Planning for Instruction
Flexibility, Preparation, and Collaboration are all essential for planning for instruction, especially for a new teacher who does not as many tools or backup plans as veteran teachers. Lessons will almost never go exactly as planned, but being ready with problems and predicting potential misunderstandings is always helpful. Assessment such as discussions or quick exit tickets are good measurements to understand where students are not clicking and help teachers put a target on where to help the students.
AssessmentDifferent ways to assess student learning:
- Short Exit tickets - Discussion - Written Explanations - Drawn Models and/or simulations - Presentations - Group Projects Teachers should have multiple forms of assessment that allow students to fully express their understanding or misunderstanding of a topic. Short exit tickets should be formative and understand where misunderstandings are. I do not believe assessments should be punitive to students, especially in an elementary school setting. Assessments should only be used to grasp where students' strengths and areas of need. |
Instructional StrategiesI love using discussion questions, either in whole group setting or small group.
Number Talks- students look at a math topic and come up with multiple solutions first, then discuss, defend and critique each other's solutions. KWL- Discussions before a new science topic, to explore what the students know and believe about science topics. Here students are allowed to say anything they think they know about a topic and later after we experiment, we discuss why the ideas they bring up might be true or untrue. Sample Lesson: |