maria pairitz's
community of teachers portfolio
v. instructional strategies
evidence
Effectively creating and implementing a variety of instructional strategies is critical to engaging and fostering critical thinking skills in students. The ability to construct a lesson that engages multiple learning preferences and prior knowledge and experiences of my students is a skill that requires constant assessment and reflection. Through my evidence, I demonstrate my competence in this developed ability.
The evidence I have collected include several artifacts from my EDUC-W200 Using Technology in Education course, a reflection of an impromptu presentation for Intro to 3D courses in my mentorship, student examples from an online critique I created for AP Drawing/2D in my mentorship, materials, reflections, pictures, video, and an outline of various instructional strategies used in the planning and execution of a week long unit I lead for Ceramics 1 through my mentorship, a text resource that I referred to in the creation of my unit, an assignment I created through OneNote for AP Drawing/2D with examples of student work, and journal excerpts from my mentorship.
These experiences have been invaluable to my growth in my ability to develop and execute an array of instructional strategies to cultivate critical and active processors of information. Because I was generating and carrying out lesson plans and activities for real students, the instructional strategies I included were specifically chosen for my students as I considered their learning preferences and knowledge and experiences from previous projects in class, things I would not have been aware of had I been creating a lesson for an imaginary class. This is significant because it translates into authentic evidence for my portfolio.
I will use these experiences and artifacts in the future as knowledge to draw from when I teach in the future. I have reflected and assessed what instructional strategies were most effective, efficient, and engaging and can use that to make my lessons better for future students. I will capitalize on the feedback given my mentor to improve my developing knowledge of instructional strategies for future lessons
Patterns I observe in my choices of instructional strategies include that I am excited by and promote the idea of students co-creating knowledge. I consciously structure my lessons to include instructional strategies that prompted students to draw connections from past experiences combined with present observations to develop the knowledge required to grasp and apply a certain concept or perform a skill. I also tend to use equal parts integration of technology and "traditional" methods (note taking for example) in my lessons, occasionally being heavy in technology or using it sparingly.
For a pre-service teacher I believe I have exceeded my own personal expectations for this teaching competency. I believe the experiences and artifacts I have collected for this expectation reflect my ability to successfully integrate and implement a variety of instructional strategies in my lessons. I do recognize that completion of this expectation does not mean I have mastered all instructional strategies or do not have more to learn, but with that said, I have confidence that this expectation has reached Ready to Teach.
W200 is not required for CoT students, but I am grateful I took it before I joined CoT because it has been instrumental in developing my use of technology in the classroom. I present this piece of evidence first, because I believe it laid the groundwork for several other pieces of evidence for this expectation and others.
The biggest take away from this class for me was implementing the 3 E's: Efficiency, Effectiveness, and Enhancement/Engagement. Anytime we created a tool or activity using technology, we had to ask ourselves 1. Is it efficient? Does it save time? Does it streamline? 2. Is it effective? Does it help meet the standards successfully? 3. Does it enhance the lesson? Does it offer engaging learning experiences? Does it enrich our learning environment? While these questions were designed to help us determine whether or not incorporating technology into a specific lesson was beneficial, I believe these same questions can applied to determining whether or not an instructional strategy is efficient, effective, and enhancing/engaging and worth including in my lesson. I go back to these questions every time I plan a lesson.
Two large projects we completed over the course of the semester included creating an E-Portfolio and a Teacher Website. The E-Portfolio is a collection of all my technology related lessons, activities, and strategies to show potential employers. Most of these lessons and activities have not been tested on real students except for the Service Learning Project where I created several artifacts for a lesson of my selected teacher's choice (more information can be found in the "service Learning Project" tab in my E-Portfolio for W00). I created several artifacts designed to address some of his concerns and to make his lesson more efficient, effective, and engaging. This experience was beneficial because it was my first time creating instructional resources for a real class and working with the needs of the teacher and class in mind. This experience has further helped me to create my own instructional artifacts for my mentorship which are included in this expectation.
