InTASC Standard 8: Instructional Strategies
The teacher understands and uses a variety of instructional strategies to encourage learners to develop deep understanding of content areas and their connections, and to build skills to apply knowledge in meaningful ways.
Instructional strategies are techniques that teachers use to help students become independent and strategic learners. These instructional strategies then can become learning strategies once the students are able to independently select the appropriate ones and use them effectively when accomplishing tasks or meeting goals. When used by a teacher correctly, these strategies should help the students and teachers make further connections with the skills and concepts being taught and apply them in different ways.
The artifacts below contain to lesson plans that revolve around the same content area and are taught with instructional strategies revolving around physical models, including concrete representation and manipulatives. The lesson would be taught using a specific type of manipulative to represent what was happening in the problems. The students would then practice using that specific manipulative to solve problems. On a later date, when a similar lesson was being taught, a new manipulative was introduced to help represent the problems, and, again, the students would do problems using this new strategy. After a few different strategies were introduced for one area of content, students would then be given problems to do. This time they would get to make a decision about what strategy (manipulative) worked best for them and then use it to do their work.
The lessons in the artifacts below were taught on two consecutive days. The strategies and manipulatives attached to the strategies with the lessons were taught for addition, and then again later in the next chapter for subtraction. First, students used ten-frames and counters ("Lesson Plan 1" and "Ten-Frames" artifacts) to practice seeing a physical representation of the numbers and what it looked like to add or subtract more. The next day, when the next lesson was taught, it was taught using number lines and paper clips ("Lesson Plan 2" and "Number Lines" artifacts). The students would start the paper clip at a certain point on the number line and then move it a certain number in either direction, depending on the problem. When the next lesson was taught and the students were released to do their work, they then got to pick a strategy to help them with their work.
These lessons help to show my ability to present the content of lessons in a myriad of ways that encompasses many different types of learners. It helps present my growth in becoming a teacher who is able to think about the different types of learners and scaffold lessons to help students to be successful with the content and be able to apply what they learned in a variety of ways.
The artifacts below contain to lesson plans that revolve around the same content area and are taught with instructional strategies revolving around physical models, including concrete representation and manipulatives. The lesson would be taught using a specific type of manipulative to represent what was happening in the problems. The students would then practice using that specific manipulative to solve problems. On a later date, when a similar lesson was being taught, a new manipulative was introduced to help represent the problems, and, again, the students would do problems using this new strategy. After a few different strategies were introduced for one area of content, students would then be given problems to do. This time they would get to make a decision about what strategy (manipulative) worked best for them and then use it to do their work.
The lessons in the artifacts below were taught on two consecutive days. The strategies and manipulatives attached to the strategies with the lessons were taught for addition, and then again later in the next chapter for subtraction. First, students used ten-frames and counters ("Lesson Plan 1" and "Ten-Frames" artifacts) to practice seeing a physical representation of the numbers and what it looked like to add or subtract more. The next day, when the next lesson was taught, it was taught using number lines and paper clips ("Lesson Plan 2" and "Number Lines" artifacts). The students would start the paper clip at a certain point on the number line and then move it a certain number in either direction, depending on the problem. When the next lesson was taught and the students were released to do their work, they then got to pick a strategy to help them with their work.
These lessons help to show my ability to present the content of lessons in a myriad of ways that encompasses many different types of learners. It helps present my growth in becoming a teacher who is able to think about the different types of learners and scaffold lessons to help students to be successful with the content and be able to apply what they learned in a variety of ways.