TWS 7: Instructional Decision Making

Student Teaching
Channa Griham

Whole Class Feedback

Providing students with effective and timely feedback is very important for the students
overall success in the classroom. During the implementation of my short range unit on South
Carolina regions, I made sure to provide my students with feedback in various ways. One way I
gave the students feedback was by explaining to them what I liked that they did or what they can
improve on for the future. I believe that communication is the key when building a relationship
with your students. When students were answering questions during lessons, I probed them to
explain their thinking. By having the students do this, I was able to give them more specific
feedback pertaining to their thinking. When students answered correctly, I made sure to give
them positive feedback about their answer. I also wanted to specifically point out to the students
what I was proud of. If students answered the questions correctly, I made sure to give them
feedback in a way that would not hurt their self-efficacy or cause a decrease in their participation
during class lessons. During this feedback, I would also point out parts of their thinking that were
correct, while also pointing out what was incorrect so that they can make the necessary
corrections. Many times, to check the effectiveness of the feedback I had given to the students, I
came back to that student and gave them another opportunity to answer a similar question. I
found that by doing this, I was able to see if my feedback was benefiting the students. I wanted
to make sure that I was able to give the students feedback that would help them grow as learners.
I feel that discussion is a great way for students to show their thinking and to be able to assess
their knowledge after correcting any misconceptions.
When analyzing the various formative assessments that were administered to the
students, I was also able to provide specific feedback. By analyzing the assessments, I was able
to pin point specific errors that occurred with my students. After reviewing the results, I was able
to pull small groups together to discuss the confusion that students were having. I was able to
work with these students and tell them exactly what they needed to improve on. For example, I
would begin the discussion as I noticed that on todays quiz you all were confused on the
geographical locations of the Inner Coastal Plain and the Outer Coastal Plain. Explain to me your
reasoning for labeling the regions the way you did. I would then allow the students the chance
to explain what they were thinking when they completed the quiz. I made sure to go back over
these regions with the students and explain to them, in a positive way, why their answer was not
correct. This also helped me reteach the students, while also giving them the specific feedback
they needed to help them improve. I found that the best time for me to provide valuable, specific
feedback was during small group. I was able to place students together who had the same needs
based on their assessments. By doing this, students were able to discuss what they had done
wrong and worked together to figure out how to make corrections.

Individual Student Feedback

My high performer performed well throughout the whole unit. I made sure during group
discussions to call on this student to give her a chance to explain her thinking. My main purpose
behind this was to allow the other students to be able to hear her thinking and possibly be able to
learn from it. I made sure that I always pointed out specific points of the students responses that
were great. I also verbalized with the student that I liked the way she was processing the
information and using it to go a step farther with her thinking. I made sure that when this student
was working with partners she was working cooperatively with her group. I often found myself
placing this student with other classmates that were struggling in the unit. I wanted this student
to be able to share her thinking with her group and be able to help them understand the concept. I
also made sure to give this student opportunities to further her learning by giving her more
challenging topics.
My average performer is a student who constantly needs positive feedback to make him
feel like he is understanding the concept. This student constantly raised his hand to participate in
discussions and to answer questions. I noticed that when this student answered questions
correctly, he was very pleased. On the other hand, when the student answered questions
incorrectly, I noticed that he became very down on himself and discouraged. I made sure that I
gave him feedback that reassured him that his thinking was on the right track. I made sure to
work with this student to solve his mistakes so that he could feel more confident with correcting
his work. When receiving his grades on his assessments, he would get upset even if he only
missed one or two. I made sure to conference with this student independently to give him one on
one feedback on his mistakes. Once having the discussion with the student, he became more
positive about his work and knew that he had made careless mistakes. I suggested that in the
future, he should review his quizzes before turning them in and read each question carefully. I
also told him to use basic testing strategies to help him choose the best answer possible. I noticed
that in assessments following our conference, the student scored better and also took his time,
which let me know that he used the specific feedback to make improvements.
My low performing student needed a lot more feedback and motivation. When called on
during whole group discussion, it took this student a while to deliver an answer. When the
student finally answered, the answers were often incorrect. I made sure to continue to probe the
student until he was able to correctly answer the question. It took a little longer than expected,
but the student was pleased when he was able to correct his mistakes. When reviewing the
students assessments, I noticed that he made common mistakes when answering the multiple
choice questions. I felt if the student would have taken his time to thoroughly read the questions,
he could have done better. I made sure to meet with this student and discuss with him his
thinking during the quizzes. After the discussion, I realized that the student knew most of the
information, but quickly completed the quizzes due to the lack of caring. I made sure to point out
to this student the positives in his work and his thinking, while also point out the negatives, but
in a way that he could feel confident in making the corrections. A couple of days later, I
observed the student taking his time during a quiz while also using some of the positive
strategies that I had previously addressed.

Adjustments and Modifications

Feedback to the students is very important, but feedback from the students is also an
important factor to consider when planning for a successful classroom. I wanted to hear what the
students thought about my lessons and what activities they most benefited from. When walking
around helping individual students, I found myself asking the students What worked for you
during this lesson. A couple of responses from the students let me know that the students really
enjoyed the visual aids and the songs that were used to help teach them about the regions. This
let me know that I needed to make sure that in future lessons, and the remainder of the unit, I
needed to incorporate visual aids into my lessons. This seemed to benefit the students so I
wanted to make sure that I continued doing what was best for their learning needs. Knowing this
also gave me a better perspective on what types of learning styles I was needing to
accommodate. Using various resources like visual aids, videos and songs proved to be very
effective instructional strategies for my students.
Other modifications that were made during my mini- unit was based off the students
scores on their pre-assessment. When administering the pre-assessment, I noticed that many of
my students did not show prior knowledge of the concept. After observing this, I had to redirect
my instruction so that I was able to guide my students with information that was going to help
them progress throughout the unit. One thing that I decided to change during my introduction
lesson to the unit was to show a video that highlighted important facts about each of the regions
and their locations. After reviewing the video, we held a whole class discussion on what we have
learned from the video. The students responses from the video let me know that the students
were ready to move on to the lesson that followed. I am glad that I made this modification within
my unit to help benefit my students in their learning. Overall, most of the adjustments and
modifications made during my unit were based on students assessment scores and also students
input during whole group discussions. These adjustment and modifications were crucial to
incorporate in order to help the students reach the necessary accuracy levels to master the
content.