Standard4

Home Standard1 Standard2 Standard3 Standard5 Standard6 Standard7 Standard8 Standard9 Standard10


 * Standard 4

// Instructional Strategies // ** The teacher understands and uses a variety of instructional strategies, including the use of technology, to encourage children’s development of critical thinking, problem solving, and performance skills.

Rationale 4: This lesson was created to learn about various metropolitan cities. Each sixth grade class was assigned a city to represent them in the 6th Grade Winter Olympics. Together they created wikis, banners, and opening day skits. On the final day, the games took place. Technology was incorporated into this unit through the use of [|www.wikispaces.com] and online web-browsing. Students found pictures and photographs online and copied them to their own wiki page. Then they conducted research on their city and explained the significance of their images.

Evidence 4: http://pulaskibrainstormers.wikispaces.com/C+Jessica-Santana

KSD:


 * 4.K.3 The teacher knows how to enhance learning through the use of a wide variety of materials and technological resources.**

Rather than having students look up information in books or just give them articles to read, students had to seek out the information themselves. They were divided up into pairs and were given a mini-lesson on how to research and find reliable information on the web. Students also learned how to cite their sources. They created their own wiki page and organized it in an aesthetically pleasing manner.


 * 4.S.1 The teacher carefully evaluates how to achieve learning goals, choosing alternative teaching strategies and materials to achieve different instructional purposes and to meet student needs.**

Students researched online to achieve their learning goals. Students were able to work together or on separate computers to meet varying needs. If students learned best in an interpersonal setting they could search for images together. If the pair learned better intrapersonally they could split up the research and put it all together at the end. The wiki could be viewed independently or presented to the class to meet various learning styles.


 * 4.D.2 The teacher values flexibility and reciprocity in the teaching process as necessary for adapting instruction to student responses, ideas, and needs.**

Initially I wanted student pairs to research together on the same computer, but that wasn’t working for all groups. Luckily there were other available computers, so certain pairs could work independently and collaborate together at the end of the unit. There is nothing wrong with being flexible and individualizing projects and lessons to best meet the needs of all students.