Standard 3: Instructional Practice
Effective teachers engage in high quality instructional practices that are data-informed, exhibit a collaborative approach to teaching and learning and meet the learning needs of each student by:
- Instructional Strategies - Using appropriate academic language and evidence-based strategies to stimulate higher-level thinking, discourse and problem solving and to scaffold learning experiences to meet the needs of all students.
- Assessment Practices - Critically analyzing evidence from both formative and summative assessments to inform and adjust instruction and provide feedback to students to support learning and growth.
- Relevance - Providing relevant learning opportunities that value students’ interests and backgrounds and allow learner agency and choice in accessing learning and demonstrating competency.
- Innovation and Technology - Intentionally selecting the use of technological and non-technological tools to enhance and deepen student learning, encourage creativity and innovation in learning and facilitate students’ appropriate use of available tools and resources to achieve desired student outcomes.
Reflection:
Instructional Strategies - I believe in providing an entry point for each learner when engaging in the math lessons I deliver. When introducing new concepts, I don't enforce any certain vocabulary or language as it can make some students hesitant to engage with the material. As the lessons and units progress, we slowly start introducing the mathematical vocabulary and transition into using the math vocabulary more heavily than their informal language. For example, when teaching about rigid transformations, I simply refer to them as "moves" as we image geometric figures dancing across the plane. Students use words like "slide" or "spin" or "mirror" when describing these moves. As the unit progresses, we begin referring to the moves as "transformations" and students quickly adapt and begin using words like "translation" and "rotation".
Assessment Practices - I love beginning my class with a self-starter I call a "QuickPoll" This is a quick, less than 5-minute warmup that I do on my classroom set of TI-Nspire calculators. I give students a prompt such as an equation to solve or a story problem that should be represented mathematically. Students do the work on their own and then submit their answer through the TI-Nspire Calculators. This allows me to analyze the data quickly and determine what sort of intervention and re-teach may be necessary before proceeding with the day's lesson. It also allows students the opportunity to assess their own learning as we go over correct answers and discuss potential or common mistakes made by their peers.
Innovative Technology - I love incorporating technology into my classroom and have many lessons that involve explorations in the classroom set of TI-Nspires or other software. Technology often engages the learners in ways that pencil and paper simply do not. But I also have several non-technological tools that are just as important. Students are given access geometric software as well as tracing paper and index cards to perform rigid transformations. Students have access to virtual manipulatives as well as physical algebra tiles to manipulate to demonstrate their understanding of expressions and equations.
Instructional Strategies - I believe in providing an entry point for each learner when engaging in the math lessons I deliver. When introducing new concepts, I don't enforce any certain vocabulary or language as it can make some students hesitant to engage with the material. As the lessons and units progress, we slowly start introducing the mathematical vocabulary and transition into using the math vocabulary more heavily than their informal language. For example, when teaching about rigid transformations, I simply refer to them as "moves" as we image geometric figures dancing across the plane. Students use words like "slide" or "spin" or "mirror" when describing these moves. As the unit progresses, we begin referring to the moves as "transformations" and students quickly adapt and begin using words like "translation" and "rotation".
Assessment Practices - I love beginning my class with a self-starter I call a "QuickPoll" This is a quick, less than 5-minute warmup that I do on my classroom set of TI-Nspire calculators. I give students a prompt such as an equation to solve or a story problem that should be represented mathematically. Students do the work on their own and then submit their answer through the TI-Nspire Calculators. This allows me to analyze the data quickly and determine what sort of intervention and re-teach may be necessary before proceeding with the day's lesson. It also allows students the opportunity to assess their own learning as we go over correct answers and discuss potential or common mistakes made by their peers.
Innovative Technology - I love incorporating technology into my classroom and have many lessons that involve explorations in the classroom set of TI-Nspires or other software. Technology often engages the learners in ways that pencil and paper simply do not. But I also have several non-technological tools that are just as important. Students are given access geometric software as well as tracing paper and index cards to perform rigid transformations. Students have access to virtual manipulatives as well as physical algebra tiles to manipulate to demonstrate their understanding of expressions and equations.
Excerpts from Teacher Observation/Evaluations that show an emphasis in conceptual understanding and academic language.
Data from a QuickPoll warmup. This data allows me to quickly asses who is struggling with the content and what interventions may be required before moving on.
Technology used to explore reflections. Algebra Tiles used to explore expressions and equations