Standard #8

InTASC Standard: Standard 8: Instructional Strategies

The teacher understands and uses a variety of instructional strategies to encourage learners to develop deep understanding of content areas and their connections, and to build skills to apply knowledge in meaningful ways (InTASC, 2013).

Brief Description of Evidence: During the spring semester of 2019 as part of my EDUC 230 - The Exceptional Child class, I received the opportunity to collaborate with my entire class to create a toolbox. We filled this toolbox with various resources and instructional strategies that we will use in our future classrooms.

Artifact Link:

TOOLBOX LINK

Analysis of What I Learned: Throughout the process of composing a toolbox with my fellow classmates, I learned how important it is to use a variety of technological tools to put forth a resource filled with different strategies I can implement in my future classroom. I learned to evaluate the resources I put into the toolbox by their quality, accuracy, and effectiveness. I learned that there are various amounts of ways people communicate, and it is my job to implement those different ways into my future classroom to see engagement and success in my learners. I also learned that it is important for me to be flexible in my planning, and to be able to adjust my instruction. This allows me to bring meaningful content to my students that also suits to each of their strengths. Through this experience of producing a quality toolbox, I have learned the importance of Charles Bonwell’s theory of active learning. Bonwell’s theory mentions that one of the barriers in education is the lack of student engagement. I have learned that I need to use different learning strategies in my future classroom to increase the level of engagement from my students.

How This Artifact Demonstrates my Competence of the InTASC Standard:

I have demonstrated my competence in Standard 8 - Instructional Strategies by providing quality resources and strategies to a toolbox. This toolbox demonstrates my competence because it contains a variety of instructional strategies. The strategies my classmates and I compiled for this resource will help us encourage our learners to incorporate what they learn in their everyday lives in a meaningful way. A few strategies I came up with were action research projects, virtual dissections, presentations performed by the learners, and graphic organizers. These various strategies will help students develop their understanding and apply connections.