Section 3: Instructional Practice and Technology

S# Standard Title Evidence

Assessment Unit Plan (see standards 4/5), Mentor Feedback (see standards 4/5), Assessment
6 Philosophy, Warm Up pre-tests, Final Exam

Planning for Unit Plan (see standards 4/5), Mentor Feedback (see standards 4/5), Assessment
7 Instruction Philosophy, Sample agenda

Instructional Unit Plan (see standards 4/5), Mentor Feedback (see standards 4/5), Assessment
8 Strategies Philosophy, Enrichment Practice,

Technology Unit Plan Template (see standards 4/5), Mentor Feedback (see standards 4/5), PDP
Plan for Future Teaching, All About Professional Me website, Energy
11 presentation, the Side bar/background of my portfolio

Reflective Statement:

I really valued the use of formative assessments in my chemistry class. Often times this took the
form of mini quizzes that I would give out in the beginning of class to see how well students
understood what was taught the previous class. I would also utilize group discussion to figure this
information. If students were struggling to answer or the discussion seemed off I would take this as an
opportunity to readjust and refocus the class. This is one area where I want to continue to improve in
the future.
I had less freedom in regards to summative assessments. Having to use these premade
curriculum meant having to utilize a premade exam at the end of every unit. The assessments, in
general, aligned pretty close to what was taught in the lessons but they werent perfect. I would always
look over the premade examination they had and edit them if I felt it was necessary. I felt that some of
these exams focused too deeply on tangential information so I ended up removing and changing some
of the questions to make them more relevant to what was going on in class.
If I noticed significant, common misunderstanding after giving out a summative/formative
assessment I would take this as an opportunity to improve. I would go over the unclear content and
give the students a chance to practice their skills.
The most common assessment type I used was pen and paper examinations (for both summative
and formative). I believe that becoming proficient at doing these types of exams is an important skill
for future science classes, especially in college science courses. I also occasionally utilized other
methods like lab reports and Claim Evidence Reasoning (CER) activities. These have the benefit of
improving important science writing and reasoning skills that are utilized in every grade level. Moving
forward I want to offer a better variety of assessment options including projects, papers, labs, etc.
Having a variety of assessments is a powerful tool to have when working with students. Having
a healthy mix which all utilize different skills allows every student to succeed. Forcing all students to
only take exams will not give an accurate view of what all students know. Some students have test
anxiety or other issues with exams and end up doing poorly even when they know the material really
well. Having this variety allows these students to shine and succeed instead of failing.
Tracking student progress was a bit challenging in both of my placements. I didnt have access
to any of the schools grade monitoring programs or software. I created an anonymous excel spread
sheet to track my students progress as a result of how many homework assignments they have
completed. This was severely inefficient so I am really looking forward to having actual access to these
programs in the future.
Technology can serve a really integral role in the classroom. There is an abundance of digital
labs that can be utilized in lieu of wet labs. In addition to this there is a variety of great videos and
services (like khan academy) which can be shown/utilized in class to help students who are struggling.
I also learned how to use programs like Inkscape and Microsoft PowerPoint to create a completely
interactive presentation about energy types and transformations for the students in the middle school I
taught at.