Part 5: Self-Evaluation of Instructional Unit
Select the learning objectives where your students were the most successful.
Provide two or more reasons for this success (Be specific and provide
evidence). Consider your objectives, instruction, and assessment along
with student characteristics and other contextual factors under your
control.
I am a big
advocate of promoting dialogue and the classroom, and letting students make
inferences for themselves that will allow them to discover answer on their own.
Granted, I didn’t let the students lead themselves the whole way through, I had
facilitate in their learning process, nonetheless they still achieve more from
my instruction. This being said, I felt the students learned a great deal during
my unit. and will retain more as they proceed into further chapters.
I choose to
do my unit with Washburn Rural’s Music History class, and I can strongly do my
level of assessment, which allowed me to further measure where the students
where prior to the unit, and examining their scores during and after the unit.
That my student successfully learned a great deal while I taught this unit.
Evidence #1 –
Social Learning – “A New Approach to Learning”
·
Conversation
in the class – I asked the students if they preferred being lecture at, versus
using group work to study the ready. As I expected, the students preferred the
group work over the lecture. I would assign readings over the chapter, and
provided students a study guide to help them with their reading, the next day I
would lecture through asking questions. I would place the students in groups
where they had to find question from the reading in the study guide, and
discuss their finding within the group. Once they had all the questions found,
I would lecture further from the groups responses from the answered questions.
Evidence #2 –
Reflective – “Now You are Speaking My Language”
·
When
observing the students the first couple of weeks, when my cooperating teacher
asked them questions, the responses the students gave where that a first grade
student reaching for words. (Not meant to sound harsh!) However, when I took
over the class, and students begin to discuss their finding in groups, and my
reaction with the students, the vocabulary began to broaden, and the manner of
how they answered questions where deeply thought out, and the students sounded
musically inclined.
Select the learning objectives where your students were least successful.
Provide two or more reasons for this lack of success (Be specific and
provide evidence). Consider your objectives, instruction, and
assessment along with student characteristics and other contextual
factors under your control. Explain any mid-unit adaptations you made
to enhance learning for all students. Discuss what you could do
differently or better in the future to improve your students’
performance.
The learning objectives the students were least
successful at were:
realizing that each musical period has its own characteristics, and identifying
what these characteristics are.
·
Realizing
that each musical period has its own characteristics.
This was one of the biggest problems that I kept running
into as I taught my unit; it was further brought to my attention from our first
quiz. By analyzing the data, I realized that students were not making
connections from previous chapters, to help them comprehend the new material I
made the students realize that each chapter, or era, was established by
previous composers or events. Once I provided this realization to the students,
this “weakness” became one of our strengths. This was also made apparent as I
tried to teach the students how to identify characteristics of each era.
·
Identifying
characteristics of each era.
I wanted the students to realize that
each musical era can
be identified by certain characteristics. At first, this was a slow
start, but
through
careful analysis of the quizzes I could help the students realize
these
characteristics. From this realization, the students could compare and
contrast
these characteristics, differentiate and begin to understand the
differences of
the musical eras.
Discuss how and in what context you have communicated with students, parents, and other professionals about your decisions regarding students’ learning and assessment. You must address all three.
Decision Regarding the Students -
Being a student teacher, we are in
many ways at a disadvantage. Students are accustomed to the teaching style of
their teacher, and sometimes are not willing to change and adapt to the new
styles of the student teacher. To compensate for this disadvantage, before
teaching my unit, I wanted to communicate to the students that my teaching
style would differ from Mr. Chaffee, but I wanted them to feel comfortable with
me teaching them. I took a poll to see how the students wanted to be taught so
this way the students knew I had their best interest at heart. I gave the
option of me giving a lecture and them taking notes, or me using group work and
a more social atmosphere; needless to say the students choose the social route.
Further, I told the students that with this method they are more in charge of
their learning, so the more they put in the more they’ll get out. Many of the
students expressed to me that they were glad that I gave them the option, and preferred
doing the more socially interactive and group method option.
Decision Regarding Parents –
Probably the best thing about teaching my unit was the
timing of it. When I was teaching my unit, it fell during the time of parent
teacher conferences. When the parents came to the conference, they were
comparing the child’s grade in music history to their other classes, and also
the grade in music history from the beginning of the semester to where they
currently stood. Many parents asked me “How did his/her grade go from a “C” average
up to where it is now?” This gave me a great chance to communicate to the parents
how I taught the class, what my goals and objective were, and how I wanted the
students to achieve. I found the common theme was many of the students were
products of a lecture based systems, and the students felt they didn’t have
much control of their learning. From the parent teacher conference, I had the
chance to see that my methods were actually working.
Decision Regarding Professionals (Mr. Luke Chaffee)
Before
the process could even begin, I wanted to run some of my ideas by my
cooperating teacher. I wanted to transform the class from a lecture based
system, to utilizing dialogue in the class room by way of group work, question
and answer segments about the reading, and using games to help the students
further comprehend the material. I expressed to him that many of the things I
would do would greatly go against how he teaches, but the students would still
have fun and learn a great deal through this experience. I was nervous that Mr.
Chaffee would not allow for me to teach in this manner, but he told me, “Hey,
this is why you student teach, so you can figure out what works and what doesn’t!”
Hearing this, it gave me the confidence that I needed to continue with my
plans.
Demonstrate that you understand the QPA process
in use in your school and explain how your efforts as a professional
fit into it. How can you contribute to achieving the school’s QPA
goals?
At Washburn Rural High
School they currently in the process of renewing their NRC accreditation to
remain as a distinguished school in the state of Kansas. The last time Washburn
Rural went through this process was four year ago. To ensure the district would
progress over time, after their NRC renewal, the district began better documenting
test scores of each school in the district. Once they have the scores
documented they then set bench mark goals to reach before renewing their accreditation; a state
of continual growth. What this does is allow the school to constantly set the
standard higher education for both the students and the staff.
Being
a part of their staff prior to student teaching, I knew I had to understand the
QPA (Quality Performance Accreditation) process. When I arrived at the high school
this was one of their primary objectives, so I wanted to make sure that I
understood, and could contribute. One
thing that Washburn Rural does is assess their student’s progress, but even
better is how they design the assessment procedures. Knowing this, I wanted to
challenge the students, and provide them with daily instruction, and tests that
would push them further
Reflect on possibilities for professional development.
Describe at least two professional learning goals that emerged from
your insights gained while teaching this unit. Identify two specific
activities you will undertake to improve your performance as a teacher
in the critical areas you identified.
Reflecting
back on my experiences, I was pleased with all of the activities, lesson plans,
and test that I designed. As all ways, there are many things people can improve
of. By encountering different level of exposure is how we can further master
our craft, and ultimately achieve all that we desire to be as teacher. Two
things that I can improve on, while keeping the same systems is first, quickly
know when students do not understand, and making sure my students know what is
being asked of them so there is now miscommunication. I think teaching this
unit to different individuals who have different levels of musical
understanding will help me improve on these goals that I have set for myself,
and give me that exposure I need to develop a better teaching framework.