Long day, feeling content

Today was a day of great realization. I'm finally realizing that the end of the semester is coming up. There are many signs of its coming. We have one class meeting left in our EDS 351 course and our professor gave us the assignment for the final project: a scaffolded lesson plan. Teachers at work are frantically putting together the materials needed for student presentations during the last week of the semester. Students are getting concerned about their grades. I'm planning for the rest of the semester. Thanksgiving and winter break plans are coming to fruition. So many things are happening right now. I hope I can get through this with a steady mind and my feet planted firmly on the ground.

I really want to put a lot of effort in my scaffolded lesson plan. I feel I owe it to this class. Plus, it is something I could actually use in my own class. It is also something we can use for PACT (Performance Assessment for California Teachers) happening in the winter. I want to gear my lesson plan towards something I am going to teach next semester. I have no idea what it will be, but it has to be on a broad concept; solving systems of linear equations for example. I also want to include graphic organizers; something I want to use more of.

Today I realized there was at least one other type of graphic organizer and another strategy I could have used in the solving equations unit we are finishing up. One graphic organizer is a flow chart. Solving equations simply involves a series of steps to be applied to every problem. If students understand the procedure, they will understand how to solve equations. They can use a flow chart to effectively organize the steps in the proper order.

There is an elementary strategy that I could have used. It is called sentence framing. This is where you leave blanks in a sentence and have students fill them in with words from a word bank. I did use it implicitly in my instruction, but I think the students would have understood more if we had actually worked it out. The way I would use sentence framing is by having students justify every step they make in solving an equation.

Today was a long day, but I am feeling content. It was productive both for me and my students. I learned more about teaching strategies. I now have a goal: to use sentence framing in teaching the solving inequalities unit starting after Thanksgiving break. I know this will help me to improve upon my teaching and help the students understand what they are learning.