Attached below are several lesson plans with differentiated instruction and formative assessments included in them. Each lesson that I have written includes a section for both. Formative assessments are things that I, as a teacher, do during the lessons I teach to gauge student understanding and achievement. The differentiated instruction sections outline activities and plans that will help students of different ability levels. These activities may be extra work for early finishers or adaptations of parts of lessons for students who need extra assistance.

Teachers consistently need to change and adapt lessons to meet the needs of all types of students. Planning can be done for this in differentiated instruction. I have planned lessons with all of my students in mind, not just a few. I have had extra work for early finishers, and I can plan to spend extra time with those who need help. Formative assessments and teacher observation during the lesson will allow me to change my lesson as I go. If I see that my students are not understanding the material, I can stop and change my method of presenting. I can only do this through formative assessment.  Summative assessments are extremely indicative of student learning and understanding, but by the time a summative assessment is given, the lesson or unit is most likely over.  The best time to realize students are not understanding is during the lesson, so I can adjust my lesson instead of teaching it all over again.

I have attached two image files and one text file. The image files are examples of students' quick draw writes. These were completed before my science mini-unit on solids, liquids, and changes. The only instruction I gave students was to draw and/or write one example of a solid, liquid, and a gas. I collected the papers and reviewed them to assess what my students already knew about the topic. I used this information to design my unit activities.

In inquiry, prior knowledge is absolutely essential.  Teachers need to know what students are familiar with before a unit to help with planning.  If teachers know what their students already know, they can plan lessons and activities accordingly.  Quick draw writes can also reveal misconceptions students might have about the subject matter.  This information is also extremely important in planning.  Before the unit, I categorized the quick draw writes into groups to show different levels of learning.  At the end of the unit, quick draw writes can be used to show students what they have learned.  A second quick draw write will help with showing this.  

At the end of October I attended a data analysis meeting with the rest of the primary grade teachers. During the meeting, we learned to how to look at DIBELS results and use them in our planning. DIBELS is the program Mifflin County School District uses to assess students' reading levels in the primary grades. The test varies from grade to grade. In first grade, students are assessed on letter naming fluency, nonsense word fluency, and letter/sound correspondence.

During the meeting, we learned how to use our students' results in our teaching and planning.  My mentor and I looked at our students' data and formed intervention groups based on their scores and results.  For example, at the beginning of the year, we noticed a few students who were struggling with naming letters.  We organized an intervention group based on this information.  DIBELS results are fairly complicated upon first look, so this meeting was extremely beneficial for me to learn how to read and analyze the results.  A teacher should always be informed about any tests his or her students take.  Being aware of these results is essential for every teacher to know what his or her students needs to succeed.

Attached is a photograph of the binder my mentor teacher put together to keep track of intervention groupings and students' progress. There are two students who are identified by DIBELS as lower level readers, and they attend the required Voyager intervention with the reading specialist. My mentor and the other first grade teacher decided to organize their own interventions to work on other specific skills with groups of students. Together, we have used DIBELS results, classroom test scores, and observations we make to form these groups. We combine classes in the afternoon, and my mentor works on specific skills with small groups while the other students do an enrichment activity.

Voyager interventions have appeared to be useful and helpful, but they do not always target skills that we see consistent issues with. By organizing and implementing these intervention groups, we are identifying and trying to solve common problems our students are having. DIBELS does not assess many of the areas in which we see issues, so our own observations are important for targeting problems. Teachers need to always be aware of potential problems so that no child slips through the cracks.

I attached some of my lesson plans I developed and taught during my pre-student teaching experience. The lesson plans include specific step-by-step procedures, assessments, material lists, differentiated instruction, and a section dedicated to personal reflection. This section gives the opportunity for future teachers to reflect in the areas of planning, teaching, learning, improvement, and what went well throughout the lesson.

For this domain, I chose to point out the reflection section of a couple lessons that I developed on my own. I completed the reflections within 24 hours of teaching the lesson. In order to improve as a teacher, I need to constantly be involved in self reflection and questioning so I know what to work on. Some of my earlier lessons did not go very smoothly, but by reflecting on the lessons, I learned what I can work on and improve. I have tried to take those thoughts and apply them with each new lesson I write and teach.  I make sure to take time to reflect on both positives and negatives of my lessons.  It is important to point out both because I can sometimes learn more from things that went poorly than I can from things that worked really well.  

Attached are some of my weekly reflections I wrote throughout my student teaching experience. I wrote these reflections after I taught a week's worth of lessons.  In these reflections, I make comments about my progress and areas of possible improvement.  As I wrote them, I had to think about my teaching for both that week and the entire student teaching experience.  

Personal reflection has become so important to me throughout my student teaching experience.  Things never go perfectly, but it is important for teachers to look at what happened or didn't happen and think about how to improve. I also attached an observation from my supervisor that makes note of my meaningful reflections.  It is easy to get behind on reflections because they seem like extra work, but I always made sure to do them at the end of each week.  They were important in monitoring my growth as a teacher.