Reflection 6

 Many times, when instructional objectives are mentioned, teachers think about having learning objectives posted on the board or the amount of information we will have to unpack for the scholars. According to Slavin “An instructional objective, sometimes called a behavioral objective, is a statement of skills or concepts that students are expected to know at the end of some period of instruction.” (Slavin, n.d., p. 350) We need to be looking at learning objectives as a map for the instructional day.  They need to be specific for the content being taught at that time. 

Slavin also gives a three-step process for task analysis that can help in the classroom.  The steps are to identify prerequisite skills, identify component skills, and plan how the component skills will be assembled into a final skill.  (Slavin, n.d., p.352) In my classroom, I do this often.  I am exposing my scholars to grade level standards, but I must take the time to assess what skills the scholars need. Often, I have to teach them background information and prerequisites before I even start to teach those objectives. Having instructional objectives helps with this because we know what the final goal is and plan what is done in the classroom.  Sometimes I backward plan by starting with the final instructional objective that I want to accomplish.  What do I want my scholars to learn? Then I go through and plan everything.  This can be extremely useful when my scholars need to be assessed differently, giving multiple ways of feedback or helping them process what needs to be done.  All of this is to make sure my scholars understand what they are doing.  


One of the major topics in this chapter is Bloom’s taxonomy which is the theory that there are multiple ways to learn. The main three are cognitive (thinking), affective (emotional), and psychomotor (movement). Each skill is taught on and learned by this hierarchy of complexity and understanding.  This is important for me as a special education teacher to write learning objectives, encourage deeper thinking and understanding, and align my assessments with the instructional goals.  Knowing the level of thinking impacts how I differentiate for my scholars.  It also helps me understand why some tasks may be far harder than others and why it is more important for them to understand concepts deeper than just surface level. Teaching in a progression of complexity helps build confidence and allows me to tailor to my scholar's different learning styles.  It also allows me to use multiple strategies to help my scholars gain skills.


Another topic in this chapter is evaluations and feedback.  Evaluations have several different functions, but the main function is to determine if the scholar's gained mastery of the content taught.  Some assessments are formative, others are summative. Many times, we look at it as passed or failed however, with feedback we can determine that sometimes they gain skills just not all that was measured.  I think about my scholars multiplying fractions by a whole number.  They were not able to do this by the end of the unit; however, they did gain skills.  By the end of the unit, they were able to identify fractions, model fractions, and add fractions.  They were able to use repeated addition to solve the problems.  So, while they couldn’t multiply, they were able to solve.  I considered this unit a success because of this. It is important to differentiate assessments based on the skills and needs of the scholars that you teach.  I have to expose them to questions that are similar to the Ga Milestones questions that way they can get used to seeing questions like that, but I also need to realize that my scholars may need to show what they know differently.  This is why feedback is so important. It allows the scholars to know what they did right but also what they did wrong.  It can guide scholars to what the next steps are.  This feedback also helps me as a teacher to tell me what I need to change when I teach, what worked while teaching, and what the next steps would be. I always like to hear about feedback because I know that how I give feedback changes based on the scholars' needs.  Each of my scholars has different needs so feedback changes based on that. 


No  AI used

References: 

Slavin, Robert E.. Educational Psychology: Theory and Practice (p. 350). Pearson Education. Kindle Edition. 

Slavin, Robert E.. Educational Psychology: Theory and Practice (p. 352). Pearson Education. Kindle Edition.


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