Reflection 2 includes three sections:
Knowledge of Students
Lesson Plan
Analysis of Teaching Effectiveness
Section 1: Knowledge of Students
An in-depth knowledge of your students is critical to effective teaching. Reflect on your students by identifying students’ pre-existing knowledge and other factors (ex: special needs, giftedness, other modifications, student diversity) that will impact how your students learn. This section should include:
detailed demographics of your class- if you teach more than one class period, choose only one class period for this reflection
subgroups (ex: English Language Learners, gifted students, students with a common learning disability like dyslexia) of your students and their related learning needs
personal, cultural, and community strengths of your students and how you will utilize the strengths to meet the diverse needs of your students
Use specific, data-driven evidence about students to support your written reflections and eliminate any assumptions or stereotyping.
The Class needs to be special education self-contained students.
Section 2: Lesson Plan
Select a lesson plan you have used for the group of students described in section one. The lesson should involve a formative and summative assessment that may be quantitatively measured. Provide the lesson plan in full.
Whether you use the lesson plan template included in iteach courses or a district lesson plan template, the plan must include the following:
state-adopted standards-Texas
lesson objectives associated with the standard
learning theory or theories that you will incorporate into the lesson and why
instructional strategies and learning tasks
instructional resources and materials, including technology
assessment plan for the lesson (formative and summative)
You should also include a description of the academic language your students will need to succeed in this lesson. Academic language will include:
key vocabulary in your subject field that your students need to understand for the lesson
words that describe what you are asking them to do (ex: What does it mean to “compare” and “contrast” two ideas? What does it mean to “solve for x”?)
words that describe an important structure or idea in your discipline (ex: What is an “if-then” statement?)
Identify at least two examples of academic language that you will use in your lesson and how you will assess student comprehension of this language as part of the overall lesson.
If your district requires a prescribed lesson plan, it will be your responsibility to identify how you modified the lesson to address the needs of your students, including special populations accommodations and supplementary activities. You will also need to add any of the additional elements NOT included in the district template (ex: add a section about supporting learning theories or add a section about academic language as needed).
Section 3: Analyzing Teaching Effectiveness
Based on the knowledge of students described in section one and the implementation of the lesson plan provided in section two, provide a written reflection of what was successful in your instruction and how students responded to your instructions. Provide specific examples of students’ reactions and input. Did you respond immediately to this feedback by modifying your plan in class? If so, what did you modify and why? If not, what could you change (based on students’ responses) when you deliver this lesson in the future?
Questions to be addressed in this reflection include:
What varieties of assessment strategies or methods did you use?
How and why were these strategies selected?
How did your assessment(s) align with your learning objectives and instructional goals?
Did the summative assessment measure a variety of objectives?
Were the assessment tasks appropriate for students’ abilities and developmental levels?
What criteria were applied to judge or evaluate student progress?
Now, review your students’ performance on the summative assessment. In a manner complying with FERPA, create a spreadsheet that shows how your students performed. Now, select at least two student sub-groups. This could be male vs. female, gifted students vs. the general class, or the performance of ELL students and the performance of students with learning disabilities. In your spreadsheet, show how the performance of each subgroup compares to the whole (ex: Whole group average grade: 87.5% and ELL groups average: 83.4%). Now, add to your written reflection to answer these final two questions:
What might account for the differences in performance between student groups?
What could you do differently to ensure all students have equal opportunity to master the material?
Include your spreadsheet analyzing student performance with the reflection.
Considerations for Small Sample Sizes or Unique Teaching Placements
iteach believes that every teacher, regardless of the content area, should be able to plan, implement, and assess instruction. Therefore, candidates whose teaching placement does NOT allow them to disaggregate student performance data due to a small sample size should note on their reflection that the sample size of the lesson was not large enough to allow for analysis. Instead, candidates should provide a discussion of the students’ mastery of assessed material and name what additional supports or modifications were used or could be used to ensure that the student(s) master learning objectives for the lesson.
When you are ready, you must upload your assignment file to preserve the formatting of your student performance spreadsheets. All of your documentation should be in one Word or PDF file. You will not be able to upload multiple documents.
This reflection assignment is based on the lesson knowledge and skills that are introduced in course 5300. It is based on the emerging movement of national pre-professional licensure assessments. Successful performance on this reflection will greatly benefit you as you progress through your career. Therefore, your work must be proficient in all categories for this assignment. Please ensure your submission reflects your best work and meets the criteria for proficiency in every category.
Class Specifics:
Special Education.
Grading Rubric is attached
