Standard #8: The teacher understands and uses a variety of instructional strategies to encourage learners to develop deep understanding of content areas and their connections, and to build skills to apply knowledge in meaningful ways.
Rationale: The following project was developed for my guitar class during student teaching. This project was designed to allow students an opportunity to learn certain guitar techniques in ways that will be self-motivating and engaging. Students had the opportunity to choose a song to learn by following the steps provided by the project. During this assignment I was quickly made aware of how important it is to constantly assess instructional strategies and adjust accordingly. It was apparent that this project was a welcome change for my students who were growing tired of the strategies I had tried using in the first few weeks of my placement. Teaching using a variety of instructional strategies will allow students to develop skills in meaningful ways instead of going through the motions.