**My Journey Begins* *

 Initial Reflection

In my classroom, I am constantly searching for meaningful and equitable practices that will allow every student to gain access to the learning. My core instructional practice is the fully guided instructional framework. I found this this to be the most effective way to deliver core content in the shortest period of time. The segment that I would like to improve on within this framework is the independent practice. During independent practice segment, students are given practice problems, worksheets, and/or homework to demonstrate their proficiency in the skill I just taught in the lesson. However, I have noticed that my students reach the target skill at different access points. The segment becomes more of a differentiated in which I begin meeting the students at their access points and guide them toward reaching the standards. I would like to be intentional in the how I design this segment in my lesson plan so my instruction becomes more meaningful and equitable.

            The basic lesson design framework of fully guided instruction is a strength of mine. It’s the primary focus in how I design each lesson. I always seem to focus more on the guided practice and even more so on the independent practice. I view the independent practice as the most important time as I actually provide the most intervention for my students who are struggling to meet the target. This is a challenge for me as each lesson poses different interventions. I find independent practices to be more fluid in nature and takes on the shape that fits each student needs. In this, my goal is to be more educated in the different types of instructional strategies that focuses on differentiation methods.

            Though my PLC’s, I have learned many different strategies though the expertise of my fellow colleagues. In these meetings, we discuss results and strategies that are the most effective within each lesson. We also collaborate on determining the needs based on the needs. However, this is also an area, I would like to grow in as an individual and as a team. As an individual, I would like to be deliberate in what I contribute to the group. I always struggle to contribute valuable data for a variety of reasons. I am a little inconsistent with my team on terms of being where they are on the pacing guide. This causes me to either be behind, so I don’t have my data ready. Or, I will be ahead where the data I have data ready, but not ready to provide to the group. This causes us to not be succinct in our data analysis. My goal is to be more on pace with my team so our PLC discussions become more powerful and concise.