My focal student, who is an emergent bilingual, requires additional aid through mainstream classes. Modifications and accommodations made to support this individual include guided notes, one-on-one teaching prior, during, and after lessons to ensure comprehension, and ELD services outside of my classroom. Having just completed an electrical unit, I found some teaching tactics to work better than others for this particular student. Moving forward with the cold metal unit, I will be sure to modify my teaching by simplifying guided notes, which require less writing and more fill in the blank spaces, highlight important disciplinary vocabulary that will aid this student in discourse, and interact with this student with more one-on-one time. Having met with this student outside of class, we have agreed on a time that fits their schedule twice a week prior to class. During this time, I will work one-on-one with this student to aid in conceptual understanding of cold metal vocabulary, safety, parts identification, and the various construction projects that occur throughout the unit. Offering feedback throughout the cold metal unit will be vital to this student’s conceptual understanding. I look forward to working with this student throughout the cold metal unit and determining if simplified guided notes, additional scheduled one-on-one visits, and loads of feedback allow them to engage in discourse and understand information more easily than the electrical unit.

By utilizing scaffolding techniques, I was able to bridge the academic knowledge gap for a particular student within my first period Agriculture Welding class. This particular student has low academic knowledge, but moderate processing abilities.

My first day teaching the Arc Welding unit, I stuck to the notes that my master teacher recommended I utilize. After noticing that the type of notes that we were using to teach were not beneficial and easy to comprehend for all students, I decided to make some changes towards my lecture. The following day, I implemented many real world examples and modeled various concepts up on the board. Connecting the welding notes to the real world and talking about why it is important to the students helped each of them be more attentive and eager to learn.

For the one particular student, who struggles with academia, I made sure to approach him and discuss the content one on one. I modeled how to correctly write out a welding symbol, what the numbers identify on each electrode, and helped him visualize the differences in electrode diameters by showing him six different sizes. Although I did each of these modeling techniques in front of the class, the additional one on one interaction with this particular student allowed them to better understand and comprehend the lesson. At the end of the period, this student came up to me and thanked me for working with them individually, which was a nice feeling. The following day, I gave a quiz and this student missed just one out of eleven questions!

Although it can be challenging to provide one on one time, it is truly beneficial. By simply modeling how to interpret welding symbols and connecting the topic to real life scenarios, I was able to ignite an interest in welding within this student’s mind and helped them to perform well on the quiz. Bridging this academic knowledge gap felt good and I hope I can continue to relay information to this student, and all others, in an easy to comprehend manner.

Disciplinary literacy within the agricultural content area includes, but is not limited to, the proper use of terminology and the ability to inform others about agriculture. Using their resources, students will read, comprehend, and apply their knowledge towards the agricultural industry. Within all agricultural classes, literacy allows students to best understand the concepts being discussed and ultimately allows them to be actively involved in spreading agricultural literacy.

Three skills that my students need to learn in order to act like a member of my disciplinary community include active listening, a hands on mentality, and the ability to think and analyze information independently. Being literate in agriculture goes hand in hand with each of these skills. Active listening is the idea that students will stop and listen to what I have to say before they jump to a particular task or conclusion. Being able to listen to others, who are teaching you about a given subject, allows you to become literate in that particular subject area. By doing so, students can expand their vocabulary and be better able to define information to others. Having a hands on mentality within agriculture goes a long way towards literacy. Someone who is unable to get their hands dirty and put their knowledge into practice is missing out on half of the content. Taking the literacy gained from listening, students should apply that knowledge towards the hands on experience. Not only does hands on experience make someone a reputable source, it also allows them to practice their newfound knowledge within a real life setting. Having hands on experience gives students the experiences necessary to back their literacy towards the content. Finally, the ability to analyze information independently goes a long way in the agricultural industry. An agriculturalist will struggle to be successful if they are unable to decipher what is right and what is wrong. Often times, the media makes agriculture out to be something that it is not. Students who are able to analyze information on their own, reply to it with dignity and class, and ultimately share about their experiences and education to those who are not literate have truly done their part to spread the importance of agriculture. To conclude, literacy in agriculture looks like the ability to take your knowledge and apply that in a hands on and effective way while also having the knowledge and ability to help back the industry when others voice their thoughts and concerns. By listening, applying their skills, and thinking for themselves, students can become literate in agriculture.