Teacher Performance Expectations #4:
Planning Instruction & Designing Learning Experiences
Plan instruction that promotes a range of communication strategies and activity modes between teacher and student and among students that encourage student participation in learning. Use digital tools and learning technologies across learning environments as appropriate to create new content and provide personalized and integrated technology-rich lessons to engage students in learning, promote digital literacy, and offer students multiple means to demonstrate their learning.
School can be intimidating. It is even harder for students facing an unfamiliar school, language, or culture. One goal is to be a supportive and accepting teacher by creating a welcoming and language-rich classroom to make student transitions easier. Because of these factors, it is important to note how we frame the lessons.
Artifact 4.1 Nearpod Lesson
Artifact 4.1 is an example of our Roman Empire Nearpod lesson, students viewed Roman Culture — the Political System, Architecture, Art, and Social Structures. Students were asked to compare the Roman Culture to their own in order to connect meaningfully to their cultural values. In Nearpod, assessments are presented throughout the lesson in the form of Polling (Zoom, Mentimeter) True/False, and Open-Ended Questions. I tell my students if they don't know the answer, write, "I don't know" (IDK). I explain that the process is called "Feedback" a common strategy among teachers that allows teachers to review their instructional strategies and determine if the lesson needs to be changed or altered to meet their needs.
I added Artifact 4.3 to demonstrate how to create new content and provide personalized and integrated technology-rich lessons to promote digital literacy. The process offered students multiple means to demonstrate their learning.I created diverse groups to promote diversity, equity and inclusion. I presented struggling readers with strategies to enable them to take charge of their digital literacy.
I created a chain of parent communication to share with parents positive outcomes and examples so that parents realize that they are the best advocate for their child's schooling. I present rules and inspire students to make their own decisions. I educate to eradicate implicit bias, and hopefully broaden their minds.
Artifact 4.2 Powerpoint Literacy Plan
I incorporated Artifact 4.2 because it shows step-by-step a complete Literacy Intervention Plan for a middle school student. I used Microsoft Powerpoint however the plan is shown in the media form of a movie. Included are a range of Instructional Strategies that encourage student participation in learning. Connecting academic experiences to community values is essential for meaningful adolescent learning.
My plan for Literacy is to gather a multidisciplinary assessment team of interpreters, bilingual educators, and people who are familiar with the student's culture and language to weigh-in on my teaching methods. I also utilize tools such as Microsoft Translator to communicate with parents, or Venn Diagram Generators as a mental model to explain similarities and differences through incorporating visuals.
Students LOVE Rap music and what better way garner interest is to present the information in a musical text using Flocabulary (my student love it). Music is also a great assessment tool, especially when I ask them create their own rap (AutoRap by Smule) by using our vocabulary terms.