Artifact #1

Artifact: TWS- Elaboration on the setting lesson

Standard: Learner Development
Standard in my own words: The teacher understands how students learn and
that students learn in many different ways. The
teacher then designs and implements learning
experiences that are developmentally
appropriate.
Indicator: (a) Regularly assess individual and group
performance in order to design and
modify instruction to meet learners
needs in each are of development
(cognitive, linguistic, social, emotional,
and physical) and scaffolds the next level
of development
Description of Artifact: This lesson took place during my teacher work
sample unit. Students had already completed a
narrative with no instruction as a form of pre-
assessment. This lesson focused on having
students really describe the setting using a lot of
strong details and sensory descriptions.
Instruction in this lesson was given mostly as
whole class where students saw an example of a
well written setting description, they then
created one as a class, and finished by creating
their own well-written setting description in their
own story. Three books were chosen specifically
because they had great setting descriptions and
these were read to the class as well.
Rationale: Because students completed a pre-assessment
narrative I knew that their setting descriptions
needed a lot of work. Most of their descriptions
involved simply stating where they were instead
of going into details about what the character in
their story was seeing. This lesson also came after
a lesson on character descriptions where I found
that students still needed some work on
describing things in depth. Because of these
findings, I knew that I had to find some strong
examples of setting descriptions to share with
them. I chose to read a section from The City of
Ember because the whole class had already read
it and the author does an incredible job of
describing each of the settings that come up
throughout the book. I decided to write my own
setting description on the board so that I could
share with them the process that goes into
 coming up with a descriptive setting. I knew
students would need some practice doing this
themselves before applying it to their own story
so this is why I then had students contribute to a
setting description on the board of a randomly
chosen place. Students who were still struggling
with their setting description were given further
instruction on an individual basis through direct
comments on the google document they were
writing their story in. Because I saw a need for
instruction in their pre-assessment and in their
previous character descriptions and created a
lesson on setting to fit their needs, this lesson
addresses teaching standard #1.

Example of Artifact #1 for Standard #1

Name: Program: Elementary Education Course: EDU 450

Ethan Gouin

Lesson Topic / Title: Spooky Story Narrative- Elaborating on the setting and using sensory description

Lesson Date: 10/18 Lesson Length:30 minutes Grade/Age: Grade 5

Learning Objectives & Content Standard Alignment - Selects, creates, and sequences learning
experiences and performance tasks that support learners in reaching rigorous curriculum goals based
on content standards.
Learning Objective(s) Instructional Decisions / Reasoning

Students will be able to:

Describe the setting using elaborative detail and

sensory description.

Content Standard(s) Instructional Decisions / Reasoning

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.5.3

Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or

events using effective technique, descriptive details, and
clear event sequences.

Assessment - Uses assessment flexibly to expand and deepen understanding of learner performance
and determines best supports for continued learner growth.
Assessment Instructional Decisions / Reasoning

Students will be formally assessed while contributing to the

setting on the board. Students will also be formally
assessed while writing their stories.

Instructional Materials and Resources - Stays current in content knowledge and expands expertise in
reviewing instructional materials from the perspectives of both the discipline and individual learner
needs.

Materials, Resources, and/or Technology Instructional Decisions / Reasoning

Smartboard

An example of a well written setting

Students will need laptops

Harry Potter And The Sorcerer's Stone, Cryptid

Hunters, The City Of Ember

Instructional Methods: Selects, creates, and sequences learning experiences and performance tasks
by using a variety of instructional approaches, strategies, and technologies that make learning
accessible to all learners and support learners in reaching rigorous curriculum goals.
Teaching and Learning Sequence Instructional Decisions / Reasoning

Part One: Launch (10 minutes)

1. The teacher will introduce the lesson objective.

2. The teacher will show the chosen examples of a

well written setting (one on a slideshow and three
book examples).

Questions to ask students in part one: Who has a

beginning that introduces the setting? (everyone should)
What do you notice about this example of creating
setting?

Part Two: Explore (20 minutes)

1. The teacher will write a setting on the board.

2. The teacher will then ask students to help describe

the setting using strong adjectives and sensory
descriptions.

Questions to ask during part two: Part three: Summary

Part three will be time for the students to work on their

stories. Students are instructed to highlight
similes/metaphors and the setting details they used.

Meeting students needs (differentiation, extensions, Instructional Decisions / Reasoning

modifications, accommodations)

One student requires the teacher to wear a

microphone so they can hear.

