Professional Development Plan

Abu Dhabi Women’s College, Semester 8, 2018

Competency Implement student-centered approach

Goal Allowing students to complete lessons in a timely manner and spend more time on explain the lesson.
Rationale I want to spend more time on explaining the lesson for them to understand the concept and help them be independent
learners.
Proposed • I did research about students centered strategies: https://ldaamerica.org/successful-strategies-for-teaching-students-
actions with-learning-disabilities/.
• I looked for relevant videos on YOUTUBE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O0xdaCEqrU0 /
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=52sT5Euthg4
• Choosing one subject to implement the study by conducting questionnaire on SurvyMonkey.com.
• Observe the classes to find out the learning disability students who needs help by implementing a lesson.
• Plan for a whole class and low ability student-centered activities.
• Reflect on the lesson plan to improve the next lesson response to this.
Date Action Taken & Evidence Reflection
Before TP Research online for articles and videos about I found out very helpful videos about helping student with disabilities on
the topic that are mentioned above. achieving the outcomes in different ways like using computers for writing, I
Pads and headphones for listing. Using flexible grouping allows small group
instruction and allow students to work with different peers who are they are
comfortable with. The article mentioned the scaffolding strategy which I
always use and believe that it works affectively with all the students. The
other important thing is to focus on individual achievement.
Week One Observing classes and conducting a On my first week of teaching practice, I observed the learners to find
questionnaire. students with learning disabilities. I had five different section to teach this
semester, so I decided to choose students from one class only to concentrate
on them. After that I decided to let students tell me what subject they
struggle the most on learning as a second language, so I conducted a
questionnaire on survey monkey to find the answer.
Week Two Plan activities and reflect on them In my first lesson I did on science I had some issues. The whole class activity
works very well, however, the weak students found it hard to understand the
activity that was made for them only. So, after the lesson, I set with my MCT

Name: Zainab Hadi Al Mousawi

HCT ID number: H00269781
 Professional Development Plan
Abu Dhabi Women’s College, Semester 8, 2018
and discussed on how to improve the activity next lesson. My MST advised
me to use tracing method which will help the students more in writing full
sentences.
Final By implementing student centered approach, I believe me as a teacher and the students get benefited a lot. I always find class
reflection the duration of the class an obstacle to me, because I spend a lot of time on teaching and explaining depending on teacher
centered approach. So, decided to switch to student-centered approach to avoid the duration of the class problem. At the
begging, I thought its hard to implement student-centered approach with grade two students, however, this helps the gifted
students to become independent learners and I can spend more time with students who needs support from the teacher.

Competency Supporting students with low ability on Science terms

Goal To ensure students with low ability get extra support achieve the Science learning outcomes.
Rationale I want to be justness with the lower students to motivate them on enjoy learning Science.
Proposed • I looked online for learning new vocabularied strategies by Robert Marzano’s Six Steps to Better Vocabulary
actions Instruction: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/29/learning/lesson-plans/enriching-academic-vocabulary-strategies-
for-teaching-tier-two-words-to-ell-students.html
• I looked at the Vocabularies template my college tutor let us use in EPR 3053S Science for The Primary School.
• I observe the students who needs the vocabularies support.
• I looked at Student’s Science book to create a vocabularies booklet.
• I explained for the students what to do and make them excited to start.
• Evaluate and reflect.
Date Action Taken Reflection
Week Four I read an article about Six Steps to Better Regarding to my experience on studying Science as a second language and
Vocabulary by Robert Marzano. many other subjects. I thought it’s very hard to understand the topic without
understanding the new terms. So, I read about Marzano’s Six Steps which are
pronounce the word, describe it, write their own definition…etc.), to Better
Vocabulary Instruction and I think it is very helpful. So, when I did a lesson on
Science about “Using my senses”, I always stopped when it’s a new
vocabulary. For example; the term “sense”, I ask students to pronounce the
word, I try to describe it by pointing on the senses for example I point at my
eyes and I say this is my sight sense. I also create a Science vocabularies
booklet for the students to do it at home.

