CEC+4.+Instructional+Strategies


 * 4. PEDAGOGY **


 * CEC Standard: **


 * __4. Instructional Strategies __**

//**a. Special educators possess a repertoire of evidence-based instructional strategies to individualize instruction for individuals with ELN. **//

I have made sevearl lessons that include instructinal strategies to individualize instruction for individuals with ELN. For instance, I have used several content enhancements such as concept mapping, charts, post-it notes, spatial diagrams, and visual diagrams to help each student improve their understanding and performance. I had students make a flow chart to understand how pollution affects their lives by driving a car to cause pollution to causing the acid rain that kills animals and fish, etc. (4.a.1). I have also incorporated visual aids into my laboratory instructions to help students match an object to a a descriptor and an action to the words and language used to describe what needs to be done. This I have done in my acid rain lake investigation, where students had to label different cups and fill them with different ground materials to test how each of these ground materials affected the rate of pH change in the water when we dropped vinegar in the lake to simulate acid rain (4.a.2).

Other strategies I have used to individualize instruction for individuals with ELN is to vary group activities, so that the students find whole class experiences, along with small group and one to one experiences. Small groups allowed these students to take leadership roles in activities and develop some skills and capabilities for students that would benefit them in life. Such leadership roles included things as recorder, measurer, observer, time-keeper, etc. (4.a.2). One on one activities provided these students with a more communicative role, and was made for activities where the students could be more involved in critical thinking and problem solving, and not so much data collection and analsis (4.a.3). In all these contexts students were involved with the maximum amount of engagement and hands-on activities possible. Instructions were made, as above, in multiple contexts in order to present them with clarity and with redudancy to emphasize and reinforce the procedure.

//**b. Special educators select, adapt, and use these instructional strategies to promote positive learning results in general and special curricula and to appropriately modify learning environments for individuals with ELN. **//

I have provided several learning contexts in both general and special curricula that appropriately modify learning environments for individuals with ELN. I have written daily agendas on the board so that students know the outline for the day's activities. These help to point out the goal of the lesson, and show the student how the activity will be important for the entire lesson and unit that we are learning about. When there is a skill that needs to be learned, the students are given explicit instructions in multiple ways, which include written form, visual aids, and demonstrational run-throughs that model the stps to proceeding with the activity (4.b.1). Positive learning results occurred in my lesson on acid rain in lakes from this modeling and strategies as students asked their own question, designed their own procedure, collected their own data, analyzed this data, evaluated their results, and presented their arguments to the class. Students expressed what they learned from this lesson, and the unit on acids and bases, in a differentiated assessment, where students could choose to answerfrom a list of questions and then choose the way they wished to answer these questions such as writing, drawing, making a comic strip, etc. (4.b.2).

 Group work is a huge part of instruction as each classroom is a community of learners. In this community each child has their own knowledge and experience that they bring to the discussion and learning, and as a result of a community full of new and different knowledge and experiences every classroom develops their own knowledge base and understandings of the content from a socially constructed point of view. I have incorporated group work in my teaching in several locations. At SWW, students worked in groups to look at adaptations of animals. These groups jigsawed into different tables to analyze pictures of animals and then came back to their home groups to discuss and reflect on their findings (4.b.3). This jigsaw activity helped several students with ELN to discuss the pictures with other members of the class on a small scale and to use those observations to project back to their home group an evaluative argument about those animals adaptations.

//**c. Special educators enhance the learning of critical thinking, problem solving, and performance skills of individuals with ELN, and increase their self-awareness, self-management, self-control, self-reliance, and self- esteem. **//

I have planned several lessons that included scientific investigations that enhanced student critical thinking, problem solving, and performance skills, as well as self-awareness, self-management, self-control, self-reliance, and self-esteem. In particular during my placement at SWW I had all my students conduct science investigations on topics in ecological footprints, which had the students ask a testable question, design a procedure and carry out the data collection, analyze this data and evaluate results from it, and then present an argument that answers their question based on these evaluations. The students developed capabilities of voice and choice by deciding one of four investigations that interested them, how to ask their own testable questions and then control and develop their own procedures and data collection, and they learned how to critically think about a relevant issue to society and problem solve ideas for remedying these issues using their observations and evaluations from their data. The students presented these findings at the end of the investigations, which provided each of them with a sense of ownership, empowerment, and voice as a democratic citizen and contributor to society (4.c1).

