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Before we use the different strategies to plan our lesson, it is important to know our SEN students first especially when crafting the lesson plan based on DI.

Differentiated Instructions is very useful for the SEN students. Differentiation can be in the form of content, process, product and environment. We need to know if they are ready, what is their interest and their learning styles. DI is important so that our SEN students will not feel demoralised as the resources that are catered to them are ability appropriate.

Task analysis is very useful for SEN especially those with ASD. The scaffolding and explicit instructions will make them able to concentrate at one instruction each time. This makes the task more acheiveable for them.

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2 key takeaways

1) Task analysis would be good in order to provide students with structured learning in a sequential manner towards building target skills. It involves consideration of the student's needs and the difficulty of the task. Teaching in sequential order would also mean building on prior knowledge and skills. Repeated practice needs to be incorporated at each step, along with frequent and regular reviews of the process.

2) Backward design is something I would incorporate into my teaching. This ensures the intended focus is not lost as the results will be pre-determined. Following that, the alignment will suit according to the student's learning style and process through differentiated teaching.

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Instructional planning helps the teacher to construct goals, objectives, instructional and assessment methodology for the classroom. It is systematic planning that helps in developing, evaluating, managing the instructional process during the classroom process.

Task analysis helps students aware of why they need to complete each step to the best of their ability and what can happen if they do not.

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I find the section on when designing instructional plan for students with special needs very helpful as the it explicitly teaches me the ways to engage students effectively. The Alignment and backward design that focus on students' learning goals and other systems is a new insight for me. The teaching on task analysis is useful for I am reminded that tasks that I often take it for granted can be challenging for students. One of the YouTube videos mentioned that many of English Language Learners (ELL) experienced great fear in speaking the language as the fear of failure had gripped them from moving forward. I think it is essential for me to intentionally create a safe environment for students to learn without worrying about getting it wrong. The assessment for learning that focus on progress would be a new way to guide me in making my future lessons more effective.

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There are 3 stages of instruction planning. Lesson preparation, delivery and assessment.

We have to know the student’s need. Decide on the goal and objective of the lesson. To assess student has achieved the desired result.

Backward design focus on what the student needs to learn. Ensure there is alignment on student’s learning process. Using differentiated teaching to meet individual needs.

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1. Lesson planning should be done in a backward design where the learning objectives must be identified first before planning the instructions and learning tools required. This is to focus on what the student actually needs to learn instead what the teacher feels he/she needs to teach. The student also needs to have the pre-requisite skill to learn the new skill. Otherwise, the student will not be able to access the information during lesson and will not be able to apply the knowledge anywhere.

2. Using task analysis to teach language and literacy was something new that I have learnt today. I have never thought of breaking down a literacy lesson into simple steps, mainly because I have no experience teaching language and literacy in a school. This is a good lesson that I will keep in mind. I would have to learn more about this and practice to create lesson plans for literacy lessons for future use.

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Pre-instructional stage
As I was watching the video and reading the slides, I got reminded of my weaknesses in lesson planning. I had issues with sequencing learning during my school stint as I was not very forward thinking in terms of having continuity for my student's learning. It is something that I will continue to improve myself on. The techniques on tracking their progress, especially on the literacy front will be very helpful when planning for lesson continuity and gradually increasing the difficulty for the subsequent sessions.

Task analysis
While my experience in ABA has introduced me to a lot of task analysis, it mostly revolved around ADLs for students. Breaking down the literary components for task analysis was really helpful for me considering my lack of experience in that area. The visual would be useful especially in secondary school where literacy instruction gets more complicated; I can better organise my thoughts and lessons and ultimately better teach my future students.

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Next time when I am planning instructions for my students, I will take into account factors such as:

Structure of lesson planning

working backwards

Think of the objective and desire goal that my student is to achieve

how we would assess if the student has achieve the desired goal

all the way to our teaching strategies and alignment of our resources with the goals in mind

Differentiated instructions that takes into consideration:

Each student's level of readiness

skills they are equipped with

Student's interests and strengths

The way they learn best

of giving students choice

of creating a safe environment

Multi-sensory approach

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Backward planning and alignment
Backward planning involves setting the desired goals of what a student needs to learn. In order to do so, an educator needs to:
(1) Identify desired results (goals)
(2) Determine acceptable evidence (assessments)
(3) Plan learning experiences and instruction.
It is important to ensure there is alignment in the plan whereby the choice of assessment is in-line with the objectives and instructional activities.

There are 3 stages of lesson planning:
Stage 1: Lesson preparation
Stage 2: Lesson enactment (Delivery)
Stage 3: Assessment and Feedback

Task Analysis
It is a process of breaking down a complex task into smaller steps. Task analysis is a great tool as it helps to deconstruct the task into smaller manageable steps. AED(LBS) can provide visual supports to their SEN students in the form of checklist, visual task cards or routine cards.

Multi-sensory Approach
SEN students will benefit from multisensory lessons that include visual, tactile, auditory and kinesthetic learners. Incorporating cooperative learning techniques can make lesson more engaging too.

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1. I think task analysis is something very common. We have been using it without knowing that it is called task analysis. Even my parents without much education used task analysis to teach me how to brush my teeth and everything else when I was a child. To be honest, I am really surprised that this is also an evidenced based strategy. But I must said that this is an effective strategy as it shows learners what to do in a step-by-step manner.

2. It is interesting to learn about backward design and alignment. It actually makes a lot of sense to focus on what students need to learn rather than what we need to teach. I have never thought of it this way. I think alignment is really important. I have seen time and again when instructional activities or course technologies were not aligned fully with the lesson objectives because teachers were ‘forced’ to do/show certain things during their lesson observations.

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15 Differentiated Instructions
The moment I saw the 15 differentiated instructions, I was thinking to myself how many I can learn and memorized by hard to teach my students. After watching, I realized some of the ideas are methods we have been using like

interview students to determine which the methods of instruction which suits them, targeting different sense, think pair share for example. It might take a while for me to be familiar with the most commonly used one but I believe we as AED LBS through experience will come up with new instructions by mixing and matching different ideas.

Task Analysis

Task analysis looks virtually like how we do our lesson plans in steps. and how we are going to teach the students by breaking down a complicated or easy skills or task into even simpler ones.

This will be easier for the student to understand as AED LBS we would have knowledge of the student’s learning capability. It’s like slicing up the salmon into sashimi for them to digest easily.

We just must be mindful of what they should learn first and work on the steps one by one.

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My two key takeaways are:

1. The importance difference between assessment for learning and assessment of learning. The latter is often used in the mainstream classroom setting, where students have standardised tests and exams that serves to evaluate their academic standing in relation to their peers. On the other hand, as an AED (LBS), we assess students not to inform them about how "good" or "bad" they are in their ability to learn, rather, the focus is on finding out how they are progressing so that we know whether the current teaching approach/intervention should be continued, modified, or changed completely. This can be done through progress monitoring, such as by regularly updating a checklist of words that a student has mastered and replacing them with new words when teaching vocabulary.

