WRITING PIECE- DOMAIN 3

Bishop,Lyasha
EDUC 540-902 Week 7
 During my time in the Kindergarten classroom I have learned several things such as to

name my lessons cool sayings to make students laugh and help get their attention. I have also

learned the importance of building a strong classroom environment where students feel respected

and intelligent. However, the most important lesson I have learned thus far has been the

importance of student engagement. This life lesson came perfectly as it came during science

instruction.

Science has naturally always been a hard topic for me. I was never very great at it and got

nervous as the thought of teaching science to other individuals. To me science always seemed

like large vocabulary words coupled with rote memorization and worksheets. It was important to

me that as a teacher I completely change this perspective of science. I made sure to incorporate

all of the things my kindergarten students soar in which include kinesthetic movement (i.e. dance

and music), group work, and higher order thinking questioning. I believe this lesson went well

because it incorporated various activities and types of learning to create maximum engagement.

3a Communicating with Students.

I made sure to start the lesson by introducing the objective of the lesson. I then tested

their background knowledge by asking them to complete an entry ticket. By having an entry

ticket I got to communicate the objectives very early in the lesson. Students understood that

“they must think on their own” (Danielson, 55). This allowed me the opportunity to evaluate

who already knew about the topic and who was new to the topic. I believe this area went well

because I was able to communicate with them using the technology of the acquis board. Students

loved seeing various familiar images and categorizing them as living, or nonliving.

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3b Using Questioning and Discussion Techniques.

I was careful to add plenty of scaffolding to this lesson to ensure that students were

understanding the topic as opposed to just guessing and randomly categorizing an item as living

or nonliving. “Questioning is used as a technique to deepen the student’s understanding” of the

material (Danielson, 59). Interactions such as the teacher picking up the stapler on her desk and

asking " Rebecca does this stapler grow? Why or Why not” are important to challenge student’s

perceptions and to build deeper knowledge. Students were very excited to answer these

questions. Hands were shooting up in the air and students were using key vocabulary words

presented in the cookie monster video to help defend their opinion on whether an object was

living or not.

3c Engaging Students in Learning.

It’s no secret that students today are into different things than we were in the past. I know

my students love technology and love to move around. In order to help increase student

engagement kinesthetic learning is increased by encouraging students to dance along to Jack

Hartman’s music about living and nonliving things. I also allowed them to watch a funny video

made by cookie monster where he explains how one can tell if something is living or non-living.

I believe hearing it in a silly familiar cartoon’s voice and hearing a rhythmic tone about the

characteristics stuck to them in a way a traditional lecture may not have. I regarded this as

successful when students would answer a question with the answer in a rhythmic recollection of

the Jack Hartman song.

3d Using Assessment in Instruction. Assessment can be informal.

At the end of the lesson students were asked to work on an activity independently. This

activity was a differentiated worksheet. By having students work on an activity independently I

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had an opportunity to walk around and determine the understanding of the students. “A teacher’s

actions in monitoring student learning, can be informal observations “(Danielson, 71). This

allows the teacher to decide what to reteach and how to approach reteaching. In kindergarten

tests are given but we mainly rely on informal assessments and portfolio assessments as

summative assessments and high-stakes tests are not traditional for this age group. The

worksheet was successful in helping me see who needed more time and reteaching this topic.

3e Demonstrating Flexibility and Responsiveness.

The truth of the matter is that this lesson was successful. I know that because in the past I

have had to shift gears in the middle of a lesson because something was not working. I have had

to completely eradicate an activity and try something new because engagement has been low or

even nonexistent on not so great days. However, I did not experience this today. I believe I did

not experience this because many different types of activities were present in the lesson plan. I

also believe students were heavily engaged. The only issue that arose is that I planned for certain

students to need differentiated assignments so I made enough copies for each student to get the

copy of the worksheet that suited their level of ability. What ended up happening was that

students who I predicted to need extra help did not and they breezed through the independent

work. I have learned that I should make an equal amount of copies of each item just in case this

happens so student can work on whatever level they are performing at during that day.