The second, large project we had involved creating a teacher website that our future students might use. While this was never used with real students, creating this website allowed me to think about how a teacher website might be useful in the future. A lot of schools have school wide systems like Canvas, Blackboard, or OneNote for teachers to upload resources, assignments, and grades, so I'm not sure how effective having a teacher website would be in situations like that because I wouldn't want to confuse my students with "Use THIS website to submit assignments, but use THIS one to find the materials and resources." But in situations where the school does not have a system like those, I would definitely create a teacher website for my students to use. It's a more efficient, effective, and engaging way to disseminate all the class materials. So instead of printing out papers that they may lose, or having them type in a long link, I can have the articles and resources in a safe spot for them to access whenever they need and links to important websites on my teacher website that they can access easily.
CANVAS Critique: AP Drawing/2D
Notes from Mentor (click to see full image)
For an Intro to 3D course, my mentor wanted me to create a powerpoint that gave a brief overview of ways the students could incorporate texture into their project. We decided to do this after assessing halfway through the project that many students were relying on surface decoration of underglaze and glaze to make their sculpture look like the object they were making. For example, someone who made a clay sphere was merely going to paint it orange and add black lines to make it look like a basketball instead of including texture on the ball used to better grip it or the indentations of the black lines.
I created a powerpoint and sent it to her to use in class and had forgotten about it thinking she had presented it until the day I came in for my mentorship and she said she would love me to present it since I had created it! I hadn't really rehearsed what I would say or do during the presentation so I had to act on my feet. While the presentation got across the information that we wanted our students to have, I wanted it to be more interactive and engaging for them instead of this passive receiving of information. From that, I was able to quickly rework the presentation to be more interactive. I was thinking through this presentation during 1st and 2nd period which are two Ceramics 1 classes. Their pinch pots had just been brought out from the kiln, so I asked the classes if they would mind if I used their pieces as examples for my Intro to 3D classes. They all said yes and were excited to see that their works were "good enough" to be used as examples for another class. I filled a cart with the examples and took them to the other classroom where we teach Intro to 3D and set examples on each table. I made sure to have at least one example of each texture technique on each table.
When 3rd period came around, I had them sit down and asked them to carefully pick up and feel and look at the examples on the table. I told them that these were their peer's works from Ceramics 1 so to be careful. I also told them that if they enjoyed the unit in clay they should think about taking Ceramics 1 next semester and that these were examples of projects they would do in that class.
I then proceed with the presentation and before introducing each technique, I ask them to deduce what they believe the technique is based on name of the technique and then asked them to hold up which piece at their table the think is an example of this technique we are about to talk about. Having a concrete example that they could see and touch instead of an image on the screen and asking them to make educated guesses on what they believed each technique was made the presentation more engaging and effective than giving a straight presentation from a powerpoint.
I took the time to explain my process and implementation of these instructional strategies because it is important to be able to come up with effective, engaging, efficient instructional strategies on the fly. Had I not had this skill, the presentation would not have been meaningful to myself or my students. Being able to pull from previous experiences in my own classes as a student and my observations from my mentorship, I was able to create my own lesson that incorporated instructional strategies that addressed visual, auditory, and tactile learning preferences within an hour of presenting.
I developed and implemented this online critique after I brought up my concerns about the fact that my mentor does not do classroom critiques after projects. Critiques are a crucial instructional strategy in any art class and an important part of the creative process for students, but Ms. O feels that in order to allow enough time for them to work on their projects, she is forced to cut out critiques because it would take at least two class periods per project to get through everyone's. I suggested that instead of an in class critique we create an online critique through Canvas so we can keep that critical aspect of art making without sacrificing in class work time. She thought this was a great idea and allowed me to implement it.
I created a discussion on Canvas and students were required to upload a high quality image of their project, comment on three peers' projects, and respond to the comments they received on their own piece. The critique was efficient because it saved in class work time, effective because everyone has access to Canvas and was able to post their images and comments, and engaging because this was a new way to use technology to benefit their creative process.
While the online critique was a success, drawbacks include a lack of face to face interaction between students. A conversation online is much different than in class. It's harder to build off of each other's ideas, especially if you're only concerned with earning your points and don't take the time to read comments on other pieces and respond just because you have an idea or connection, not because you're required to. So I don't believe online critique should REPLACE in class critique, but possibly using the online critique for half the projects and in class critique for the other half so students are getting the benefits of both instructional strategies.