2. I also learnt that lesson planning should be done backwards by first determining the desired goals or outcomes we want our students to achieve. In addition, it is important for there to be alignment between the key components of our lesson plan, which are learning objectives, assessments, instructional activities, resources, and course technology. For instance, if I want my student to be able to combine sentences, then I should not be focusing on teaching unfamiliar words that the student may encounter during the lesson, which would constitute a misalignment between the learning objective and instructional activities. With this in mind, I hope to be able to create better lesson plans in the future for my students.

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Backward design and Alignments:
This method focus more on the student-centric approach. It is important to know what benefits the students rather than what i want to teach the student. Desired outcomes and goal will then followed.

Multisensory approach:
I love this approach as i believe that most SEN students needs multisensory approach to stimulate their sensoria- visual, auditory, kinesthetics. Using multisensory in teachings helps to build the student's interest and allow them to understand the concept better.

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The two main things that I must remember from this lecture would be number one backward design & alignment and the second one would be task analysis.

For backward design & alignment, it ensures that I put the students' needs and what I will like them to achieve first. It is important as AEDs that we align the goal for our students to the materials we are teaching them. This may be something that is quite straightforward but during my school stint, I found myself coming up with lesson plans that do not resonate with the student's needs and their goals.

Secondly, for task analysis, I feel that it is good for not only students but teachers as well.  English is a very big topic and if we do not break it down into parts, we might teach/focus on points that do not match with our students' weaknesses. For students themselves, breaking down a task would make it easier for them to follow through and memorise.

Other than that, this lecture reminded me of a few main points that I felt will be important for me to remember during my practicum.
1. Be aware of our student's abilities.
2. Prepare ways to check for understanding
3. Use a multi-sensory approach
4. Assessment for learning is done during the lesson itself and it measures improvement.

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1) Backward planning:

Identify desired results > determine acceptable evidence > plan learning experiences and instruction

Tools will come back later, after I’m certain of my desired results

Focuses on what they need to learn, instead of what we want to teach

Objective and assessment needs to be aligned

Resonated with this because it made me realise that some of my previous lessons actually saw me thinking about the medium of instruction first before considering the assessment process.

2) How to differentiate instructions for different levels of EL learners:

Newcomers:

Use pictures as much as you can

Begin working on essential vocab, greetings and grammar (teachers’ name, language they can use to ask for help)

Emerging level:

Focus on listening and speaking activities (let them know it’s okay to make mistakes)

Highlight important vocabulary

Developing level:

Think pair share to promote conversation

Cloze activities to promote vocab development (using language in context)

Other things I found helpful:

Group students with different learning styles (allow like-minded students to support each other) - this can be done in collaboration with class teacher.

Don’t overlook basic words

Teach signal and directional words so that they can better understand instructions in other subjects

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1. Backward Design
"Beginning with the end in mind". Instead of jumping at every idea when planning for instruction, it is more feasible to set some goals and see what can be incorporated. Thus it is important to know where to look for ideas and to find ways to scaffold and differentiate. Adding too many bells and whistles to instruction just for the sake of it is not helpful at all. Backward design also helps us to take stock of what our student can already do, or see if our student has the relevant pre-requisite knowledge required for the leson.

2. Assessment for Learning
AfL is important as it helps to inform us of how well our students are responding to the intervention that we are providing. One effective way to do AfL is through the use of games and activities and regular checkpoints to check for understanding. By breaking down a skill into smaller tasks with task analysis, we can also do AfL using these smaller tasks before determining if we can move on to the next part of the lesson/intervention plan.

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My 2 take aways that I would use.

Backward Planning and Alignment
1. Identify the desired results
2. Determine acceptable evidence
3. Plan learning experiences and instruction.

In planning have the end in mind. The focus should be on what the student  should learn and not what are the tools that I would want to use...

paired with,

Task Analysis

1. State the learning task
2. Break the learning task into steps
3. Test informally (determine the steps that students can already perform)
4. Begin teaching, in sequential order.

When working with students with SEN, the process of task analysis is apt and important as it makes the task manageable and doable. By having the task broken down into manageable task, students will experience success which will motivate them to move on to the next step.

Additionally, when planning and teaching, it is important to remember:

- to keep the activities short and concise
- use multi sensory approach (at least 2 or 3)
-Use specific praise
- create more opportunities for student to practice the target skills

Routine teaching with
- Use I do, We do, You do
- same graphic organizers

Student will get more familiar in the lesson taught by the teacher when the lessons are routine. Student will benefit and teacher can be assured that learning happens has time progresses.

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Backward Planning and Alignment
1) Desired results
2) Evidence and assessment
3) Learning plan
It is important to design a lesson based on what the student needs to learn rather than what the teacher wants to teach. It is student-centric where we need to focus on what are the key skills that the students need to acquire after attending our lesson. Alignment is also an important part of planning where learning activities and assessments all connect together and students are able to achieve their learning goals in the end.

Task Analysis
Breaking down tasks into smaller steps through a step-by-step manner helps students to perform the task that is assigned to them. It is also for us to determine if the student is able to perform at each step before moving forward. As an AED LBS, I can use this strategy to help students with learning needs at a more manageable pace.

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Differentiated Instruction:

My first aha moment was on the various strategies on the differentiated instruction. There were many strategies shared which I have used back in school which I could relate to and there were many other new strategies shared (such as creating learning stations, think-pair-share). There are many ways to teach a child and I feel that as an AED (LBS), we should not be restricted and should explore the various ways so as to keep our lessons interesting and to get the student engaged. This segment of the video got me thinking on how I can apply what I have learnt in my future lessons with my students.

Task Analysis:

My second aha moment was on task analysis. Task Analysis is the process of breaking up a complex task into smaller bite-sized tasks. This is a good strategy that will work well with students as the task is broken down into simpler, more manageable components. This will especially be very helpful for weaker learners and SEN students as these students are usually overwhelmed when they are faced with a challenging task. As a result, they give up easily. Thus breaking up a task into smaller bite-sized tasks will not overwhelm them and it will be more manageable for them. As an AED (LBS), it is important for us to be able to help our students. Thus, I feel that this is a strategy that will be very useful for many of the students.

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How to make sure that the student has learning disabilities can learn. Here I will work on the Backward Planning. First, identify desire process, follow by determining acceptable evidence. Thirdly, plan for learning experiences and instructions.

Differentiated instruction has basically redesigned the way of teaching and provides suitable instructional based on student learning needs. It inspires students to engage in learning and improve in learning products. DI helps students to learn efficiently and effectively with much better understanding.

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1. Task Analysis in pocket sized print will come handy for students. It need not be in words but just pictures maybe.

Application: academic, social, communication & behaviour

Example: Daily routine, steps needed in topics like math etc

2. In Backward Planning and Alignment, there are 5 counterparts that needs to be aligned to ensure student success.
- Learning Objective
- Assessments
- Instructional Activities
- Resources
- Course technologies

It focuses on what student need to learn rather than what we want to teach.

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1) Backward Design & Alignment
I feel that structuring our lessons according to a backward design approach is such a simple yet powerful concept. It reminded me of the saying, "begin with the end in mind". Our students remain the focus of our teaching and we should first consider what they need to learn & are able to learn (i.e. the learning objectives). Alignment of all the different lesson components is also important. I feel that if our learning objectives are clearly stated, the choice of assessments, instructional activities and resources used to teach our students will naturally sync well and result in an effective lesson.

