A lesson that I taught in 5th grade in of the elementary schools in Seattle.
In literacy classes of MAT program one of the assignments was creating a sequence of three lesson plans with a purpose of writing. Then after preparing the lesson plans, we had to teach one of them in our internship placements. I was working with a 4th grade teacher in of the elementary schools in Seattle. My host teacher was very supportive, and I learned a lot from that assignment.
The most challenging part of the lesson was online teaching in Microsoft Teams. In Seattle Public Schools you must have an account to be able to record your teaching to analyze it later. But even with having an account the Microsoft Teams did not work well on a day of my lesson. I was nervous but decided to go with it and do the best what I can.
I feel that during pandemic a lot of teachers realized that they are not ready to online teaching. As they quickly found out that online teaching is different and it has its own positive and negative sides. I think some teachers embraced it and learned quickly how to use Zoom or Microsoft Teams, as well as Seesaw, Google Classroom and Google Jamboard and some teachers struggled with it. I was always an advanced user of various computer programs but even I feel that online teaching requires to be prepared to it.
At the time of my lesson, my host teacher worked on functional texts and the final assignment for students was creating a Recipe, How to Draw or Make something, Maps, Menu or Games. Every student had chosen the topic and created the functional text example. While I was preparing my lesson plans, I realized that I do not know much about functional texts and I did my research. Then I prepared three Power Point Presentations for each lesson accordingly. The presentations aimed to explain six concepts that would help students to organize their writing.
Even though six concepts were good, during my teaching I realized that there was a lack of scaffolding in it. For 4th grader it is hard to think about writing by keeping in mind multiple perspectives. I think, this is something they will develop in high school writing. So, I need to learn how to scaffold my lesson better.
“When I think of differentiation, I always remember our classes on special education, differentiation, and inclusion.”
The positive side of my differentiation of that lesson was working together on creating an instruction manual How to take care of your pet. A lot of students had pets in their homes so I received many good comments of what instructions should be included in the manual. I felt how they quickly responded on my questions as the topic was related to them and how they felt connected to the lesson.
When I think of differentiation, I always remember our classes on special education, differentiation, and inclusion. As a part of assignment, I had a conversation special education teacher and she told me that general teachers do not want to have students with disabilities in their classrooms because they do not how to work with them. Thanks to the MAT program, I know the importance of inclusion in public schools and how to find specific tools so that all my students had a feeling of belonging to the classroom.
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