Members apply professional knowledge and experience to promote student learning. They use appropriate pedagogy, assessment and evaluation, resources and technology in planning for and responding to the needs of individual students and learning communities. Members refine their professional practice through ongoing inquiry, dialogue and reflection.
My philosophy of education emphasizes that students are more motivated and engaged with their learning when they deem the material to be practical. My strategies for the following lessons exemplify how I use these progressive pedagogies to promote engagement and meet the needs of my students.
SNAPCHAT TEXT ANALYSIS – HHD3O
For my Grade 11 Human Relationships class, we were talking about marriage. I created an assignment that asked the students to create a Snapchat Text Analysis based on a designated section of an article. Since students are often distracted by their phones, this assignment required them to use their devices for an educational purpose. I divided the articles into sections; one half of the class got one article, and the other half got the other. The two articles about traditional relationships and gender roles were distributed to the class. Students were asked to read their assigned article and then break into pairs to discuss their designated section of that article. I automatically assigned these to cut time on people delegating who gets what portion of the reading. Plus, I assigned some of the more complex topics to people who could better access and represent the concepts. The students were asked to take a Snapchat of their highlighted sections and creatively decorate it with a key statement pulled from the text, a summary caption, a minimum of 3 images/emojis/gifs, a hashtag, and a relevant website or video resource link. My intent for creating this assignment was to allow for a more creative outlet that utilizes social media to an educational benefit. The results were incredible. This project had very successful results and was deemed an effective way for students to comprehend text and understand complex concepts. I had a student who wasn’t on social media and has difficulty with reading comprehension. However, I read through his section of the text aloud with him and discussed the meaning of each sentence. I then gave a quick tutorial so he could see the type of outcome I was looking for. From there, he completed his assignment without any more assistance, used a photo editing app he had on his phone, and succeeded on this assignment The visualization aspect of this assignment in addition to the text summary, gave students multiple ways to express their knowledge and understanding. Overall, I was happy to see the increase of success and submission rate, as I had students who weren’t fully applying themselves create a sufficient Snapchat Text Analysis. It was heartwarming to see some of the struggling students succeed.
USING ACCESSIBLE MATERIALS AND REFERENCES
My other lesson this week was on violence and abuse, which I knew would be a heavy and delicate topic for some. I also knew that the students would have plenty of questions throughout, so I made sure to budget time for lengthy discussions. At the beMy other lesson this week was on violence and abuse. I knew this would be a heavy and delicate topic for some. I also knew that the students would have plenty of questions throughout, so I budgeted time for lengthy discussions. At the beginning of the week, I ran an activity called “Red Flag.” I cut out coloured cards (red, yellow, and green) to indicate whether the behaviour was a healthy characteristic, unhealthy characteristic, or debatable. Each student blindly took a statement out of the hat and read it to the class for everyone to raise their flags in response. The students really enjoyed this activity and were very involved in exploring the “grey areas” of relationships. One student mentioned how consent would be necessary for one scenario. This comment told me that it was a great precursor for our next lesson on violence and abuse. Due to the serious nature of the topic, I asked that the students put their phones face down on the front of their desks. This request turned out to be fairly successful, as most students remained off their phones. I also added that if anyone felt uncomfortable, please notify me. The students are used to completing fill-in-the-blank notes for the lessons, but I decided to use a different format. I wanted to make sure they had complete and detailed definitions of the types of abuse in their notes, so I did not have them fill anything in for this section. I also explained that because I wanted their undivided attention, I did not include many blanks to fill but rather graphic organizers for the videos we watched. As per my Associates’ advice, this ensured a pencil was in their hand versus their phone. It also had them think about the material instead of mindlessly copying the words. To introduce the topic of abuse, we talked about Britney Spears and her experiences with her conservatorship, identifying different forms of abuse like physical, mental/psychological, emotional, and financial. Through these graphic organizers, we analyzed various educational videos and products. We also played a game similar to “Red Flag.” We played Red Light Green Light, based on the hugely popular show on Netflix, Squid Games. I figured the relation to this new show would pique their interest and play off the energy from the red flag game earlier that week. This activity ultimately brought great clarity to what consent means and looks like. To conclude the lesson, we did a brief research assignment where the students were to find three resources in the Windsor area that offer support systems for people and families who have experienced or are experiencing abuse. They were to identify the resource and list three services they offer.
MASH FSE – HIP4O
In the Personal Life Management class, my Associate and I had them create a portfolio, which is all based on the game MASH from our high school years. MASH (Mansion, Apartment, Shack, House) is a game that predicts your future based on the three options you input per category. These categories include occupation, who you will marry (we used married/single), what college/university/trade school you attended, how many kids you will have (or dependents) etc. Based on their “assigned” life, they will complete a series of financial/research tasks. For example, they have to find a house/mansion/apartment and determine their mortgage/rent, if they are married – they have to account for an extra $50,000 to their household income, and if they have dependents – they must add $500 a month to their expenses. After each task is complete, they must determine whether they are ‘living within their means.’ This final summative assessment evaluates their financial literacy, decision-making, budgeting skills, and more. It was valuable being involved in the creation and brainstorming of this project as I got to see how the significant parts of the whole course get integrated and assessed in one project.
Ultimately, these lessons utilized relevant material that scaffolded the students learning and helped them understand complex concepts. Therefore, showing the importance of fostering connections between the students and their education.
DIFFERENTIATED INSTRUCTION – AVI1O
I had two grade 9 classes with vastly different intelligences and artistic abilities. I had a few IEP’s in one class, including, an ELL student with very limited English proficiency. I chose two different recap videos for these classes to accommodate my learners. Once class got a bit more simplified version with more straightforward imagery, text, and descriptions to be more accessible for my ELL student.
During the key pastel techniques portion, the students finished their worksheets, and with each demo I would show a student example on the document camera to boost confidence and excitement. For this, I like to choose students who aren’t as confident about their artistic abilities and make them feel acknowledged for their efforts. At the end, I picked a few students to help me handout the assignment materials to the class. I specifically chose students with ADHD or find the need to get up and walk around often. This gave them the chance to expend some energy.
I designed my Under the Sea texture assignment with this theme for them to have enough inspiration (grade 9s often need more direction for imagery) and give them lots of freedom at the same time. This has proven to be successful. We did a mind-map of underwater themed imagery and I got ideas related to species, mythological creatures, shipwrecks, and even historical statues and artworks that got lost like the City of Atlantis! The ideas were so creative, even I didn’t know that sirens (evil mermaids?) existed. I saw lots of motivation during our studio days as they were enjoying the freedom of the imagery and technique of this assignment.
Student Choice is Student Success
Adaptability as a teacher is key, as there can be curveballs impacting the trajectory of your lesson. Unfortunately, we had a hard fast deadline for the texture Under the Sea assignment. When the students heard the quick deadline for this project, I came back the next day with a solution. I told them, “I heard your concerns about the deadline, so to be flexible and compromise, you may do your artwork on half the size as a minimum.” This diffused any concerns and I still see many students using the whole space.