2) Task Analysis
We often talk about how structured, step-by-step instructions are beneficial to students with SEN, and the concept of task analysis emphasizes this. I feel that breaking down a task into very specific steps helps me appreciate how effortful it can be for a student with SEN to perform that task, whether it is a learning or behavioural task. When planning lessons, I would need to consider what is a clear and logical sequence of steps for an activity, taking care to keep language concise and age-appropriate.

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My Two Takeaways:

Backward Design

When we start planning to teach, our first step is to think about what our student should be able to do at the end of a class or lesson. There are 3 stages to backward design  process.

1. Identify desired process

2. Determined acceptable evidence

3. Plan learning experiences and instruction

Task analysis:
It is a process of breaking down a complex task into smaller and more manageable components. It can be deconstructed into steps. Task analysis can be a great tool for teachers to use in trying to help students gain independence. We can provide checklist, routine cards, visual task analysis cards that students can use.

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The first aha moment hit during the first few moments into the lecture – backward chaining and alignment. It seemed pretty straightforward and obvious that yes, we should always come up with the lesson objectives, determine how to evaluate them before we decide what material to use etc. But oftentimes, I do find myself looking at my materials and thinking what kind of lesson I can come up with, instead of focusing on the needs and the objectives that I would want my student to achieve. I think this was an important reminder for me to always focus on my student’s needs, the objectives will eventually set the tone for the lesson and what material/strategy I need will flow accordingly.

The second aha moment came when I was watching the video on the teacher that taught students who were not native English speakers. I really like how she put a lot of thought into the words that she used, making it practical and functional for them to learn. She also created a safe space and ‘teach up’ whereby she did not want them to keep using the same vocabulary in the sentence over and over again, but to use the tier 2 vocabulary that they have already learnt. The exercise given was also targeted at making sentences, which was something the students were weak in – due to their fear in sounding uneducated and this also boosted their confidence. Of course, she used a lot of praises as well. I think I value the thought process that goes into lesson planning so that almost every aspect of the student can been covered and this will help to make the sessions more engaging, fun and yet meet the objective set out to achieve.

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Task Analysis:
- Breaking down tasks allow students to feel the sweetness of success thus also improving their self-esteem
-  We can provide a checklist to encourage independence and self-monitoring

Backward Design Focus:
- Student-centric; focuses on student's learning than what teacher wants to teach
- Clear, achievable task objective

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I think the 2 two highlights I've drawn from the lesson would firstly be to not only teach the students but also to frequently practice and use them daily to help assimilate it into their lives. This was demonstrated through the video which showed a class taking English as their second language and the teacher encouraging them to use words they have learnt.

The second highlight was breaking the major task into smaller parts so that it is more manageable for the students. Psychologically, it also brings about the mindset that, "Hey, I've actually completed 4 task and I'm only left with 2" which helps eliminate the sense of helplessness among students.

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I think when planning it is good to have the end goal in mind. With that, backward design in lesson planning would be great as we can use the end goal to set little milestones that we want to see in each step. Being able to build a good rapport with the student will also be important to help us understand what will work when we plan the lesson.

Also, based on experience, I think multi-sensory approaches are very useful when we are teaching the students. It helps us understand the students better and we can work out what helps them best. However, I would also think it is important to not overdo the multi-sensory approaches as students could get overloaded. Sometimes, it is good to keep things fixed to allow certain students to get into a regular rhythm.

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1. Task Analysis
It is a evidence based intervention that is useful for SEN students. By breaking down a task into simple and smaller steps, it makes it easy for students to comprehend and follow through. Important considerations are ensuring Consistency and tailoring it to suit the studentTask analysis also helps to establish the basis for a systematic Instruction practice for students to follow..

2. Different Stages of fluency
Students can be categorised as Entering, Emerging, Developing, Expanding or Bridging level in an ELL. We can then prepare our lessons to cater to their needs and understanding. This will slowly build their competency and interest in the language and help them advance to the next level of fluency. A simple lesson on vocabulary can be taught in four different ways to match the students competency level. Eg; basic vocabulary, highlighting important vocabulary and close activity for vocabulary development .

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1. When designing an instructional plan for students with special needs, to look for problem areas by clarifying areas of confusion, such as words with more than one meaning or words with different meanings and pronunciation. We can provide the teaching instructions or materials in both written and verbal formats for the different learning profiles.

2. We can use the Bloom’s Taxonomy to design the learning objectives, differentiated activity and assessments for the Pre-instructional and Post-instructional Stage based on student’s ability and interest. We can start at any level of the Taxonomy and be mindful not to neglect the lower levels as each competent performance depends on a lower level.

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Two Takeaways:

1. Task Analysis
Task Analysis is a good strategy that I can use with my students with learning needs. By breaking down the task into smaller steps, it makes it easier for these students to comprehend easily. It also shows the student what needs to be done in a step-by-step manner and it can be used to teach different types of skills and behavior as well as for academics.

2. Backward Design Focus
This method is more on student-centric approach. It focuses on what my student wants to learn rather than what I want to teach my student. By focusing on the desired learning, teaching methods will then follow.

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Alignment and Backward design focus on student’s learning and objective instead of what the teacher wants to teach. Desired outcomes and goals will ensure lesson preparation is well thought off.

Differentiating content, process, product, or environment according to student’s readiness level, interest and learning profile. This increases engagement from student and provides them with the support they require to learn. Consider Multimodal approach and different MI(multiple intelligences).

Introducing vocabulary during reading comprehension to help students relate and recall. Deliberate on the process of teaching on how we would want to help students understand words and their meanings.

Oral instruction, frequent progress check and immediate feedback should be consider when designing our instructional plan.

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1) Even as a T&L, I remember having to draft out weekly lesson plans and I always dread it. Mainly because I was not thought how to do it. The template was given to me and I had to figure things out on my own. And as I watch this video lecture, I thought of my Microteaching and Social Skills plan. I re-look them to see if I am on the right track. This lecture serves as an additional checklist for me in preparation for my lesson plan assignments and I am glad this is done right before the due date for both assignments. Thank you!🙏

2) The video showing examples of DI was very useful as I can add some into my ‘library of thoughts’ for future use. They are great idea however would require some tweaking to fit a one-to-one or small group session. What I liked is the task cards where I can prepare what is to be taught and allow students to choose and answer. It is easier to look at the question one at a time rather than a whole worksheet full of it. So, when I am unsure or unable to think of how to adopt DI into my lessons, this video will then serve it’s purpose. 🤓

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2 Takeaways:

After watching 15 differentiated instructions, I apparently have practiced some of it while I was an AED T&L. I have also seen it being demonstrated by my AED LBS too in withdrawal sessions during my stint. As I used to teach English, I have used think pair share strategy, literature circles and I also made it a habit for my students to practice journaling. The use of task cards and learning stations have been executed before by both of my AED LBS and teachers.  It is important for us to focus on what we want the students to learn.

Task analysis is the process of breaking down a skill into smaller steps and this will greatly help our SEN students managing their tasks. I have always emphasise on stating learning task in the beginning of the lesson will always benefit students so that they are clear. It is also best to individualise the teaching strategies to each student. Teaching in sequential order, is also important in English lessons as it is always a step by step process.

