Samantha Hess

K. Suk
EDUC 230-02 Education Field Experience
Spring 2019
Instruction Rationale Statement

Standard 4- Content Knowledge:

The teacher understands the central concepts, tools of inquiry, and structures of the discipline(s)

he or she teaches, particularly as they relate to the Common Core Standards and the New Jersey

Core Curriculum Content Standards and creates learning experiences that make these aspects of

the discipline accessible and meaningful for learners to assure mastery of the content. (New

Jersey Department of Education, 2014, pg. 5).

Artifact: Observation #5, instruction

Date: April 4th, 2019

Course: EDUC 230-02 Education Field Experience

Rational Statement:

This artifact is my observation paper discussing lesson instruction. This artifact goes into

detail about how to effectively instruct a lesson in a way that will keep students interested and

engaged. Presenting a lesson in a way that gets students excited about what’s to come is a skill

that teachers learn to master over time. I related this article to standard 4.i.6, “The teacher

evaluates and modifies instructional resources and curriculum materials for their

comprehensiveness, accuracy for representing particular concepts in the discipline, and

appropriateness for his/her learners” (New Jersey Department of Education, 2014, pg. 5). This
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standard is fitting to the lesson that I observed within my artifact. My cooperating teacher took

the time to evaluate the students’ maps of the classroom that they each created using tiles. When

he noticed that they were all different sizes, he added in an activity to measure the classroom.

The teacher is now giving the students materials to complete an activity for better understanding

of their lesson. This activity kept the students involved in their map lesson, while enjoying being

able to move around the classroom and learn more independently by breaking off into partners

and being able to measure the room on their own.

This artifact has taught me how important it is to instruct a lesson appropriately. The

students look to the teacher to inspire them and get them interested in the lesson. A lot of thought

has to go into how to teach a lesson. The teacher needs to hook the students and get them

excited. A lesson should have a hands-on activity with manipulatives to go with the lesson.

When the students are involved and engaged, effective learning is taking place. This lesson

showed me first hand how much the students learned about their classroom, and creating a map

just by giving them meter sticks and having them measure out areas of the classroom.

Afterwards, the students were able to show their knowledge by fixing their classroom maps they

have created using small tiles. The way a teacher instructs is just as important as the lesson itself.

I can use this artifact in the future for tips on how a teacher should instruct for a lesson to

be effective. This artifact holds good tips on how a teacher should properly be presenting a

lesson to students. I could also use this artifact as an actual lesson in my future teaching career.

Good lessons that work get recycled and passed along to other teachers. This lesson was

effective. The students understood the content and stayed interested and engaged throughout the

lesson and the activity. I could see myself using a similar lesson at some point in my teaching

career.
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Reference:

New Jersey Department of Education. (2014, April 1). New Jersey Professional Standards for

Teachers Alignment with InTASC. Retrieved March 20, 2019, from

https://www.state.nj.us/education/profdev/profstand/ProfStandardsforTeachersAlignment

withInTASC.pdf