Designing Instructional Plans Instructional Strategies

In the first 2 days the students will mainly be focusing on the Language Arts. They will be given directions to improve their reading and writing skills and will later on be marked on how far they have come. The students have been put into a 3rd grade class in an independent manner. There is an immediate need for these students to be able to understand and learn the course in various manners and to also revise it.

On the first day the students will mainly be guided through the reading process. They will be encouraged to read the content of their course and try and identify the main characters and the details supporting them in expository text.

Resources

Text books, writing paper, pencils, overhead projector, different colored pens.

Day two

On the second day the students will have to organize and focus their thoughts regarding the reading from day 1 as, on the second day they will have to come up with a topic sentence and write those thoughts down. The students will have to create one paragraph in which they will have to summarize the expository text using the main idea and three supporting details.

Resources

Overhead projector, writing paper, pens, crayons, pencils, markers.

Student Activities

Day one

A story will be read by the students and they will try to differentiate the main idea and the details supporting it in expository text.

Day two

The students will identify the main idea of an expository text, identify three supporting details from the expository text and summarize the expository text using the main idea and three supporting details in one paragraph

Part 2:

Based on your knowledge of the content and of student development, explain why the instructional strategies, student activities, and resources you listed in question 1:

2a) are appropriate for this class

There are a number of reasons why these instructional strategies have been chosen by me for the students. I believe that with the help of these strategies I can teach the students suitable literacy skills according to their grade level, the students are able to feel a sense of predictability and structure as they are told in the beginning of the class what is expected of them. By encouraging the students to work in an independent manner their confidence is boosted.

2b) address the developmental needs of these students

Following are the developmental needs of the students which will be achieved by these 2 days of reading and writing:

Experiencing a structured day

Creating literary skills that are appropriate for their age

Taking part in the hands-on experience

2c) help these students make progress toward achieving the state-adopted academic content standards for students in this content area

The lesson has been planned by me by keeping the learning goals as well as their relation to the state academic standards in mind. The instructional strategies as well as the activities that will be performed by the students have been decided upon by keeping the objective of the lesson in mind.

Case Study 2: Assessment Practices

Part 1.Identifying strengths and weaknesses.

1a) Identify one strength in the assessment plan and explain why it is a strength in relation to the learning goals of this unit.

I feel that one of the biggest strengths of the assessment plan is how it allows the teacher to assess the individual progress of each student every step of the way. This will help the students as well as the teacher in such a manner that he/she will be able to stop the lesson whenever the students seem to be having difficulties in grasping the concept rather than going on with the numerous learning goals.

1b) Identify one weakness in the assessment plan and explain why it is a weakness in relation to the learning goals of this unit.

In my opinion one weakness that does exist in the assessment plan is that there aren't various modes of assessment. All of the assessments are of the same kind, they are all from the textbook, all have to be completed on paper and there aren't any performance based assessments.

Part 2. Suppose you found the additional assessment in a supplementary resource. Think about how the additional assessment could improve the teacher's assessment plan.

Additional Assessment

Various different boxes will be given to the students which will contain plastic rectangles, hexagons, squares, triangles, octagons and pentagons. There are going to be various similar and dissimilar examples of every sort of polygon in the boxes. Students will be assigned various tasks of grouping these polygons...

Therefore, it will be after a few days of the first assessment that I will introduce them to this one.
2b) What goals would be assessed by this assessment?

I believe that I will be able to assess around 3-4 learning goals with the help of this assessment as, the students will not only be able to use addition and subtraction in this assessment but they will also be able to identify and describe the shapes and differences between the various shapes and their properties.

2c) What type of assessment would it be?

This is mainly going to be performance based and formative assessment.

2d) What would be the purpose of the assessment?

The basic purpose of this assessment is going to be to carry on the progress monitoring of the students.

2e) How would you implement the assessment?

I plan on implementing this assessment in the form of a group activity where, each group will consist of 5 students.

2f) What feedback strategies would you use?

I have decided to get feedback in oral form and mostly on one-on-one basis.

2g) How would the results of the assessment inform mathematics instruction?

This assessment will help me in monitoring the progress of the students with regards to mathematics and I will see if there are a few or large number of students who are having difficulties in understanding the lessons and deal accordingly.

Part 3)

Explain how using the additional assessment as you described in question 2 improves the teacher's assessment plan and what specific information would be gained about what the students really know and understand about the content area, their misconceptions, and their progress toward achieving the learning goals

Knowing how the brain of a student works can greatly help a teacher in understanding the problems that he/she might face and how they can be solved. Therefore, by giving students actual shapes rather than having them look at their drawings on piece of paper allows the teachers to see how the students observe the objects and makes decisions regarding it such as its number of sides, number of angles etc.

Case Study 3: Adaptation of Subject-Specific Pedagogy for English Learners

B. Questions for Case Study 3

1) Identify two specific learning needs the student has as an English learner, based on the student description and the responses.

Guillermo is 10 years old. It was about 3 years ago that his family moved to the U.S. Guillermo speaks fluent Spanish but can't write it properly. His verbal and written English isn't perfect and his spoken English is 2 grades below. Therefore, oral and written English are two of Guillermo's specific learning needs. It was indicated through his CELDT results that his overall score lies in the early intermediate range and that he has been recognized to be an English learner.

2a) Identify one instructional strategy or student activity from the outline of plans that could be challenging for the student.

Speaking in front of the class can prove to be challenging for Guillermo as, his oral English isn't perfect.

2b) Explain why the strategy or activity you chose could be challenging to the student. Use your knowledge of English learners and your analysis of the student's learning needs in your explanation.

Speaking in front of the class can prove to be difficult for Guillermo as, I have noticed him to become shy and conscious when he has to speak in English in front of a large group. He also gets confused when his peers laugh at his mistakes. However, on occasions when I have talked to him one-on-one I have noticed a significant difference in his language and demeanor as, he makes less mistakes and is more confident. Therefore, I feel that he can improve his verbal skills by becoming more confident to speak in front of larger groups, hence, I have decided to encourage him more and more to speak up in the class and take part in the group discussions.

3a) Describe how you would adapt the strategy or activity you identified above to meet the learning needs of the student. Consider specific subject matter pedagogy when writing your description.

I will provide Guillermo with a list of the relevant science vocabulary words in English and Spanish so that he can understand them easily. I will encourage him to go through the list and try to memorize the words. I will try to partner Guillermo with one of his peers who can…