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1. Task Analysis was an AHA moment for me. The moment I saw this part of the lecture, I immediately returned to my Micro-teaching Plan to make sure I've incorporated it into my lesson. Task analysis breaks down big tasks like Reading Comprehension into manageable chunks that are easy for the student to remember. It is something that I wish I have done more for my students, to be honest!

2. Differentiated Instructions
Looking at the video of some ideas on how teachers can differentiate work for students made me remember how I had done some of these elaborate things in my first 3 years as an AED. It is actually a lot of work and a lot of planning but the lessons were always fun and memorable for both me and my students. I really hope I will have the time to do more of such lessons as an AED LBS.

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2 key takeaways

Repeat instructions to students either through verbally or writing. Give immediate feedback and specific praise. I can also use differentiated instructions for my students (multi-sensory).

Another takeaway is the task analysis where i can break up difficult task into bite-sized and easier for my students to understand. This will not be too overwhelming for them and they will be able to carry it out with proper guidance.

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As an AED (LBS), critical thought process when planning a lesson for SEN students are key towards a reflective teaching. Information gathering plays an important role to determine the type of lesson an AED (LBS) plans to deliver. Without gathering enough information on the students’  readiness level, interests and learning profiles, it may be challenging to meet the desired goals.

Most SEN students need explicit instructions that goes hand in hand with visuals, manipulatives and even resources that taps on their senses. Giving immediate feedback and specific praises would help SEN students to be motivated and be corrected instantly. Repeating instructions slowly would also help students to process their instructions better.

Above all, as an AED (LBS), I need to constantly evaluate my lessons and reflect on the process of the lesson critically. This is to ensure improvements and adjustments can be tailored for the upcoming lessons.

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Two key takeaways for me

1)     Make learning interesting for the student through the use of multi-sensory strategies to tap on the various pathways of learning. Thus, we should think of ways to infuse VAKT resources into our lessons.

E.g., Use of graphic organisers can appeal to the V-learners and we should not just use the organiser once or twice but repeatedly till it is committed into the visual memory of the student and teach the student to generalise its use for other subjects as well. For the K-learners, having different activity stations where students are allowed to move around would enhance their learning.

2)     Task Analysis allows chunky learning material to be broken down into digestible bits. In other words, Divide and Conquer. Depending on the different learning profiles of the students, a task can be reduced to a series of steps depending on what the students are able to do.

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Key Takeaways:

As we work primarily with students with special needs, it is key for us to build rapport with them so we can better understand what interests and engages them. By doing so, we can incorporate multi-sensory approaches through games and manipulatives into our lessons. In planning achievable tasks, it is important for us to take into account the students' needs and baseline abilities. The instructions should also be concise but to the point.

To make a task more manageable, we can always approach it with a task analysis. Most often, students are presented with information on skills and strategies in big chunks. Students learn better by dividing these into smaller portions and acquiring knowledge in a manner that is more appropriate for them.

Whenever we plan, I believe that we must plan with a goal in mind. Therefore, the backward design and alignment focus on our desired goal for the student. As educators, it is very easy for us to get carried away when implementing certain tools and resources and forget to pay attention to the objective or goal that we want our students to achieve.

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2 Takeaways

General structure of instructional approaches. The 3 stages are important to conduct the lesson. At the pre-instructional stage, the background information, planning and thinking process form the preparation process for the lesson. It set the groundwork and thought which will bring into stage 2. At the delivery stage, thought on how to carry out and what tools to use are the main consideration. With the groundwork done earlier, I can effectively use the information to guide me on this stage. For the post-instructional stage, it’s more of checking for understanding and provide feedback. I can reflect on what can I do better in stage 1 and stage 2 with reference to the child’s performance.

Every child is different. To support them, we need to target on their needs and teach in a way where they can understand better. You need to know their abilities and skills and customized accordingly.  Task analysis is great for teaching skills that require a sequence of steps to complete. The best way to develop a task analysis is to perform the skills and writes down the steps. Steps of task analysis involves: state the leaning task, break the learning task into smaller steps, place these steps into a logical teaching sequence and test informally in a sequential order.

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15 Differentiated Instructions
I love the ideas shared in the video and I have tried out some of the ideas when I was in school. Although there was a lot preparations to be done before the lesson, but the students enjoyed the activities conducted, and those were the lessons that they will remember.

It makes me think about how the strategies shared can be used in withdrawal sessions. As AED(LBS), we are given more interaction time with individual students. One of the points mentioned was to interview student to understand their learning style. I will definitely do that in the future!

Task Analysis
This strategy sounded complicated at first. Breaking down a skill into manageable steps will definitely help students with SEN in various ways. It is more structured and easy to manage, students can feel a sense of achievement when completing a task. The process can be customized to students' learning ability and profile. Student will be able to perform tasks independently. A checklist can be provided for the student for self-monitoring.

To remember, when working with students with SEN, we need to be mindful when planning our lessons and be flexible to adjust to their needs. Instructions should be easy to understand and remember, design of lesson materials should incorporate multisensory approaches. Encouragement and immediate feedback should be given so that students know what they have done well or need to be improved.

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My takeaways

Structure (Backward Design and Alignment)
Focuses on what the student should learn rather than what to teach for students with learning difficulties. We need to determine what is objective on the task (the result). It needs to be achievable for the student to do and learn. Then work on the simple processes (explicit and differentiated teaching, that can bring the students towards the goal.

Using a multisensory approach for SEN have many advantages. Since it stimulates all the sensories visual, auditory, tactile and kinesthetic. The tools themselves would prove engaging and provide differentiated learning for the student. We can incorporate and apply multisensory in teaching many concepts.

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Whenever we plan for lessons, it is essential to consider the needs of students and match them with the desired learning outcomes.

Task analysis. We can break down the tasks into a logical teaching sequence or of manageable levels and do informal tests to check on understanding. But we have to be mindful to avoid cramping everything in one lesson.

We have to provide repeated explicit oral instruction in our lessons. We can use a multi-sensorial approach and make the lesson more concrete.

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4 key Take- Away:

1.      We need to look at student’s needs, desired results and the goals to be achieved.

Backward Planning:

-        Identify desired results

-        Determine acceptable evidence

-        Plan teaching experiences and instruction

Alignment and backward design are achieved when:

-        Learning objective are met

-        Assessments are carried out

-        Instructional activities conducted

-        Resources and related course technologies are applied

2.      A good lesson plan goes through 3 stages namely, pre-instructional, delivery and post-instructional. In planning the lesson plan, level 1 to level 6 from bloom’s taxonomy should be included to make the lesson more validated.

3.      Task analysis allows students to understand the learning objective, break down tasks into manageable activities, have mini-test to see if student is able to grasp the content taught and lastly begin teaching in a sequential order.

4.      SEN students benefit tremendously when a lesson encompasses a multi-sensory approach where visual, tactile, auditory and kinesthetic learners can benefit from it. We can also infuse some cooperative learning techniques to make lessons more engaging.

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1. Backward Planning involves setting the desired goals of what the student needs to learn. This embodies the quote, “Begin with the end in mind.” The desired goal for the student to achieve should be at the forefront. This approach is extremely student-centric. Where the process and tasks are thought out to drive across a concrete understanding of the targeted goal.

