Instructional Decision Making

Example One: Thing 1 and 2, Roll and Color

For this lesson, a few students had not understood the instructions. They were rolling the

dice and then coloring the numbers they saw. So, when they finished all the numbers below six,

they did not understand how to get the numbers above six. This required me to reiterate my

instructions in a different, more simple way. In the future, in addition to asking the students if

they have any questions, I should ask them for help in retelling the directions.

Example Two: My Favorite Dr. Seuss Book

During the work time for this lesson there was a lot of talking. This is something my

mentor teacher strongly discourages. I tried something different. Because a lot of the lessons

provided for the students are worksheets the students are extrinsically motivated to do their

work, not intrinsically motivated I had hoped that allowing some conversation would help them

be more engaged. If they were going to talk I wanted them to be sharing their ideas about the

lesson. After a few minutes of talking about other topics I tried to steer the conversations in a

productive direction. Eventually it became clear that the students were not going to be talking

about their work and it became a distraction for them. I gradually had to quiet them down so that

they would get their work done. If I was to allow talking in the future I would make sure to tell

the students on the rug or once they were at their tables, that if they wanted to talk, it needs to be

about their work and that if they talk about things that are not their work that I will have there be

no talking.