Reflecting Upon My Educating Exceptional Students Coursework

When I wrote my peer review paper on Mathematics Learning Disabilities (MLD) I had not realized my lesson plan would need to be planned around a student with an MLD. In a perfect world, lesson plans would be perfect for all students with learning or behavioral or social or physical abilities. This will never be the case and it will never be perfect for all students, disabled or not. I would have liked to find more information on how to support and serve students with MLD, but I found not on supporting them above fractions. I want tools for my practice of secondary math. I did find a website that had good general recommendations for accommodations I incorporated. This does not feel like enough support. I wish I knew what I could do more for my students with MLD and integrate it into my lesson plan.

I would have liked to integrate the Autism Spectrum better into my plan as well. I have several friend’s children who are on the spectrum. They make up the largest portion of disabilities among the children I know and therefore I feel I need to know more about Autism Spectrum students that will be in my classroom. Reflecting on my lesson plan through the lens of a student with Autism and I can see some challenges. The amount of time my students will spend in a social collaborative experience is most of the class. This time will be noisy, maybe distracting, and their senses may go on overload. The instructor who taught me about using the “roles” said her students with spectrum disorders would follow the scripted line on their role cards, providing them a feeling of social security. She said when they followed the scripts they received positive social feedback about their participation, boosting their social efficacy. She had one Autistic student reflect that her class was his favorite because of the positive social reinforcement he got during the investigations. I have hope that the format will work with Autistic Spectrum students, but I worry that the way the investigations lead the students through the new material will not be in the “chunks” that Autistic minds use. I may need to support with additional graphic organizers. I realize that much of what I need to incorporate into my lessons will be based on the students in my class and how they learn.

Artifact: Algebra Lesson Plan on Functions

My Reflection of My General Inquiry, Teaching, and Assessment Methods Course

I generally felt that this course was the nuts and bolts of how to assemble a teaching practice. It heavily discussed lesson planning, objectives, learning targets, assessments, backward design, and parts of EdTPA, and touched on exceptional learners, diversity, and using technology in the classroom. This class aligns with objective 4, Content Knowledge of SPU’s program standards. I feel the majority of my growth from this class aligns with, “4.2 Setting Instructional Outcomes - All the instructional outcomes are clear, written in the form of student learning. Most suggest viable methods of assessment.” The most helpful readings for me were on objectives. I found the Verb Wheel Based on Blooms Taxonomy and The Glossary and Hierarchy of Terms for Organizing Lessons to be print outs I reference weekly. As the course went along and I began to create my lesson plan I realized I did not really know what Academic Language and Student Voice is. I struggled to find helpful descriptions on the internet. Then I found resources had been posted including the Overview of Academic Language and a video, PassedTPA, on Student Voice. They were immensely helpful in this and other classes.

This class felt the most rigorous of my classes so far, however, a lot of the rigor came from how I engaged with the material. Each week I managed to make it more challenging by finding additional articles to read, re-watching videos, completely re-writing lesson plans, and constructing my own worksheets. The discussion boards for each week’s topics were also more active, with a post count per week higher than any of my preceding classes. This meant we truly had a discussion and it was important to go back to the discussion to see my classmates’ viewpoints.

My artifact that I am most proud of from this course is my  Linear Equations Lesson Plan for Algebra II. I worked the longest and enjoyed creating it, twice. My first attempt was closely based on two direct instructions of the same material by two different teachers. After receiving feedback on my initial lesson plan, I was at a loss. How do I teach hard abstract math concepts without direct instruction? I took a weekend workshop on the Project Oriented Guided Inquiry Learning (POGIL) method. I came home and scrapped my lesson plan’s delivery method and rewrote it as a POGIL lesson. I still am uncomfortable with the quiz at the beginning as I feel it takes too much time from the students engaging with the guided inquiry but I think that is something I will have to get a feel for in practice.  I also wished I had a demonstration and manipulatable for this lesson than a video, but this will give the students a little variety to how I like to present material. It is colorful with its revisions highlighted but I think it shows how I grow and learn with each time I look at it.

References:

Denton, D. (2013) PassedTPA Task1: Planning for Instruction and Assessment – Student Voice, retrieved from  https://youtu.be/2-HISj1LoOk

Overview of Academic Language, retrieved from https://spu.instructure.com/courses/18045/files/536182/preview

The Glossary and Hierarchy of Terms for Organizing Lessons, retrieved from https://spu.instructure.com/courses/18045/files/536146/download?download_frd=1

Verb Wheel Based on Blooms Taxonomy, retrieved from https://spu.instructure.com/courses/18045/modules/items/137021