2. Task analysis allows for a structured and sequential learning process where large tasks might seem overwhelming for SEN students, task analysis allows for breaking down the tasks into manageable steps for the student. It also allows the educator or AED(LBS) to plan lessons in accordance to the student’s abilities and allows the educator to plan suitably challenging lessons for them.

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For Backward Design you focus on what students need to learn rather than what we want to teach. We need to “begin with the end” in mind.

1)      Identify desired results

2)      Determine acceptable evidence

3)      Plan learning experiences and instruction

Alignment requires five counterparts to work together:

1)      Learning Objectives

2)      Assessments – Assessments must be aligned with objectives

3)      Instructional Acitivities – Prepares students achieve the assessments

4)      Resources – Resources that will help the students do the Instructional Activities

5)      Course Technology – Technology and objectives must align

2nd Key Take-Away

There are 6 different levels to Bloom’s taxonomy. Remembering, Understanding, Applying, Analysing, Evaluating and Creating. In Remembering, we expect learners to be able to recall the information in the same form as how they learned it. For Understanding or Comprehension, we expect learners to understand an idea and are able to explain it in their own words. Under Applying, learners should be able to apply what they have learned and also demonstrate the correct usage of it. In Analysis, Learners should be break things down and uncover the special characteristics. For evaluation, judge values and accept or reject things based on standards. And lastly under Creating, learners should be able to think creatively and come up with new creations that goes beyond application. Bloom’s taxonomy can be used at any level and we should not forget the lower levels. Each levels are equally important.

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1. I have had a little exposure to task analysis in my previous work experiences but it was definitely eye-opening to see it's possible applications in the work of an AED (LBS). In particular, how task analysis serves as the basis for the different chaining strategies, be it forward chaining or backward chaining. I think this really highlights how at surface level some skills may seem easy and even intuitive to us, but they may be daunting to our students. Through the use of task analysis, students are faced with more approachable and manageable tasks (that are preferably in their zone of proximal development).

2. At the same time, I think the video (part 2) was an informative and useful round-up of the key characteristics our instructional plans should possess. More specifically, I will make a more conscious effort to give more specific praises and to give immediate feedback throughout the activities, some things that may not be as intuitive to me at this point, compared to the others.

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2 Takeaways:

1) Task Analysis is a process. Breaking the skills down into smaller steps explicitly for students will enable them to be independent learners when generalization takes place, after withdrawal session. Task analysis is very useful in teaching a variety of skills. The number of steps, in a skill, that is needed to be broken down will depend on the individual needs of the students. Every student has different learning profiles so there isn’t any perfect plan that will fit all. As AED LBS, we need to know our students well to plan an intervention that will help them.

2) Differentiated Instructions will be very helpful to pupils with special needs. It allows for flexible customization of the lessons to help students learn effectively with understanding. We can differentiate content, process, product and even the environment according to student’s readiness levels, interests, and their individual learning profiles. We need to take note that DI strategy has to be reviewed on a regular basis and monitoring and data collection has to go on even when DI strategy is used.

Students with Special Needs are often unmotivated and has low self-esteem. Hopefully with all these strategies learnt, I could reach out and help more students. Slowly but surely!!! I will continue to have faith in my students, work with them to set achievable goals and provide them with a safe space in school, to support their learning.

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2 Key Take-aways

1- Backwards Design and Alignment.
This concept is a familiar practice that I realised I have been doing for a while. It is similar to reverse engineering and bottom up approach, a methodology frequently employed when I used to teach STEM Engineering and Programming. This strategy uses a clearer framework and template to achieve the design and it would be beneficial to employ.

2- Assessment For Learning.
AfL resonates with me the most as I find it extremely effective to gauge the successful delivery of a lesson. With a series of simple formative assessment methods, feedback can be drawn out promptly and adjustments can be made to your approach and delivery on the fly. It is in fact an effective way to make your lesson into a TWO-WAY Communication. In the case of an intervention plan, a lesson should be designed for dynamic eventualities. Using AfL techniques like simple questioning, you may be able to foresee potential outcomes of your planned lesson. With that information you can make modifications to your delivery or even content.

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Clive Cole

2 Key Takeaways:-

i) When planning a lesson, first, think of the desired result and then work backwards: from desired results to acceptable evidence, to planning the lesson experience. While teaching, ensure that prior knowledge is activated, arouse the students' interest to get them engaged; be flexible and give clear explanation, accompanied by good pacing; encourage collaborative learning and ask questions to deepen the students' learning before closing the lesson. At the end, always assess the students' learning through a simple task to evaluate whether the students have truly internalised the learning.

ii) Task analysis is important for all students but even more so for our SEN students who may require us to break a task down into smaller steps, and then we have to show them what to do, step by step. When going through this process, provide both written and verbal instructions to them and prepare multi-sensorial concise activities. Check on the students' progress frequently and give immediate feedback and specific praises.

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2 main takeaways

1) 15 differentiated learning strategies video
- My background is not as a T&L
- This video really shows a variety of learning strategies
- Some are for individual students, others in small group as well as in a whole class
- I really like how these strategies encourage students to learn actively, it is an engaging way to learn
- Grouping students by learning styles allows students to support each other in their learning
- Integrating concepts into simple games like tic-tac-toe! It is very innovative and is a creative way of presenting concepts and checking for understanding. It can also be applied across various subjects.
- Always remember to reflect back on your lesson
- Identify matches and mismatches to further improve on the quality of our lessons.

2) Teaching Key Academic Vocabulary to High School ELLs

- Representing and explaining vocabulary in different ways
- This is an important point to remember when we are teaching students who have weaker understanding of vocabulary
- Making new vocabulary meaningful by using them in writing or in speech
- Choosing words to teach in preparation for an upcoming lesson
- Use new vocabulary that was taught and repeated application will help students acquire them

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Backward Planning

Incorporate the steps for backward planning, focus on the (goal) learning (what students are expected to learn and able to do) rather than the process (teaching).

1. Identify the desired results/objectives.

2. Determine which assessments will allow students to properly demonstrate that they can meet those objectives.

3. Design activities that will help students successfully complete the assessments and thus meet the learning objectives of the course

Task Analysis

Have been doing this with my pupils. Students cannot perform tasks that have many steps. Breaking down task to byte size task will help. Byte size is scalable and is thus similar to scaffolding.

Think-Pair Share

Student are more comfortable sharing their ideas with friends. It also enhances their social skills and this helps to improve their listening and speaking skills. Less pressure than learning from educators.

Apply Multisensory

Most SEN pupils are not learn best by touch, feel etc. As such best to incorporate multi sensory teaching eg, manipulatives. However, I have to ensure that I do not incorporate too much such that it becomes too complex for them to follow.

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2 Key take-aways

1) When planning your lessons, it is always important to have an end goal in mind. This is where "Backwards Planning" comes into play. During my first few weeks of my school stint, I was tasked to plan a withdrawal session. Instead of starting with what you want the student to achieve, I chose to dive in to what kind of lessons should I plan/what resources are needed. It is more important to focus on what we want the students to learn, rather than what/how we want to teach. The latter is important too but our student's goals takes precedence.

2) Rather than focusing on Assessment of Learning, we should also focus on Assessment for Learning. Assessment for Learning will allow us to track a student's progress, and we can also help the student to improve on his/her work. This could be achieved through simple means such as giving them motivation or even modifying the way we deliver our instructions.

