Task Three- Teaching
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3A- Importance of Content
– The teacher utilizes content knowledge to focus learning targets that create meaningful learning experiences for students
This function is seen through my mentor teachers evaluation. She states "Great job on the math lessons and games. Olivia's Greek and Latin root word instruction is effective as evidence by the students ability to both recall and use the roots!" I used my knowledge of the students learning styles to deliver content. I knew these students like to get up and move so to create meaningful learning that targets the students, I would implement little math games that pertained to the content and got students moving giving them meaningful learning experiences.
3B- Communicating with Students
– The teacher creates and maintains a positive, supportive classroom climate and communicates with students in a variety of ways.
This function is seen in one of the weekly reflections I wrote. This specific week, I gave out a test and noticed some students were not trying based on their worksheets completed in class compared to their test scores. I sat these students down one on one and spoke to them about how I have seen them do the work in class and I know that they can do it. This helped maintain a positive and supportive climate for the students.
3C- Questioning and Discussion Techniques
– The teacher practices quality questioning techniques and engages students in discussion.
In this math lesson, both the introduction and closure are class discussions along with questioning strategies throughout the lesson. I love to incorporate class discussions into my instruction to get the students critically thinking and discussing with peers. I also like to use questioning strategies during my lessons for comprehension and again to get students critially thinking.
3D- Student Engagement
- The teacher delivers instruction to motivate and engage students in a deep understanding of the content.
This function is shown through one of my mentor teacher's evaluation after one of the weeks. She states "Olivia planned and implemented a small group game activity for both math and reading. Both games got the kids moving and learning" These activities illustrate my ability to create instruction that motivates and engages students.
Function 3E: Use of Assessments in Instruction
– The teacher uses both classroom summative and formative assessment as a balanced approach to instructional decision making
This function is seen through my WVTPA task 5 pages 66-73 where I included the formative assessments. Each lesson had a formative assessment so I could track students learning and make changes based on their work. Like stated before thre was also a pre and post test (included on page 37 and 38). The post test was to see where students prior knowledge was before coming into the lessons and the post test was to see what knowledge students gained. All of these tests helped me analyze what needs to be done in addition to help students master the concept.
Function 3F: Demonstrating Flexibility and Responsiveness
– The teacher adjusts instruction based on the needs of the students and in
response to “teachable moments.”
This function is seen in my WVTPA reflection of my lessons. Task 5 pages 62-64 explain the changes I made throughout the instruction based on student knowledge. When I noticed they were not grasping a concept, I changed the way I was explaining it and used more strategies to appeal to students. I used techniques that I knew worked with this group of students, like repetition, for them to understand and comprehend the concept.
