O2. – Offer appropriate challenge in the content area.

Teacher-candidates plan and/or adapt curricula that are standards driven so students develop understanding and problem-solving expertise in the content area(s) using reading, written and oral communication, and technology.

Teachers have the opportunity to take a required standard and turn it into a fun, meaningful and appropriate lesson that their students will learn from. What teachers teach is mostly up to their own discretion so it is important that teachers be able to create challenging lessons for their students.

In my social studies method class we were asked to make a unit plan that would span 3-5 days and integrate other subjects with social studies. I have attached a copy of my unit plan on wants and needs below.

J. Machin%2c Unit plan

This unit plan helps to demonstrate my competency in this area because I created 3 days’ worth of challenging, meaningful and fun activities for my students to learn the difference between wants and needs and what happens when you choose too many wants and not enough needs. This also demonstrates my competency because I planned a unit for first grade instead of kindergarten. It is important to not limit yourself to one grade like I normally do.

In the process of completing this assignment I learned that sometimes it is better to be brief in your statements. When writing a unit overview all you need to do is give brief descriptions of what each day’s activities will be and it is not necessary to include step by step information.  This is the first time I have ever created a whole unit that worked together and each lesson built upon each other. I think that I did well for my first time.

Since I was making the lesson for a primary grade I tried to make a lot of my teaching done through literature because students can relate to stories told in books. I also tried to provide them with a variety of different kinds of activities ranging from hands on activities to group discussions.

I think that In the future I will flesh this unit plan out more into three whole lessons that I could eventually teach to a class if I taught in first grade where wants and needs are a standard.

P2 – Practice differentiated instruction.

Teacher-candidates apply principles of differentiated instruction, including theories of language acquisition, stages of language, and academic language development, in the integration of subject matter across the content areas of reading, mathematical, scientific, and aesthetic reasoning.

No matter what class a teacher is going to teach they are going to have a variety of learners in their class. Instruction is not a one size fits all thing and when I am a teacher I am going to have to change and differentiate my lessons so that all of my students are given an equal opportunity to learn.

In my internship classroom we were asked to differentiate a lesson and assessment so that it could be used with any student regardless of language, culture, or ability.  Below I have attached a copy of my lesson, assessment and the reasoning for them as evidence of my growing competency in this area

Strategies for Diverse learners

This piece of evidence represents my growing competency in this area because I had to learn about and research different ways to make my lessons meaningful for all of my students. I had to think deeply about the variety of students that I could possibly have in my class someday and adapt my lesson so that I could teach all of the students in an equal way.

By completing this assignment I was able to learn more about my own ability plan lessons that can be meaningful for any and all students. There were times that I had to think out of the box and it was challenging because sometimes I forget about my own ability, so this assignment was also quite humbling.

I think that the lesson that I planned can be really fun and engaging for students in a kindergarten class. They get to discuss and work with their classmates, everyone gets to participate in all of the activities that I have planned and I made sure to try and my activities as accessible as I could. Plus they get to make some of their own meaning which will help their understanding immensely.

In the future I think I would like to give this lesson a try in the classroom and then tweak it depending on how well it works or doesn’t work in the classroom that I am teaching in.

O1. – Offer an organized curriculum aligned to standards and outcomes.

Teacher-candidates align instruction to the learning standards and outcomes so all students know the learning targets and their progress toward meeting them.

In order for teachers to best serve their students they must take their time to plan lessons from curricula that is meaningful and will help the students to grow in whatever subject you are teaching them.

In my math methods class we were given an assignment to design our ideal math classroom, this included our classroom layout, how we would teach the standards and what manipulatives we would buy with an imaginary one thousand five hundred dollars. I have attached a copy of my project in the link below

Ideal Classroom project full

I feel as though this piece of evidence best represents my growing competency in this area because we had to go through all of the standards that I would have to teach in the grade level I chose. Then I had to decide how, what, when, and why I would be teaching the different skills that the students would need to learn. I also had to organize my classroom in such a way that it was best organized for math instruction.

In creating this ideal classroom project I got to experience what it is really like to have to plan out my classroom instruction from start to finish. I feel as though this is a good experience to go through right now as we are not doing a lot of instructional planning in our placement classrooms. There is so much planning that goes into making a classroom function to best fit the needs of the students.

I think that I provided the students in my pretend class a variety of opportunities to learn each skill and progress onto the next one. I feel as though I made it explicit that we would build up upon skills and would not move forward until students understand the present skill.

In the future I think that I could go one step further and actually use pieces of my classroom plan in my placement classroom. It would be interesting to see how my imaginary ideas played out with actual students.

E2 – Exemplify collaboration within the school.

Teacher-candidates participate collaboratively and professionally in school activities and using appropriate and respectful verbal and written communication

In order for a student to reach their ultimate potential he must be a part of school wide community with an array of staff members in order to ensure the best possible outcome for each student. Everyday students work with more adults then just their classroom teacher. They have to work with other teachers in their grade level, other teachers in the school, specialists, special education teachers, occupation/physical therapists, instructional assistants, and administrative staff. These members of the school community must collaborate and work together so that they may better understand the needs of each individual student in the building.

As a part of my Reading methods class I was asked to attend a reading lesson in my placement schools resource room.  I made my visit when one of the students from my class was receiving extra instruction in reading as part of a small group. I then wrote a paper which I have attached, about what I observed while I was there and what I thought about the instruction that was being delivered to the group.

Special Education Visit

This piece of evidence helps to demonstrate my emerging competency in this area because I had to interact with other members of the staff and reflect on how what they are doing is going to help my student become a better reader. I got to collaborate with the other teacher and I had to schedule an appointment to go into her class and observe.

I know now how important it is to know what your student is learning when they leave your classroom to receive instruction in another.  If I know what help a student is or isn’t receiving I can do my best to resolve those matters and make sure that my student is getting the level of instruction that they need. I see my student the most and I am the one who will track their progress so the gates of communication must always be open between other staff members so that everyone is on the same page.

The best student learning will happen when all people involved are on the same page and they know exactly what the student needs in order to succeed. I was able to witness this in action, I got to see one of my students receive several different types of literacy instruction all working on the same thing; helping this student learn to read.

Next time I hope to actually take part in the collaborating process. I think that I am at point in my level of knowledge and ability that I am able to be part of such discussion about the students in my class.