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The most important takeaway is that "Failing to plan is planning to fail".
As educators, we need to take into consideration the ability of the students, their needs and interest when planning for lessons. When planning for lessons, we need to allow room for flexibility to make necessary changes depending on the situation and also be able to evaluate the lesson outcome.

When doing up a lesson plan, we should identify the specific skill or concept that we are teaching. We should highlight the importance of the particular concept or skill. What are the pre-requisites the students need to have to complete the task. We should state the methods or approaches we are using to teach the student. We should try to give positive reinforcement throughout the lesson giving immediate feedback.

When creating lesson plans for students with special needs, we must try to make activities concise and short as they have limited attention span. It will defeat the purpose if the lesson was too long. We should have a combination of concrete and multi-sensory approach.

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2 Key Takeaways

1) Task Analysis
Is an evidence-base practice that helps to teach a skill by breaking down a skill into smaller manageable steps and show a student what to do in a step - by-step manner. It can be use for all students and base on their needs and it will help student to complete task and achieve their goal. The best way to develop a task analysis is teacher to perform the skill and write down the steps that are involved before teaching the student.

2) Assessment for Learning (AfL)
Afl can be use in all stages of the learning process, it help student to measure their learning against their own goal and progress at their own pace. AfL helps teacher to be informed the level a student is at, monitor and checks on-going learning and provide feedback to student on their learning and how to improve.

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My takeaways:

In designing IEPs for student/s, these are the steps I would take:

·        Conduct assessments & ask questions to find out more about students’ interests, skills and abilities, source for learning gaps and learning preference i.e., visual/tactile

·        Use task analysis; Task analysis can be used across a wide-range of skills i.e., from Academic to Language and Social + Based on skill, to customise the amount of steps accordingly i.e., break down into smaller steps for students who require additional support

·        Create a positive learning environment where specific praises are often given, and mistakes are viewed as attempts in learning

·        Activities planned should be concise and short to help in memory retention, and should be fun and stress-free, presenting a little bit of challenge to stimulate problem-solving, and incorporate a multi-sensorial approach to activities

·        Encourage I do, we do, and you do

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Key takeaways
1) It is important to know the student and their needs. Decide on the goals and desired outcomes and make our plans accordingly. We can work backwards and make sure the plans fit or adjust them while going through with the planned activities. Nothing is set in stone and not all planned activities will work for everyone. We just have to make plans and try out each system with every individual student.

2) Students with special needs have different learning capabilities and requirements. They learn better with pictures and by using a combination of multisensory approaches.

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I feel that the lectures provides a succinct task analysis on  how to prepare our instruction plan as AED LBS to cater for the very diverse needs of our students. The challenge although a surmountable one, through exploration can help to design the DI instructions and resources that match their learning styles and preferences for increased engagement and learning outcome. My favourite would be the video on teaching different levels of ELL provides the framework on learning objectives for each stage of our student in acquiring literacy. With that said, I can select the different task complexity level based on Bloom's Taxonomy to design the an academic or social skills instructions. Pre or post assessments as an ongoing process gives out students the form of respect they deserve as they are receiving feedback and increased intrinsic motivation, and also with us being a reflective practitioner.

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2 Key Takeaways
1.) Task Analysis

It is a great process for me to adopt to structure learning in a sequential manner towards building target skills. It involves careful consideration of student's needs and task difficulty. Teaching has to be in a sequential order to build on prior knowledge and skills to structure teaching to maximize learning. An instructional plan has to incorporate repeated practice at each step with frequent reviews of the process regularly, to ensure progress is made while checking for problem areas in content or instruction.

2. Assessment for Learning

It is a forward looking assessment I would utilize, to check for understanding which focuses on improvement. The teacher serves as a facilitator to self reflect for the progression of teaching. Data collected should not be summative or involve standardized tests, but monitor student progress. It is a assessment which serves as a decision making check for for student progress rather than of student progress.

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1. There has to be alignment in course design for the components of learning objectives, assessments, instructional activities, resources and course technologies. When planning lessons, use backward design by starting with the end goal of what the students have to learn. From there, come up with appropriate forms of assessments, activities, resources and technologies to teach the skill or information. Planning lessons with this in mind helps educators ensure that the teaching and learning is meaningful and focused as it all contributes to reaching that desired goal.

2. I was familiar with the strategy of task analysis but thought that it was for teaching behavioural skills, social skills or daily living skills. Through this lesson, I have learnt that task analysis can also be applied to teaching language and literacy skills. For example, teaching a student the steps to blend letter sounds to read a word is also a form of task analysis. Task analysis for language and literacy skills is one of the ways to teach language explicitly to students with SEN.

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2 key takeaways:
1) When designing lessons, it is important to incorporate all these things in:
I should repeat instructions to students in verbal or written forms, have frequent checks on their progress, give immediate feedback, have concise and short activities (multi sensory as well) and give lots of specific praise. When I want to move up the levels of complexity for students (Bloom's Taxonomy), I must remember to reteach and reinforce basic content.

2) Task analysis - it is a process of breaking a skill down into smaller steps. It can be applied to teaching areas in academic, behavioural, social or communication matters. Eg. when teaching composition writing, I can break the skills down to teach writing topic sentences first, then content and word choice, tenses and punctuation before moving on to paragraph structure. Thus, I will break down the skills to teach and not cramp up too much of information in a lesson. Students with SEN can benefit this way as the break down tasks are not too overwhelming for them. I like the idea of using task cards as a differentiated instruction strategy. I can use the task cards to give students a sense of autonomy to choose what they want to focus on for that lesson. Eg. use 5 adjectives in a paragraph/ use 2 idioms in a paragraph/ use 3 feeling-descriptive words in a paragraph.  This can provide students with choices as well as, make it fun for them.

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My take aways are:

The objectives for my student for their lesson, I need to change their perception and empower them. I need to take note that I need to start my lesson towards the needs of my students’ and decide on the desired results. I need to ask myself what my goals for my student are and at the end of my lesson, how am I be able to check on their understanding. I could set meaningful assignments and not give additional homework to the student.

I learned that applying Backward Planning and Alignment is important. The 3 elements are

1) Identify desired results

2) determine acceptable evidence

3) plan learning experiences and instructions.

Backward Designs focuses on what my student needs to learn rather than what we want to teach. It is important to take note that the lesson is according to the alignment as I can work towards what I want to achieve for the lesson. I need to include the essential questions that my student needs to attempt during my lesson. I agree too that we need to plan our lesson as it may be easier to explain my lesson to the student as sometimes, we may be caught up during delivering the lesson and suddenly can’t recall the right words and had tongue tight (this ever happened to me).

DI is a recapped for me that I need to plan my lesson according to my student’s readiness levels, Interests and Learning Profile. We need to count on the content, process, product, and environment when planning for the lesson. There will be optimal learning when our subject and assessment needs meet learner needs.

As AED(LBS) what I find interesting and would like to adapt are:

1) Creating Learning Stations. We could provide learning tips and content to students and allow students to rotate between one station to another; for example having artwork in Station A, watching videos in Station B and solving puzzles in Station C.

2) Using Task Cards, works similar to learning stations. It includes a variety of content and is suitable for solo or group tasks.

