Standard Three: Adapting Instruction for Individual Needs - The teacher understands how students differ in their approaches to learning and creates instructional opportunities that are adapted to learners with diverse needs.
A teacher needs to understand how to adapt their lessons and instruction around an individual needs, but also how to create opportunities to help those students with diverse needs be able to feel successful. Giving proper instructions for students in crucial that it is clear and concrete for all your students. A teacher doesn't adapt the students around their teaching, but they adapt to the students individual learning techniques. The artifacts that I have chosen that exemplify this standard is a lesson that is adapted to a learner with ADD or ADHD, an activity that I did with my fourth graders where they got to write what they wanted to know about the Oregon Trail and the lessons are tailored to those questions, and a Stone Fox lesson plan.
Adapted Lesson
Adapted Lesson
- This lesson is adapted to a learner with ADD or ADHD. It begins discussing the difference of odd and even numbers and it is adapted to a learner with ADD or ADHD. The lesson gave instructional methods about what the students would be able to do, but also what methods or ideas the teacher could try to help the student become successful. As a teacher I need to be able to change the way I instructed the students to enhance student success.
Oregon Trail: What I want to know activity.
- The "What Do I Want To Know" activity was great for the students because they got to watch a video about the Oregon Trail, then they had a chance to tell me what they wanted to learn about the Oregon Trail. Throughout this unit, I adapted to the questions and the concepts the students wanted to learn more about to create an engaging lesson for all the students. Throughout the unit I would continue to do this activity to make sure unit stayed engaging for all the students. Tailoring this unit towards what the students wanted to know was a great tool because they were motivated and inquired for more information during the next lesson.
Stone Fox Lesson
- My lesson plan on the book Stone Fox is a lesson that the students didn't have to adapt to, but what I had to adapt to. The students had to use context clues to answer the questions then they had to write a two paragraphs essay. With their writing, they seemed to struggle with some of the ideas that we talked about during the lesson, but they seemed to be fully engaged within the topic. This lesson surprised me because I had to change the lesson and adapt the way I was teaching because the students were not grasping the concepts I was trying to teach them. I had to adapt the way this lesson worked because the students were not understanding the writing aspect of the lesson. So once they had a chance to write what they thought down, they were able to meet with me and partake in an interview about the questions to make sure they comprehended the book fully. Later we used these writing examples and developed them over time. By the end, they created a well structured five paragraph essay. This was a great example of how the students and I had to adapt and change together within a few minutes into the lesson.