Educators implement effective planning, instruction, assessment and reporting practices to create respectful, inclusive environments for student learning and development.
In my first practicum experience I took a lot of time to effectively plan my lessons. I started creating lesson plans two weeks prior to starting my practicum in Prince Rupert. I was working on a couple a day so that I wouldn’t be rushing through them during the actual practicum. Reflecting on it now, I am so grateful that I started to do that because during the practicum, evenings were busy with prepping for the actual lesson activity. Because I was able to draft up my lesson plans, I was able to make adjustments and edits to the lessons as I went and the planning went a lot smoother for me.
During each lesson, I engaged in communication assessment as students engaged in conversation with their peers related to the lesson content, I was able to assess their knowledge and understanding. The final products of the lesson activities showed me the students understanding as well.
My lessons all incorporated inclusive and respectful learning environments. With most of my lessons, I read Indigenous books that related to the lesson activity and content. The students seemed to enjoy the illustrations and were able to make connections to their own lives.
I also liked to start my lessons with a opening circle and closing circle. I felt that each student should have a voice in the opportunity to share their lesson reflections with the group. I had a colorful ball that students got to hold as a talking piece in the circle. There were some insightful reflections and examples which allowed me to assess the student learning as well.
As I started to do some lessons the first week of practicum, and after my first observation, I was able to take into account the suggestions and tips that my coaching teacher gave me. I started to break down the steps more for each activity. I found it helpful to have the steps on the board broken down and labelled by numbers. I also started all my lessons with having students repeat the instructions to me in order for me to understand whether they were able to follow the steps and instructions.
I wanted to create a space that every student would be successful in. As I started to assess behaviour and connect with the students, I was able to recognize which students worked well together and which did not. I would adjust the groups of students I had created for the activities so that all the groups would be more equal in strengths and skills.