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.
http://www.htsb.org/standards/teacher/
Indicator 8A: The teacher uses appropriate strategies and resources to adapt instruction to the needs of individuals and groups of learners.
These pictures are all examples of differentiation that was planned for 1 of my math lessons. I knew the lesson was going to be challenging for some and easier for others, so I planned for the divide in the classroom by using both the part-time teacher and my cooperating teacher to work with small groups. I worked with the whole class at the beginning of the lesson and assessed students' background knowledge and watched for students that were struggling by way of formative assessment. I then adjusted the lesson by grouping students together depending on the strategy they used to solve the math problems and had them collaborate to complete the assignment. I had the part-time teacher work with and monitor one group and my cooperating teacher work with another. I then grouped all students that were struggling together and worked with their group. This helped me to reach the need of each learner by grouping them and using the teacher resources available in the classroom.
Indicator 8E: The teacher provides multiple models and representations of concepts and skills with opportunities for learners to demonstrate their knowledge through a variety of products and performances.
This picture is a photo of different activities and demonstrations (Bingo & Jenga games not pictured) that I incorporated throughout a unit in my Special Education classroom. This was a unit on Exponents and each activity and worksheet that was given represented the content in different ways and allowed students to represent their understanding in different ways, as well. This allowed students to represent their knowledge through a variety of products and performances as they participated in each activity throughout the unit and as they were given more exposure to the content.
Indicator 8H: The teacher uses a variety of instructional strategies to support and expand learners' communication through speaking, listening, reading, writing, and other modes.
This is an example of different instructional strategies that I used throughout the same lesson plan. These strategies include showing a PowerPoint of pictures (created by me), asking students to make connection to self, reading aloud, silent reading, answering questions on an individual whiteboard and in their notebooks, a graphic organizer on the board, representing understanding through drawing, and having a class discussion on the topic. This helped students communicate their knowledge and understanding of the topic in many ways and helped them to expand their communication skills by using different representations and modes of their knowledge.
Indicator 8M: The teacher understands how multiple forms of communication (oral, written, nonverbal, digital, visual) convey ideas, foster self expression, and build relationships.
These photos show the multiple representations of forms of communication to convey weekly vocabulary words. Vocabulary lists are split in half and introduced twice a week. Everyday, students are given a different form of communicating their thoughts and knowledge on these words. The first picture is example of visual form - where students see the words written on the board. The top right picture is of written form - students copy the words and the definition into their notebooks. The bottom left is nonverbal where students read the words, their correlating sentences, and their correlating questions. The bottom right picture is an example of digital form with a program I introduced to the classroom. Students enter synonyms, antonyms, sentences, examples, and answer the questions for each vocabulary word onto a website and are able to see other student's responses as well. After incorporating each of these things, student's vocabulary scores increased by 20% within 2 weeks! Each form helps students foster their self expression as they make their own meaning and build relationships between their vocabulary words and their experiences.