Wheel Unit: Ceramics 1
I am including a weeklong unit on throwing on the wheel for ceramics 1 that I created and taught during my mentorship. In this unit I implemented several different instructional strategies including, project based learning, authentic assessment, adjunct display note taking, activating and connecting to prior knowledge and experiences, wheel and deal system, daily objectives, demonstration/modeling, individualized instruction, affirmation, guided discussion/discovery, wait time, humor, multimedia presentation, examples, observational learning, and practice. I tried my best to put a label to every strategy I used but there are probably many I missed or don't have a name to give because almost anything can be an instructional strategy if it's efficient, effective, and engaging for students in helping them meet learning objectives.
Project Based Learning & Authentic Assessment
Project Based Learning in art class is almost a given, but I included it in my list anyway because so many schools are pushing towards project based learning and honestly, they need not look further than their own art department for strategies to implementing this in other content areas.
For the unit on the wheel, I wanted students to have a goal to work towards while recognizing that most of them would not be able to produce anything by the end of the week since this is just a taste and not enough time for them to master the wheel. I had them select a cup to mimic and then asked them to sketch the cup and draw relationships between different parts of the cup so they could understand how slight changes in proportions can create a whole new silhouette. They had five days to upload their image and sketch onto Canvas for a completion grade. So their project for the wheel was to try and mimic the contour of their cup on the wheel. The assessment was going to be through a cookies and milk critique where students would be able to drink from their cup and assess if their lip was uneven, too sharp, let milk dribble down their chins, if the cup felt good to hold, if it was too heavy, if it didn't hold enough liquid, etc. This is an authentic assessment because they are actually using something they made off the wheel to assess it's functionality. Unfortunately, I was way too ambitious thinking they would all be able to produce a cup at the end of the week so they will not be doing this, but I will keep the idea for a more advanced ceramics class.
Guided Discussion/Discovery, Wait Time, Multimedia Presentation, Humor, Examples, and Activating and Connecting to Prior Knowledge and Experiences
On the first day of the unit I gave a presentation giving students an introduction to the wheel, how it originated and evolved, and the many possibilities it encompasses. Since my strategy for the texture presentation I gave for Intro to 3D (see above) of placing examples for students to touch and look at on the tables worked so well, I brought in several personal examples for them to look at during the presentation. My hook involved humor. I had a comic up on the screen and asked "Do I have any Harry Potter fans out there?" and they got a good kick out of that. I then connected magic and sorcery to two points. 1. That many people think the wheel is magic. Like you plop the clay on the wheel and it magically becomes an object. And 2. Ceramics is a form of alchemy. We're transforming mud into an object that will outlast our great great great grandchildren. My powerpoint included text, images, and video. While I gave the presentation I walked around the room so it felt like I was part of the discussion instead of standing at the front and presenting information. I also made sure that I structured the presentation in a way where they were prompted to make new discoveries and create knowledge based off of their prior knowledge and experiences through guided discussion/discovery. Some examples included asking them issues they faced during an earlier project where they created coil constructed vessels. I then used the issues they provided and connected them to similar issues people faced thousands of years ago and the need to solve those issues was the beginning of the creating of the wheel. I formatted it in a problem/solution format. So the problems of hand building ceramic vessels included not being perfectly symmetrical, not an efficient means of constructing multiple items, and it took a long time. So the solution to those problems were the potters wheel. Another instance I had them connect to prior knowledge was when I introduced the first predecessor to the wheel which involved ancient peoples uses mats or large leave to place their pots on so they could easily turn them. I asked if we used a similar device when constructing our coil vessels and they related it to the lazy Susan that they used. Another example of connecting to prior knowledge was when I introduced the kick wheel I showed a video of an artist who still uses the kick wheel as opposed to electric wheels. I asked my students why they thought he would choose to use the kick wheel when the electric wheel exists. A lot of them guessed that you could feel the speed change and be more physically connected to the wheel. So I asked if anyone drove stick shift. A few raised their hands. I asked them why they preferred stick shift over automatic and their response was similar to our guesses: they liked being in control of the speed changes. There were several other instances I connected to prior knowledge and experience as I made an explicit effort to have everything I presented connect to my students, but I'll only share these few.
Because my presentation was more of a guided discussion/discovery, I had to make sure I allowed enough wait time. I pushed through that awkward silence during first period, sometimes rephrasing my questions or asking additional ones to prompt answers. My second period class was much more prompt to respond leading to an ongoing dialogue throughout the presentation.
Adjunct Display Note Taking, Demonstration/Modeling,
Observational Learning, and Humor
I created a notes sheet for them with two columns. The first column for them to jot down their observations while I threw on the wheel silently. I didn’t tell them anything I was doing so they could hone in on their observation skills and be more engaged in the process of creating their knowledge of how to work on the wheel instead of me walking them through everything step by step and half paying attention. I told them their goal was to make an observation that they think no one else would make during my demo. This made it a little bit of a challenge. I also said that they need to write down EVERYTHING. I said “If I put up my hair, you write that I put up my hair. If I pick my nose, you write that I picked my nose” which got a good laugh. During my first demo they were all so focused and engaged in what I was doing. When I finished the first demo, I reset my wheel and then asked them to walk me through their observations from beginning to end. When they told me their observations I was able to clarify and give additional information that they then wrote down in the adjacent column. This strategy and worksheet was such a success. It was so effective in keeping students focused and engaged because sometimes when you listen to someone talk and give a demo it’s easy to drift off in your mind and miss important information, whereas when I ask them to actively build knowledge from their own observations, they were more invested in learning the additional information I had to give.
50 Instructional Routines to Develop Content Literacy
I am including this resource from my course EDUC-M469 Teaching Reading and Writing. Basically, this text contains 50 instructional strategies with directions and examples for each one. I include this book because I referred to this text when developing some of my strategies and materials for the Unit I taught. I go into greater detail in the reflection for that specific piece of evidence, but I did want to show an example where I have adapted a resource from one of my methods classes and applied it in a classroom setting. After adapting the adjunct display routine they provided for my wheel throwing unit, I plan to adapt several other routines from this text for future lessons as it proved to be efficient, effective, and engaging.
I have also included my final project in M464. We had to create a unit plan with lessons that focused on developing content area literacy through effective and engaging instructional strategies. We used "50 Instructional Routines to Develop Content Literacy" as our main source of inspiration for the instructional routines we included in our lessons. While I feel that the restrictions of this project and the lack of actual classroom application hindered the potential of my unit plan, it did help me think seriously about the ways in which I promote and develop students' content literacy through the implementation of a variety of instructional routines.
Journal Excerpts
For Intro to 3D, Ms. O had me give a short presentation about creating various textures in clay. I had made a powerpoint for it about two weeks ago and we didn't know if we were going to use it or not this semester since they had already started the project, but this morning she asked me if I would comfortable presenting it. HERE is my slideshow. I was a little nervous since I hadn't really prepared to give a presentation, but I was honestly really impressed and proud of how quickly I was able to think on my feet and create a presentation that wasn't just me standing up at the front clicking through slides. I am a big believer in having real, physical examples for students to look at. They are much different than looking at an image on the screen. Luckily, Ceramics 1's pinch pot projects had just come out of the kiln today, so I grabbed a bunch of pots that demonstrated the various textures I was going to be introducing to Intro to 3D from those two class periods, works from past students, and some of Ms. Osborne's pieces. I placed the examples at all of the tables (about 4-5 per table), each with a different texture technique. I then tailored the presentation so that before going in depth each texture technique, I would ask them to hold up the pot they think demonstrates it based on the name of the technique. I also told them that this was peer's work that had been done in Ceramics 1, so if they enjoy this unit in clay and think the projects on the table are amazing, to sign up for Ceramics next year.
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AP Drawing and 2D are really having fun with my breadth assignment and I love all of their ideas for the object morph. I did not take any pictures this week, so I'll have to remember next. During this period I graded the critique assignment on Canvas. I feel like I know how you and Gretchen must feel when grading discussion posts and responses on Canvas. It's so tedious, and some people just don't even do it. The one's who did do it however, had great responses and ideas so I'm happy with that. HERE is a PDF of all their responses and posts on the assignment. I don't know if a lot of people just weren't paying attention when I was introducing it, or if they didn't read any of the directions posted, but there was a substantial amount who have 0/45 points for this discussion. That'll be something I want to further look into.
I managed to keep the classroom on task and focused without being annoying. I had to demonstrate to each of the tables how to reclaim clay, so the first time I demonstrated and then I brought the next group up and a student from the previous group had stayed to reclaim her own clay for the project so I had her demo it to the next group. Then I had two guys from that group demo for the next group. I think the students that got to demo really enjoyed that because it was an opportunity to demonstrate a skill to their peers which develops confidence in my opinion. Plus peers like learning from their peers, it's more engaging and fun!
I talked to Ms. O about whether or not they do class critiques on finished projects. She said it was funny I mentioned that because the art teachers feel as a department they have been slacking when it comes to making time for class critiques because it can take two to three days out of class time to talk about everyone's work, so they were looking for a solution to that issue. Recently, Fishers has switched to Canvas and teachers and students are still adjusting, so I thought it would be a great opportunity to use the discussions feature in canvas to have an online critique. This way, students still receive the benefit of critiquing and receiving feedback from peer's without taking away time during the school day. We still will have at least one critique in class because verbal critique is an important skill and much different than an online forum, but I think this is a better solution than hosting no critiques at all. I walked Ms. O through the process of setting up a discussion on canvas during prep and then I introduced the assignment to her 5th hour AP drawing/2d class. While I introduced the assignment, I had them follow along on their own laptops so I could demo the process of posting images of their work to the discussion and how to reply to each others comments. I kept asking if they were doing okay, if they understood what they were doing, how much experience they have with canvas etc, and I was just met with blank stares or people who didn't even lift their faces up from their laptop, so I couldn't get a read. I don't think they were being resistant or rude, I just don't think Ms. O asks for verbal feedback or eye contact when she's giving them info in class.
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I did a great job putting my observations from a week or two ago into practice. I had mentioned treading the line of doing student's work for them and demonstrating techniques that will help them progress. Today a student asked me how to draw saturn when he was sketching ideas for the next project. I thought it was funny at first because it's just a circle with rings around it, but he genuinely wanted to learn how to draw it well. So first we looked at a picture of Saturn and I asked him what he thinks is difficult about drawing it. He said he didn't know how to make the rings look like they go around the body of the planet. So then I asked him to tell me what aspects in the image of saturn indicate that the lines are wrapping around the planet instead of existing in front or behind it in a straight line. He pointed out the shadows on the rings, the gap between the rings and the planet, and how it is a 3 dimensional object around a 3 dimensional object. So I sketched on another paper how I would begin to show these aspects that he's described and then he tried it on his paper. I praised his effort but he wanted to try again to make it better. I honestly was really impressed that he wanted to try again because most students want to take the easiest route, but it goes to show that students will put in the effort if it is something they are interested in or connected to. I let him know I was impressed with his effort and desire to practice to make it better. I know that sounds like a super simple encounter with a student, but I'm proud of the way I prompted him to make observations and apply those observations to his drawing when I could've just sketched it for him on his sheet of paper and have hime be like "cool, thanks."
Practice, Affirmation, Individualized Instruction, Wheel and Deal System,
Daily Objectives, and Humor
After the first day of presentation and demos, students had the rest of the week to practice on the wheel. I could demo a thousand times and tell them every tiny detail they should know, but they won't understand it or be able to apply it until they try for themselves. That is why a large portion of the unit is solely dedicated to practice in class on the wheel. I make sure to have daily objectives on the projector each morning so they can refer back to it if they get stuck. I adjusted the objectives each morning based on my assessments during the previous day. I have included my original powerpoint with my objectives for the week and what the powerpoint became after adjusting it each morning in the Unit Materials and Resources link above.
We only have ten wheel in the classroom so we created a wheel and deal system. Basically students are paired up and one starts on the wheel and the other helps remind them what steps come next or help spot mistakes they might make. This is beneficial for both the person on the wheel and the person watching because the person on the wheel has support and someone to lean on when they hit a blank when trying to remember certain steps while the one watching is able to see what their partner is doing well or what mistakes they are making and possibly catch themselves before they make the same mistakes.
When students are learning something completely new and out of their comfort zone, I tend affirm their efforts and work ethic to keep them staying positive as it can be easy to get frustrated when you can't figure out why you aren't succeeding. Humor also places a role in keeping the atmosphere light hearted. I joke around with my students when their piece is a tragic mess or when I see them beginning to get frustrated so they keep in mind that this is just clay, not life or death.
Individualized instruction comes into play a lot during practice time. I usually walk around from wheel to wheel and assess each students progress and where they're getting hung up on. Then I will let them know what mistake they are making and how to correct it or what they are doing well at. I also take the opportunity to teach different techniques and methods of throwing on the wheel that I think an individual may be more successful with than the way I initially taught the whole class. Students are able to work at their own pace during practice and so I can work with students at various levels easily. Sometimes if I notice a group of students making the same mistake I pulled them aside and did a small group demo or stopped the whole class for a second if I consistently saw the same mistake all around and made a quick announcement about what I was seeing and how to fix it.
Overall, this unit was very successful and a great opportunity for me to practice a wide variety of instructional practices with students. Through this experience I have been able to evaluate and assess what instructional strategies were most effective, efficient, and engaging and know what to keep and change for next time (I go more in depth in my reflection in the link above). This experience was invaluable to my development and implementation of instructional strategies in the classroom. I would use all of the strategies I listed above again.
OneNote Assignments
Before HSE Schools switched to Canvas, they used OneNote operating system. This is one of the first OneNote assignments I sent out to students in the AP Drawing/2D class. Like Canvas, OneNote was an efficient and effective means of providing instruction and resources that could be accessed at any time by the students. Then students could upload a picture of their finished pieced and a short critique/reflection that also effectively streamlined the grading process. I do prefer OneNote to Canvas, especially for an art class, because OneNote is great for creating visual assignments and resources and it was great for the students to gather ideas and keep almost a visual journal of inspiration for their projects. Canvas is more difficult for that purpose but has it's advantages too, especially in the case of the online critique (see above).
Below are some student examples of the complete project.
This was one of the first times I was able to observe Ms. O introducing a project and giving a "lecture." She does a great job prompting students to answer questions about what she's presenting. She also does a good job taking information and ideas they've learned throughout the course and using it to deduce what a new idea or phrase means. For example, they had already learned the term "abstract" but didn't know what "abstract expressionism" was. So Instead of straight up giving them a definition, she lead them to it by asking them what abstract art was, what prior knowledge they had about expressionism, and then put two and two together to come up with the definition. It's small, but I think in the long wrong it does help students make connections and grasp the concept better in the long run.
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In her Jewelry classes, the one that was moving at a crazy fast pace she decided to restructure. Instead of trying to restrain them to working on each assigned project and not allowing them to move on if they were working at a faster clip, she decided to make basically an open studio where she assigned a number of completed projects they need by the end of the semester and left it up to them how to fulfill all the techniques she wants them to be able to demonstrate by the end of the semester and at what rate they make them. I think it's great she recognized that this class was much more advanced than her other Jewelry class and restructured the curriculum to meet them where they were instead of holding them back or trying to make the slower/lower skill level class work faster or demonstrate more difficult techniques. I did look at their critique sheets both classes have to fill out at the end of each class. It basically consists of a rubric where they rate their craftsmanship, technical skills, and concept and then they answer the questions "What could you have improved in this piece?"I think this is a great question to help them reflect, but I would also add a second question asking "What are you most proud of in this piece?" because I think it's easy to critique yourself; it's hard to give yourself props. I want my students to be proud of their work while understanding what they can do better. So that was my only suggestion.
Today in Intro to 3D, students were working on sketches for their totem pole project in clay. This is the first time I'm able to experience the very beginnings of a project, so it was nice to see the steps MS. O took to prepare students for it. She has them sketch a few thumbnail ideas, select the one they like the most, then they have to do a final sketch, with measurements, on a strip of paper that is 20 inches long which is how tall the actual project will be so they can visualize what it will look like in the end. I went around looking at sketches and asked them to tell me some of their ideas, which sketch they liked best, and some aspects of their project they felt would be the most difficult to pull off. I felt so comfortable and I was surprised at how willing they were to explain their ideas to me and problem solve with me.
During lunch we talked about students who were submitting pieces to the Scholastic Art and Writing Awards. The photography teacher said that she used to pick "the best" pieces and submit them, but now she lets her students choose which ones they want to submit or if they want to submit anything at all. I like this because who knows what art will speak to the judges? After lunch was AP art. She showed me the board she created to help students keep track of their portfolio and visualize it easier since the pieces vary in size and can't all be laid out at the same time. I like this because they can get an easier sense of whether or not their pieces are cohesive.
