As an education major at West Virginia State University, I understand how to relate with my students and build connections with the lessons to bring ties to "the big picture," the instructional goals of a unit plan or more extensive objectives. I have disciplined practice of explicit instruction, a method to make learning goals and objects transparent and easily obtainable. Attached is my evidence of the lesson plan, with the overview: "In this lesson, students will be introduced to new vocabulary words for this new Unit of study. Using the Explicit Instruction strategy, the students will have a clear overview of defining the words and the context in which they will encounter these new vocabulary words in this story. They will build from their prior knowledge to develop meaningful connections in reading comprehension." My lesson and assessment was to use the Lexia LETRs Program's Four Square Framework to define the word "Pattern." My lesson objective was: "By the end, the students will comprehend key vocabulary words such as pattern, symmetry, repeat, nature, and sequence. They will also clarify the meaning and apply word analysis skills in decoding these new vocabulary words. Students will strive to achieve 75% accuracy on the formative assessment while working towards mastery to demonstrate knowledge of the word "Pattern" by giving examples of patterns and non-examples, defining the term, and re-creating a pattern." This vocabulary in this Unit was used in our SAVAS ELA curriculum. However, uniquely, it tied into my "Variations of Traits" STEM Unit plan, so I taught my first lesson on Variations of Traits the following day to build from the prior knowledge in this Unit with vocabulary that could be applied to learning objectives in "Variations of Traits," for example, learning to identify patterns in nature is a way to distinguish similarities and differences, and recognizing symmetrical patterns, thus comprehending the meaning, and seeing the example I used with the plants that we are using in "Variations of Traits" made the connections more meaningful. I developed background knowledge for students who had yet to recognize what this word meant using real-world examples.

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I provide several small clips from this lesson along with my lesson plans and rationale. Using explicit instruction, I modeled the pronunciation of the word pattern and helped the third-grade students determine the number of syllables in the word. The second video shows the class contributing to an open discussion by adding the types of patterns you may find to a web diagram. Students used examples of patterns in clothing, rows and columns, alternating colors, and animal prints. Eventually, I used the student's talkative behavior to refer to behavioral patterns using a flexible response method in the situation!

 

Explicit instruction is evident in the structure I taught this lesson, my technology Canva presentation demonstrates that the lesson I taught my students, and the slides were designed off the Research-Based educational program by Lexia LETRS that follows the Science of Reading. Here is an example of the student's first encounter with the word nature:

• Nature: parts of the world not made by people: land, mountains, trees, etc.

• Examples and non-examples: Give one example and one non-example of how the word is and is not used. For instance, I have used the word nature for this example and displayed the scene of a mountain with a stream and a bird with a log cabin. I asked students to take a moment to think and try to figure out if anything in that picture is not of "nature" (nature is not artificial). One thing that could be natural is the trees and the mountains, but the cabin is not.

• Clap syllables: Invite the students to follow along as we clap the syllables of the target vocabulary word: nature. "How many syllables are in nature?"

• Word associations: Ask students, "What does the word nature make you think of?" Students can turn and talk with a partner to come up with a response. Then, invite pairs to share their responses with the rest of the class. Have students share the answers.

• Give an example of nature in a sentence: "I love nature walks!"

 

Students were given clear and direct instruction to the learning information and great opportunities with examples to demonstrate their knowledge. Another artifact is the real-life examples of symmetry I used in my class. Students had trouble with this, so, being flexible, I took a leaf from our class Coleus plant, traced it, cut it out, and then folded a piece of paper to show the difference between symmetry and asymmetry. The leaf and the paper have symmetry, but the two kinds are different, and they build an experience they can remember from me quickly rushing to do this for them in a flexible teaching moment.

 

Additionally, the students work with authentic feedback, which includes the reasons for the grading and explanations for the answers they gave, which is more solid evidence for students' understanding of the vocabulary word "Pattern." This summative assessment of student knowledge provided further strength to show the student's receptiveness to the lesson as they demonstrated their ability to listen to clear and precise instructions and complete the required learning tasks. I displayed my objectives by being thorough in my instruction.