InTASC Standard #7: Planning for Instruction
- The teacher plans instruction that supports every student in meeting rigorous learning goals by drawing upon knowledge of content areas, curriculum, cross-disciplinary skills, and pedagogy, as well as knowledge of learners and the community context.
To best show my competence in InTASC standard #7 (Planning for Instruction) I will show how I support students in meeting rigorous goals. I will do this by drawing upon knowledge of the content, cross-disciplinary skill and pedagogy. I will relate these things to the knowledge of the learners and to community context.
My first artifact is a lesson plan I created during my classwork at Loras. It is a comprehensive lab that puts together many aspects of content. The bacteria stain lab connects ideas brought about in multiple units through the year. Not only does it connect those units, it brings in multiple other disciplines like chemistry and English. Students must be comfortable with the mixing of various stains and chemicals and using them to identify the bacteria. This lesson forces the students to fulfil the needs of an extremely rigorous lab. I start by asking the students to use a learning strategy that I got from working collaboratively with an English teacher. In the activity they must use their writing skills to convey what they already know about the bacteria we will be staining. After the completion of this, I will use the knowledge they have gained during chemistry courses and their work in the labs. Each student must work on their own using the chemical procedures to successfully stain the bacteria.
My second artifact is a guide I made that helped the class to focus on a movie that I showed. This movie drew on the specific content they were learning. The movie is about the scopes monkey trial, something that has been a topic of conversation in the prior day’s lesson. The movie is theatrical and the students must use their knowledge to piece together what they know to what they see. The artifact is a multitude of multiple choice questions that follow the story. By giving them this artifact I can assure myself that they are following along and picking up on the important plot points of the movie. This artifact shows that I was planning for the instruction and had the foresight to know that some of the students may not be able to follow along on their own throughout the entire movie. By creating this tool I was effectively supporting their learning by using my knowledge of pedagogical practices. I scaffold their viewing of the movie so that it would be the most useful it can be to learn the topic at hand.
These artifacts helped me to grow as a teacher because the showed just how important it is to plan for the instruction. Without a well laid-out plan it can become a challenge to support the students learning in any meaningful or relevant ways. It also shows that the use of multiple areas of study are a great way to engage the class in the topic. The content may be challenging, but by drawing upon my knowledge of cross-disciplinary topics and pedagogy, it helps to further the student’s knowledge.
My first artifact is a lesson plan I created during my classwork at Loras. It is a comprehensive lab that puts together many aspects of content. The bacteria stain lab connects ideas brought about in multiple units through the year. Not only does it connect those units, it brings in multiple other disciplines like chemistry and English. Students must be comfortable with the mixing of various stains and chemicals and using them to identify the bacteria. This lesson forces the students to fulfil the needs of an extremely rigorous lab. I start by asking the students to use a learning strategy that I got from working collaboratively with an English teacher. In the activity they must use their writing skills to convey what they already know about the bacteria we will be staining. After the completion of this, I will use the knowledge they have gained during chemistry courses and their work in the labs. Each student must work on their own using the chemical procedures to successfully stain the bacteria.
My second artifact is a guide I made that helped the class to focus on a movie that I showed. This movie drew on the specific content they were learning. The movie is about the scopes monkey trial, something that has been a topic of conversation in the prior day’s lesson. The movie is theatrical and the students must use their knowledge to piece together what they know to what they see. The artifact is a multitude of multiple choice questions that follow the story. By giving them this artifact I can assure myself that they are following along and picking up on the important plot points of the movie. This artifact shows that I was planning for the instruction and had the foresight to know that some of the students may not be able to follow along on their own throughout the entire movie. By creating this tool I was effectively supporting their learning by using my knowledge of pedagogical practices. I scaffold their viewing of the movie so that it would be the most useful it can be to learn the topic at hand.
These artifacts helped me to grow as a teacher because the showed just how important it is to plan for the instruction. Without a well laid-out plan it can become a challenge to support the students learning in any meaningful or relevant ways. It also shows that the use of multiple areas of study are a great way to engage the class in the topic. The content may be challenging, but by drawing upon my knowledge of cross-disciplinary topics and pedagogy, it helps to further the student’s knowledge.