Ashley White Professor Purvin Education Field Experience EDUC 230-02 Spring 2013 Rationale Statement Standard 4

Statement of Standard Nine- Instructional Planning and Strategies Teachers shall understand instructional planning, design, long- and short-term plans based upon knowledge of subject matter, students, community, and curriculum goals, and shall employ a variety of developmentally appropriate strategies in order to promote critical thinking, problem solving, and the performance skills of all learners. (NJPTSB, 2004, pg 12) Name of Artifact: Lesson Plan Date of Artifact: March 2013 Course: Education Field Experience EDUC 230-02 Rationale Statement: In many aspects of life, having a plan and a goal is the key to success. Without a plan, you being a journey with no clear direction as to how you are going to reach your desired goal. Teaching is no different; without having a plan clearly in mind, reaching your goal as a teacher is essentially impossible. In writing this lesson plan, not only do I being my instructional journey with a plan, but I directly demonstrate aspects of standard four. This standard emphasizes the ability of the teacher to understand the importance of planning lesson with time constraints, setting ATTAINABLE long term and short term goals, and knowledge of the subject matter. It also puts emphasis on the ability of a teacher to meet the needs of the students as a whole. The curriculum that has been set must be met, while encouraging students to become more critical in their thinking and enhancing their problem solving abilities, not just in the classroom but in life. In writing my lesson plan, I pictured myself as a sixth grade student again and what appealed to me at that time. I tried to think back to methods my teachers used and see the benefit of those methods. This then made it easier to be creative in the type of methods I chose to use in my teaching. No matter what type of learner students are, everyone benefits from physically seeing just how something works. A process or explanation in text may be clear, but the benefits of seeing that process demonstrated are longer lasting. So I tried to be creative when writing this lesson plan and use methods that would be interesting and capture the attention of my students. I tried to incorporate various hands on activities/physical activities in

the lesson to make it more interesting. I also incorporated various times of self-correction. It is often said that we are harder on ourselves than others are. So providing students with the opportunity to see their own mistakes and correct them is more beneficial than me as the teacher simply telling them where they made mistakes. As an educational professional in the future, I hope to use these methods in my teaching. I also hope to use this lesson plan to show future employers my understanding of standard four and demonstrate how to use a plan to reach a goal. Although with each lesson there is a standard we are working toward fulfilling, there is no set route on how to successfully reach that standard. In my future classroom I will use methods that keep learning fun and exciting, but at the same time reach the goal of the standard and this lesson plan demonstrates that.

References Board, New Jersey Professional Teaching Standards. (July 2004) New Jersey Professional Standards for Teachers and School Leaders. Retrieved from http://www.state.nj.us/education/profdev/profstand/standards.pdf.