Instructional Strategies Analysis

The instructional strategies selected for this unit were appropriate to meet the needs of the diverse learners. Providing the students with different cues and questions played an essential role during this unit as they were able to help activate the students prior knowledge. The cues and questions provided when working one-on-one with students was also important as the number of prompting, cues, or questioning varied based on the student. Another equally important strategy was the use of Hands-on activities and a variety of manipulatives, possibly one of the most important components when working with this group of students. Fourteen out of the fifteen students are still struggling with some of their fine motor skills and our hands-on activities …show more content…
The inclusion of music in this lesson was a great treat for the students, the students would often ask to get to watch the music video about the number six again. There were two days during our unit where as a reward for completing all of their work the students got to watch the video a second time. I would consider finding a second video on this topic, if another well made video is available. In particular, I enjoyed seeing how much the students were enjoying the video and even getting to see a few students sing a long at times. Lastly, modeling how to complete certain activities to the students was essential to this group, especially during our small group activities and on the whole group activity during day five. For this group of students, most often require more than just verbal directions. Written directions, thou provided, are not as beneficial for this group as only a few of the students are able to read CVC words at this stage. Modeling to the students how to play a game or how to do an activity allows them to see you perform a task before they take their turn. As we completed our number six booklet on day five, I started the booklet by modeling the students how to complete the first page. First cut the characters mentioned in the story, glue, paste and write an answer for the …show more content…
The students were highly engaged during this portion of the lesson and willing to participate. All the students that were either called upon to come interact with the Smart Board or that volunteered to do so were excited to do so. The video we watched all five days was a huge success, the students were glued to the screen and within a couple days a few of the students were even singing along. The variety of visuals included also play a critical role during this lesson (reference PDF attachment for Smart Board slides) helping the lesson be more engaging and showcasing the number six in a variety of ways as well as reviewing previous numbers learned. These are important because it helps build their self-confidence, interest in the lesson, participation level and chances of of understanding and retaining information. The regular review of the numbers with the use of this technology also helps tap into their prior knowledge, number zero through five, while also supporting them as they learn and master skills associated with the number six. For day two and four with the first graders group, one modification I made was to use building blocks on both days instead of erasers. The ability to use two pink blocks and 4 blue blocks and then putting both of those together