– The competent teacher differentiates instruction by using a variety of strategies that support critical and creative thinking, problem-solving, and continuous growth and learning. This teacher understands that the classroom is a dynamic environment requiring ongoing modification of instruction to enhance learning for each student.
Vocab Lesson Plan where students show the knowledge of their vocab words
I decided that for this lesson, I wanted students to show mastery of their vocab words by creating different representations of art to present to their classmates. I know that students learn in different ways (5A) so I had three different examples of what they could do. One was a drawing with a title, another was a story, and the last one was a comic strip, and my example is shown on the left. There were three different kinds of presentations of the words but students were also coming up with more to clearly represent their words (5L). Two of my students wrote raps and songs to show their mastery of the word of their choosing.
Something that I learned was that when students are given the option to try something new, they need a lot of models and even then, they might still use your idea and formatting. I did have models created but some students were still using my examples and just changing it a little bit while others were creating their own versions.
I knew that explaining these math tools was going to be a hard visual for students, even when I was holding them out in front of me. Knowing this, I was able to adapt what the different cube amounts looked like so that it made more sense for the students. For example, since the 10-piece was straight and yellow, I started calling it a french fry. Since the 100 or flat piece was flat, I started calling it a plate. As for the cube, the class did not know how to draw or even understand a cube until I related it to Minecraft. All of these got the attention of my students and helped with their attentiveness and engagement overall (5F).
Something that I learned was that I can make real-world comparisons very quickly that are relatable for my students. It makes more sense to them and helps them a lot at the time and in the future too.