Competency 4.

E Reflection
I think that this competency emcompasses alot of the previous competencies and brings
them all together to ensure that we are capable of combining all of our skills and putting them to
use in order to properly support each student. Proficiency in planning, differentiating, and using
material are essential skills in which every good teacher should possess. These are the basics of
what it takes in order to meet every student’s individual needs. As permanent teachers, we will
have to plan lessons every day which is something that we have been training for for almost 3
years now. This is only to our own benefit as we have learned what things work and don’t work.
In the process, we have also established our personal teaching methods and classroom
management tactics. It is an essential part of a potential teacher’s path to establish the skills that
they are naturally good at while also identifying the things that they will need to work on over
time. I believe there is nothing wrong with having to work on things because as educators we are
always learning from things around us. The biggest thing that I have learned about planning is
that you must over prepare in order to be properly prepared, this means that you must be ready
for anything or any situation. At any time things can change and might require you to change
your approach or require your focus to be on something or someone else. But again, this is all a
part of the job and I have become aware of that over time. Now that I have some practice and
experience with planning, it's something that I actually look forward to because I feel as if it
allows me to be in control and aware of what is going to happen next. I try to plan activities and
assignments that students will both enjoy and learn a lot from. It is one of the many challenges
for teachers to combine fun and education, but it is a challenge that I am completely up for. Part
of planning lessons includes being about to differentiate your plan for students with specific
needs or additional support. This requires you to predict what parts of a lesson that students may
struggle with and require either additional support or additional explanation. This is a crucial
aspect that you must be prepared for because the alternative is a confused student who is not
receiving the support that they need in order to be set up for success. This requires a strong
teacher-student relationship and open communication from both parties. The teacher and student
should work together collaboratively to devise a plan of action and come up with an ultimate
goal or series of goals. Once this is established, I have found that it becomes easier to
differentiate your lessons to specific students. Differentiation can include the use of additional
materials like fluency charts, objective lists, or translation books/sites. These materials must be
available for students to access whenever it is necessary. With all of these aspects considered, I
believe that I am in the position to succeed in this competency standard.
The first form of evidence that I have to show this are the Thematic Unit Lessons that I
created in 322, in this assignment we had to compose a series of lessons involving an overall
theme. The topic that we chose to use was the ocean and focusing on what we can do to conserve
it and keep it clean. In this assignment, we had to include ways we would make modifications for
each day/lesson. Including what accommodations we would make and how we would assist
those who need additional support. Part of this assignment included creating worksheets that
would be accessible to all students including ELLs. This was one of the major assignments in
this course because it brought all that we had learned thus far and was an assessment on how
well we could take on the role of a teacher who creates daily lesson plans. I have to say that this
was an intimidating assignment but as the semester progressed, it became less and less daunting
as I felt more confident in my abilities as a teacher. Each daily lesson plan took me about 2-3
hours, which is pretty average from what I have seen and heard. As time consuming as these
were, when I look back I feel so proud of the product that I created and grateful for the
experience that I gained. Every lesson had to include a step by step description for each subject,
how we would execute the activities, and materials needed. This required me to be extra
conscious of how students of all comprehension levels would be able to interact with the content.
I believe that this assignment really prepared me for the reality of being a teacher and creating
lesson plans on a regular basis.
Another form of evidence that I have to present is the “Reading Lesson Plan” from Tch &
Lrn 322 where again we had to create a complete lesson plan specifically focused on reading. In
the lesson we had to include the student voice, where we described what exactly students would
be doing and what we expected of them. We also had to include the learning steps and activities
and which ideology and theories supported each. This assignment was much like the Thematic
Unit lessons but instead of being focussed on a specific theme, it was more about developing
students reading and fluency abilities. With this being said, this assignment was a bit more
formal and language specific. For each content/language objective, we had to also include how
we planned to assess them and whether it would be formative or summative. Additionally, we
had to include a student voice that was very in depth including: what students will be able to do,
evidence that will be collected, and a description on how students will reflect on their learning.
This was a crucial component of the lesson as it specified the students role in learning and what
was expected of them. This assignment truly dissected what is necessary in order to produce a
complete lesson plan. Although there was format that we were given there was more detail and
content in these lessons as they were also regarding reading and fluency rather than a unit theme.
I believe that this assignment opened my eyes to the true necessity of thoroughly thinking about
every aspect of a lesson. Focussing on planning, establishing materials, identifying objectives,
and finally executing. Through this experience, I was able to put myself in the shoes of an actual
teacher and create a plan to ensure that students have meaningful access to content that will
allow them to improve their literacy and fluency skills.