Emily Weigand

Professor Suk

EDUC 230-02 Education Field Experience

Fall 2021

Rationale Statement- Standard #7

Standard #7 Planning for Instruction

The teacher plans instruction that supports every student in meeting rigorous learning goals by

drawing upon knowledge of content areas, curriculum, cross-disciplinary skills, and pedagogy,

as well as knowledge of learners and the community context (New Jersey Professional Standards

for Teachers Alignment with InTASC, 2014, p. 9).

Artifact: Lesson plan 2

Date of completion: December 2021

Course completed in: EDUC 230-02 Education Field Experience

Rationale Statement:

The artifact that I am using for this rationale statement is lesson plan #2 for this course. This

specific lesson plan is a science experiment called “sink or float”. Students are to make a

prediction whether or not they think an object will float or sink in a tub of water. This artifact

relates to standard 7.i.1 “the teacher individually and collaboratively selects and creates learning

experiences that are appropriate for curriculum goals and content standards, and are relevant to

learners” (New Jersey Professional Standards for Teachers Alignment with InTASC, 2014, p. 9).

In this lesson I made sure that the topic and activity were both appropriate for the age and grade
level of kindergarten. By making a prediction and then testing it out, students are learning how to

follow through and use problem solving skills, while teaching teamwork and perseverance.

I came up with this lesson plan from watching my observing preschool class do a similar

activity. I decided that the sink or float experiment would translate well to a kindergarten class,

but I had to tweak it a little so it would be appropriate for older kids. I wanted to make it into a

real-life science experiment by having students make a prediction before starting, and then going

over what they saw during the experiment. I not only wanted the small groups to take the time to

discuss their outcome, but for the whole class to come together at the end so all of the groups can

compare their outcomes.

This artifact can be beneficial to my teacher self in the future because I hope to eventually

become a kindergarten teacher, and I can definitely see myself utilizing this exact lesson in my

classroom. I might have to slightly change it depending on the number of students in my class or

if there are any students with different needs to be met, but I can use the lesson plan as a

guideline and go from there.

References:

New Jersey Professional Standards for Teachers for Teachers alignment with InTASC. (2014,

May 5). The Official Web Site for The State of New Jersey. Retrieved October 4, 2021, from

https://www.state.nj.us/education/profdev/requirements/standards/docs/ProfStandardsforTeacher

sAlignmentwithInTASC.pdf