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Instructional Decision Making (LO 4.2) (APS 3)

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This document summarizes Payton's experience planning and teaching a unit on fractions to 5th grade students. Some key points: - Payton was nervous to teach fractions since they struggled with the topic as a student. They prepared by learning instructional design and reviewing resources like videos and workbooks. - Payton closely analyzed the Common Core standards to understand what needed to be taught. Lessons followed their cooperating teacher's format but Payton added their own ideas. - Formative assessments helped Payton identify students' misunderstandings and provide targeted feedback, like pulling struggling students for small group work. - Payton provided individualized instruction based on students' levels - using manipulatives and

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Instructional Decision Making (LO 4.2) (APS 3)

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63 views6 pages
This document summarizes Payton's experience planning and teaching a unit on fractions to 5th grade students. Some key points: - Payton was nervous to teach fractions since they struggled with the topic as a student. They prepared by learning instructional design and reviewing resources like videos and workbooks. - Payton closely analyzed the Common Core standards to understand what needed to be taught. Lessons followed their cooperating teacher's format but Payton added their own ideas. - Formative assessments helped Payton identify students' misunderstandings and provide targeted feedback, like pulling struggling students for small group work. - Payton provided individualized instruction based on students' levels - using manipulatives and

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This document summarizes Payton's experience planning and teaching a unit on fractions to 5th grade students. Some key points: - Payton was nervous to teach fractions since they struggled with the topic as a student. They prepared by learning instructional design and reviewing resources like videos and workbooks. - Payton closely analyzed the Common Core standards to understand what needed to be taught. Lessons followed their cooperating teacher's format but Payton added their own ideas. - Formative assessments helped Payton identify students' misunderstandings and provide targeted feedback, like pulling struggling students for small group work. - Payton provided individualized instruction based on students' levels - using manipulatives and

Copyright:

© All Rights Reserved
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
Download as docx, pdf, or txt
63 views6 pages

Instructional Decision Making (LO 4.2) (APS 3)

Uploaded by

api-252715380
This document summarizes Payton's experience planning and teaching a unit on fractions to 5th grade students. Some key points: - Payton was nervous to teach fractions since they struggled with the topic as a student. They prepared by learning instructional design and reviewing resources like videos and workbooks. - Payton closely analyzed the Common Core standards to understand what needed to be taught. Lessons followed their cooperating teacher's format but Payton added their own ideas. - Formative assessments helped Payton identify students' misunderstandings and provide targeted feedback, like pulling struggling students for small group work. - Payton provided individualized instruction based on students' levels - using manipulatives and

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Payton

7. Instructional Decision Making (LO 4.2) (APS 3)


Before planning for this unit, I knew it would be a challenge for
me. It would be a challenge because before student teaching, I never
had the opportunity to plan for and teach a whole unit of study to
students. Of the entire math content I am most comfortable with, of
course, this unit would be on fractions. Thankfully, Lander Education
Department taught me how to plan and teach a mini-unit so I felt a
little at ease when it was time for me to take this unit.
On the other hand, as a student coming through grade school, I
never truly understood fractions and was very nervous about teaching
it to students. To help me get prepared for the fraction unit, I relied on
many different sources like: YouTube, math websites, student math
workbooks, and other teacher editions. By using my knowledge of a
mini-unit and these sources I could mange the instruction designs of
this unit, which honestly was very fun to teach.
To also help plan this unit, I relied closely on the Common Core
Standards. I stripped each standard apart and analyzed each
sentence. By intensely looking at all parts of the standards, I was able
to know exactly what I was responsible for teaching. Once I
understood what was expected of me, I began to plan my lessons.
Since my student teaching experience began in the spring, I was
compelled to follow the lesson format established by my cooperating
teacher, which was mostly constructed from the math workbook. So I

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planned accordingly to my cooperating teachers lessons format, but I
chose to introduce my innovative ideas when I had to analyze student
learning to make instructional decisions.

