Competency 4.

G Reflection
This competency has a lot to do with the reality and actual requirements of what it takes
to be a teacher of all levels of language skills. This is a testament to your ability to be a versatile
teacher and cater to all of your students that allows them all to be set up for success. Additionally
this emcompasses all the abilities you must have in order to be considered a good teacher and
ready to take on a classroom of your own. These are skills that have been the centerpiece of our
education while in the education program. Much of our classes and assignments are focussed on
learning a variety of strategies to execute, establish structures in which we should follow, and
identifying methods that suit our teaching approaches and abilities. Then as we have advanced in
the program it has become more about bringing all of this together to prepare to be student
teachers and ultimately permanent teachers in a school district. What I have learned about
teaching strategies is that there is no one specific strategy that will be universally comprehended
by every student in a classroom. Every student is unique and has their own individual learning
style and this should be acknowledged by differentiation of instruction. As a teacher, you must
have a toolkit of strategies to reach every student. In order for this to be successful, you must be
open minded and flexible to any situation you may be put in. Potentially meaning that you
change your strategy with every student. They may not be drastic changes but still nevertheless,
changes. A component of your abilities that allows this to be successful is having a solid or
defined structure of your classroom that allows you to change your strategies when necessary. I
think that structure includes creating environments and opportunities where students can thrive
and build upon their prior knowledge to reach higher levels of thinking. This is an essential
feature of preparing students for proficiency and literacy success. I believe that over my time at
Washington State, I have developed these skills to a level that I am capable of teaching a variety
of strategies, structures, and methods in order to properly support all of my students. I think that
this is best represented by my ability to create in depth and complete lesson plans in which I can
meet students of all comprehension levels and push them to improve.
The first piece of evidence I have is SPED lesson plans from Teaching and Learning 420,
in this assignment we had to create 2 days worth of lesson plans critically focusing on our ability
to create strategies and methods to cater to students of all proficiency levels. These plans
included learning objectives, how we would assess students, and how we are going to activate
students' prior knowledge and experiences. In addition to this we were required to include a
sequence of learning activities which highlights every step of lesson. Through the process of
creating these lessons, I had to specifically focus on identifying modifications that would be
applied to each activity. This required me to identify a step by step sequence of learning
activities, which I believe displays my ability to distinguish a structure in which I would carry
out the lesson. This was a great chance to display my range of strategies and methods when it
comes to supporting students of all language proficiencies. A key to this assignment was creating
activities that would draw students in and hook them as they engage and interact with the
content. In doing so, I wanted to challenge them to think deeper than they usually do so that they
may develop and reflect on their perspectives in a way that leads to further growth.
I believe that through these experiences and practice I have had to write and critically think about
how to carry out a lesson plan I am prepared to apply them in my own classroom.
The second piece of evidence that I have to share are my Genre Lesson Plans from 307
where we had to create lesson plans for a specific genre, which ours was poetry. In these plans
we detail how we would carry out the lesson; defining things like purpose, objectives, and
standards. This assignment was one of my first opportunities to create a formal lesson plan which
ultimately opened my eyes to the expectations of a teacher. Since our genre was poetry, much of
our lesson was focused on how we could use students' prior knowledge of language and expand
upon it in a way that they may grasp a new perspective of literacy. The focus on the lesson was
identifying rhythm which is not only a key aspect of poetry but also writing skills in general.
Poetry is a topic that requires students to think and understand language at a high level. So it was
crucial to establish a foundation in word sounds and creative thinking. Our target grade was
second so the lesson was really more about creating a firm foundation for students to build on as
they progress into higher grade and begin to create poems with deeper meaning and an emphasis
on literacy components. I think that following a theme or genre allows teachers to identify
specific strategies and methods they hope to ingrain in their students' brains. Additionally it helps
to establish a strong structure to follow.