My Identification Of Instructional Strategies

The class began with a silent reading assignment from the next section in the text. While students read, the teacher individually checked in with each student to provide feedback on the previous nights homework. The homework assignment was to summarized the reading from the previous day in their own words. The teacher provided both positive and constructive feedback to all students, pointing out at least one successful aspect of their summary. This activity is very much in line with was the strategy of upgrading your interactive language discussed by Eric Jensen, “during every sing interaction with your students, make eye contact and affirm the good in them” (Jenson, 2013, p.25). If a student was missing an integral part of the story she would prompt them by recalling what was discussed before and provide textual evidence if necessary, and allow them to add to their response. She was very upbeat and supportive of the students, and her tone and language were both accessible and age appropriate. When giving instructions she used

In the past, I have been somewhat successful with differentiating instruction. I can’t say I have been 100% successful.

On September 30th, 2016, I observed a class at Ramirez Charter School in Lubbock, Texas. I had the opportunity to observe a third grade class led by Mrs. Yu Kim Johnson. She was assisted by a student teacher from Texas Tech, Abby Crutcher. The main focus of this observation was to observe all areas of the school and analyze how each contributes to or distracts from a positive, productive learning environment. Throughout this experience, I was able to get an idea of what could make a classroom negative or positive.

Throughout my first year as a middle school Language Arts teacher, I have developed a theoretical understanding of what I believe are the necessary components to providing a meaningful and generative environment in which students develop and expand literacy skills. The teaching of literacy needs to include a balance of reading, writing, speaking and listening activities, and needs to be a social endeavor that provides a variety of instructional strategies to meet the needs of all diverse learners. My teaching strategies, beliefs and personality that I bring to my classroom can be characterized as a blend of two types of philosophical theories: social constructivism and relational teaching and

Provided staff professional development on formative assessment, effective lesson planning, Professional Learning Communities, Marzano’s Instructional Strategies, and student friendly learning scales

The teaching part of this lesson went in a totally different direction than I had planned. After the picture walk, my student showed a deep interest in trying to read the book out loud on his own, and I made the decision to let my student give the book a try. Since this book was a level above what my student’s level, I figured that after a page or so he would want me to take over the reading. That is not what happened though.

Educators are charged with not only teaching the content of their subject, but also responsible for creating a learning environments that fosters communication, engagement, and reflection so that the students will be prepared for their future careers and learning. Creating a classroom that fosters reading and writing is one way to engage students while promoting that they reflect on the material and communicate their understanding or misconceptions of the content. In order to form a literacy-rich classroom educators need to increase the amount of time students interact with all forms of print and literacy and the classroom environment is an essential key to setting the precedent and model behaviors that will make students more successful and capable of high level learning. (Tyson, 2013)

To support a child to the fullest with a learning ability, you must maintain specific teaching strategies that are accommodated and appropriate, therefore providing the child with extra time for reading and writing will help. Provide the child with a variety of letters and numbers, so the child can see what they look like to perform the task, provide the child with correct answer to the problem for demonstration, as a model to gain some understanding of the assignments. Make sure to make accommodations for work assignments, by allowing oral reports, video presentation, cassette tapes, posters etc., to support child learning

In the article, Tomlinson shared her personal experiences and strategy for engaging a student who was satisfied with doing just enough work in her class to keep from getting grounded. She noted specific instances when the student would rather doodle cartoons and disrupt class than complete literature, vocabulary and grammar lessons. Tomlinson noted her hesitancy of allocating time from studies of literature toward an unrelated topic; but agreed to help the student acquire the desired knowledge. Her strategy was to set the expectations, then spend time weekly supporting the student’s learning. Tomlinson described the student’s presentation of his findings as a “near religious experience” enjoyed by her entire class. She offered to help the student take his work by getting feedback from subject matter experts. But, she later recognized the student had gotten his reward. Given time and permission, he learned what he wanted to learn (Tomlinson, 2010). Tomlinson’s recollection led Morgan to argue that, when a student lacks interest in a subject, they will have little motivation to learn. The positive outcome was that, after graduating from college, the student recalled those lessons among the occasions he felt most connected to school. This recounting of differentiated learning supports Morgan’s position that teachers must create nurturing learning environments that allow students time to study what they want to study the way they want to study (Morgan 2014, p.

Second grade students at Opstad Elementary school in North Bend, Washington have shown a lower academic ability to read a story and retell the story with an accurate sequence of events and main details. When asked to read a story below grade level, the students can read it and retell the main events, but tend to leave out key details. When asked to read a grade level appropriate story, they can read it and retell parts of the story, but usually rearrange the sequence in some way or omit details.

I would use discussion as an instructional method because it is a great interactive learning tool and facilitates listening, teamwork, confidence, critical thinking, critical listening and critical reading. Moreover, classroom discussions can help students sharpen their communication and speaking skills. Classroom discussion helps to dispel myths and preconceived prejudices about others and students tend to develop mutual respect for one and others. Above all, discussions foster better understanding as students share their “take” on the subject, additional knowledge is shared. Hence, discussions require keen listening skills. I would say from my personal experience, classroom discussions opened up my own understanding of many subjects and helped me to navigate toward “right” thinking.

I chose to teach in a first grade class room for my self-observation because I have previously taught in first grade and thought that I would be familiar with the age group. Originally, I anticipated being able to use the curriculum with which I was also familiar. However, I ended up writing my own lesson plan outside of the given curriculum. This action would not be allowed on a normal basis at my school, but was allowed for a special occasion. I plan to organize this paper in a manner following the Emergent Literacy chapter in our text (Tompkins, 57-84) in order to provide structure. Under each heading, I will examine the successes and the failures.

When knowing different strategies for learning, the student feels confident to explore, and mistakes most likely are to be minimized and engagement increased. Lessons and activities that enhance and support learning are teaching /learning strategies that when cooperatively done contributes to a lifelong learning/knowledge. Students ' skills activities allow me to provide feedback that can be shared and/or discussed by the whole class increasing learning. Opportunities lead to sharing that leads to learning. By literally teaching the vocabulary/material learned in the classroom I increased my ELLs understanding on the subject being taught and gave to all my students the opportunity to grow into the new material.

Many great learning and teaching strategies are presented in the text, How we learn… of which a few learning tactics, namely discrimination, perceptual learning, chunking and interleaving will be briefly discussed as to how they have relevance in my context. To begin we will examine discrimination, the brain’s ability to “detect minute differences in sights, sounds and textures. [Such is considered]…one of the first steps we take in making sense of the world” (Carey, 2012, p.180). This learning technique occurs often during HT training as students detect differences in breathing patterns of those being treated, l see slight tremors or body twitches that accompanies release of stagnate energy and perceived smoothness of textures in the human energy field (Mentgen & Bulbrook, 2011). Next, perceptual learning occurs as the brain takes notice of subtle differences in techniques, such as hand positions that seem the same but may not have the same therapeutic effect. Another learning strategy that can be useful in HT training is chunking which is the simple act of grouping bits and pieces of information together to make a whole (or at minimal a segment) of a concept. For example words stringed together create sentences and sentences which are connected formulate paragraph. In the case of HT chunking is necessary as a series of hand movements and/or places equate to a specific healing technique. The final relevant strategy from the text is that if interleaving, “a cognitive science

A learning strategy is a person’s approach to learning and using information. Students use learning strategies to help them understand information and solve problems. Students who do not know or use good learning strategies will ultimately fail in school. Learning approach focuses on making student learners more active, by teaching them how to learn and be successful.