During my placement at East high school I had all the students conduct lessons on acids and bases. These lessons involved student collaboration in partners and small groups. One such lesson involved students making lakes with different ground materials. Students put sand, granite gravel, and limestone gravel into cups and filled them with water, and then added drops of vinegar into each lake to simulate acid rain. Students then measured the rate of change of pH using Vernier probes and LabQuests. Students learned that the rate of change was different for each lake and this was correlated to the ground material used in the lake. Students were able to use skills of observation and problem solving to understand this relationship and were provided with the hands-on opportunity to develop knowledge and skills in technology use, scientific modeling, and data analysis. As students did this experiment themselves it provided them with higher confidence in science learning and motivation to conduct more science investigations, as well as to understand more issues that affect real-life situations and society (4.c2).

//**d. Special educators emphasize the development, maintenance, and generalization of knowledge and skills across environments, settings, and the lifespan. **//

In my teaching practice I promote learning through real-life contexts. I develop critical thinking skills through inquiry investigations where students relate issues in community and the world to science concepts found in their learning. For instance, during my placement at East high school I involved my students in an investigation on acid rain. Students had to build lakes with different ground materials such as granite gravel, limestone gravel, and sand. Students then placed drops of vinegar into the water of each lake and found that the pH changed slower in some lakes than others and this was related to the ground materials found in each lake (4.d.1). There are several skills that students learned in this process, which include problem solving skills, environmental knowledge and understanding of scientific impacts, modeling, and how varying conditions can be used positively to create solutions to issues affecting the environment.

In my placement at SWW I included all my students in an investigation of adaptations. During this investigation I found that many students held confusion of an adaptation as a survival need, and not a physical characteristic that helps survival. To clarify this misconception between survival needs (i.e. water, food, etc) and adaptations I had students work in pairs to look at different pictures of animals and identify what characteristic about them was an adaptation, and how they think that adaptation helps that animal survive. Students learned that most of the adaptations they identified had to deal with the animals getting food or surviving other animals that wanted them as food (4.d.2). An extension of this activity I did was a take a stand activity that asked the students to decide on whether or not the animal shown would hibernate or migrate. These activities allowed students to develop new understandings of a concept they held confusion about and apply it to understanding how animals survive in the environment and settings they live in and why they are capable of doing so based off of the evolutionary adaptations they have developed and maintained.

[|20100330-EastHighIU#5&6-MSaunders.doc] [|20100327-EastHighAcidRainLab-MSaunders.doc] || East high Acid Rain lab procedures || [|DSC00433.JPG] [|DSC00437.JPG] || Acid Rain differentiated assessment || [|DSC07611.JPG] || SWW adaptations || [|DSC07611.JPG] || SWW adaptations ||
 * **EVIDENCE #** || **EMBEDDED OR LINKED OBJECT** || **DESCRIPTION** ||
 * 4.a.1 || [[image:http://www.wikispaces.com/i/mime/32/application/msword.png height="32" link="http://comprehensiveportfolio-msaunders.wikispaces.com/file/view/20100329-EastHighIU%234-MSaunders.doc"]] [|20100329-EastHighIU#4-MSaunders.doc] || Flow chart (lesson plan) ||
 * 4.a.2 || [|DSC00412_2.JPG] || Small groups with leadership roles ||
 * 4.a.3 || [|DSC00419.JPG] || Partners activity (lesson plan) ||
 * 4.b.1 || [|20100331-EastHigh-MSaunders (2).doc]
 * 4.b.2 || [|DSC00419.JPG]
 * 4.b.3 || [|DSC07607.JPG]
 * 4.c.1 || [|20091214-SWWLesson2-InvestigationTopics-MSaunders.doc] || SWW investigations ||
 * 4.c.2 || [|DSC00568.JPG] || East high Acid Rain ||
 * 4.d.1 || Reference 4.c.2 || East high Acid Rain ||
 * 4.d.2 || [|DSC07607.JPG]

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