Artifact Reflection Artifact Title: Neal Wilkins Lesson Plan Date Completed: October 17, 2013 Artifact Description

In the fall of 2013, I completed a lesson plan for Mr. Fleschs kindergarten class at Neal Wilkins Elementary School in Platteville, Wisconsin. The lesson plan contains a general description of the lesson, information about students and their learning needs, teaching standards, objectives, procedures, and assessments of the students. Wisconsin Teaching Standard Alignment This artifact addresses Wisconsin Teaching Standard 4: The teacher understands and uses a variety of instructional strategies, including the use of technology, to encourage children's development of critical thinking, problem solving, and performance skills. This artifact best aligns with Standard 4 because it is a successfully designed lesson plan that uses different forms of instruction for problem solving in Mathematics. While writing this lesson plan, I learned a how to create the different levels of instructions, used technology that I was not fully familiar with, and created objectives, procedures, and assessments for the students to successfully complete the lesson. This lesson also applies to the previous knowledge of what the students already understood about the subject matter because it is what they were already learning in class when I gave the lesson and the goal was to teach them about basic mathematical skills. An example of my understanding of proper instruction and construction of lesson planning is the Math lesson plan I created for Mr. Fleschs kindergarten class . At the time, we were covering basic addition problems using pictures as manipulatives to help solve math problems. This particular lesson included the problem involving cutting out the correct number of pieces of pie and placing them in the correct side of the equation based on what the problem was asking. The students then had to write the numbers out for the equation under the pictures and then solve the problem. There were different instructional strategies I used for students to be successful in this lesson. For visual learners, I originally had planned to use the SMART Board but it was not working that day so I had to compensate and use overhead to show math examples to help the students review some basic math skills. I then used cutout manipulatives for students who learn hands-on. I was also repetitive with my instructions to help students who are aural learners. This lesson allowed me to teach using different strategies for instructions to help students develop different ways of thinking to complete problem solving at multiple levels of performance. With this experience, I have gained a higher level of achievement in this standard. It has taught me how to use instructional strategies to provide students with the ability to develop problem solving skills to increase performance levels and develop critical thinking.

Artifact Reflection UW Platteville School of Education Knowledge, Skill, Disposition Statement Alignment This artifact best aligns with KSD1.a. : Demonstrates Knowledge of Content and Pedagogy The candidate displays extensive content knowledge of his/her subject areas and demonstrates a continuing search for new content knowledge, resources, and best instructional practices, while understanding student diversity and student misconceptions and misunderstandings as key to the teaching process. This artifact addresses KSD1.a. because it allowed me to explore my understanding of creating a proper lesson plan and take the previous knowledge I had about the content that I was going to teach and use it to create a more reliable and successful lesson plan. Writing this lesson plan also allowed me to demonstrate my ability of using my surrounding resources such as the overhead, different teaching strategies, and the ability to use instructional methods. After this experience, I have gained a higher sense of proficiency because I had the chance to demonstrate how to use this lesson plan in order to create learning and instruction in the classroom. I was however familiar with this experience because I have had previous experience with creating simplified lesson plans to help form a better learning environment. Secondary KSDs: KSD3.d. Provides Feedback to Students KS1.d. Demonstrates Knowledge of Resources KSD1.c: Selects Instructional Goals Reflection What I learned about teaching/learning from this experience: From this experience, I have learned how to create an effective lesson plan. I have learned that with teaching, every lesson plan has to be effective and fun for the student to engage in the learning you are trying to provide. With this lesson plan, I learned how to create different levels of instruction, compensate for technology malfunction, and develop a sense of critical thinking among the students. Creating this lesson plan also allowed me as to how to learn as a teacher, but how to learn as a student as well. What I learned about myself as a prospective educator as a result of this experience: As a result of this experience, I have learned that time management is very important in lesson planning and how I must apply it to each subject in the curriculum. I have also learned that it is important for teachers to connect the learning styles of each student to gain perspective and ideas to help increase their own learning experience as the teacher so I can make the students more successful. As an educator, it is important to keep students on task at all times so that they can fully obtain the information given so that it will help them progress through this year and the next.