InTASC+7

"It is the supreme art of the teacher to awaken joy in creative expression and knowledge." -Albert Einstein (7i) //InTASC Standard #7: Instructional Planning //  Following a genuine interest and effort at meeting children’s needs, one of a teacher’s most important responsibilities is to plan their instruction. By being aware of student’s needs, background experiences, lifestyle, and interests, as well as staying on top of current research on effective instructional activities, an educator can effectively plan each day’s instruction to meet all students’ learning needs (7a). The seventh InTASC Standard, “Instructional Planning,” states that an educator must draw on their knowledge of their content area(s), the provided curriculum, cross-disciplinary skills, pedagogy, and the knowledge of their students and the community in which they live in order to plan instruction that supports all students in meeting demanding learning goals (7g). Additional aspects that are important to remember in regards to instructional planning are how much time is allotted in a period or day to teach a lesson, how long an activity should take based on the student’s learning needs and prior knowledge, how the instructor will engage students in the lesson, how the instructor will conclude the lesson, and how the instructor will measure student completion of each lesson’s objective. During the first day of class, an educator should take the time to get to know various information about every student in the classroom including their dreams, fears, interests, disinterests, and attitude toward the educator’s subject area. A functional way to collect this data to share in the class and to keep for future reference is through the use of an interest survey. Using the information the student’s provide, the educator’s content area knowledge, and the provided curriculum, educators can modify activities that will directly include student’s unique interests. Additionally, an educator can transform units to focus around a topic the students share a common interest in and that is a social justice issue so that students are aware of the immediate relevance of the material they are learning (7b). In Language Arts, instructional planning is utilized for every lesson by assuring that the skills taught prepare students for standardized tests, that the skills build upon one another, and so that the educator is prepared with higher-level guiding questions to encourage students to explore a studied text. To conclude, the seventh InTASC standard identifies the necessity of planning before instruction, regardless of content area, to ensure that the material that is presented to students is thought-out to meet their individual needs, interests, and contributes to empowering each student with the necessary tools to meet the student’s objectives.

Directed Reading Lesson



Artifact Description What is this artifact? This artifact is a directed reading lesson for 9th grade students on the text Farewell to Manzanar. For this directed reading lesson students begin by examining three images of the Manzanar camp to evaluate the message and tones that the images create, then students compare that information with their previous knowledge about World War II. After reading the text, students are to find 3-4 examples of how the author's word choice influences the text meaning and tone. To conclude the lesson, students compare and contrast the experiences of the Japanese Americans during World War II with their own life experiences in a journal entry.

 How does this artifact demonstrate evidence of my mastery of the InTASC Standard? This artifact demonstrates my proficiency in InTASC 7: Planning for Instruction because each part of the directed reading lesson requires planning to link the lesson elements in a meaningful manner. The opening activity functioned to introduce the lesson's concepts and to motivate the students. After the motivation, the lesson was set up to tap into and develop the students background experience. Once the students are engaged in the lesson they are able to move into concept development and vocabulary, elements that require the students to be motivated and that build on the student's background knowledge. Additionally, in each part of the lesson students are provided with a purpose to focus their attention until all of the parts come together at the end to form the larger picture. To conclude, the exit ticket at the end of the lesson aided in guiding the students to independently discover how the parts were linked.

 In what way did this artifact contribute to/relate to positive impact on student learning during my final internship? By learning how to link multiple parts of a lesson together the directed reading lesson taught me how to chunk activities to avoid overwhelming students while effectively conveying a larger concept. When lessons are broken into smaller chunks that gradually build a concept, students are able to completely master each step which is essential for the construction of a thorough understanding of the larger idea.

 How does this artifact demonstrate the Planning-Teaching-Learning cycle? This lesson demonstrates the "judging prior knowledge," "planning" and "teaching" components of the Planning-Teaching-Learning cycle because I planned which skills I wished to convey to students using a particular text and then formulated how to teach the text and skills. Specifically, I was aware that the text and skills would be challenging for students to comprehend independently. To compensate for the difficulty I broke the lesson into numerous parts that built upon one another so that the learning would be student centered and the challenge would be age appropriate.

include page="zStyle_bground_green"