Instructional Decision-Making

Secondary Methods Assignment Cover Sheet

Title of Assignment: Instructional Decision-Making

Name: Katy Wood Date: 11/4/11

q Competency 006 – The teacher understands strategies for creating an organized and productive learning environment and for managing student behavior.

ustification Statement:

This artifact was created on November 4^th, 2011 in order to discuss how I would handle my classroom when my lesson does not go as planned. This artifact was created to discuss a Theatre 1 classroom in a high school setting. I will reflect on this assignment during my future classroom when I plan my lessons. In order for me to create an organized and productive learning environment, I will need to plan for when my lessons do not go according to plan and how I will respond and react to those situations. I believe this will be effective in my classroom because it is important to plan for the unexpected in the classroom, and by being prepared, my classroom will flow smoothly while still being productive and organized.

Instructional Decision-Making

Incident #1:

During the very first day of the unit while the class was participating in the areas of the stage activity, I realized that a good eighty percent of the class still did not understand the areas of the stage. While I was assessing their participation in the activity, I also concluded that because the majority of the students thought they were correct, the minority of the students that were actually correct were being persuaded incorrectly. I realized that my original lecture on the areas of the stage was not clearly instructed, and I would need to go back and review the lesson one more time to make sure that they understood. I decided to take a different approach in teaching the students this time around. Instead of teaching them on the board with a drawing, I stood on the stage and physically showed them the different areas of the stage, providing the same rational for why stage left was stage left…etc. I then assessed the students not by pointing to the white board and asking which area of the stage I was pointing to. Rather, I stood in the different areas of the stage and asked them where I was standing. I would then ask the students, “if I were going to move to up-stage right, where would I need to go?” The students responded very well to this type of teaching by getting excited to tell me the correct place to stand. Because so many of the students are visual and tactile learners, I felt this approach would appeal much better than a picture on the board since the stage looked completely different when you weren’t looking at it from above. After I re-taught that part of the lesson, I would play the same game again, but with less people in the groups. This would require more individual thinking as opposed to blindly following the group to the correct space.

Incident #2:

As I started the game left right switch, some of the students became very animated and created wonderful characters with the scenario they were given. However, many of the students appeared to be not trying as hard as the other students. After analyzing the situation in my head, I came to the conclusion that the students that were having a hard time were the ones that were given a place as opposed to a person or occupation. When I realized this, I stopped the game and we gave everyone a new scenario that was more specific, like an occupation or a nursery rhyme. This seemed to work well for the first group, but things changed when the second group came up to perform. I gave the second group the same type of scenarios, and they responded well to those, having lots of ideas of physical movement to characterize the situation. However, none of them changed their voices when they went to their other scene. Again, I stopped the game. I re-explained to the students that the name of the game was more focused on character voices than physicality, however, physicality was important. I then went around the circle and asked the students to give me a different character voice for their two scenarios. When they were having trouble, I told them they could change their speed to create a different voice, as well as pitch and dynamic. After giving them these examples, they seemed to grasp the concept more clearly. I believe the students just needed to hear an actual example, as well as a description of what makes a voice sound different. They then continued to play the game and perform quite well.