The teacher analyzes the relationship between his or her instruction and student learning in order to improve teaching

practice. The teacher uses on-going analysis of student learning to make instructional decisions. The teacher identifies area of need for personal professional growth. Instructional decisions were made before designing lesson for the unit of Fall/ Autumn, before designing each lesson, it was of importance to consider how my students learned best. After spending a few days in the classroom I noticed that students learned through many different learning techniques. The most used technique in the classroom and most effective technique is teaching through songs and poems that included movement. When creating the lesson for the Fall/ Autumn unit I made sure to include song and poems that allowed students to move freely while learning. Students engaged in these songs and poems and memorized the tune and words of these songs. Students also learned through read alouds. Each read aloud that was picked for each lesson had strong visuals and were developmentally appropriate for students attention span. The read alouds used were variety of non- fictional and fictional books, allowing students to see real images of Fall / Autumn components. Interactions among students and interaction with instructors was one of the many techniques that allowed students to engage in lesson to better their knowledge. During read alouds students were ask to discuss events of the books with their talk partners. Allowing students to talk with their talk partners gave them a chance to hear their talk partners point of view of events in the book and explore different ways to look at events. Students also were asked to share a few of their thoughts with instructors, sharing their thoughts about the different events in books allows the instructor to see what the student is understanding from the book, what connections are being made from the students previous knowledge and the knowledge their gaining, and gives the instructor the opportunity to help the student stay on task and instruct and explain to the student if he/ she is having trouble understanding the content. Using these techniques to teach students about Fall/ Autumn were techniques that have been seen to be effective prior to the lessons. Students engaged in different activities about components of Fall/ Autumn during small groups and whole groups. During whole group, students engaged in smart board activities, videos, and whole group games. In whole group students were told what they will be working on during small groups, usually the activity was a recap of the Fall/ Autumn lesson for that day. During small group, students worked independently with the assistance of instructors on activities where they needed cut, paste, draw, and color different components of Fall/ Autumn. Students were giving praise when working on activities, staying focus on task, doing their personal best and were rewarded with data notebook stickers and mula money when seeing these actions. When explaining what was to be expected of students during small groups, instructions were always giving in a positive manner, allowing students to know that they can do what was being asked of them and letting them know that we believe in them to do their personal best. Looking at the class grades on this unit allows me to see which student was successful mastering the content, the student who mastered the content on an average level, and student who needs more guidance to master the content. Students grade were based on one hundred points. The student that was successful mastering the content scored ninety five points out of the one hundred points. Looking at his work and his working techniques explains why Devon

was successful during this unit. Devons was familiar with most of the content on Fall/ Autumn, when Devon was asked questions on the different components of Fall/ Autumn he would answer them correctly recalling the information from the activities that were used in lessons. Devon had a great interest to learn more about Fall/ Autumn and constantly was asking questions that expands his knowledge of the content. TiKya is a student who gives her all and tries her best to do what is being ask of her. During the fall unit TiKya had some previous knowledge of the content, looking at TiKyas scores you can see that she gained knowledge from lessons. After working with TiKya I noticed that she works better when having an instructor close and watching what she is doing, having an instructor around didnt mean that she needed to be reminded on what was expected but the praise given to her when focused on her work motivated her to do better. This can be a positive or a negative instructional element for TiKya, we want students to learn to be independent and give their full potential when nobody is watching, this was a something that interfered with TiKyas performance. TiKya did great on some of her assignments and was giving that one on one assistance when it was available. A student can have trouble mastering content for many different reasons, environmental factors, lack of prior knowledge in reference to the unit of Fall/ Autumn, not wanting to give their full potential during assessment. Christopher is a very smart student and has been given additional help from each instructor during lessons. Christophers overall grade was a sixtynine out of one hundred. When pre- assessing Christopher on the different components of Fall/ Autumn, Christopher had little to no knowledge of the content. Not having any previous knowledge of content can result in a challenge to learn all of the content in a weeks time. Christopher was given assistance in different ways, reading the book that explained components of Fall/ Autumn to him one on one, helping him build words through different techniques, such as sounding words out and hearing them through a pipe phone, remodeling what was to be expected for the activities and lastly given him extended time to complete his assignments. When Christopher displayed characteristics of giving up on his work and not given his full potential, Christopher was pulled aside and talked to about a different topic that can distract his mind from the work for a few minutes and was then brought back to engage in what needed to be completed. This was done because of personal situations that were being seen in his environment. Each student learns through different learning techniques, it is important to know each student and accommodate lessons to how they learn best. Before instructing the Social Studies content of the unit, students were asked what a National Holiday was and what two Holidays were celebrated during the Fall/ Autumn season. After gather information on who knew what a National Holiday was and What two National Holidays were celebrated during the Fall/ Autumn season, students engaged in learning about these components through a Brain Pop video, read alouds, and a small group activity. After delivering the information and allowing students to finish their activity on National Holidays I realized that the Brain Pop portion of the lesson and the read alouds were very strong teaching aids for the students but the activity should have been as strong allowing students to expand their thoughts on these National Holidays. Each student was asked to recall one detail about Thanksgiving and Veterans Day and to draw the detail that they are recalling using their crayons. Each student enjoys to draw