Name: Zainab Hadi Al Mousawi

HCT ID number: H00269781
 Professional Development Plan
Abu Dhabi Women’s College, Semester 8, 2018
Week Four Looked at EPR 3053S Science for The Primary In EPR 3053S Science for The Primary School course, my college tutor used a
School vocabularies sheet. vocabularies list strategy to help us understand the Science terms. I think it is
a very helpful strategy to understand the new vocabularies. However, I felt it
was boring to do. I think with applying reinforcement learning by engaging
the learners to do the task like giving prize will motivate the students. So, I
decided to let the student draw the meaning of the word only.
Week Five Looked at student’s Science book to create a When I start creating the Science booklet for the new vocabularies, I thought
vocabularies table. it will be better to let students with low ability to trace the word instead of
writing by themselves. I also create a column to write the term in Arabic too.
Week Five Explain the task for the students. I asked my MST to let me take the low students from the Science class and sit
with them to explain the task. Before I pass them the booklet, I asked them
to do you want to be excellent on Science and get prizes? They replayed to
me yes, we do. And I started to see the excitement on their eyes, so I told
them I am here to make you be the best on the class and this booklet is the
path to become the best. And I passed it to them and explained what they
have to do.
Week Evaluate and reflect. I looked at the Science booklet that I gave the low students and I saw that
Seven-Eight students completed the task without struggling they become to have a
better hand writing too. Unfortunately, I planned to test this action by let the
students use this booklet as a guider to answer the questions on the Science
book, but the school starts the final exams on week seven and the teachers
did not start any topics or any teaching.
Final By doing some research about better vocabularies instructions and creating the Science booklet to practice writing and
reflection understanding the Science terms I believe, I did better on teaching Science this semester. I become better on vocabularies
instructions and be able to make students with low ability to enjoy the science lesson. The students did not feel boring writing
the vocabularies and explain it by drawing, because they were exited to have a prize. According to the feedback sheet I let the
students do for me to evaluate my booklet strategy, students found that it was helpful to understand and enjoy the Science
lesson more by using the terms booklet.

Competency Implement hands on activities

Goal Use hands on activity to make students engaged on the classroom

Name: Zainab Hadi Al Mousawi

HCT ID number: H00269781
 Professional Development Plan
Abu Dhabi Women’s College, Semester 8, 2018
Rationale I want the students to be excited to learn with hands on and fun activities.
Proposed • I looked at online articles about Hands on activities: http://www.colorincolorado.org/article/hands-activities
actions • I watched some videos to get ideas. For the English lesson on “how to create a monster” which is linked to Adjectives
lesson in English: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yELPXUOy8Aw&feature=youtu.be / for math lesson I looked for
halves activities on Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/248964685620295467/
• I prepared the resources for each subject.
• Evaluate and reflect.
Date Action Taken Reflection
Week Five looked online for guidelines written by According to the article that I read about hands on activities, it’s very good
Milbrandt, Felts, Richards, and Abaghari for students who learn English language learn through hands-on activities,
provide supported environment that promotes which increase the student's learning experience. I did a lesson about
hands-on activities. demonstrative pronouns without using hands on activity, students were not
engaged and confuse because it was a very hard topic for grade two
students. So, I decided for next lesson to make it more fun by including a
hands-on activity.
Week Six Get some ideas from YouTube and Pinterest. I was not sure what kind of activity I could do that will make the students feel
excited to learn. So, I thought I will fine some good ideas online on YouTube
and Pinterest. I showed my MST what I found online, and she was very happy
with the ideas that I found and interested to observe my lesson.
Week Six Prepare the Math resources and Science For the Math lesson that I did about halves, I decided to do the pizza activity
resources. which student will work in pears. So, students will design a pizza using a
paper plate, cotton, colors and beads. For the English lesson about
adjectives, students will create a monster to describe it later. The resources
students will need for the English lesson are wool, googly eyes, pencils and
foam sheets. I was concerned that this will take so much time to finish so I
prepared some steps, so they just have to do few things to finish.
Week Seven Evaluate and reflect. After teaching the Math and English lesson I marked students work and I
found that most of the students did very well on the worksheet. The
students enjoyed doing the hands-on activities and ask me when I will be
teaching them again. So, I think it is very important to include hands on
activities on teaching.

Name: Zainab Hadi Al Mousawi

HCT ID number: H00269781
 Professional Development Plan
Abu Dhabi Women’s College, Semester 8, 2018
Final By implementing hands on activities, I have made a good progress which has a positive impact on students’ learning. At first, I
reflection was concerned about the time it will take from the students to finish the hands-on activity. I also was not sure on what idea
will work the best. However, after I saw students’ reactions of loving the activities I realized how important it is to apply the
hand on activity especially for students in primary school which loves to explore and engage rather than sitting and listening to
the teacher explaining the topic. Without hands on activity, students were bored and not sure what is the topic about. But
when I met their needs better they are involved and cooperate.

Competency Learning in alternative environments

Goal To become more confident in using outdoors to manage student movement and teach students
Rationale I am not confident bringing students outside, I am afraid they will wander off and misbehave
Proposed • Read an article about learning in alternative environments: http://www.oecd.org/education/ceri/40805108.pdf
actions • Plan for the activity.
• Set up rules for the game: http://www.schoolyards.org/pdf/OutdoorClassroomUsersGuide.pdf
• Create an instructions steps.
• Evaluate and reflect.
Date Action Taken Reflection
Week 6 Research online article about The Alternative I thought of an idea to do my lesson outdoor because I felt some students
education by Anne Sliwka. are not very engaged in the classroom. however, I was not very sure to apply
this idea because I’m afraid they will misbehave. So, I did some research to
get some ideas and benefits of teaching outdoor. I was impressed that
teaching outdoor is not just to make the students engaged. It develops
student academically, physically, spiritually. But the most important thing is I
set up rules and instructions, so student can enjoy the activity without
problems
Week 6 Write down the lesson plan to organize my As I always do, I write the lesson plan before I do my lesson. I think this helps
ideas. me a lot on organizing my ideas. I was not sure what activity I will do and
how long I give time to play. So, I wrote down my lesson plan. I will let the
students to be in two groups and they will play racing game, I think 10
minutes will be enough to do the activity
Week 6 Set up rules and instructions. I had a bad experience taking students outdoor for activity. I think that was
because I did not set up rules and instructions. I found out a useful article

