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Reflective Planning and Instruction

Ashley LeGrand
Regent University

In partial fulfillment of UED 495 Field Experience ePortfolio, Fall 2015

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INTRODUCTION
In education, teaching involves planning and reflection before, during, and after
instruction. All learners have different needs whether it be a disability, a psychological
disorder, a behavioral issue, or a different way of learning. However, students have the
ability to grow and learn more than what they already knew. Teachers also have the same
opportunities. It takes a lot of planning to figure out what the students need to know how
they will be able to get to what they need to know. After teaching a lesson, reflection is
necessary. Taking formative assessments and understanding if the students understood the
lesson will give the teacher insight as to what needs to be refined and how the message
can be taught.
RATIONALE FOR SELECTION OF ARTIFACTS
For my artifacts, I chose to create an interactive lesson for my fifth grade students
in whole group Reading. I made a PowerPoint and enabled the PowerPoint on Nearpod.
Nearpod is a lesson presentation app that allows the teacher to outline the lesson in a
PowerPoint format. The best part about the app is that it allows the teacher to give the
students a formative assessment. The instructor has complete control of the presentation,
and can ask the students questions on the ipad. The students respond and the teacher will
receive automatic feedback from the students.
Through my experience with elementary students, I have noticed well students
respond and get excited about technology. I also noticed that sometimes, whole group
instruction can last more than just a ten minutes of modeling and explaining, so I figured,
why not use an app that will actively engage the students.

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The lesson took a lot of planning time to create a PowerPoint according to the
curriculum, download the presentation on the app, and include the interactive questions
through out the lesson. The planning is worth it, because the students love learning in this
way, and if the students like learning in this way, then they will give their best efforts
academically. I analyzed the pre and post assessment with my classes, and the students
did very well. A couple of students need to have remediation. Overall, the students did
great with the lesson about theme.
Reflection on Theory and Practice
As a novice teacher, it can be difficult to pinpoint the needs of the students to
adequately plan and reflect on how to make improvements. However, I feel like I have an
advantage in the education world, because I am young and I know how to integrate my
instruction with technology. The students in todays classroom are engrossed and love
technology. After assessing the students, it is my obligation as a teacher to use refinement
and remediation to meet the needs of all students. I do not think that verbal instruction is
meeting the needs of all students. Instruction has to be interactive to keep the students
attention spans.
At Regent University, I have learned strategies for planning and reflection. One
characteristic that a teacher must exhibit in the classroom is flexibility (Classroom
Management). Every teacher has a different style of teaching; therefore, a teachers role
as an instructor is subjective (Compton and Jones, 1998).
Because teaching styles and the ways of teaching can be flexible and subjective, it
is important to tailor the lessons according to the studentsneeds in the classroom. As a
novice teacher, I think my strength is connecting well with the students, and my a

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weakness I may exhibit is not being able to immerse myself completely into the
curriculum, but with time and practice, I know I can conquer these things. This was
actually pointed out to me recently, and I could have taken it very offensively, but I have
decided to use this weakness as an advantage. I have something to work on and that is ok,
because I know I am not perfect. Only one being was perfect on this earth years ago, and
His name is Jesus.
Sometimes teachers take criticism harshly, but I want to be the teacher who
constantly learns and uses criticisms to my advantage. Titus 2:7 (ESL) says, Show
yourself in all respects to be a model of good works, and in your teaching show integrity,
dignity, I think this verse is so empowering for a teacher, because it talks about teaching
with dignity, integrity, and be a hard worker.

References
Compton, V., & Jones, A. (1998). Reflecting on Teacher Development in Technology
Education: Implications for Future Programmes. International Journal Of
Technology & Design Education, 8(2), 151-166.
The English Living Version of the Holy Bible.