RUNNING HEAD: ​Professional Reflection 1

Professional Reflection

Lisa Perosi

OTL502 - Learning Theories and Models of Instruction

Colorado State University – Global Campus

Dr. Hile

March 10, 2019

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I was very inspired touchstone 10: ​“ ​Help students develop deep knowledge” ​(​Goodwin,

2013 p. 198). The article that was shared in module 6 about students who “​developed

smartphone apps that addressed the concept that organisms are dependent on the biotic and

abiotic factors and relationships in their ecosystem and are also affected by human impacts”

(​Bowen, 2014).

For my own lesson with a focus on this touchstone students wrote an imaginary travel

journal entry after finding the main idea in a reading about Matthew Henson. This inspired

deeper knowledge because as students started to read they were so curious about who Matthew

Henson was. The students were also surprised to know that a black man had discovered the

north pole (​Allen, 2010).

I had invited a member of the black community from my school to join the lesson. He

admitted that he had just learned about Henson from a Netflix special for black history month

and was proud to know about how a black man discovered the north pole.

When the students completed the reading they referred to the rubric we had made on

Monday before they began their learning task. This was important to me because the students

were double checking what mastery looked like.

“At the core of all learning, then, appears to be the process of associating new knowledge

with old” (​Goodwin, 2013 p. 145). I assigned the journal project to my 6th grade students

building on the TKES from 5th grade and 4th grade. These TEKS listed student standards for

sentence construction and creative writing skills.

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The standard the students needed to master was to be able to find the main idea and

details in a story. By having the students create their own story they received the deeper

understanding that main idea and detail is not based in opinion.

By Wednesday, students were ready for peer edit groups and teacher feedback meetings.

I no longer see my students on Friday because we are doing a new program called “Friday

Academy”. This is an initiative for students to work on core subjects and achieve mastery for the

state exams that will be coming up in April.

The Wednesday editing session went better than I thought. My behavior plan of teacher

vs student was working well too and students were excited to earn some outside time at the end

of class on Thursday. When students go outside I connect this with their journaling and if they

go outside I will assign them to write or draw of one experience they loved outside.

I had been struggling with behavior of my 6th grade reading students for some time but

this project was something my students were able to come together for. The girls in my class

were fighting over something and would constantly treat each other poorly and use foul

language, thus getting in trouble and being frustrated for the consequences to their actions.

When this lesson began my students had spent some time repairing relationships within

the class and they were ready to learn. I will sometimes get frustrated about the social aspects of

students at school but I understand that the relationship building aspects is important to keep the

environment of the classroom safe.

What I received on Thursday left me speechless. My students produced beautiful and

colorful journals where they used new vocabulary and expressed how they were the “First

Mexican to tour Mars” or “The first Honduran deep sea explorer”.

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I was very proud of the quality of the work my students produced and I could see how

proud they were as well. After school on Thursday I hung these projects up on my bulletin board

outside the classroom and the superintendent of the school complimented my students work.
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References

Allen, J. (2010). ​Literature 6th grade.​ Evanston, IL: Holt McDougal.

Bowen, B., & Finch, J. (2014). There's an app for that. Science Teacher, 81(3), 41-47.
Eppink, Joseph A. (2002). Student-Created Rubrics: An Idea that Works. Teaching Music, 9(4),
28-32

Goodwin, B., & Hubbell, E. R. (2013). ​The 12 touchstones of good teaching: A checklist for
staying focused every day​. Alexandria, VA: ASCD.