Teacher Portfolio Contents > HTSB Standards Proficiency > 8 - Instructional Strategies

HTSB STANDARD #8 - INSTRUCTIONAL STRATEGIES

The teacher understands and uses a variety of instructional strategies to encourage learners to develop deep understanding of content areas and their connections, and to build skills to apply knowledge in meaningful ways.

In Spring 2021 I developed a Case Study Unit Plan to analyze a group of my students and consider how to best apply learning theories (behaviorism, information processing, constructivist theory and social cognitive theory) over the course of five lessons. I observed how my students responded to the various instructional methods I used to test out my application of each theory, and integrated technology effectively in my delivery of these lessons, and then reflected on the results, and found the “attention-getter” to be a particularly effective strategy for all of my students. I also learned that giving too many choices, particularly for Freshmen students, felt overwhelming to the students, and I now aim to give two choices, which seems to work best at all grade levels.

In Fall 2021 students designed an air-dry clay bead project focused on bringing positive, hopeful and joyful emotions to the recipient, whether it be for themselves, someone in their family, a friend, or someone in their community. Students learned to design, form and decorate beads while creating an artwork that held meaning and relevance, and presented to the class about the process of creating this work.