Karisma Cruell

TWS 7

April 9, 2015

TWS 7
Instructional Decision Making
I provided my students with feedback by reviewing material that they may not
have understood. During lessons, I had my students repeat everything back to me and
they asked questions if they did not understand and after answering their questions, I
would ask them the same question they asked and have them explain the answer back to
me. If I could ask my students questions and they answer them correctly, I know that
they had retained the information. On the other hand, if I asked a question and only
received the right answer from a few students, we would refer back to the textbook and
review that information once more.
My students took a quiz half way through the unit on the water cycle and, since I
had many students not answer the questions correctly, I continued to review the water
cycle for a few more days. The quiz also consisted of a drawing of the water cycle and
explanations of each stage in the water cycle and majority of the class aced that part of
the quiz. This let me know that the questions on the quiz were what confused the
students, as they could explain the water cycle to me and draw it out for me, they just
became confused by the wording of the questions. My students also took a unit test at
the end of the unit and, although my goal was for every student to receive at least a 90%,
majority of the class received at least an 80% on the tests. This prompted me to adjust
my expectations a bit and not base the students understanding off of the multiplechoice questions only. I had about half the class receive a 90% or higher. I continue to
review the weather content and ask them questions to promote higher-order thinking as
this group of students are not used to answering multiple choice questions.

Karisma Cruell

TWS 7

April 9, 2015

I modified my learning objectives by adding other ways to determine student

understanding and not just basing it off of the quiz or the test. I made the majority of my
assessments based off of anecdotal records and gave my students credit based off of how
much they could tell me verbally or through drawing and labeling. Looking at my
learning objectives and the progress of my students prompted me to offer a variety of
ways for my students to demonstrate their understanding to me.