Standard #1 Rationale Statement I took the course ED 338 in the spring semester of 2013.

During this course I was placed in a kindergarten classroom for observations. In that course, I had to teach a few lesson plans that focused on the subject of Science. I did my second lesson plan off my cooperative teachers unit plan on dental hygiene. My lesson plan was about flossing teeth and how important it is to make sure we floss every day. I started the lesson plan by doing a presentation on the Smartboard before getting into the activity. I started with the presentation to have an understanding of what the students knew about flossing before jumping into the activity. Also, I had a few activities with the presentation to help keep the students focused during the lecture. After we discussed the importance of flossing, I had the students do an activity with Playdoh, string and large Lego blocks. I put Playdoh in the cracks of the Lego blocks as if it was food stuck in teeth, or the pegs. The students had to use the string to floss the Playdoh out of the pegs. I demonstrated how to use the string first so the students knew the proper way of how to floss. After a few demonstrations, I had the students work on their own Lego block to get the Playdoh out. When I created this lesson plan, I focused on Blooms Taxonomy levels. I was looking for background information that the students already knew. I had a discussion about the importance of flossing. I had the students use a manipulation of teeth to learn how to floss. Throughout the whole lesson, the students were asked questions to keep them engaged. I feel that this lesson plan fits with the first standard of the InTASC Model Core Teaching Standards. This standard is about knowing how the learner grows and develops. During my observations in this classroom, I have noticed that the students learned better when there were visuals and hands on activities. My presentation the Smartboard had lots of visuals to help the students comprehend my lecture. The activity that I planned was hands on to help the students learn the proper way to floss their teeth. Also, the activity was a visual aid because it was easier to pretend the Lego blocks were their teeth. There were three Alverno Education Abilities that I feel were shown in this lesson plan. The first ability is diagnosis. From my observations in the classroom, I was able to know how the students learn better and that was by seeing visuals and having hands on activities. The second ability that was shown is coordination. I felt that the resources I used for my lesson plan were appropriate for the students in that classroom. The Playdoh and Lego blocks were tools that they use in their classroom already. They were tools that the students enjoyed playing with. The Smartboard was a new tool that the classroom had just gotten that school. The Smartboard allowed me to do a lecture with games or activities built into it to help give the students visuals. The tools that I used for this lesson plan also fit well with the third ability, which is communication. I was able to get the lesson across to the students by using the Smartboard and manipulatives. I communicated the information in two ways so that the students were able to comprehend in more ways than just once.