Name: Zainab Hadi Al Mousawi

HCT ID number: H00269781
 Professional Development Plan
Abu Dhabi Women’s College, Semester 8, 2018
online that focus on the important rules and instructions for outdoor
activities, so I come up with a list of rules but instead of me telling the rules I
let the students says them which I believe works better.
Week 7 Evaluate and reflect Students behaviors were excellent. And when the students return to the
classroom and I asked them a question that is related to the game, they
knew immediately the answer. This shows me that outdoor activity works
affectively and helps to develop student academically.
Final I am very happy with the results of this action I did on the lesson. The students’ behavior was excellent, they follow the rules
reflection and the instructions. I was very impressed when I took them back to the class and try to get the idea of making them exercise,
they immediately gave me the answer, which shows me that my action was successful. Moreover, comparing this experience
with the previous one, shows me that I become better on controlling students by giving clear instruction and rules for outdoor
activities. So, for the future, I could take the students for outdoor activities without being afraid.

Name: Zainab Hadi Al Mousawi

HCT ID number: H00269781
 Professional Development Plan
Abu Dhabi Women’s College, Semester 8, 2018
Appendices: Actions Evidence
Action 1: Implementing student-centered approach
by implementing student-centered vocabulary
matching activity.
Appendix 1

➢ Figure 1: Each group of three get one sheet

of the matching activity.

➢ Figure 2: Students will stick the Arabic Figure 1 Figure 2

meaning next to the English term.
Action 2: Differentiation activity writing a
paragraph including Title, heading and subheadings.

➢ Figure 1: High students writing sample.

➢ Figure 2: Middle students writing sample.

Appendix 2

➢ Figure 3: Low students support activity.

Figure 1 Figure 2 Figure 2

Name: Zainab Hadi Al Mousawi

HCT ID number: H00269781
 Professional Development Plan
Abu Dhabi Women’s College, Semester 8, 2018
Action 3: Supporting students with low ability on
Science terms by prating writing the key terms and
the answers for the question on the Science book.

➢ Figure 1: three students with low abilities

get a Science booklet to use it as a
supporter and guider for the answers for
the questions on the Science book.
Figure 1
Appendix 3

Figure 3
➢ Figure 2: students get the booklet with no
support.

➢ Figure 3: implementing tracing method on

the answers section only.

➢ Figure 4: implementing tracing method for

both sections: key terms & answers.

Figure 2 Figure 4

Action 4: Hands on activities.

➢ Figure 1: English class - creating a monster

Appendix 4

for the adjective lesson.

➢ Figure 2: Math class – making a pizza for

the halves lesson.
Figure 1 Figure 2

Name: Zainab Hadi Al Mousawi

HCT ID number: H00269781
 Professional Development Plan
Abu Dhabi Women’s College, Semester 8, 2018
Action 5: Learning in alternative environment.

➢ Figure 1: Students lining up to go to the

back yard.

➢ Figure 2: MCT’s feedback:

o Students go outside, this was very well

managed Figure 1
o Goes over the rules for being outside
o Students are very well managed
o Running outside in pairs – students very
Appendix 5

engaged and want to comply

o Able to answer questions – students really
understood what Zainab was trying to
teach

Figure 2

Name: Zainab Hadi Al Mousawi

HCT ID number: H00269781
 Professional Development Plan
Abu Dhabi Women’s College, Semester 8, 2018

Bibliography
Ferlazzo, L. (2017, Novamber 29). Retrieved from nytimes: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/29/learning/lesson-plans/enriching-academic-
vocabulary-strategies-for-teaching-tier-two-words-to-ell-students.html

Lizardi, R. (n.d.). hands on activities. Retrieved from colorin colorado: http://www.colorincolorado.org/article/hands-activities

Ryan, J. (2013, October 31). Boston schoolyard initiative. Retrieved from Outdoor classroom user's guid:
http://www.schoolyards.org/pdf/OutdoorClassroomUsersGuide.pdf

Sliwka, A. (n.d.). oecd. Retrieved from The contribution of alternative education: http://www.oecd.org/education/ceri/40805108.pdf

Successful strategies for teaching students with learning disabilities. (n.d.). Retrieved from Learning disabilities assosiation of America:
https://ldaamerica.org/successful-strategies-for-teaching-students-with-learning-disabilities/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yELPXUOy8Aw&feature=youtu.be

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O0xdaCEqrU0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=52sT5Euthg4

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/248964685620295467/

Name: Zainab Hadi Al Mousawi

HCT ID number: H00269781
 Professional Development Plan
Abu Dhabi Women’s College, Semester 8, 2018

Name: Zainab Hadi Al Mousawi

HCT ID number: H00269781