Standard 7

The teacher draws upon knowledge of content areas, cross-disciplinary skills, learners, the community, and pedagogy to plan instruction that supports every student in meeting rigorous learning goals.

My Interpretation: The teacher uses knowledge of the subject, teaching strategies, students, and the community to plan lessons that help all students achieve challenging learning goals.

Artifact 1: TWS Lesson Plan 5

Indicator: 7 (c) Develops appropriate sequencing of learning experiences and provides multiple ways to demonstrate knowledge and skill.

Introduction to Artifact: This artifact is lesson five from my teacher's work sample. It is on the multiplication of rational numbers, the fourth lesson in module four. The prior lessons were on changing decimals to fractions and vice versa, adding rational numbers, and subtracting rational numbers. Multiplication is the next operation in the module.

Rationale: In my lesson plan's teaching and learning sequence section, I break down the instructions I gave to the class that day. The first thing I do with them is remind them of the rules we learned from multiplication in the last module, which were that a negative times a negative equals a positive, and a negative times a positive equals a negative. I also introduced the idea that multiplying fractions can multiply straight across (Numerator times numerator and denominator times denominator). When starting my guided step examples with the students, I start with an example of multiplying simple fractions, such as 3/8 times 2/5. After I check that they understood the steps to that example, I will move on and do an example where they have mixed numbers. I will introduce the idea that they have to make the mixed numbers into improper fractions before multiplying, and teach them how to do that. Finally, I will do an example where they have to substitute in for x and y (given to them) and multiply by three different fractions. As you will notice, the sequence of the problems becomes increasingly difficult, but only by adding an extra step or two. It provides the students with the correct sequencing in order to be able to master the learning experience. At the end of the guided notes, I also give them different examples to try and practice on worksheets. This allows them multiple ways to show me that the learning sequence worked and that they understand the content knowledge.

Artifact 2: TWS Module 4 Review Lesson Plan

Indicator: 7 (l) Knows when and how to adjust plans based on assessment information and learner responses.

Introduction to Artifact: This is Module 4 that I did for the students. It goes over all the rules and gives them examples of problems to try. They are allowed to use their notes on a test/quiz, so the point of this module 4 review is to provide them with all the information they will need on the quiz/test in one place. The top part breaks down all the rules with guiding questions, and then they can use the rules they just completed with me to complete the example problems.

Rationale: This review followed the final lesson on combining rational number operations. During the lesson, the students understood the different steps and how to complete the problems. After we finish the guided notes, I usually give them the practice worksheet that goes along with the lesson because they have good examples that allow them to further practice the knowledge they just learned. After giving them this practice worksheet, I realized it was confusing the students and causing them to struggle with the concepts. I decided to have the students throw the practice in the trash (which they loved) and do this review with them instead. I knew that if I had them continue with the worksheet, it would just confuse them even more. Instead of that, I decided to adjust my thinking and plan and do a module 4 review that will sequence out the different lessons that we went through until they finally get to combining all operations, where I gave them easier problems closer to the examples we went over together while doing guided notes.