Throughout my internship, I tried a variety of instructional strategies to best encourages my students to succeed and learn the material. I began the majority of my units with a direct teaching approach to ensure the students had some grasp as to what we are learning, this also included having discussions that reflected the student’s prior knowledge on the topic.
Indirect teaching approach – Math: having different math centers that students worked through but I was still there for extra support.
Experimental approach – Science: students took part in building structures throughout the unit using the information that we had learned (building bridges, buildings, chairs, etc.).
Interactive approach – Health: students took part in role-playing activities to show respect in a variety of situations. Math: students were put into groups and took part in a horizontal learning experience where they moved around the classroom solving different math pattern problems. Word Work: students played interactive word games to enhance their understanding of homophones, one game, in particular, was headbands that encouraged students to listen to the meaning of these words.