Unit Plan | Spring 2012
Artifact Description
For this artifact, I collaborated with two other pre-service teachers in my course, Curriculum and Instruction 402: Teaching Diverse Middle Grade Students in the Semester of Spring 2012 to come up with a 14-day unit plan on Introduction to Functions for an Algebra I course. The purpose of the Unit Plan was to allow pre-service teachers in considering the dynamics of the classroom while lesson planning and catering to the needs of each student. In developing the Unit Plan, we were presented the scenario of a classroom of 24 students comprising of 40% low socioeconomic status, 2 English Language Learners, and many students who did not have much motivation to get high grades. Taking into the account the classroom dynamics and diverse classroom setting, we designed three full lesson plans and 11 mini-lessons that integrated technology, problem-based instruction strategies, and in-class activities to cater the needs of each student.
Satisfying the Standard (Indicators: 3E, 3F, 3K)
This artifact exemplifies knowledge of the standard through implementing the appropriate use of technology to meet the needs of students. In particular, for the unit hook, students will use the Smartboard to explore function machines in a more interactive way through animations. Students will see how inputs and outputs work in a function machine on the Smartboard as opposed to only seeing it explained in the textbook. They will be able to drag a box that has an input and see how the function machine behaves to see the output. For students who struggle in visualizing concepts, seeing the concept in action will help students understand better about how functions behave. The unit plan also considers incorporating resources to maximize student learning through planning to provide extra materials in lessons that require students to use supplemental materials outside of the classroom, i.e. calculators that students can check out to take home. In addition, this artifact demonstrates the process of how to co-plan with other teachers, working collaboratively to design a unit plan. Collaborative planning helps meet student needs through working with other teachers to discuss about multiple ways of teaching a concept for all students to understand. We discussed about what instructional strategies would best fit for each part of the unit and implemented them for each day. These instructional strategies are shown on our unit overview chart in the third column, such as working in collaborative groups on activities that require students to create their own situation modeling a recursive rule. Planning and creating the lessons required strong communication in order to make each lesson coherent. One example that demonstrated how we incorporated experiences into instructional practices that related to students was introducing functions to students through drawing from students prior knowledge and observations of everyday machines and relating such machines to the concept of a function. As a result, we collaborated on differentiated instruction and took into account diverse student characteristics when planning lessons for the unit.
Professional Development
This standard is important for me as a teacher because every student deserves the opportunity to reach their highest potential and teachers hold the responsibility of making students' receive the access and tools needed to reach their full potential. It is important for teachers, moreover, to take into account that students learn in different ways and at different paces. As a result, incorporating student experiences into instruction can be highly beneficial, as students can draw from their prior knowledge and experiences to better understand a concept.
Go back to Standard Three