The big picture of what you will be producing for this class is a unit plan for teaching a math unit. The big picture is that you will be writing 2 detailed lesson plans, with lots of supporting information/essays. You will be teaching those two lessons, and you will have one of those two lessons video taped (for me to view).

Step 1: Meet with your cooperating teacher and discuss the requirements for your field experience:

• 10 hours of observation and teaching during math time,
• Write lesson plans for and teach 2 lessons within a single unit,
  • one taught lesson must be video taped .
  • While you will be following the content and requirements of the lessons in the normal curriculum, you are required to personalize and adapt the full length lessons you will be writing and teaching.  You may use some of the activities specified in the textbook, but you are also required to significantly contribute to the form of at least one activity in each lesson).
• Borrow or photocopy a textbook (preferably teacher's manual) for an upcoming unit. Make sure you have the teacher materials at least 2 weeks before the beginning of the unit. Ideally, you will be working on a unit between the dates of March 8 and May 10.
• Ask about special needs in the classroom: are there students who need special accomodations, and if so, what are they?
• Observe or ask about technology resources that are available in the classroom.

Submit an outline of the unit to me including:

• The name and grade level of your textbook
• The name of the unit you will be teaching from
• The names of the lessons you will be teaching and a 1-paragraph description of the content of each lesson
• The dates on which you will be teaching

Step 2: Read through the unit, and study the lessons you will be teaching.

• Identify a place in at least one lesson where you could incorporate an inquiry activity
• Identify prior knowledge and skills that will be needed for each lesson. Make a plan to informally assess that knowledge before the unit.
• Identify concepts that students can/should connect to their prior knowledge
• Identify resources, manipulatives, visualization tools and activities that can help children build a deeper understanding of the concepts in the lessons
• Identify a part of a lesson where you could productively use a technology tool to help you teach a lesson.
• Identify in the lessons, activities where children will be collaborating.

Submit a 1-paragraph description of your inquiry activity idea to me.

Submit a formative assessment plan to me. Your formative assessment plans should include:

• a list of prior knowledge and skills that will help children learn the content of this unit, and
• a description of how you will observe or interview children to find out what their current knowledge of the content is.

Step 3: Observe the class during math lessons:

• Watch for indicators of student knowledge and skills, especially those related to the lessons you'll be teaching.
• Informally assess the knowledge and skill of the students you are observing and working with.
• Carefully observe group work time: which groups work together best? which children talk and direct the group most? which children are less influential within the group? Pick a few groups or partners to observe and take notes on. Identify things that children do well when collaborating, and things that could be improved.

Step 4: Write the 2 full length lesson plans, and teach 2 of the lessons. The full length lesson plans must include activities where:

• students engage in an inquiry activity
• you use technology to help you communicate in teaching
• students work together in collaborative groups and you include a plan for encouraging supportive interaction by students.
• children make connections to prior knowledge or deepen their understanding of concepts through use of manipulatives, visualization or problem solving.

These requirements can be in separate lessons, or they can be combined into the same lesson. 

• In the lesson plans for the lesson plans you will be teaching, include the dates when you are scheduled to teach the lessons. Make sure you e-mail me as soon as these are submitted, and let me know in your e-mail what date you are scheduled to teach. These must be submitted at least 4 days before you are scheduled to teach the lessons.
• You must submit a full length lesson plan for a lesson in which there is a inquiry activity (see step 6).

  I intend to get you feedback on these lessons approximately 2 days after they are submitted and/or 2 days before you are scheduled to teach them. Feel free to remind me if and when I don't succeed in meeting my goals. You should also be submitting these lesson plans to your cooperating teacher (separately from the unit plan) before teaching the lessons. If I do not get feedback to you on time, but your cooperating teacher says it looks OK, you should go ahead and teach the lesson.

Step 5: Teach the lessons you are scheduled to teach. Video tape at least one of them.  Bring the video to the next in-person class meeting (video taped files are too big to submit via D2L)--you will need to bring them in on a CD, DVD or flash drive. If necessary, the CD, DVD or flash drive can be mailed via regular physical-object mail.

Step 6: Write and submit reflections on the lessons you taught.

Step 7: Write the reflection for teacher standard 6, and submit to the dropbox.

Your standard 6 reflection should in part reflect on what you actually did while teaching a lesson.  This reflection should be written after teaching a lesson that you can use to talk about your communication skills and strategies.

Step 8: Finish the reflection for teacher standard 1, and submit to the dropbox.

Your standard 1 reflection should reference both of your lesson plans.

Step 9: Put your unit plan on Chalk and Wire; put your teacher standard reflections on Chalk and Wire, and link them to the unit plan.  Send me an e-mail alerting me that they have been submitted.