InTASC Standard 8
InTASC Standard #8 Instructional Strategies:
The teacher understands and uses a variety of instructional strategies to encourage learners to develop a deep understanding of content areas and their connections, and to build skills to apply knowledge in meaningful ways (InTASC, 2013).
Brief Discription of Evidence:
During the spring semester of 2022 as part of my EDUC 240-, Introduction to Physical Education and Health for Elementary Teachers, I had the opportunity to design my own in-depth lesson plan that included physical education, health, and math. My partner and I received grade Kindergarten. We created grade-level appropriate lesson plans to teach. Our theme of the lesson plan was healthy and unhealthy foods. We included multiple different activities such as an obstacle course that included different pathways, hopping on the numbers you recognize, hopping on either the healthy or unhealthy foods, and rolling a dice to see what color you would hop on to get to the end of the path. We also included bingo, a coloring sheet, videos, a food decision activity, worksheets over-identifying healthy foods and unhealthy foods, and a whiteboard group assessment. After designing our lesson plans, we all presented them to the class as if they were that grade level.
Analysis of What I Learned:
Throughout designing and implementing the process of completing the healthy and unhealthy foods lesson plan, I have learned to make directions more clear and age-appropriate. We made sure that everything was well prepared. I learned that I also need to be more patient and think through difficult situations. Use problem-solving skills, communication, and confidence. When giving directions be more clear so that students are able to understand to lower the mistakes. I learned to also ask higher-quality questions to challenge learners' thinking. For example, “What do you think happens when a person continues to eat unhealthy food?”
How This Artifact Demonstrates my Competence on the InTASC Standard:
I have demonstrated my competence in this standard by completing and implementing an in-depth lesson plan for the class. I was able to use different and fun activities that could also be used as cross-disciplinary. We were able to research ideas and grade-level Indiana standards that tied in with each other. We also looked at previous grade-level standards to get an understanding of what they might have gone over. My colleague and I included making this lesson cross-disciplinary with physical education, health, and math. We used multiple learning strategies such as cooperative learning when we did healthy foods on one side and unhealthy foods on the other side. Each student did a dance coming up to the board and then put the food where they thought it went. Afterward, we used group discussion to talk about why each of the foods was in different categories and if each of the foods were in the right ones. We also incorporated independent study with identifying healthy and unhealthy foods by letting them work by themselves to see if they were able to make the connections that were taught to identify the correct ones. The students were able to learn from the videos and activities we did so they were able to make the connections between the differences. They learned about why unhealthy food is bad for you and how it is not filling. We did short math problems with the morning activity of unhealthy and healthy foods categories and took what they learned from it and applied it to the obstacle course. This lesson was meaningful because I was able to learn more about how to keep the students engaged and what techniques would work better in the class. It was also meaningful because I have never had to write my own cross-disciplinary physical education lesson plan, it was out of my comfort zone, but I was able to complete it. One theorist I know ties in with the lesson plan is Sarah Smilansky because she believes children should learn through play. According to research, “She is best known for her work on play training and its effects on children” (Fishhawk, 2020). This is important because I believe children do learn best through play and having fun. This theory connects with my standard by having a deep understanding of how a child can play and use it to make their own connections. I used this theory in my lesson by letting the children have partners and going through the fun obstacle course.
Resources
Council of Chief State School Officers. (2013, April). Interstate Teacher
Assessment and Support Consortium InTASC Model Core
Teaching Standards and Learning Progressions for Teachers 1.0: A Resource for Ongoing Teacher Development Washington, DC: Author.
Fishhawk, C. (2020, February 21). Sara Smilansky and the Importance of
Play Share By A Preschool in Circa FL. Circa Fishhawk.
https://kidsrkids.com/circa-fishhawk/preschool/sara-smilansky-
and-the-importance-of-play-share-by-a-preschool-in-circa-fl/