Educators implement effective planning, instruction, assessment and reporting practices to create respectful, inclusive environments for student learning and development.
Throughout my final practicum I was able to create units that stretched over a range of 4-7 weeks. This provided me the opportunity to extensively plan lessons, learning intentions and goals, as well as forms of assessment. Specifically, the unit I planned for Science on the subject of matter and thermal energy acts as a strong demonstration of these practices and includes my intentional construction of teaching that centers in inclusive learning to support all students. Through the inclusion of hands-on experiments and inquiry focused activities my goal was to provide students with learning that would support their diverse strengths in some form. For example, some students excel in written work that acts to describe their understanding while others prefer to present their learning through creative practices or by demonstrations. Within this unit on matter and thermal energy (linked below) I worked to both educate students on what matter and thermal energy is, characteristics of these, and their forms through verbal explanation, class discussions, hands-on activities, and experiments. In terms of assessment, students were tasked to complete worksheets that asked for students’ thinking processes such as their estimations and or theories as well as the outcomes of various experiments. These provided insight as to their developing understanding as well as provide them more practice with the scientific method. To conclude, this unit was created with intentionally to support an inclusive learning environment in which all students can find success through various presentations of work and engaging with material. Subsequently, intensive planning on each lesson, learning intentions, and assessment forms was conducted to create a learning experience that connected students with material to form deeper understanding.
If you’d like to look at the Science Unit mentioned, please follow the link below: