"Every child deserves a champion – an adult who will never give up on them, who understands the power of connection and insists that they become the best that they can possibly be."
InTASC Standard:
Standard #7: Planning for Instruction
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The teacher plans instruction that supports every student in meeting rigorous learning goals by drawing upon knowledge of content areas, curriculum, cross-disciplinary skills, and pedagogy, as well as knowledge of learners and the community context (InTASC, 2013).
Brief Description of Evidence:
During my spring semester of 2020 in my EDUC 224 - Introduction to Scientific Inquiry course, I had the opportunity to create a Summer/Science Camp Lesson Plan for 4th-grade students that allowed me to teach science-based topics in the content areas such as Physical Science, Earth and Space Science, and Engineering. I was not able to implement this summer camp because of the current educational environment created by COVID-19. As a result of the unexpected school closure, the school decided to plan a summer enrichment camp. Some of the requirements for our summer/science camp was to find a place for our camp to be held, create a flyer to get students excited to sign up for camp S.L.E.E.P (Space, Life, Earth, Engineering, and Physical), create a daily schedule, create a menu, and prepare snacks for my potential fourth graders. In addition to those requirements, I had to cover all four science areas within the Indiana Academic Standards (Physical, Life, Earth/Space Sciences, and Engineering). So I created a 4-day lesson plan for the students and each day I implemented a different topic. Day#1: “Earth and The Solar System”, Day#2: “Simple Machines”, Day #3: “Forces and Motion”, and Day #4: “Earth and The Solar System”. Each day the students had to complete an activity or project that I had assigned for the day.
Analysis of What I Learned:
Throughout the process of creating a summer/ science camp, I realized how much effort is required to put together a quality lesson plan. I spent hours on the preparation of this summer/science camp. I learned how important it is to provide specific learning objectives as well. I also learned how fundamental it is to include Bloom’s Taxonomy of Planning Verbs (Staff, 2021) in the objectives you set for your learners. To achieve these learning objectives, I, therefore, looked at the prior knowledge of the content, pedagogy, and cross-disciplinary skills of my learners. I also learned how important it is to have a timeline of what and when certain aspects of the summer camp were due. I followed the suggested timeline our instructors put together. This allowed me to complete each task in a timely manner and not rush to get it done at the last minute.
How This Artifact Demonstrates my Competence on the InTASC Standard:
I have demonstrated my competence in Standard 7 - Planning for Instruction by creating a summer/science camp lesson plan that included Bloom’s Taxonomy of Planning Verbs (Staff, 2021). In order to create this lesson, I had to draw upon my current knowledge about each topic that I had assigned for each day and then further my knowledge by researching activities and information that I could use in the summer camp such as watching Youtube videos and looking at Pinterest. I also had to draw upon the learner’s prior knowledge by asking the parents what their children had previously learned. This allowed me to create a lesson and set objectives that challenged the students. This lesson plan demonstrates my competence because it supported every student in setting goals by using a variety of instructional strategies. I worked hard to deliver a quality lesson plan to ensure my student’s growth. During this lesson, I used strategies such as asking questions, gathering information from different resources such as Pinterest and YouTube videos, considering different alternatives on how to create this lesson, and making a plan of action to know step by step how to make the schedule for each day. In order to produce a quality experience for the learners, I used all of these strategies to create a lesson plan that helped the students stay engaged. After the end of each day, I had the students write a journal about what they liked, learned, wished about the lessons we taught, and share it with everyone.