Universidad Católica de la Santísima Concepción

Facultad de Educación Pedagogía en Educación Media en Inglés

“Instructional decision making”

Teaching experience 1

Carolina Rojas

Student: María Lagos

Concepción, November 2014

I. INSTRUCTIONAL DECISION MAKING

MDD Standard

The teacher candidate makes adjustments to the lesson plans based on

assessment data and pupils’ engagement, communicating the analysis and

conclusions regarding the impact of instruction.

3.1 Student Response to Lesson 1: Did the student(s) respond in the ways you

had predicted? What do you think accounts for differences in student

responses and learning? Consider motivation, management, understanding of

instructions, complexity of task, and individualization to student ability.

Yes, students react the same way that I have expected. Even though there

were some students that it was hard for them to understand the instructions

or the contents, at the end all of them were able to answer my questions and

fulfill the activities. In the tutorial there are different kind of students; some

of them are very enthusiastic and predisposed to learn, some others have a

low profile, they do not ask for doubts, so I, as “teacher”, play an important

role at the moment of guide them and clarify doubts even though if they do

not ask for help.

3.2 Adjustments for Lesson 1: Describe how you will adjust your second lesson

in response to your analysis above. Consider instructional strategies, the

organization and content of the lesson, motivational strategies, preventative

management strategies, procedural changes, materials, activities and

assessment. Explain why you believe these adjustments will improve student

learning.

My first class was not completely perfect, although students understand the

contents and practiced them, there were some problems related to the

amount of time, it was not enough time to do all the activities that I had

planned. Besides, I should prepare a variety of activities to be developed in

the class. If we always do the same activities students are going to get bored

and they are not going to see the class as a challenge as it should be.

Furthermore, I should implement the use of strategies in order to make

easier the teaching-learning process of my students.

3.3 Analysis of Learning Results

3.3.1 Whole Class: Use the assessment data you collected to draw conclusions

about the extent to which the whole class attained all learning goals.

Support all claims about student learning with observable data (e.g. student

writing, test results, specific student comments, or observed student

performances). Include samples of student work. (Attach these in the

appendix.)

My activities were mainly focused on speaking rather than writing or

grammar, so I do not have physical evidence to prove that they have achieve

their goals. But based on what I observed during my teaching practice

classes and the observation classes they have improved their skill, specially

speaking, they are not expert but they are motivated to speak and little by

little they are improving their performances.

3.3.2 Individuals: Select two students that represent different levels or kinds of

performance. Describe what these students learned in relation to two

significant learning goals, one of which must represent higher-level learning.

Use specific examples of the students' work including student writing, test

results, specific student comments, or your observations to draw

conclusions about the extent to which these students attained the learning

goals.

3.3.2.1 Student 1: Sebastian Cabello

Sebastian is a very active student, he always pays attention in class, and he

always asks every doubt that can come up to his mind. My first class was

based on vocabulary related to weather and clothes, he did the activities, he

repeated when I asked him to do it. In that class where more controlled than

in my second class, and he has some problems with the use of the “s” in

third person singular when he described the kind of clothes that people wear

in different seasons. On the other hand, my second class the activities were

freer than the first one, so they have to produce a short description about

someone. In this activity he was able to produce the description without any

problem; he mastered the “s” in third person singular.

3.3.2.2 Student 2: Sebastian Varela

The first class that we worked in, he was not able to answer all the questions

that I asked him due to the lack of vocabulary and knowledge that he has. He

had grammatical problems at the moment of speak, he omitted the subjects.

Nevertheless, in the second class he was able to fulfill the speaking activity

describing the person without severe problems.

3.4 Impact of your instruction on Student Learning

3.4.1 Identify what you believe to be the instructional strategies and activities that

contributed most to student learning.

In my opinion the activities that contribute more to students learning were

the ones in which they were able to produce the language and interact with

others using the language rather than memorizing a grammatical rule. The

more they practice the easier will be for them to understand.

3.4.2 Explain how your teaching behaviors affected student learning. Consider

student response to explaining, giving directions, modeling, organizing

activities, leading discussions, the pacing of the lesson, and the overall

organization of the lesson.

On one hand, we as “teachers” must master the contents and the steps that

we will follow in the class; otherwise if we have not prepared the contents

students will learn something wrong. On the other hand, we have to deal with

students’ understanding, it could be possible that we have planned an

activity but the students were no able to complete it, so we must “improvise”

and look for another way to complete the task. This may occur due to a lack

of knowledge or vocabulary by the student.

Repeat same sequence of prompts for Lesson 2

4.1 Identify two concrete aspects of your lesson planning, assessments or

implementation of the lessons that you will do differently the next time you are

asked to plan and deliver instruction to a group of students.

Two aspects that I would like to change are the variety of activities

implemented in the classroom and the way that I have given the instructions.

First of all, after my teaching practice classes I realized that all the activities

that I had planned for the class were more or less the same. They were

mainly focused on the same skill or language system; afterwards I realized

that I should prepare a variety of activities in order to satisfy all the students’

needs in the classroom. Furthermore, I also would like to change the way in

which I gave the instructions, I never asked a student to model the

instruction or to explain it to his/her classmates. As we have seen ask to a

student to model the instruction is helpful for all the students because they

will see that all of them are able to answer the questions.

II. REFLECTION AND SELF – EVALUATION

MDD Standard

• The teacher candidate identifies the main things learned in this practicum and

ways in which this learning has informed their professional development needs,

reflecting on the meaning, values, and purposes that will orient his or her

professional life.

4.1 Reflect on the main things you have learned about teaching and how these

relate to your understanding of the profession and the values that guide your

work.

After my first teaching experience I realized that were many factors that I

forgot to apply, such as state the timing, make students interact among each

other, to name but two. But after my second class I learned that

improvisation is not an option, but we need to be able to find another

strategy to fulfill the activities if the students cannot complete it. I think that

the most important factor in the classroom are the learners.

4.2 Describe one or two areas of professional growth (e.g. instructional strategies,

content knowledge).

I am not very good at grammar, but as I had to correct my students’ mistakes

I become more aware of these mistakes and now is easier for me to find

them.