Internship Blog Portfolio #3

Internship Blog Portfolio #3

Expected outcomes are expressed as program standards derived from RCW 28A.405.100, which are aligned with State-designated teacher preparation approval standards shown in WAC 181-78A-270. Program standards include criteria (e.g. 1.), elements (e.g. 1.1), and examples. Log

In the following blog entry I have chosen to reflect upon this program standard 3. Differentiation. As an instructor, I feel it is my responsibility to expect all of my students to learn at high levels and I believe that it is my responsibility to assure that all students learn.  Differentiation is the process by which I make this happen.  It is the ability of an instructor to adjust her lesson plan in a way that allows all students to meet the objective.  I try to approach knowledge and the acquisition there to as a fluid process, a flexible one.  My goal is to encourage my students to question and contemplate.  Rigidity in a curriculum prevents this outcome. 

Program standard à

3. Differentiation - The teacher acquires and uses specific knowledge about students’ cultural, individual intellectual and social development and uses that knowledge to adjust their practice by employing strategies that advance student learning.

States the background by which I as a teacher may achieve this goal of inculcating intellectual thought.  As a teacher, I have the ability to present information in a number of ways.  By utilizing the cultural understanding that I poses as well as the individual background I have on my students, I have the power to transform the learning process into a successful cataclysm!

This entry will focus on Standard à

3.2 Demonstrating Flexibility and Responsiveness in Lesson Adjustments

Teacher makes a minor adjustment to a lesson, and the adjustment occurs smoothly.

I recently had the opportunity to put this standard into practice.  I was teaching a unit on Human System Interactions.  The beginning of this table was then projected on the white board.  This was not a complete table but rather an example so students could know how to get started.  I then asked my students to create a comprehensive table and fill it in as they read through the 6 associated text book pages. 

I soon learned that this task was too much for several of my students. I needed to print a copy of my table for some students that were having difficulty completing the design on their own.  The creation of the table itself was either taking way too long or the precision of the tables draw were inadequate for a proper data analysis.

This was a great opportunity for me to put Bloom’s Taxonomy (Bloom, 1956) into action!  My goal was to move all of my students toward higher levels of thinking, processing, and questioning.  We spent the prior classes focused on knowledge and comprehension of the disease states and the associated symptoms.  We observed video footage of a patients with numerous symptoms and we were now at the point of differential diagnosis.  Most students had at this point become competent with these basic skills.  Hence the goal was to move all students to this slightly more complex tasks.  I was now requiring my students to think at a higher level, to compare, contrast, and develop a degree of argumentation through the use of collected evidence.  This table was not simply a more difficult task that needed to require a lot of energy or time.  Rather, the goal was to make the data readily available for conclusions to be drawn.

As the lesson progressed I learned that numerous students were unclear how to complete this table on their own.  They did not seem to understand how to fill it out.  This gave me an opportunity to adjust the lesson further by the class completing the table together as opposed to the individual assignment.  These minor adjustments allowed for all students to understand the goal, which was to see what particular symptoms different disease shared.  The outcome was thus successful although the route to attaining it was adjusted from my original plan.

            My next steps will involve some reflection with the students on the assignment.  I have a passion for human physiology and sometimes lose track of myself in the subject matter.  My hope in having students self-reflect on this unit is to better understand their level of comprehension and to see if they found the flow of presentation adequate.  Below is a list of the key concepts I am hooping my students took away.  I will be able to better evaluate that these goals were met after I review their self-reflections.

References

Anderson, L. W. (2009). A taxonomy for learning, teaching and assessing: a revision of Bloom's taxonomy of educational objectives. New York: Addison Wesley Longman.

Wong, H. K., Wong, R. T., & Seroyer, C. (2009). The first days of school: how to be an effective teacher. Mountain View, CA: Harry K. Wong Publications.