Feap 1: Quality of instruction: Instructional Design and Lesson Planning. Applying concepts from human development and learning theories, the effective educator consistently:
I make sure all of my lessons align with state based standards. Standards based lessons are important because the standards that are being taught will help them succeed and accelerate student learning. Basing lessons around said standards ensures that students will be exposed to those standards.
1a. Aligns instruction with state-adopted standards at the appropriate level of rigor.
1b. Sequences lessons and concepts to ensure coherence and required prior knowledge.
I make sure to follow curriculum sequence. I follow and sequence my lessons because every previous lesson was building prior knowledge up for the next lesson. Here you can see my standards for two math lessons on Aug 23rd and Aug 24th. On the 23rd we worked on identifying and modeling 3 digit numbers. On the 24th we worked on identifying and modeling 4 digit numbers. Without the previous knowledge and building skills, students may have a gap in their knowledge of a skill. Sequencing is so important to build skills.
1c. Designs instruction for students to achieve mastery.
All of my lessons are created to be standards based. I scaffold and include guided practice with modeling, independent practice, and group work with peers. Alongside these things in the lessons, I form my centers groups based on performance and which students need extra practice to ensure that all students have the some opportunities to learn and achieve mastery.
1d. Selects appropriate formative assessments to monitor learning.
For this FEAP, I have highlighted my formative and summative assessment in a lesson plan purple. Formative assessments help me guide or change my instruction and hit concepts and content that students need more practice with or have not mastered. The summative assessments allow me to gauge mastery and decide if the content should me re-taught or if some students need intervention on the topic and content. Choosing appropriate formative and summative assessments help me monitor student learning and growth as well as my effectiveness in teaching them.
1e. Uses diagnostic student data to plan lessons.
I use data from my assessments to drive my instruction and help change my instruction in lessons. I chose to pretest students before and after a lesson for Social Studies that focuses on aspects of a 'good citizen'. By doing the pre lesson assessment, I was able to change my lesson before beginning and gear it towards the areas that students were lacking in so as to not waste time on content and areas within the lesson that they were showing mastery. After the lesson, students took a post assessment end of unit test again. After reviewing the data I gathered from these two assessments (pre lesson and post lesson), I was able to see student growth and mastery levels to gauge their understanding. This also helps me place students in groups/centers for extra practice or reinforcement of materials and content.
1f. Develops learning experiences that require students to demonstrate a variety of applicable skills and competencies.
Here I have included my Guiding questions and depth of knowledge activities with each level highlighted accordingly. This allows students to demonstrate a different range of knowledge on a topic so I can adjust my instruction. This also allows me to group children so that the lower ones are paired with a higher one for activities within the lesson. My higher students love to help "teach" others and I love this about them. It allows me to see their knowledge while also ensuring my lower students are grasping the material as well.