2A.3: Meeting Diverse Needs (explanation and evidence)

Per my Teaching Philosophy, meeting diverse needs is a key part of teaching to me. Whether for students that need extra help and attention in the classroom or differentiated assignments, or for the students that blow through every assignment you give them, each student needs to be appropriately supported and properly challenged to ensure they get the most out of their learning. One way I made sure to do this was for the Packing Project from my second CUP, where I included student choice into the project to allow students to challenge themselves however they feel comfortable, while still showing me their content understanding level. To read more about this lesson, click here to read about Adjustment to Practice.

Another way I reached diverse needs was through multiple representations of the same concept. Not every student will pick up on a concept through the same medium; some students are more visual learners, while others may be more auditory learners. The lesson for my second round had students finding the solution to a system of equations in a real-world context. The students had never seen systems of equations before, so for the assignment, I had the students find the solution through making a table, graphing, and solving algebraically. Then students had to piece together their understanding through writing. Some versions included extra scaffolds for students, like the tables having a data point already put in to get them started or organizers for writing the slope and intercept. To look at an example of the assignment, click here and scroll to the bottom.

2B.1: Safe Learning Environment (explanation and evidence)

One of the biggest strengths of my teaching has been curating a safe learning environment in my classroom. My goal for teaching is to provide a safe place for students to learn and make mistakes. Mistakes are a huge part of learning, and I want my students to be comfortable making them! Without a safe learning environment, students may not feel successful in their learning and may not provide their best work out of fear of being wrong. This was a huge focus in my teaching philosophy, as I never want my students to feel scared of being wrong. making mistakes is a great way to learn and remember how to do things correctly the next time! One way I push to make my classroom a safe place for learning is to allow students the opportunity to make predictions. If a student can make a prediction, they don’t have to feel the pressure to be right off the bat. A lot of predictions tend to be wrong, so if we get that fear of being wrong out of the way, then it won’t be a roadblock later on in the learning. I started incorporating predictions into my lessons more with the 3 Act Math format, which I talk about more in depth here. I used this in my track and field lesson (click here for the diagram sheet) and the Mr. Clean and Air Mattress lessons from my second CUP. The predictions helped students to get thinking about the problem, getting their mindset into math mode and making the learning feel fun to see if they’re right later on! Click here to view my teaching philosophy video, which showed clips from the track and field lesson.

Another way I helped to create a safe learning environment was through the favorite-no. The favorite-no is a way to address a common mistake in a problem while highlighting all the positive that happened in the work. I will go over a problem step by step with the students and make one mistake that I saw many students do and have students write down what is good about the work and where the mistake is. Afterwards, I will write down all the good we come up with as a class on the board, then write down the mistake, go over it and fix the problem. What this shows is that even with a mistake in a problem, there is so much good to be seen. One small error doesn’t make the entire problem a flop and doesn’t mean the student doesn’t understand the math, it just means they’re a small adjustment away from mastery. At one point this year, I had a student exclaim, “Hey, that’s the mistake I made! You’re calling me out!” I responded to them by saying that it was something I saw common with most students and that it means they’re so close to having it nailed down, and they instantly smiled, realizing that it wasn’t a call-out or to shame them, but to bring them up! As the year rolled on, more and more students would excitedly tell everyone that the favorite-no we went over was one they made. Some students would even ask to come to the board and show everyone a mistake they made so that others can learn from it. The students have seemed so much more comfortable with messing up in my class from this that now it’s just a part of the class culture, and as it should be!

2D.2: High Expectations (explanation and evidence)

Students are always capable of so much. When you give your students high expectations and let them know they can do it, they will rise to the occasion. The biggest way I do this is by putting the vast majority of the thinking on the students. I want my students to be strong problem-solvers (one of my key goals), and if students aren’t the ones thinking, they won’t be able to build on these skills. One think I say to my students a lot when they get frustrated I don’t tell them something right away is “Whoever does the thinking does the learning.” Some of them may roll their eyes knowing they aren’t getting the answer out of me, but then they immediately get back to work harder than before. I would have students make predictions (as I discussed above in Safe Learning Environment) and make sure they’re relying on their peers for support. Collaborative group work is a key piece to my class, and students are responsible for their groupmates in addition to themselves. Sometimes when a student will finish early, I will have them help other students that may be struggling. This helps the struggling students hear it from their peers and allows the helper to continue to cement their understanding through speaking it back out. You can see this in action in my first round video at about 9:56.