Knowledge of Students and Context:

Standards:

Curriculum Materials:

Literacy: Compare & contrast the most important points

presented by 2 texts on the same topic (CC 1.2.2.1)
Write informational/explanatory text to examine a topic
& convey ideas &information clearly (CC 1.4.2.A)
Use various text features and search tools to locate key
facts or information in a text efficiently (CC 1.2.2.E)
Math: Use place-value concepts and properties of
operations to add and subtract within 100 (CC 2. 1.1.B.3.)
Use place-value understanding and properties of
operations to add and subtract within 1000 (CC.2.1.2.B.3)
Science: Use information from several sources to
provide evidences that Earth events can occur quickly or
slowly (2-ESS1-1)
Water is found in the oceans, rivers, lakes, and ponds.
Water exists as solid ice and in liquid form. (2-ESS2-3)
Social Studies: Describe how people create places that
reflect ideas like personality, cultures, wants and needs
as they design homes, playgrounds, classrooms and the
like (CSSS-g)
Examine the interaction of human beings and their
physical environments, the use of land, the building of
cities and ecosystem changes in selected locales and
regions (CSSS-h)

-Informational texts on animal researches

(Literacy)
-Non-fiction and biographies (Literacy)
-Worksheet for centers (Math)
-Folk tales (Social Studies)
-Maps (Social Studies)
-Powerpoint (Social Studies)
-Videos on Mali (Social Studies)
-Videos on weather/climate (Social Studies)
-Websites: kid safe search (Social Studies &
Science)
-Mentor texts (Science)
-Experiment materials (Science)

What

Lesson

-There are 26 students in my class

-They are familiar with classroom expectations and the
consequences, which means the change of color on the
behavior chart
-They seem to enjoy lessons intergraded with visual
aids, such as pictures and videos
-They seem to be intrigued by activities that require
crafting
-Small centers and workshops give them time to work
by themselves as well as to learn from each other
-Working in groups is essential, but sometimes they
need to have their own work stations up to prevent
them from being distracted by other people
-Most parents are friendly and engaged; some of them
would have a short conversation about how their
children are doing at the end of the day
-Some of the students go to after school programs, but
they do have enough time to work on their homework

Why

How

Teaching Methods:
-Short lesson (around 20~30mins) for whole group
instruction
-Everyday read alouds for reading workshop
-Assign writing partners for writing workshop
-Always leave time for workshops and center activities
-Literacy circle (small group workshop)
-One-on-one conference
-Worksheets for briefly check-ins
-Experiments to support context learning
-Observations during individual worktime
-Visual aids include but not limited to powerpoints,
videos, pictures and photographs

Educational Philosophy and Beliefs

-I believe that each student in the classroom, including the ones
who seem to get themselves into trouble all the time, must have at
least one thing that they are good at. Sometimes they dont even
know that they are gifted in doing something and I believe it is the
teachers responsibility to help students develop their intelligence.
-Students learn better when the subject focus is aligned with
their personal interests/lives
-Positive recognitions to help students build self-confidence and to
get them more involved in a lesson
-Make students accountable---give them time and opportunities to
explore on their own instead of simply one-way passing on
information
-Teaching is more than presenting a perfect lesson plan; always
make sure that students are interacting during a lesson

Theories of Teaching and

Learning:
-Multiple intelligence theory
(Gardner&Walter)
-Students with a fixed mind-set became
discouraged or defensive in the fact of
setbacks (Dweck)
-Understanding involves the
construction of knowledge by individuals
through their own activities
(Carpenter&Lehrer)
-Know your students (Carnini)
-Skill is better learned acquired through
interleaved and varied practice than
massed practice (Brown et all)
-Differentiated instruction for students
(Tomlinson)
-Work with small groups (Gillies&Calkins)