3) Target different senses which could resonate with students who are visual, tactile, auditory and kinesthetic learners. Having these strategies may help my students to be more engaged in their learning.

4) Use Task Analysis to teach my students a skill. It is the process of breaking down a skill into smaller steps and showing my students what to do in a step-by-step manner. Simple skills that we need to teach them in sequence like 1st to go the desk, 2nd take out materials 3rd start working. Task Analysis is suitable for different situations too.

When working with students with special needs we need to take note that we need to make lessons concise and short, give specific praises and not a general one, provide oral and visual instructions and incorporate multi-sensory activities.

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My two key takeaway:

When working with students with Special educational needs I would apply task analysis

The technique of breaking down a skill into smaller, more achievable components can be used to teach learners with ASD a skill that is too difficult to teach all at once after it is completed. Watching a master, self-monitoring, brainstorming, and goal analysis are four strategies to build the stages needed for a task analysis. This is a handy tool for all students not only students with SEN as it caters to the child’s learning style and as an educator provides me with the right tool to support my students.

Backward design’s method of teaching and learning prioritises learning objectives takes on a clear ‘student-centric’ approach. Their objectives being techniques for ensuring that formative and summative assessments are cohesive and successful. With the primary focus of assessment to be a tool for learning rather than a method of learning it provides a clear end-goal for the student. Thereby if I have a plan to ensure my student passes his spelling test at the end of the semester, with the end goal in mind, I could plan his methods, pathway and how I would measure his learning progress for example by going through his Fry’s list with him weekly. Simultaneously I could plan his learning experience and instruction tool based on his learning style. Therefore this primarily takes on a student-centred approach.

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2 Positive AHA moments / things that resonated with me

Watching, listening, and reading through the asynchronous lesson got me thinking of pulling everything learnt throughout the semester together and piecing them altogether like a puzzle. I have always believed and even during some of the assignment or group tasks I looked at accomplishing them using the backward planning and alignment. This particularly resonated with me because when given a task we always look at what and how to do things. We are always so fixated to overcoming / accomplishing / completing tasks that we always want to find what should I do and how do I go about doing it. However, this backward planning and alignment reminded me of something I stumbled upon years ago which I try to consciously get my mentality to follow this when planning something. Look for the why, like the backward planning and alignment, identify the “why”, the purpose, the desired outcome we are looking at. This desired outcome is like the purpose then from there we work towards the how do we do it and what exactly should we be doing to achieve this “why” or in this case the desired outcome.

And in terms of language and literacy, having a structured plan and knowing what needs to be done in every step and detail is very important. As there are so many intertwining areas in language and literacy, for example, child needs to learn fluency of the language, but to do that, child needs to be able to read, needs phonics, phonological awareness, needs to understand some of the rules of the language. So many things linking to one another, if we fail to structure it ourselves, then we can forget about scaffolding the lesson for the student. Only when we can understand this, then this asynchronous lesson today will come in very handy. Backward planning, bloom’s taxonomy, task analysis, and differentiated instructions are all very good theories and skills to have kept so when the time comes, we can easily draw them out and use them to plan lessons that are not better but more efficient for our students.

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When implementing lesson for my student, I must remember to make the activities concise and short, provide clear instruction and repeat it when needed. Use multi-sensory approach when teaching my students to make lesson more fun and engaging. As an educator, it is important for us to learn and gather information about my student’s readiness level, interest and learning styles before planning and implementing the withdrawal lesson. Target different senses within lessons should resonate with students if it targets visual, tactile, auditory, and kinesthetic senses instead of only one.

Task analysis is another takeaway that I intend to implement in my lesson. Task analysis simply shows what students need to do in a step-by-step manner and is useful for all types of students no matter their abilities or their needs. It is best to customize or individualize the task analysis based on the student’s ability. The number of steps in a task analysis depends on the complexity of the tasks.

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2 positive takeaways:

1. When planning my lesson, I should look at the backward planning and alignment design whereby looking at the desired results first, then determine acceptable evidence from the goals that I have set to see what I can achieve and lastly plan learning experiences and instructions appropriately. Backward design focus on what my students need to learn than what we need to teach. Thus, it is important to know my student’s needs well so that I can better prepare my lesson.

2. When implementing my lesson, I should make my lesson visual, short and concise. Not just students with special needs but all of us cannot retain so much information at a time. I should use multi-sensory approach which can be more engaging and student can grasp the lesson better.

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2 Positive Takeaways

1) Teaching academic content would most likely require the teacher to decide on the content first and then move on to the activities and assessments. As an AED (LBS), I find that using the Alignment and Backward Design is one of the most ingenious ways to help our students. Unlike academic content, I guess our role is continuously focusing on the learning or behavioural needs of the child first. Then, once we identify the needs, we would want to establish the goals and the desired results. Thus, we are actually working backwards based on the child's needs and learning objectives.

2) I realise that it is essential to give explicit instructions when teaching our students with SEN. During my stint, I noticed that my mentor will always use task analysis to teach the students. It tailors to the student's needs and makes it easier for other stakeholders to use the same set of instructions to teach the child. Also, it is very systematic. Task analysis will definitely be one of the interventions that I will use for most of my lessons. I think it's crucial to simplify the instructions and break them up into steps to be digestible for our students. I've learned that it is very important not to rush when teaching our students. Thus, providing a sequence of steps helps the student to be able to follow in a step-by-step manner.

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When planning an instructional plan, there are some things we need to consider
- structure for planning
- Governed by Blooms Taxonomy
- DI
- Task Analysis
- SEN students
- Mode of Assessment

however, my two main take away from the slides and the videos are

Task Analysis (from TA)
- Being an AED LBS and teaching SEN students the various necessities that they need to know, I see myself incorporating TA in all my LP. As firstly, TA would involve breaking whatever task that I had plan for my student and by breaking the task down to bite size, my SEN student will be able to comprehend better.
- With TA, I would also teach a variety of skills including academic, social, communication and behavior.

The second take-away
Assessment For Learning (Forward Looking)
- I would incorporate AFL in my T&L because this component comprises of useful ways of collecting data from my student's work and afterwhich, I would be able to make the necessary improvements and adjustments to my teaching methodology.

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When planning for my lessons, I should have an end goal in mind (Backward Design). I believe I would need to be able to list down a student’s Objectives and Goals in mind before I plan my lesson.

An example would be for someone with reading fluency issues, I should have the objective to be something like “When given an oral passage, the student must be able to read aloud clearly and expressively, using appropriate punctuations and intonation”. From that sentence, I should be able to work out and plan an appropriate IEP for the student.

I hope that we would be given the training to create this IEP. Based on what I have seen during my stint, and working alongside my mentor, it is not easy to create an IEP for a student.

When I was an AED T&L, every year I will come across this term Assessment for Learning. As much as a lot of courses has been provided for the teachers about this, I find it disheartening that the majority do not apply this in their classroom. As a result, many students, especially students with SEN will not benefit from assessment of learning.

I feel that as an AED LBS, I could help support the teachers in this aspect. I would probably look into my students’ progress monitoring to ensure that they are able to catch up with their school work in the classroom. I would probably create a visual aid that have questions for my students to be able to refer and check on themselves after a certain topic has been taught.