One student will most likely need further

instruction. For this student going over the
slideshow independently will be needed. This
student may also need guidance while writing the
story.
Field Course Only Post lesson

Reflection

After look at their stories it appears that 18 out of 22 of the students did a good job using sensory
descriptions while elaborating on their setting. I noticed that a lot of their descriptions seem like a list
so a lesson on good sentence beginnings will be needed. 4 students needed further guidance with
their setting so I commented on their google documents with some suggestions. This helped two of
those four students and the remaining two need more time to work on theirs. This lesson went really
well, if I were to teach it again I would come up with an end result to guide me for when the students
helped write the setting as a class. It was a little difficult steering them in the right direction because
they all had different ideas. Not having a finished product in mind made it difficult to organize their
responses and made the lesson go a little longer than planned.
Teaching Standards and Rationale

Standard #1: Learner Development 1(a)- After assessing their pre-assessment narratives I knew that
work needed to be done to improve their setting descriptions. This is why a lesson on setting
descriptions was needed. I also was able to assess students again while they wrote their setting
descriptions and was able to give further instruction on a one to one basis.

Standard #6: Assessment 6(d)- By providing students with several examples of a well written setting
students received several examples of quality work. Commenting on their stories allowed me to give
effective and descriptive feedback on their settings.

Standard #7: Planning for Instruction (d)- After reading the students pre-assessment narrative and
their settings in their spooky stories, a need for instruction on how to elaborate on the setting was
apparent.

Standard #11: ISTE standard 11.2 (a)- By using my own computer to create the lesson and give
feedback and students using their Google Chromebooks, I was able to evaluate the effectiveness of
this lesson based on if they used strong elaborative details in their settings. This process helped
students develop their writing skills.
 Artifact #2

Artifact: TWS- Instructional Decision Making

Standard: Learner Development

Standard in my own words:
The teacher understands how students learn and
that students learn in many different ways. The
teacher then designs and implements learning
experiences that are developmentally
appropriate.

Indicator: (a) Regularly assess individual and group

Description of Artifact:
performance in order to design and
modify instruction to meet learners
needs in each are of development
(cognitive, linguistic, social,
emotional, and physical) and
scaffolds the next level of
development
This artifact comes from my teacher work
sample. In this section of my work sample I had
to describe two different times where I had to
modify instruction because of either students
learning or something else that occurred. In this
section I discuss how students missing lessons for
band and/or MTSS created the need for
modifications for the students who missed and
how I addressed those needs. I also discuss a mini
lesson on varying sentence beginnings that was
not originally planned but was created after
collectively assessing students stories.

Rationale: This artifact shows my understanding of teaching

standard #1 because the objective of my
instructional decision making section was to
describe two times when I had to make
modifications throughout the unit. I knew that if
students werent there for my lesson on good
beginnings than they probably werent going to
know how to hook the reader or use the good
beginning techniques that the rest of the class
learned about. After realizing students were
creating lists in their stories I realized it was time
to learn about how to vary sentence beginnings
so that their stories werent one big list. By
modifying my instruction to meet the needs of
 many learners I have demonstrated my
understanding of standard #1.

Example of Artifact #2 for Standard #1

Instructional Decision Making

Example 1: There were several times throughout the unit when students had to miss a lesson due to
band or MTSS. Because of this, I ended up realizing that these students would need their own mini
lesson because they were really lacking in the areas that the lesson they missed targeted. There were
five students who missed the lesson on main event. For these students, I had to find a way to condense
the lesson into about twenty minutes so that they would still have enough time to work on their stories.
To do this, I had to remove the activity from the lesson which was a worksheet that required students to
highlight techniques within other stories main event. I knew that removing this activity would create a
chance that the students may struggle with their main events so I planned to give them a lot of feedback
through Google Document commenting to help improve their main event. By commenting on their
stories, each student really had an unlimited amount of time to receive additional instruction. I also
knew that because I was still teaching this small group with the same presentation I taught in class and
was still reviewing the checklist they would be using that most of their questions would be addressed
before they got to their stories. After receiving a mini lesson on main events and receiving individualized
feedback, this group of five students all ended with main events that met the standards.

Example 2: Many students had lists within their stories. When they were describing a setting or
character it seemed like almost every story turned into a laundry list of details. After seeing this in their
stories I knew that a mini lesson on varying sentence beginnings was needed. In this mini lesson I took
several examples from students stories that demonstrated listing (with their permission). I then
demonstrated how to vary sentence beginnings within this list. Then as a class we did the same thing
with another list from a different students story. Lastly, each student did this process on their own. I
saw a really drastic difference in their stories following this lesson. Most of the listing disappeared and
for the lists that did not, I simply highlighted the area that was listing and the students went through
and changed sentence beginnings.