This lesson plan was created in my supporting students with disabilities class. As a part of this class, I was to "create" two fake students with diagnosed disabilities and show how my lesson plan could be accommodated for the student. However, this lesson plan plays to the skills of each of my students. The lesson is broken up into stations that students rotate through. Each of these stations plays to a different strength such as artistic ability, verbal skills, writing ability, etc.

 

My hopes for this lesson plan is to allow students to bring their personal experiences into the different stations and represent their findings through various mediums of communication. The final also gives multiple options that call upon different sets of skills to accomplish, but still require work and thought from the student to show their mastery of the content.

 

What I learned:

In the process of creating this lesson plan, I found myself struggling to find a way to maintain rigor. I felt that as I accommodated for multiple styles of learning, I made the assignment feel childish. I would never want my students to feel like the assignments are childish or useless. I struggle knowing how to challenge my top students while not making the work impossible for my struggling students. The solution I thought of for this was to individualize the work but to have each student do a completely different assignment would be too much of an overload on me for planning and grading. I've talked with some other professionals that would tell me to focus on the ones who are struggling so that they don't fall off into the background and get forgotten. I think that is very true, but it disadvantages other students who may find the assignment too easy. Finding this balance is very hard and I hope to continue to work on it as I get to know the students I will work with and their individual needs and strengths.

In this assignment, I was able ​able to give students options in how they feel they should be evaluated. One option focuses on visual learning, one is hands-on building focused, and the last one is word focused. I picked this assignment with these three focuses in particular based on the self-assessments the students had taken. In these self-assessments, students gave me feedback on how they learn, demonstrate their learning, and study the best. 

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Every group ended up picking the same option when I presented it to them. I think there would have been more variety if I had done individual assignments. At the end of the activity, students filled out a peer evaluation based on each other's performance. 

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What I learned: 

I learned that if I give ample time in class to work with your partner, the work should not go home with one partner. This disadvantages the peer because the student can leave it at home, or do it all without their partner, or receive outside help. This happened in two of the four groups that did the assignment. This made it difficult for individual grading. 

If I were to do this again, I would add more variety and details to the options so students are less likely to all pick the same one. I would also make it an individual project or not allow it to go home. This would be based on a class discussion between the students and myself about the expectations of the assignment. I like the students to have variety, but also autonomy in the choice of group or independent work. 

I fully believe that we should allow every student to display his/her knowledge in a way that could work to their strengths. Every student has a way of displaying mastery of a standard that they excel at. Students are some combination of verbal processors, visual processors, written, hands-on, etc. By providing options to how students will be assessed, the student can pick for his/herself how they will be able to display mastery. Each of the tasks are valued the same, the content is the same, the product is all that is different. 

By providing options, you are also giving students the autonomy to make their own choices. They then feel as if they have ownership over their learning. I have also noticed in practice, that when students feel like they had a part in picking an assignment they are more likely to be engaged and interested. This then provides for higher quality work and a deeper level of understanding as curiosity is stirred up. 
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I was able to practice co-leading a station activity in a college-level class with a peer educator. I have modified that lesson plan to fit a high school lesson I hope to teach in the upcoming years.