InTASC Standard #8
Instructional Strategies

Rationale:

Brief Description of Evidence: In the Spring of 2022, in EDUC 230-The Exceptional Child, I created a Butterfly Life Cycle Lesson Plan for First Grade students. My Butterfly Life Cycle Lesson Plan covers Indiana Teaching Standards 1.LS.1 and 1.LS.2. The objective is for my students to be able to correctly identify the important parts of a butterfly and describe the life cycle of a butterfly as well as recognize the common life cycle of all organisms. I have also prepared a grading rubric which identifies how I will assess the students' knowledge on the lesson.

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Artifact:

 

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Reflection:​

Analysis of What I Learned: By preparing this lesson plan on the life cycle of a butterfly, I learned how to create a lesson plan using the template provided and the necessary elements that should be included in the lesson plan. I also learned that a lesson plan should provide great detail so that another teacher or substitute teacher could implement the lesson, if necessary. I learned that in order to write a well developed lesson plan I must implement a variety of activities and/or interactive videos in order to capture the attention of my students in hopes that they will become interested in the topic they are learning and meet the needs of all learners. 

How This Artifact Demonstrates my Competence on the InTASC Standard: This lesson plan demonstrates my competence on InTASC Standard 8 Instructional Strategies because it shows that I understand the purpose for and use a variety of instructional strategies within this lesson to encourage my students to develop a deeper understanding of the life cycle of a butterfly. Within this lesson plan I have included an interactive video where the students get to learn about the life cycle of the butterfly, the parts of a butterfly and the purpose of those body parts. The next part of the lesson plan is where the students have an opportunity to create and color their own butterfly life cycle and also label the parts of a butterfly. This gives the students the ability to participate in some hands-on learning, which will deepen their understanding of the process of a butterfly’s life. For students that may have trouble spelling some of the body parts and life cycle stages, I have provided the words for them. For the accommodations and modifications section of the lesson plan, I implemented academic accommodations and social/emotional accommodations that would meet the needs of a fictional student (Cole) that I created during the course of this class. Cole was diagnosed with level 1 Autism Spectrum Disorder. This lesson plan relates to John Dewey’s Hands On Approach to learning. John Dewey states that “We learn best by doing,” (2022). Dewey’s educational point of view was that children must interact with their environment in order to adapt and learn. Rather than expecting children to accept whatever it is that I am teaching them, they should be provided opportunities where they are going to investigate and independently discover information. This is why I am a firm believer that students are going to have a more meaningful learning experience and assure mastery of the content when they are given the opportunity to learn by doing and I try to implement that theory into my lesson plans.