Whole Class
To provide feedback for students concerning the lessons in the
unit, different strategies were used. Since the fraction unit has such a
negative connotation with students, to start the unit I reassured
students that yes fractions are hard, but you all will leave fifth grade
knowing more about fractions than before. That comment to students
was the first attempt to provide them with feedback. One of the most
used strategies in this unit was the restating of the unit objective and
lessons objectives. When students restated those objectives, students
were more inclined to remember the main purpose of the lesson and
often answer their own questions.
Each lesson required a different teaching strategy and each
teaching strategy required a different way to provide feedback. For
example with the lesson on how to find the greatest common factors,
many students struggled with how to find the factors needed. Those
students struggled because they did not have the factors memorized.
For those students that did not have their multiplication factors
memorized, to help provide feedback, students were told to write the

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multiplication facts down until they get the factors needed to know the
greatest common factor.
Another strategy to provide students with feedback in this unit
was the during-assessments. There were many during-assessments
given throughout the unit, those assessments were later scored to see
if students met the lesson objective/s. Often many students made
progress and met the lesson objectives but there were times when
students did not. Take for an example when students learned how to
simplify fractions, in class; many students appeared to understand the
mathematical concept. It was until after the assessments were
evaluated, that I realized that many students did not know how to
simplify fractions on their own. The specific knowledge from the
evaluation allowed me to properly prepare feedback for students. So
the next day, those students were pulled for small group instruction to
further work simplifying fractions.

Individual Students (approaching standard, on standard and above


standard)
For the student on the approaching standard, there were a lot of
opportunities where instructional decision making helped further the
students understanding of fractions. During the unit, I realized that
this particular student understood the mathematical procedure needed
to get to an answer but they continued to multiply, add, or subtract

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incorrectly. After realizing the mistake, the feedback given to the
student was to write the factors down and to use his hands to add and
subtract. After the suggestion, the student no longer made those
careless mistakes. So when the chapter test was taken, I intentionally
reminded the student to not forget to use the suggestion given.
For the student on standard, the students biggest difficulty was
that they constantly moved too fast through their work and constantly
got points taken off for not simplifying the fractions. After days of
working with fractions, I observed that this student new how to
multiply, add, and subtract fractions they just did not know how to
simplify fractions. The feedback given to this student was given in a
small group setting with other students that did not understand how to
simplify fractions. Collectively, those students and I worked on
different fraction problems that required simplifying until they all
understood the process. Following instruction, a visual aid was posted
above the SmartBoard to help that student and other students
remember to simplify.
With this unit I realized that it is much easier for instructional
decision to occur with students approaching standard and on standard
in comparison to students beyond standard. While preparing for this
unit, I knew exactly which student would understand the concepts
really quickly and thankfully for my experience in sixth grade STEMS I
knew I had to have extra work for this student to complete post

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lessons. Even with extra work prepared, that student completed work
faster than I expected. The feedback to this situation was once the
student completed the class work, small group instruction was held
and the student worked on sixth grade fractions that were closely
related to the lessons objectives. Those sixth grade problems were
very challenging to the student and forced the student to think.

Accommodations and Modifications


For this unit, accommodations were very important. Before
preparing each lesson of the unit, I looked at what specific
accommodations the students need. Once those were gathered, I then
began to plan lessons. Many of the accommodations were constant
throughout the unit and lessons, but I did realize that it was hard to
make sure the all of the accommodations were met. To assist me in
remembering all of the accommodations of each student, the students
names and the accommodation was written on a piece of paper and
kept near for reference. With the names and accommodations listed
nearby, it was easier to remember who needed what accommodation
and when the specific accommodation needed to occur.
Unlike accommodations that never changed modifications did.
Throughout the unit, I found myself consistently modifying lessons to
meet the needs of students. With whole class, I used students facial
expressions to let me know when I needed to modify something. Often

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when teaching, introducing, or reviewing fractions many students
displayed puzzling looks on their faces. That look was a key for me that
I needed to stop and further explain. Another example of how
modification occurred in the unit was when I realized that students
were very tired of doing workbook pages in their workbook. So instead
of asking students to complete the review section in the workbook as
planned, I allowed students to take turns playing Math Jeopardy on the
SmartBoard, which they really enjoyed.

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