Standard+4

Home - Standard 1 - Standard 2 - Standard 3 - Standard 4 - Standard 5 - Standard 6 - Standard 7 - Standard 8 - Standard 9 - Standard 10

**Standard 4:** **// Teachers know how to teach. //** The teacher understands and uses a variety of instructional strategies, including the use of technology, to encourage children's development of critical thinking, problem solving, and performance skills. **Evidence 1:** A Sunflower Seed Grows Video (See CD)

**Rationale 1:** Developing my “A Sunflower Seed Grows Video” was an interesting project for me to create and turned out to be a fun way for me to reinforce the concepts presented in the growth cycle of plants. Finding ways to develop critical thinking skills can be challenging. My students really enjoyed the animation of the video and its design allowed me to revisit individual frames to reinforce the concept being presented.

 I loved creating this video, although at first I was quite intimidated by the project. It was fun to think of an idea that was part of our curriculum and take it beyond the “normal” way of presenting information. Sometimes it is difficult for teachers to show their creativity because of the time and effort that is necessary to complete a project like this video. I feel that I learned a lot creating this video: shooting the sequence of photos, determining the length that each photo would be displayed, and downloading the music to fit the movie.

 I intend to create additional videos, utilizing claymation and other formats, to present introductory information and to reinforce concepts to my students to strengthen and augment important concepts. I plan to find ways to incorporate performance based instruction in future videos.

**KSD:**

**4.K.3 The teacher knows how to enhance learning through the use of a wide variety of materials and technological resources (e.g. computers, audio-visual technologies, videotapes and discs, local experts, primary documents and artifacts, texts, reference books, literature, and other print resources).**

My sunflower claymation video successfully incorporated a new learning opportunity for my students. My first graders are exposed to cartoons and movies that they find entertaining. Learning about seeds, parts of plants, and the plant growth cycle are an important set of concepts for my students. The audio-visual nature of “A Sunflower Grows Video” successfully drew my class into the learning experience.

**4.S.1 The teacher carefully evaluates how to achieve learning goals, choosing alternative teaching strategies and materials to achieve different instructional purposes and to meet student needs (e.g. developmental stages, prior** **knowledge, learning styles, learning differences, and interests).** I had specific outcomes that I wanted to accomplish in this unit. Using the video I designed was an alternative from the traditional textbook/worksheet materials that I have available. I also felt the video did a nice job meeting the different learning styles and ability levels of my students.

**4.D.1 The teacher values the development of students’ critical thinking,** **independent problem solving, and performance capabilities.**

 By using the video, I was able to revisit elements and concepts that were presented. This allowed my students to demonstrate their critical thinking and problem solving skills through discussion; in particular, having them postulate what would happen next in the life cycle of the plant.