and has drawn pictures from the beginning of the school year, drawing and coloring what students had learned did not give me a strong assessment where I would be able to see exactly what each student is recalling about each Holiday. While students were engaging in their activities it was not planned to go to each student and asked what the picture they were drawing was, this was done after realizing that at such an early age students can recall the details of the lesson but also will add to their pictures by drawing their family members during thanksgiving which can be confused with the pilgrims of Thanksgiving, or drawing a picture of a flag the saw outside opposed to the American flag. After seeing the drawing that students created about the two National Holidays celebrated in the Fall/ Autumn and having to ask each student what they were drawing, I became aware that a different assessment needed to be created. An assessment that can be used after this lesson can be a game where students are asked components about each National Holiday, it can also be an activity where they have to cut and paste components of each Holiday, Creating a flag or writing a letter for Veterans may also be a stronger assessment, allowing children to share what they are thankful for and creating a gift for someone they are thankful for or an activity that shows who or what they are thankful for would have been an effective assessment. Teaching and learning from my Kindergarten class has been a wonderful experience, I have gained knowledge on how important it is to know your students, know how they learn best, know what learning techniques will better their knowledge and how to adjust my lessons according to their needs. When a lesson plan is made to where your student is engaging, having fun and learning while doing so he or she will have interest on the topic and will take it upon themselves to ask more about the topic like my student Devon. Students need praise and recognition on what they are doing correct which serves them in a positive manner and motivates them like my student TiKya, Some students are given additional assistance and call for lessons to be adjusted to how they learn best. Even though this might take additional time, that one on one with a student, it is worth the time when a student like Christopher learns about a topic that he has never even heard of. Reflection on possibilities for Professional Development: Timing is very important when creating effective lesson plans. When reflecting what could be improved to become more professional I have noticed that the lesson plans were very effective but could have used stronger assessment plans. The pre assessments were very effective and informative and helped me design lesson plans, the post assessment were also very effective in knowing what students learned and gained from content. One area that should be worked on is the during assessments giving to students. Teacher observation and student participation is very important, having a written during assessment will help allow me to have notes on how students work best on activities while being under certain environments, what parts of the content they are mastering and what parts of the content they are needing help with. Anecdotal notes are very important and should be used for during assessing students, the anecdotal notes that were taken were written down after the lesson and after activities. In the future anecdotal notes will be taken while assisting students, this was not properly done because of the short time span of lessons and activities. Recording these notes during assessments can allow me to see if there are any patterns that interfere with students learning. One way that can allow time to record students performance and progress for during assessments is by shortening lessons.

When giving the fall unit each lesson plan had a sing along, a poem, or a read aloud, eliminating one of these will allow time to concentrate on students performance. After seeing that students learn through sing along, or poems, or a read aloud I have noticed that all three are not necessary and is okay to eliminate one of them to save time and focus on students learning.