Customized Instruction

The successful online educator:

Customizes instructions to enable a personalized learning experience and pace based on performance and assessment data and learner need.
Helps learners reach content mastery through instruction and quality feedback using various formats.

Standards:
NSQOT: D3, D5, G7
OTS: 1.1, 1.4, 2.1, 2.6

Reflection: Explain what you have done in your professional experience to address these indicators and include reasoning for why you chose this evidence.

I am aware that learning a second language can be overwhelming. For my students I try to create and present content that is fun and dynamic. In zoom sessions I use content from the course in my slides along with bright, colorful visuals for young learners and links to Spanish children’s songs. In the lessons I try to add material that prompts students to think and reflect. Some examples are numbers in Spanish and basic addition problems. In last week’s lesson I asked students to prepare math cards then make a video of themselves saying the math problem in Spanish. Another lesson students have when learning colors is to draw a picture and name the colors in the picture in Spanish. An alternate I use with students is to make a recording of themselves saying three Spanish words or phrases they learned in the weekly zoom session. One activity I used with students was Padlet with students uploading a picture of their favorite animal or pet then saying what color the animal was and the color in Spanish. These activities are aligned with individual goals and adjusted to meet the needs of students with an IEP or 504 plan.

When grading assignments I leave written and audio feedback giving accolades to student work. An example would be, ‘¡Muchas gracias Trevor! Me gusta – I like how you can say the colors in Spanish like ‘ amarillo’ for yellow, ‘azul’ for blue and ‘verde’ for green. Muy bien- really good! Can you tell me other colors you see in nature like colors in a rainbow? ¡Bien hecho – well done! I also like to include activities in Announcements that allow students to see their own progress and they participate in interactive lessons. One example is the matching picture word quizlet activity that I embed in weekly announcements. This gives students the opportunity to practice Spanish vocabulary and see the progress they are making with the new words. I also hold office hours to go over material with students. In our sessions I use rhythms, sounds and catchy tunes to help students reproduce and retain new information. Sometimes I will use white board games like pictionary or tic tac toe. See below.

My communication with parents is generally via email though a lot of parents contact me directly via text and sometimes phone if they want to discuss progress or a concern. One example is a student of mine that is not comfortable with zoom sessions. Originally the student and I were meeting for weekly individual sessions though she is still very shy and still not comfortable. Now I am preparing weekly print material for the student to go over ahead of time with her mother then we meet for a weekly phone session. The mother was going to drop the student though I really wanted to work with her so this is what we are doing for now.

Another mother sent me a text a couple of week’s ago Saturday night at 8 pm about an assignment, not realizing it was my personal phone. I responded. She felt badly though I was glad I was able to communicate with her and answer her question. As evidence, I am showing some text messages of parents inquiring about their student and how I worked to solve the issue.

Where are you now in reaching mastery of these indicators? Explain your reasoning.

Approaching / Meeting / Exceeding

I am meeting mastery for Customized Instruction. I offer differentiated lessons though with young learners in the course and in zoom sessions, using a variety of web tools and assessment. I meet this indicator by providing personalized instruction. My lessons are student-centered and I promote a learning environment to meet the needs of all students.