During SPED 440 we were asked to complete an UDL Toolkit. This assignment required us to look at the UDL resources and come up with examples on different ways we would be able to differentiate a lesson for students. For this assignment we had to look up various instructional strategies that would fill accommodations for students and allow them to be engaged in the lesson and have the greatest chances of understanding. This assignment also helped me to see what types of instructional strategies I could bring to my future classroom and understand what students will need in the math classroom to be able to have the greatest success.
During my second student teaching placement in Springville middle school I was challenged to show material in a new light through my Math Labs. In Springville students have a regular math class where they are taught the material and also have a math lab where teachers go over various topics and help students to practice their skills. My teacher had 3 Math Labs built into her schedule per day and it was my responsibility to plan them. This meant that I had to see what topics the students were learning about that week and connect those concepts to an activity that would allow students to practice these skills they have learned. These Math Labs gave me many opportunities to plan how I can make the content they were learning in math class related to real world problems that they would have to solve. One specific lesson I taught was in 8th grade Math Lab on the topic of graphing a line from a table of values and finding the equation. I made this relatable by having students figure out what the cheapest vacation option was for me to go on my spring break. Students were excited to have an option and related to conversations about travel and how students could budget and figure out what is the cheapest option. This lesson showed planning my content knowledge because students were required to graph using a table of values and find the equation, but we got to discuss topics other than math and what students thought about different travel vacations. This demonstrated that I could plan mathematical lessons from my content knowledge that would be relatable to students and given them a greater chance of deeper understanding of the material they are learning.
Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic teachers have been required to teach online and develop interactive online instructional strategies for their students. During my Field Block placement, and both of me Student Teaching placements I have taught many online lessons. During my Field Block 1 placement in Jamestown high school I was asked to make video lessons for my algebra class when schools were shut down at the beginning of the pandemic. These video lessons were made for students to be able to continue their math curriculum while still being away from school. With the video lessons I required students to fill out a google quiz based on the video lesson so I was able to check for understanding. One video lesson I made was on the topic of Domain and Range and key terms about Domain and Range. This shows my online instructional strategies where students could watch the video many times to feel they understood the material before they had to take the quiz to see their knowledge. Later in the pandemic during my second student teaching placement in Springville I was tasked with teaching an online lesson for the students virtual day on the topic of scatter plots. On Wednesday’s Springville middle school students have a virtual day that consists of 20 minute periods. For my lesson I was able to review scatter plots and be able to play a review assessment game online. This used another online instructional strategy that hoped to encourage learners to listen to he information given about scatter plots and then use the material learned to play the review game and interact with the material.
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