Julia Coston

Domain III: Instructional Practice

The way a lesson is taught greatly affects how the students ultimately learn the content.

If one aspect of the lesson is lost in translation, then the whole lesson could end up in confusion

from students. For a teacher and students benefit, it is important to have checkpoints

throughout the lesson that help the teacher know that her students are understanding what

she is trying to get across to them. Any form of formative assessment will do. It could be visual

assessment, a verbal assessment, a written assessment, maybe even a self-assessment. It is

important though that the teachers use them to guide the lesson along or to help modify it (3.1;

IDS 4). When the teacher knows what they are teaching on, what is most affective for the

students, and what would be the best way to asses that lesson, she uses it accordingly to give

evidence of the students progress. It is important to keep records of the students growth,

where they struggled at, even what lesson helped them over come it. Finding and giving

assessment that help towards a specific goal as necessary (3.2, IDS4). Both formative and

summative assessments come in many forms and it is crucial for the teacher to figure out what

type of assessment works best for the lesson being evaluated and what assessments the

students respond to the best (3.3; I-6, IDS4). If the lesson is on being able to retell a story with

key details, maybe the assessment to see if they can do it is a skit because the students all love

being in front of the class and they are still retelling the story that way.

An effective teacher is able to create a learning experience that allows the students to

pull elements of their own life into it. They continue to learn and the more they learn the more

connections they find between something they know or have had experience with. The teacher
has successfully broadened their thinking and learning by blurring the lines between what they

already know and what they can know. She gets them thinking about what else they can learn

that connects back to their lives (3.4, I-7, IDS3). When digging deeper into learning concepts

and how that can affect the students’ lives and ways of thinking, it is also important for an

effective teacher to get the students critically thinking. The questions she asks and the learning

problems that need solving should be evident and then though guided instruction the teacher

should be able to introduce it to her students and allow them to try as well (3.5).

An effective teacher is aware that every school has a curriculum that they use as a

foundation and groundwork for the lessons given in a specific grade. It is the teachers

responsibility to be well versed and aware of the research behind it, the benefits it holds, and

variations of the lessons that can be given. She knows what technologies the school uses and

can use them without hesitation. She has multiple instructional strategies to use with her

students and the materials to best meet her students’ needs (3.6, I-8, IDS3). During any type of

instruction time, an effective teacher is aware of the varying levels of questions she needs to

ask her students about the topic being discussed. The questions should vary in allowing for

lower level thinking into higher and deeper level thinking. She allows her students to then

respond in a multitude of ways to encourage discussion, variation, and a better understanding

of the content being discussed (3.7). An effective teacher allows her students to freely think

and engage with the content, allowing them to have answers, right or wrong, as long as they

have an explanation to go along with it and are willing to learn deeper from what they already

know.