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1) With task analysis, I can break down complex skills into manageable, discrete steps for students to learn simply, the individual steps, in the right order, to master the overall skill. It can be used in a variety of settings, and importantly, it supports students who have difficulty with sequencing, working memory and attention. As an AED when I am planning to use task analysis, I will ensure to select a skill that is achievable. I can also use backward design to look to the student’s IEP goals that require task analysis or goals that could more easily be taught by breaking the skill down into manageable steps.

2) Another one that I will incorporate is assessment for learning to allow me to understand where the students are at in their learning. I can make changes when planning my lesson accordingly to make it more effective. It helps to identify the strengths and weaknesses in, which can be used as feedback to improve their performance.

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2 Key take-aways - Instructional Planning

1) Backward design and alignment, instead of looking at the tools first, determine desired results first and acceptable evidence then start planning.  Focus on what students want to learn rather than what we want to teach. It is important to set the students for "I can" instead of " I can't" hence a good alignment is essential to achieve desired outcome. The backward design template provides a clear breakdown in the 3 stages. This can help me think through my planning in pre-instructional phase. For SEN students, it will not be one size fits all so pre-instructional plan have to be customised to each student's profile. This will also activate our prior knowledge of each student.

2) Task Analysis
- Teach students in ways that they can understand by breaking skills down into manageable steps. Student Focus and customised to each different profile for best outcome.
TA can be used not just for academics purpose, it can also be used for behavioural, social and communication skills. Each step consist of 1 discreet behaviour. Be explicit. Perform skills and write down the step as task is being completed.  I like this logical step by step teaching sequence which I can foresee myself using to help students learn in a systematic approach and also myself as a active learner to prepare steps which caters to students' individual needs. Also be prepared to make modifications and adaptations in each step that will best suit the student.  For example, I may need to include extra time or prompts in each steps.

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Whenever we do lesson planning, it is vital that we consider the needs of the student and match it to the desired learning outcomes. Using task analysis approach will help me to plan and break down complex tasks sequentially and into manageable levels. I must bear in mind to avoid cramping everything into one lesson as it can cause cognitive overload and stress.

Incorporating multi-sensory activities based on my student’s interest, readiness or learning preferences into my withdrawal lessons as it helps to level up the engagements and motivation of the students.  I can try to set up learning stations with multi-sensory activities like use of multilink cubes to teach spelling, audio assisted reading station for reading fluency or board games to teach social skills, tailored to the needs of the child.

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2 Key Takeaways:

1) When considering Bloom's taxanomy for planning students' thinking and learning during lessons, it is important not just to know the six different levels (Remembering, Understanding, Applying, Analysing, Evaluating and Creating)and plan lessons based on students' ability according to the level. I also need to remember that the higher levels of thinking reteach and reinforce basic content.

2)When teaching students with Special Needs, I must be cognizant to:
1. look for problem areas-homonyms or words with more than one meaning
2. include signal or directional words-provide explicit instruction ("because", "explain") or words that are found in content materials
3.not to overlook basic words-make a list of words that my students have questions about, to refer back for future lessons
4.use visuals and manipulatives-for effective learning
5.keep words visible and accessible to students-post words on a word wall or "portable word wall" and categorise them (new words, old words, words to review etc.)

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My takeaways

1. Task cards
I like the idea of using task cards to help students in their learning. It helps to break the monotony of using a worksheet to check a student's understanding of a topic. There is an element of fun and when turned into a game, it becomes more engaging.

2. Task Analysis
This is an area which will be very useful for supporting students. By breaking a complex task into a sequence of smaller steps, I can work with the students to close the learning gap(s). When I have to break down the complex task, it will also allow me to consider which is the most suitable instructional tool to use to support the student.

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My two takeaways:

First: Task analysis is something I would like to have in mind for future lesson planning. We often want to teach as much as we can, all within a lesson, if possible, to have a sense of completion. However, in the case of teaching any skill to a student with special needs, less may be more. There is no need to rush through too many steps and end up not helping the student at all. It is wise to break a skill into smaller steps to cater to any student’s needs. This will be especially important if the skill requires a sequence of steps to complete. In addition, smaller steps in various lessons enable students to have more time to acquire mastery before progressing to the next level.

Second: The usage of differentiated instruction. This allows me to tailor instruction to meet the different needs of my students. I can plan my lesson according to my student’s readiness, interests, and other learning styles. As AED LBS, I can personalize lessons to meet students’ needs during a one-to-one intervention. For example, I can use DI to target the different senses, visual, tactile, auditory, or kinaesthetic. Another DI strategy that I like to use will be Creating learning stations. However, I can only apply this if I have a bigger group of learners. It will be interesting for the students.

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2 positive aha moments that resonated with me and I would like to take on during my planning of my lesson in my practicum are listed below:

1. I would want to plan my lesson with backward design method. I like the idea of behind backwards design which is to teach and plan towards the “end goal” or learning point. The video mentioned that when you focus on the desired learning then the appropriate teaching methods will follow. With backwards design, I can then shift the thinking of a content-focused design to a result-focused approach.

2. I would also want to plan my lesson with differentiation. I want to design lessons based on students' learning styles. Also, I would group the students by their shared interest, topic, or ability for assignments. I can assess students' learning using formative assessment and manage the classroom to create a safe and supportive environment.

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1. When implementing lessons for students with special needs, using of visuals and manipulatives would be useful as it involves using their sensory. Students with special needs learn best when the lessons involves using all their senses.

2. Instead of doing assessment of learning, as an AED LBS, I should focus more on assessment FOR learning, that is to measure their improvement. I should focus on how I could help the student to improve their work and help them know what to improve on. This includes giving them words of encourage to motivate them to do better the next round. Building up their self-esteem is as equally important as their academic results. To see the improvement in their academic results, we need to tackle their self-esteem first.

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1.       Backward Design and Alignment, I felt is putting the idea of ‘student-centric intervention’ in a very systematic and structured manner. Intervention plan from the student’s perspective and needs. As such, identifying what the student needs to know and learn is important. For example, I want my student to master 5W1H in his comprehension skill. By this, I have an end result in my mind. Then, to determine the acceptable evidence of the learning. At this phase, it is the planning on how to measure the learning progress. For example, I can communicate with the English teacher to review students' comprehension skills or compare pre and post comprehension review papers. By planning this I know that I do not look at his composition writing skill as an evaluating tool.  Then, plan the learning experience and instruction. At this phase, think about what kinds of tools are out there to help with the learning process. Focusing on the student needs first and then thinking about what kind of learning and evaluation tools are needed is a useful skill in planning an effective intervention.

2.       Bloom’s Taxonomy does not have to be used in a fixed manner of moving from level one and upwards. We can start from any level of the Taxonomy depending on the needs and based on our lesson outcome. Each level of the Taxonomy actually taps on the lower level content. Likewise, a higher level of thinking actually requires some reteaching and reinforcement of the basic content.

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1)When supporting student with special needs, I need to be mindful to customized my instructions based on each student's needs. These can be guided by the Principal of Differentiation.

2)Apart from that, I need to remind myself to give frequent feedback and also check for their progress. As AED LBS, I also need to celebrate their successes progress that they achieved by using praise. Hence this may help boost up their confidence and motivational level.