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School of Education Portfolio

University of Wisconsin Platteville


Artifact Reflection
Title of Experience/Artifact:

5th Grade Climbing and Freshman volleyball lessons

Date Experience Completed:

Spring 2015

Describe your educational experience/artifact:

For this standard, I decided to choose artifacts that helps show my understanding in how
students develop. One lesson was taught to a fifth grade class and the other lesson was taught to
a freshman recreation class. Even though they are two completely different units, they still show
my competence in planning lessons based on how the students develop. Belaying was new
material for the fifth graders, because of this I had to plan a lesson that included cues and
examples that are appropriate for the fifth grade level. Freshman have played volleyball many
times throughout their school career so it all came down to refining their skills and introducing
more complex rules such as what each position is and their role. Students then had their chance
to play each position at least once every game.
Wisconsin Teacher Standard Alignment

I believe this artifact best aligns with Standard 2- Development: Teachers know how
children grow. The teacher understands how children with broad ranges of ability learn and
provides instruction that supports their intellectual, social and personal development. These
lessons align with this standard because they show that I am able to plan lessons for different
ages and developmental level. I had to lead controlled walkthroughs for fifth graders meaning
that I walked every student through the belaying process step by step where as I gave the
freshman more freedom and just gave them individual feedback when needed. Fifth graders learn
better from visuals, so they were able to read signs that were hung up high on both sides of the
walls in case they forgot a step. At the freshman level, I demonstrated the rotation that they
would use every time they got the serve back. These artifacts demonstrate my competency in this
standard because they demonstrate my ability to change the way I teach younger students new
subjects compared to teaching older students familiar topics.
UW-Platteville School of Education Knowledge, Skills, Dispositions Alignment

I believe this artifact best aligns with KSD3.c: Engages Students in Learning. The
candidate has the ability to engage students in the learning process by linking appropriate
content, based upon suitable instructional materials and resources, to students knowledge and
experience, being certain that all students are cognitively engaged in the activities/assignments
and that the students actively contribute to the content design. Instruction is highly coherent and
appropriately paced for all students and allows for reflection and closure as appropriate.
These artifacts best align with this KSD because in each of the lessons, every student is
engaged in learning. At fifth grade, every student has a job whether it is the belayer, simulated
climber or the assistant, they are all learning throughout the entire lesson. At the freshman level,
every student will get a chance to play every position and perform every role of that position
during this lesson and the rest of the unit. I did not teach anything to my students that they did
not already know. The fact that I was able to create these two lessons that minimized
unproductive students both physically and cognitively shows that I am competent in this KSD.

Explain what you learned about teaching/learning from this experience:

Through this experience, I learned that it is very important to get to know my students not
only personally but also their developmental levels as well. As I develop relationships with my
students, I am able to better understand what I can do to get through to them and allow them to
have the most success with my lessons that I create. If I just created a lesson that was one sided
then I would have a lot of students who were either bored because the lesson was too easy or a
lot of students who shut down because the lesson is too difficult.
Explain what you learned about yourself as a prospective educator as a result of this
experience/artifact:

As a future educator, I have learned that not all students will develop at the same pace. It is
important that I am able to build relationships with my students so that I am able to differentiate
all of my lessons to meet every students needs. I also found out that I need to just be patient with
some students and not try to rush them. This is difficult but very rewarding in the end.

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