Ms. Yorke's
Standard #8: Instructional Strategies
The teacher understands and uses a variety of instructional strategies to encourage learners to develop deep understanding of content areas and their connections, and to build skills to access and appropriately apply information.
Summary: This standard expresses the necessity of teachers to differentiate instruction. I must always remember that I am teaching with the student in mind, rather than teach in a manner that assumes all students have the same understandings and learn in the same way.
Artifact 1: Line of Best Fit Activity
Essential Knowledge: 8 (o) Understands how content and skill development can be supported by media and technology and knows how to evaluate these resources for quality, accuracy and effectiveness.
Description: Students used a web-based application published by the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) in which they constructed scatter plots and inserted the line of best fit. In that particular lesson, students learned how to informally place the line of best fit in a scatter plot. This application allowed students to compare their line to the actual line of best fit. This gave students the opportunity to judge their own performance and get more practice with correctly assessing the relationship between two data sets.
Rationale: Using a digital tool really enhanced this lesson. Since it was published by NCTM, I knew that it was accurate and would be a good resource for students. The website helped develop their skills as they compared their line of best fit to the actual line of best fit. It allowed them to judge their accuracy and correct any mistakes.
Artifact 2: Sphero Activities
Critical Dispositions: 8 (r) Is committed to exploring how the use of new and emerging technologies can support and promote student learning.
Description: Throughout the semester we included a number of activities with the Sphero SPRK technology. The students used the Spheros to create polygons, calculate speed, and navigate their way through an obstacle course. The technology required students to apply knowledge about the unit circle, distance, and rates to accurately navigate the Sphero through the course.
Rationale: My mentor and I conducted research on the many ways we can implement the use of Spheros, while relating it to the content and ensuring the level of challenge was appropriate for the students. We committed to using them often to improve student learning. We researched the different capabilities of the program and increased the challenge of the activities as students became more familiar with the technology.