The teacher understands the central concepts, tools of inquiry, and structures of the discipline(s) he or she teaches and creates learning experiences that make these aspects of the discipline accessible and meaningful for learners.
in a Kindergarten classroom at JFK, My classmate Katherine and I taught a lesson. We were inspired by something Mrs. Mctaggerty did, so we twisted it and made it our own. Our lesson started with the students asking questions about Katherine and me. We wrote the answers to our questions on the whiteboard for the class to see. After we had a few answers to our questions written on the board, we had the students go to their seats. We passed out the worksheet we created (attached below), where the students would make sentences based on the information they had learned about us. The skills they were working on were forming sentences. They were assigned to write the sentence with correct pronouns and punctuation. Alot of students in this classroom were multilingual, or had some reading struggles. Katherine and I thought ahead and used some differentiation strategies. Katherine and I visited each student to see if they needed help.
When going around, we noticed that some students struggled to see what was on the board. We purposely printed extra copies of our worksheet so they could have the words closer to them. We used some other strategies that motivated learners. One strategy that worked very well was highlighting where the words go on the paper. This was a tip Katherine and I learned when we were collaborating with Mrs Mctaggerty. We did a good job supporting each student and supplying them with their needs. In addition to helping these students with their assignments, I also made a point to bond with them. I noticed some students were more isolated than others, and I tried to make them feel included and supported. This helps make the students feel comfortable and in a positive learning environment. One student I connected with was sitting at her desk due to some attention issues. I felt proud of myself when we got through one question together. My presence motivated her to complete the worksheet. I was very encouraging to this student; she seemed just as excited as I had been when she finished. She required a different classroom environment to succeed better, and it was nice to be able to support that.
This assignment will improve my pedagogical knowledge by helping me understand all students’ differences. I never realized how much all students require different learning environments. All students learn differently, and it was interesting to start seeing this in action in this lesson and my fieldwork this year. As a future educator, I am confident I can provide the correct learning environments for each student. I will know and understand each student’s learning style to do this. Mrs. Mctaggarty does this, and she can provide differentiation in her instruction and assessment that fits all students’ needs. It was awesome to see positive learning environments in this classroom and to then create my own.
