Jordan Dunn/ Rebecca Jones

Dr. Fero
EDU 215
13 May 2015

Standard 4: Teaching critical thinking- The teacher candidate uses a variety of

instructional strategies to encourage students critical thinking, problem solving,
and performance skills including instructional resources.{SB 291 Section 161.380.2
(1) Students actively participate and are successful in the learning process.}
Quality Indicator 4C1: Implementing research- The teacher candidate selects
and can actively implement a variety of instructional means while keeping in mind
the various research based models for thinking critically and solving problems.
Quality Indicator 4C2: Using instructional strategies- The teacher candidate
learns and uses modern instructional resources and understands how they benefit
teaching and learning.
Quality Indicator 4C3: Cooperative learning and student engagement- The
teacher candidate engages students through various instructional strategies.

Artifact used: Prezi on Zodiac Signs

Rational- The teacher candidate uses a variety of instructional strategies to

encourage students critical thinking, problem solving techniques and to engage
their performance skills that include a variety of instructional strategies. This
standard is important to our major in Elementary Education because it involves
different approaches to teaching the class and cooperative learning. By using
different instructional strategies through teaching the class, we will better
understand classroom management and different methods to teach the students.
This artifact will bring out critical thinking elements through what the students
instructions will be for the project. Taking each sign, they will analyze and evaluate

different signs and their particular meaning. Discussing this in small groups and
then having to present a small presentation, it will encourage problem solving
techniques in their designated groups. There will be questions designed for them,
the students will have to research their signs with the material provided for them.
The teacher will apply various instructional strategies to modify for the diverse
learning styles of the students in the classroom. This artifact was created with
Rebecca Jones and Myself, Jordan Dunn. Its designed as an introductory to Zodiac
signs and to encourage cooperative learning.
Reflection- While creating the artifact, we did encounter some issues along the lines
of resources. Some of the sites werent credible but the ones we do use are. Making
sure as the teachers to implement proper research is very important. Student
engagement will be their but just making sure the teachers engage a correct style
of instructional strategies for the class will be crucial. We learned through creating
this artifact that you have to make sure you have something that is credible and not
a Pseudoscience that doesnt easily align with teaching strategies.