me as a teacher because students were active participants in the learning process. I did not consistently use proximity during whiteboard practice, which created additional strain on me. During the next lessons that day, I intentionally used proximity which reduced a strain on me as a teacher. Student engagement supported learning because students were taking the content and applying it immediately. This allowed students to visualize the process and receive immediate feedback on their understanding. Moving forward, I will continue to use proximity in my lessons for the independent practice. I will also incorporate strategies such as partner work to increase student activity. Developing these routines will strengthen student engagement and classroom culture.

What

For practice teaching #6, I implemented a plan to create an engaging lesson for the livestock management class. For this lesson, I introduced a lab with a worksheet (artifact) to allow the students to discover the process on their own. The lesson that I taught focused on the dairy industry. When going into this class, they were learning about different dairy products. This was for 11th and 12th-grade students in a class of 14. These students had demonstrated disengagement in my prior lessons. I decided to go a more experiential and interactive instruction route to engage the students in the content. The primary instruction goal was to differentiate milk product classes and demonstrate how butter is made. The instructional strategies chosen for this lesson emphasize hands-on learning and the use of affinity mapping to connect prior knowledge. This reflects my decisions to shift from a primary direct instruction with discussion to a more structured active learning approach. Hands-on learning enabled students to remain actively engaged with the content. The students also practiced applying their technical skills and were focused on them to be able to make observations on their own.

So What

This instructional strategy aligns with the ACTE Element 5: Engaging Instruction, as it took the technical content to a meaningful, industry-relevant experiential learning lab. Instead of going through the motions of content, the students were involved in the lesson, making it more student-based overall. Students practiced a technical skill by transforming the cream into butter. This allowed the students to take the class II cream and then go through the process to bring it to a class IV butter. The lab worksheet allowed the students to record observations and reflect on the lab. The evidence of effectiveness was shown through the students' answers and observations. My CT also provided me with feedback stating that “the worksheet helped them stay on task for the lab.” Although it kept students on task, I will refine the worksheet by adding pictures and some more critical thinking questions to guide them through the technical process in depth. The pictures would have helped them understand it better. I also remained at the front for most of the lesson, which allowed some student behavior to occur. Proximity would have improved the classroom management of the students.

Now What

This highlights my growth in designing experiential learning lessons within the classroom that combine both engagement and rigor. From this experience, I learned that structured tools such as lab sheets are essential in guiding students through hands-on activities. I will refine my worksheet by adding visuals and higher-level reflection moving forward. This is to help students understand not only the steps of the process but the reasoning behind it. I will also circulate to maintain student behavior and see the students' progress. Using these techniques will allow me to consistently apply meaningful, industry-aligned learning in the future