Final Reflection Miaa 340

Aritz Cardenas
Dr. Veronica Tigert

MIAA 340
Spring 2014

MIAA 340 Final Reflection
How will creating a unit lesson design allow me to implement lesson accommodations,
lesson modifications, and implement interventions, in which will allow me to provide an
equitable learning environment in my classroom?
In this course, I was able to create three lesson designs, which incorporated
assessments and activities, demonstrated my ability to differentiate instruction. Also, I was
able to display my interaction with students in all three grade spans in mathematics (this is
displayed through transcripts). These things have helped me improve on my ability of
providing an equitable learning ability in my classroom.
I created three different lesson designs that displayed differentiated instruction. The
three grades I focused on were Kindergarten, 7
th
grade and 8
th
grade. For each of these
lesson designs, I utilized a minimum of two outside resources to consult my teaching plan. I
identified all of the standards, big ideas, concepts, and prior knowledge students needed for
each lesson. Then, depending on the lesson, I incorporated the tasks and instruction that I
wanted the students to know. In these lessons, I was able to display differentiation in a
number of ways. One way was incorporating tiered tasks. For example, my kindergarten
lesson, students were split into two groups and asked to do different tasks; this was based
on the results on the previous lesson. If students understood the lesson the day prior, they
were a part of group 1. If they were having trouble, they were put into group two to bridge
the gap. Another example of differentiation tasks was having students choose which task
they prefer (parallel tasks). This method allows students to access the content by utilizing
the modality they prefer. A third way I was able to display differentiating was through my
productive (writing and speaking) assessments. I provided sentence frames/ starters so
students were able to have access to the content while using proper sentence structure.
These were just some of the many ways in which I demonstrate equitable differentiation in
my lesson designs.
For this course, I was required to create transcripts for mathematic dialogue
between a teacher and a student. The transcripts were done using students in a 1
st
grade,
7
th
grade and 8
th
grade classroom. The purpose of having these conversations with students
was to analyze how students approach a problem and how a teacher can help them access
the content without giving them the answer. By proper questioning, students can use the
methods they are most comfortable with to access the content. In each of the three
transcripts, you can see how students were able to access the content without the teaching
giving them the solution.
To give one specific example, Ms. Villalobos and I went to John R. Williams
Elementary School to tutor two students in the first grade. We imposed the question, Tell
me everything you know about the number 15? What resulted was a dialogue with
students about the different methods of expressing the number fifteen. Students were able
to express fifteen though addition, subtraction, and counting. Students were also able to
utilize different strategies in expressing the number being asked of them; for example, the
references of the ten-frame and kinesthetic counting on the fingers were strategies both
used by the students. In reference to the text excerpt, Determine What Children Know:
Dynamic vs. Static Assessment, I felt that Ms. Villalobos and I were able to facilitate the
discussion with the two boys successfully. We were able to find strength that one of the
boys had in solving the error he stated in the subtraction problem of 8-7=15. According to
Judy Storeygard, Janan Hamm, and Catherine Twomey Fosney (2010), it is important to
study a students strengths and skills as a way to intervene and help close the achievement
gap on a certain concept or unit (p. 45). By using his strength in using kinesthetic counting,
he was able to visualize/feel subtracting seven from eight. Another thing that Ms. Villalobos
and I attempted to do with these boys is ask thoughtful questions that can have students
expand on their thinking. Asking thought provoking questions can lead to higher-level
thinking from students who typically perform poorly on traditional assessments
(Storeygard et al, 2010, p. 54). As a result, we were able to assess what different ways
students were able to use the number fifteen and clear up any misconceptions when they
arose.

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Aritz Cardenas

Dr. Veronica Tigert

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