• Your goal/challenge why this is an area on which to work, referring to the appropriate Florida Educator Accomplished Practices (FEAP)

Throughout this semester, I have learned a lot about what differentiation is and how to have a differentiated classroom. Differentiation allow for ever student to find success dependent on their interest, learning profile, and readiness level. These three things are essential when deciding how differentiate a lesson or activity. During my inquiry I focused on differentiating based on the students’ interest and learning profile because I saw that my CT lacked when differentiating her lessons with these two things in mind. When I began understanding how differentiate, I would always come to the same thought, “how do I differentiate this?!”. As the semester progressed–although I am still developing my skills in this area–I have noticed that I have a much easier time when thinking about ways to differentiate for the students. I’ve seen that when there is differentiation in a lesson, it can make a big difference in a students’ academic success within that lesson (FEAP 3a). Additionally, when making appropriate differentiation modifications to a lesson, a teacher most have some sort of reasoning for it, such as an assessment of their learning needs. During this semester, I have given students multiple formative assessments that I have been able to look back on and reflect what choices should be made next time (FEAP 3h).
My new goal as I go into my next internship, is developing a good management system and having the ability to enforce management within a classroom. Although I did make a lesson this semester that had its own set of management instilled within it, I think that overall I still need growth in this area. Management is probably the thing I am most worried about when going into my final internship and my own career. I know that when it comes to my teaching, I reflect and take any critique or suggestions that people might have and I am always looking at what I can do to be a better supporter for my students. However, when it comes to management, I feel as though I am slightly hindered in some way to express my “teacher voice”. Hopefully, a change in setting next semester and seeing a new room with a new management system might expand my knowledge on management and build my confidence in this area. (FEAP 2a, FEAP 2b)

  • Decisions you made related to your goal/challenge and why you made them. What was the role of your CT? supervisor?

Since I made my inquiry “how can I differentiate my lessons based on interest and learning profile”, I was able to make appropriate decisions throughout the semester that related to my goal. In one of my lessons, for example, I used a piece of art work to teach students about peer critiques because I knew that there were students in the class interested in art. It turned out to be a huge success because one of the lower level students in language arts was highly engaged and even came up to the board to share his critique. Another addition I implemented into the classroom were interest journals. Interest journals are basically a set of journals all with different topics that the students chose before beginning them. Each student would chose a journal each week and write in it. The goal is for students to pick different topics each week so that they are able to widen their interests while engaging in writing through choice.

Next fall, I believe that I will be in a classroom management class which will hopefully enable me to utilize good management techniques throughout my internship. Additionally, I will be able to have a new Collaborating Teacher with a new management system in their class which will allow me to see how their system compares to my previous CT’s. As I am going through my education as a teacher, I am constantly looking out for management strategies and techniques that I could adjust into something that would work for my teaching pedagogy. My supervisors role in this goal that I have would be to observe my interaction with my new CT’s management system and my ability to enforce the system in the same way as the CT.

  • Examples of how you took feedback into account

I always encourage as much feedback in any form whenever possible. This semester, I had my students do a lot of formative assessments and some of them were structured so that it encouraged student feedback. Additionally, any time I teach a lesson I always had either a peer, my CT, or my supervisor observing my teaching and taking notes that I could reflect on afterwards. One of the formative assessments that I gave my students was an emoji reaction exit ticket. The students had to choose an emoji based on any part of the lesson, and describe why they chose that emoji. In this exit ticket, I was able to see what parts of the lesson students enjoyed, didn’t enjoy, and didn’t understand. Knowing that information allows me to adjust any lessons in the future and be able to differentiate in a more supportive manner. Another example of feedback that I was able to obtain this semester was through a peer observation. My peer gave me a new set of eyes and perspective that differs from my CT and my supervisor. This observation became a useful additive within my inquiry and differentiating a lesson based on interest.

  • Evidence of learning (your own learning or students’ academic or behavioral learning); post 2 artifacts of this learning-these can be from your FEAPs portfolio

This pieces of evidence displays that two of the strategies that I implemented in order to differentiate my lesson and incorporate technology had two reactions. One of the students articulates their love for being able to utilize the iPods in the lesson. They appeared to really enjoy using technology to scan the QR codes and just being able to use something that is so much a part of their life (FEAP 2g). The other students reaction depicts his unhappiness with working in a large group. I was then be able to adapt the learning environment for him that enabled him to have the option to work in a smaller group or individually (FEAP 2h).

Mid-Semester Goal Blog Post
“It’s not a simple task and I am learning about the various ways and strategies that can be implemented to increase the engagement in the classroom. Last semester I would make a lesson and think that it was really engaging, however, I would find that the students weren’t very engaged during the lesson. I wanted to focus on how to differentiate because it is so crucial in being an effective teacher and also because it is the focus of my inquiry.”
Blog Post
“As the art critique on Vincent Van Gogh’s “Starry Night” began I soon unrevealed a true passion in my below level student. His level of critique input was at an extremely high level and far past that of a fifth grader.”
After discussing the students involvement and engagement with the art teacher in her class, I found that one of my below level students in Language Arts had high engagement and motivation in her class. When I found this out, I made the decision to incorporate art into a lesson where the students were learning how to articulate positive and appropriate critiques. In order to do this, I had the students look at a painting and answer the three prompts: something they like, a question they have about it, and a suggestion or something they would do differently. The piece of art created an atmosphere that supported my below levels interests and strengths that enabled him to fully understand and succeed the overarching content they were learning. 

This shows that I have looked upon myself and reflected on what I wanted to grow with. I was able to use what I learned about a student to differentiate a lesson and design it so that not only people interested in art but also all the other students as well could find success. Having a goal continually working at it in this way reflects FEAP 5a.

  • Plans for your future work related to this goal

Teachers can always make growth in their teaching. The reflection process never end, and for me reflecting on how I differentiated my lesson is what I’m working on. Additionally, since this semester we focused on implementing technology into the classroom I would like to work on this as well. I’ve used many videos in my teaching, but I want to work on incorporating more interactive technology where the students are actively using the technology to expand their learning. The interactive technology that I used this semester was having the students use the iPods to scan QR codes in order to have a discussion with their peers. I found that management was something I struggled with when I used the iPods, therefore I would like to work on management when using technology and using technology so that students are thinking in a higher order manner.

  • Remember to have your artifacts for your FEAPs Portfolio:

FEAPS Portfolio