As stated in my teaching philosophy, one of my goals as a teacher is to determine how each child in my class learns and to deliver effective instruction according to their needs. Each lesson that I taught began with verbal instructions along with written directions that were color-coded and included images to assist children who were still learning to read. I often began these lessons with short anecdotes and also questions to engage children and to encourage participation.  I structured all of my lessons to follow the workshop model. I began the lesson with direct instruction followed by independent or group work. I ended the lessons with a wrap up where children shared their work and I assessed their understanding of the lesson. I have found that these strategies have worked well to promote learning. As evidence of this approach, I have included visual instructions, a lesson plan and also work that was completed by the children in my class.

            While working in a special education classroom, I had the opportunity to touch upon social studies through a book about what life was in the past. The book was entitled, “If You Lived 100 Years Ago.” Prior to teaching the lesson that is attached below, I worked to weave this book into daily lessons. Children compared and contrasted the present to the past. They had a lively discussions about how different things were many years ago. As can be seen in the lesson plan, lesson.5.23.docx, children had an opportunity to discuss the past compared to the present and then also how the world may be different 100 years from now. Children had the chance to talk about the possible changes as a group, and then worked independently to create a drawing and write a few words about how things may be different. This lesson was a great opportunity to think together as a group and also for children to create independently and then share their work. Additionally, I was able to differentiate the lesson so that all children in the group could complete the work in a way so that they felt successful. Examples of the work can be seen below.