To know how to suggest is the great art of teaching.
~Henri Frederic Amiel
~Henri Frederic Amiel
Standard 4
Multiple Instructional Strategies - The teacher understands and uses a variety of instructional strategies to develop students’ critical thinking, problem solving, and performance skills.
Reflection
As good teachers, we must constantly be evaluating if our strategies are working effectively. We must always keep in mind to use multiple instructional strategies whenever possible in order to reach students who might vary in their learning styles or abilities. The first artifact that demonstrates this within my portfolio is my excerpt from my strategy binder. This strategy was one out of 50 that I produced and was one of the best reflected upon because it was the one that I demonstrated for my Content Literacy class. I thought this strategy was particularly effective because it reached visual learners who frequently might struggle with simply reading a passage and then attempting to comprehend it. By demonstrating this as one of the many strategies, it demonstrates that I am carefully considering how to meet the different learning styles that might be present within my classroom. Having a variety of strategies to choose from, I am no longer limited by an inability to find an interesting strategy to support material that is being read within the classroom.
My second artifact was a sample SIOP lesson plan and the background notes, templates, etc. that explain the SIOP model. The SIOP model focuses on reaching students who might otherwise struggle with a traditional instructional method. It focuses on the components of Lesson Preparation, Building Background, Comprehensible Input, Strategies, Interaction, Practice/Application, Lesson Delivery, and Review and Assessment. This model then showcases even within one of its components the idea of multiple strategies. Likewise, the whole model is set up in a manner that makes teaching multiple strategies simple. This model has helped me as a teacher to see how important it is to make sure that lessons are clearly defined, use a variety of questions and tasks, have frequent interaction, and more.
My third artifact is a paper entitled Super Mario and Its Effect on the Emerging Teacher, which focuses on the ideas of video games being educational. This strategy of using something highly engaging like a video game was interesting to me because it really showed an effort to go beyond the normal strategies that might be introduced and really help students to learn. If students were able to participate in something as engaging as a video game, while at the same time learning, then they could experience the best of both worlds. However, we must like all strategies take care to also evaluate the drawbacks, which was also discussed within my paper. With this in mind then, I feel as a teacher this has taught me to never discount the value of what might prove to be educational after all.
My fourth artifact is a teacher interview that I conducted during my first year of observation within the school. I asked Mrs. Ritchie-Campbell, the sixth grade teacher I was placed with at Middleton Middle School about her instructional methods for her classroom. Therefore, I am placing this interview within this strategy because I feel the interview largely focused on the different techniques and strategies she used to help the many different students in her classroom. It was interesting to consider the wide variety of techniques that she used in her classroom and the many ways in which she had individualized those techniques. She gave many different ways for assignments to be completed in order to allow for each student’s strengths and weaknesses. I think this interview helped me to see the incredible need for multiple instruction strategies, especially in a classroom as differentiated as hers was. As a teacher, this once again reminded me to constantly be trying new things in order to help my students.
My final artifact was important to this strategy, I believe, because it highlighted the different ways in which a text, such as a vocabulary word could be introduced. This was a practical method to help different kinds of learners without even needing to plan changes within the classroom. It was also a good method overall for helping students’ memory because it has been demonstrated with research that approaches such as this one have substantially helped students’ memory. I think as a teacher, this was again an example of an easy way to integrate multiple instructional strategies within a classroom.
My second artifact was a sample SIOP lesson plan and the background notes, templates, etc. that explain the SIOP model. The SIOP model focuses on reaching students who might otherwise struggle with a traditional instructional method. It focuses on the components of Lesson Preparation, Building Background, Comprehensible Input, Strategies, Interaction, Practice/Application, Lesson Delivery, and Review and Assessment. This model then showcases even within one of its components the idea of multiple strategies. Likewise, the whole model is set up in a manner that makes teaching multiple strategies simple. This model has helped me as a teacher to see how important it is to make sure that lessons are clearly defined, use a variety of questions and tasks, have frequent interaction, and more.
My third artifact is a paper entitled Super Mario and Its Effect on the Emerging Teacher, which focuses on the ideas of video games being educational. This strategy of using something highly engaging like a video game was interesting to me because it really showed an effort to go beyond the normal strategies that might be introduced and really help students to learn. If students were able to participate in something as engaging as a video game, while at the same time learning, then they could experience the best of both worlds. However, we must like all strategies take care to also evaluate the drawbacks, which was also discussed within my paper. With this in mind then, I feel as a teacher this has taught me to never discount the value of what might prove to be educational after all.
My fourth artifact is a teacher interview that I conducted during my first year of observation within the school. I asked Mrs. Ritchie-Campbell, the sixth grade teacher I was placed with at Middleton Middle School about her instructional methods for her classroom. Therefore, I am placing this interview within this strategy because I feel the interview largely focused on the different techniques and strategies she used to help the many different students in her classroom. It was interesting to consider the wide variety of techniques that she used in her classroom and the many ways in which she had individualized those techniques. She gave many different ways for assignments to be completed in order to allow for each student’s strengths and weaknesses. I think this interview helped me to see the incredible need for multiple instruction strategies, especially in a classroom as differentiated as hers was. As a teacher, this once again reminded me to constantly be trying new things in order to help my students.
My final artifact was important to this strategy, I believe, because it highlighted the different ways in which a text, such as a vocabulary word could be introduced. This was a practical method to help different kinds of learners without even needing to plan changes within the classroom. It was also a good method overall for helping students’ memory because it has been demonstrated with research that approaches such as this one have substantially helped students’ memory. I think as a teacher, this was again an example of an easy way to integrate multiple instructional strategies within a classroom.
Strategy Binder Excerpt and Lesson Reflection
sketch_to_stretch.pdf | |
File Size: | 9790 kb |
File Type: |
SIOP Lesson Plan and Overview
siop_lesson_plan_0001.pdf | |
File Size: | 4437 kb |
File Type: |
Super Mario and Its' Effect on the Emerging Teacher, paper about teaching videogames
super_mario_and_its_effects_on_the_emerging_teacher.docx | |
File Size: | 29 kb |
File Type: | docx |
Interview with Mrs. Ritchie-Campbell about different techniques
interview_with_mrs._ritchie.docx | |
File Size: | 14 kb |
File Type: | docx |
Vocab strategy sheet (word, definition, picture)
vocab_sheet.pdf | |
File Size: | 2324 kb |
File Type: |