The Interstate Teacher Assessment and Support Consortium (InTASC) Standard 8: Instructional Strategies

The teacher understands and uses a variety of instructional strategies to encourage learners to develop deep understanding of content areas and their connections, and to build skills to apply knowledge in meaningful ways.

The artifact that best encapsulates InTASC Standard 8 is my Annotated Lesson Plan.

Rationale

The InTASC standards that best exemplify the included artifact are:

8(a) The teacher uses appropriate strategies and resources to adapt instruction to the needs of individuals and groups of learners.

8(d) The teacher varies his/her role in the instructional process (e.g., instructor, facilitator, coach, audience) in relation to the content and purposes of instruction and the needs of learners.

8(g) The teacher engages learners in using a range of learning skills and technology tools to access, interpret, evaluate, and apply information.

8(k) The teacher knows how to apply a range of developmentally, culturally, and linguistically appropriate instructional strategies to achieve learning goals.

8(l) The teacher knows when and how to use appropriate strategies to differentiate instruction and engage all learners in complex thinking and meaningful tasks.

8(s) The teacher values flexibility and reciprocity in the teaching process as necessary for adapting instruction to learner responses, ideas, and needs.

A description of the artifact, when it was created, the purpose and process of its creation:

The included artifact was created as an assignment for Adolescent Development and Learning Needs: an essential class in the Education Development and Training program at University of Maryland University College. This artifact was created to practice using backward design to plan for instruction. Backward design requires the instructor to choose specific standards that will be addressed, in addition to knowing what the purpose of the lesson will be and knowing what needs to be accomplished through a specific lesson before planning the lesson itself. Before creating this lesson, I knew that I wanted to teach students how to identify and understand poetic devices found in Romeo and Juliet, so they could better understand the mechanics of the play before they began reading. Knowing the purpose of the lesson made it easier to plan how I was going to teach the lesson and what kinds of activities students would complete to further their understanding of iambic pentameter, in addition to other poetic devices.

How does this artifact demonstrate achievement of Standard 8: Instructional Strategies?

Part of what Standard 8: Instructional Strategies asks of teachers is to use appropriate strategies and resources to adapt instruction and to engage students in meaningful tasks that help them better understand classroom content. This lesson engages students in a meaningful task, in the sense that it allows them to write about anything they want as long as they are using the same poetic devices as Shakespeare. This lesson allows for the teacher to use appropriate strategies and resources to adapt instruction to the needs of individuals and groups of learners, using the different adaptations provided in the plan. In this lesson I have planned for a classroom that has a greater number of EEL learners, special education students, or students that wish to be challenged, allowing for flexibility and reciprocity in the teaching process as necessary for adapting instruction to learner responses, ideas, and needs.

How has my understanding of the standard been affected by the creation of this artifact?

My understanding of Standard 8: Instructional Strategies has been affected by the creation of this artifact because it helped me learn what influences students to not only learn, but apply. From what I have observed, students want to write about things they enjoy, such as their friends, sports, or playing videos. When I asked my students to complete this lesson many of them chose to write about how friendship; specifically friendships within the classroom. Students still had to use a specific rhyme scheme and write using iambic pentameter, but they were able to relate these concepts back to something they understand better than anything else. My students had an easy time identifying the concepts I taught in this lesson once we they started to read Romeo and Juliet because they could draw from mechanics they used in their sonnets. Through this assignment students were able to be engaged in a range of learning skills to access, interpret, evaluate, and apply information.

What are my strengths related to this standard? What do I need to improve on?

I felt my strengths for this assignment were mostly reflected in my ability to differentiate my Annotated Lesson Plan. I took a great deal of time trying to think of different ways this lesson could be manipulated. Classes often differ in size and resource availability, and I wanted to create a lesson plan that was conscious of every possible classroom situation. I created a plan for the presence of technology, lack of technology, small group instruction, and small class instruction. In order to engage students in meaningful tasks instructional strategies must fit the group of students in the classroom.

After creating this lesson plan, I was able to put it to use in the English class I teach. I started the lesson asking students to answer a couple of questions about what they already knew about iambic pentameter. Though students had learned about iambic pentameter before, they could not remember what it was or how it was used by William Shakespeare. I spent a lot more time than I thought I was going to spend explaining concepts and giving examples. In my lesson plan, I did not leave a great deal of time for answering questions and showing students how to mark iambic pentameter and rhyme scheme, which became somewhat problematic. After reviewing the concepts that were necessary to complete the assignment, there was not a lot of time left in class to finish the assigned project. I ended up giving students an extra day to finish their sonnets and added an artistic spin to make the project feel more rounded. This lesson turned out alright, but I did not originally plan on it taking more than one day to finish. In relation to Standard 8: Instructional Strategies, I need to get better at gauging how much time it will take students to finish an in-class project.

Artifacts

Annotated Lesson Plan:

Romeo and Juliet, English Grade 9

Supplementary Presentation: