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Home > Standard 3: Teaching

Standard 3: Teaching

Overview

In this standard, the teacher displays a deep knowledge of content, that, when combined with the knowledge of teaching and knowledge of the learner and the learning environment, enables the development of instructional experiences that create and support the best possible opportunities for students to learn.  The instructional delivery methods and tools are appropriate for the type of learning target, and the teacher facilitates a challenging and active learning environment and encourages students to make decisions regarding their own learning.  

Relevant Description

In this lesson, the students participated in several activities about President's Day to compile into a video, shared on YouTube.  The students created hand tracing cherry trees while learning about George Washington, built log pretzel log cabins while learning about Abraham Lincoln, and participated in an interview addressing the question "What does the President of the United States do?.  
 
In the George Washington section of the lesson, students listened to a book about the life of George Washington.  Then, they went to their tables and traced their hand on brown construction paper.  We glued the construction paper to a blue background.  The students were then given green and red tissue paper to create the leaves and cherries on their hand trees.  I demonstrated this under the document camera.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
In the Abraham Lincoln section of the lesson, students listened to a book about the life of Abraham Lincoln.  Then, they went to their tables where there was a piece of green construction paper with pretzel rods on it.  Each table worked as a group to assemble a log cabin.  When they successfully built their cabin, I came around with a folded piece of brown construction paper to use as a roof.  After, the students enjoyed their pretzel rods and juice boxes as snack.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
To complete our video, I asked the students the question, “What does the President of the United States do?” at the beginning of the day.  While the students were creating their cherry trees, I took each student into the hall, one-by-one, to record their answers.  I complied all of our recordings and pictures into a video and showed the class the next day.  We, as a class, critiqued our video, the students and shared what they liked best about it.
 

In this lesson, the students participated in several activities about President's Day to compile into a video, shared on YouTube.  The students created hand tracing cherry trees while learning about George Washington, built log pretzel log cabins while learning about Abraham Lincoln, and participated in an interview addressing the question "What does the President do?.

Reflective Analysis

This lesson was a great success for the kindergarten class!  They had a great time learning about George Washington and Abraham Lincoln, and the discussions we had about what the President of the United States does were priceless.  The students really thought about what they were going to say in the video, and they enjoyed seeing themselves and their peers on "the big screen".

The students knew a lot more than I had anticipated going into the lesson.  When I showed them the cherry tree that we would be making, one student already knew what it was for and told the story to the class.  Long after the lesson ended, I heard all about the presidents, so I know they really had a good grasp of the information.

Plans for Improvement

If I were to do this lesson again, I would also like to have the students be able to share their work with others.  Because the video is on YouTube, we could work with another classroom (or even a classroom at another school) to get some feedback/comments on the video.  This would really connect the students with the outside world in an authentic way.  “Cognitive research shows that educational programs should challenge students to link, connect, and integrate ideas and to learn in authentic contexts, taking into account their perception of real-world problems.” (Bransford, Brown, & Cocking, 1999; diSessa, 2000; Linn & Hsi, 2000).
Author: Morgan Hostutler
Last modified: 4/29/2013 3:54 AM (EDT)