Standard7

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** Standard 7 ** The teacher organizes and plans systematic instruction based upon knowledge of subject matter, pupils, the community, and curriculum goals.
 * Teachers are able to plan different kinds of lessons. **

Evidence 1: Introductory Speech for Student Teacher Rationale 1: This unit was developed for students to find success in public speaking. The assignment was for them to tell interesting things about themselves, and the audience included the class, me, and our new student teacher. We all know that many people fear public speaking, and when sixth graders are afraid, they tend to create very short speeches that are not all that interesting. My goal was for them to talk about a subject of which they are an expert (themselves) and to speak on that topic for four to six minutes. By breaking the speech down into small parts and modeling my expectations, the students were able to write some pretty amazing speeches that gave our student teacher a lot of interesting information about the students and their personalities and also impressed her with their organization and length.

This evidence is important to my development as a teacher because I saw the benefits of breaking something down and keeping each part simple in order to find success for every student, and every student truly was successful. The students were excited to use PowerPoint, and since we did that part early on and were able to return to it as needed during speech planning, they were quite motivated. They were never allowed to add any other information besides the clip art and heading because I wanted them to move away from depending on the words on the screen. Instead I wanted them to rely on the words that they’d practiced. Because the students were not looking at their PowerPoint the entire time, they were freed to show their personalities, and the speeches were often funny. Typically I haven’t enjoyed listening to speeches, but these were fantastic. Technology definitely aided these students in organizing their speeches and teaching it in a step-by-step process gave them all the tools they needed to introduce themselves with a bang! KSD 7.K.1 The teacher understands learning theory, subject matter, curriculum development, and student development to plan instruction and to meet curriculum goals based on content standards One of my strengths is planning lessons and units that lead to student success. I believe in breaking things down so that students at every level can find success. I like to have open-ended expectations so that higher-level students can take their work to the next level. I try not to worry about due dates; instead I monitor student work constantly. If students need more time, I give it. When they are ready to move on, we do. I rarely have them finish work at home because so often, at this age, what they do at home is not great quality. I would rather take an extra day at school where I know they work hardest. I also believe in modeling constantly. They cannot understand what I want them to do unless they see me doing it. When it comes to speaking, I model the expected skills daily.  7.S.2 The teacher plans for learning opportunities that recognize and address variation in learning styles, learning differences, and performance modes As I stated before, I plan in a way that leads to success for all students who are willing to use the time I give them. Students feel empowered when they know they do not have to rush. My goal is to give the time needed at school as long as the time is being used wisely. Again, as I have said many times, breaking large assignments down into smaller pieces benefits most learning styles at all levels.  7.D.2 The teacher believes that plans must always be open to adjustment and revision based on student needs and changing circumstances. I constantly monitor student work to see how much time they need to complete each component of an assignment, and I did that with this speech unit. In my original plan, I thought they would need a day or two to write out their speeches in paragraph form. As I monitored them, I noticed that they needed more time. I believe it ended up being four class periods of writing and then another two or three to break that writing into bullet for their note cards. Many teachers would send that home to stay on track, but my goal was for great speeches, and I knew that would be more likely to happen if I just kept letting them work at school. The speeches took longer than I thought, but they really were good!