Standard T
T: KNOWLEDGE OF TEACHING
T1: Informed by standards-based assessment (analysis using formative, summative, and self-assessment).
T2: Intentionally planned (beneficial standards-based planning that is personalized)
T3: Influenced by multiple instructional strategies (addressing ability levels and cultural backgrounds).
T4: Informed by technology (designed to create technologically proficient learners).
My Understanding of Standard T
Students are relying on my abilities as a teacher to learn course material. As their teacher, I must be able to assess their learning using formative assessment methods as they continue to prepare for summative assessments. After each individual lesson and throughout each unit, I must use self-assessment to determine if the teaching methods that I am using are truly effective. The lessons that I plan must be designed with each class in mind. Sometimes a lesson will need to be tweaked from one period to the next based on the students in that class. Students come in a variety of packages, at different levels of ability, from different backgrounds, and with different experiences – all of which influence their learning. My instruction needs to be considerate of all of those things in addition to meeting the state and district standards. Not only so, but students need to be prepared for the world of technology. My teaching needs to incorporate a variety of technologies so students see it being used on a regular basis for more than just entertainment.
STANDARD T META-REFLECTION—KNOWLEDGE OF TEACHING. Devote a paragraph relating your use of student-based evidence to each of the following four elements. T1: Informed by standards- based assessments so students benefit from learning that is systematically analyzed using multiple formative, summative, and self-assessment strategies. (Tell how you communicate the relationship between assessment and learning targets.) T2: Intentionally planned so students benefit from standards- based planning that is personalized. (Answer how you help students review their performance and set relevant personal learning goals.) T3: Influenced by multiple strategies so instruction addresses ability levels and cultural backgrounds. (Tell how you help students use a variety of learning strategies, and how you know that students can explain their effectiveness.) T4: Informed by technology so students benefit from effective technologies designed to create technologically proficient learners. (Answer how you articulate/demonstrate the relationship between the effective use of technology and learning.)
T1: Informed by Standards-Based Assessments
At the beginning of every class period I spend a few minutes discussing with the class where we have been coming from, what the objectives are for the day, and how this ties in with what they will be doing in future class periods. Students can know what to expect in class, there are very few surprises because it is all laid out to them at the beginning. The seniors have this routine down. In American Politics and Global Issues (APGI), students immediately look to the whiteboard that explains what will be happening that day, what Thinking Skills they will be using, which Habits of Mind they will be demonstrating, and what the key concepts are for that day. Even though it is on the board, I make sure to discuss it with the students as well, and many of them use this time to ask relevant questions about that day’s lesson or the lesson from the class before. As the students proceed through the class period and through the coursework, formative assessment is constantly taking place to determine the direction of future lessons. For example, in a recent lesson in Introduction to Psychology, the objective for the day was “I am able to explain six of the research methods used by psychologists through both words and actions” and the students did not fully meet the objective like I had intended. The lesson required students to break up into six groups and each group was assigned a research method to read about from an article. After reading about each article, the group designed a short skit that modeled their research method and how it functioned. Each skit was presented in front of the class so the other groups could learn about each research method, a modified Jigsaw. After all of the groups presented their skits we had a small class discussion in which I used the “Can I Get a Paraphrase?” mode of checking for understanding. It came across that many students had not gotten the key points about a couple of the research methods, they were too distracted by other parts of the skit like the humorous plot. I followed up our discussion by having every student complete an “I Learned…” statement; those confirmed that the objective had not been fully achieved. This gave me the opportunity to adjust the next day’s lesson a little in order for me to take some time to provide clarification to those confusions, like the difference between using tests and using surveys and how to ensure reliability in a survey. These formative assessments help both the students and myself to understand how the learning is progressing, directing future lessons. Students needed to understand the different research methods because they will be designing their own research studies later in the unit. They will not be able to design a research study if they do not understand how to conduct research. A research study is also the culminating project for that unit, so it is important for them to understand the fundamentals of researching before moving forward.
Artifacts for T1
Final Philosophy Project-
T2: Intentionally Planned
It has been made clear to me through this internship that students carry a variety of personal learning goals. Some of my goals are for every student to feel safe in my classroom and for every student to be given the opportunities to learn and succeed. For every student to succeed in my class means I need to know every student in my class. Students are able to come and talk to me before school, during lunch, and after school if they do not understand the material, if they were absent, or even just to discuss the course-work. I have been able to observe the different learning styles in my different classes, giving me the ability to plan each lesson more intentionally around my students. There are some classes that thrive off of working collaboratively and then there is one where more students prefer individual work. However, within those generalizations there are students that fit a different mold and learn better in other ways. I try and provide my students with a variety of learning opportunities that are designed around the state standards for social studies and integrate reading, writing, sustainability, and technology. I have used Animoto.com as a tool for students to make outlines of essays instead of writing a traditional outline, students have acted out the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and they have also written acrostic poems about the turmoil in the Middle East. Each of these lessons helps cater to different learning styles, while encouraging others to see that learning can come in a variety of fashions. Throughout all of this, I use Entry Tasks and Checking for Understanding strategies to help students reflect on their own learning and assess themselves personally. Collaborative learning is a best practice technique, but students still need to assess their learning as individuals. I also try to provide feedback on assignments so students will know what they are doing right and what they are missing. When a student asks, “Miss Markley, why did I get a fifteen out of twenty on my political blog?” in APGI, I tell that student to collect their assignment from the tub and bring it to me. Normally, because of the feedback I have provided on the student’s assignment, that student will pick up their paper then come back and say, “Never mind, I understand what I did wrong.” While providing additional feedback takes more of the teacher’s time, it is something that helps students to track their own learning and come closer to achieving their own learning goals as they strive to improve.
T3: Influenced by Multiple Strategies
Many students enter a classroom with their own expectations or beliefs about a class. Many of these are negative thoughts like, “I hate math and I’m not good at it” to “social studies is stupid and boring” to “I will never be a good writer.” By incorporating a broader range of learning strategies, students can learn that they can be good at math or that social studies does not have to be boring. The human rights unit in APGI was exciting because students were able to learn about the rights that they possess as citizens of the United States of America. Reading a primary document that is written in legal jargon is normally something that intimidates students because they think it will be difficult. Students were able to break the Universal Declaration of Human Rights apart into smaller pieces and act out small sections of the document to bring meaning to this not-so-familiar language. The students demonstrated that these small role-plays were effective because they referred back to them when discussing other human rights issues. To help students understand a unit on the Middle East more clearly, the unit was front-loaded with a couple of segments of direct instruction on Islam because it is such a critical component to the culture and political process in the Middle East. Students demonstrated the effectiveness of this strategy through in-class dialogue during and after the direct instruction and they continued to show its effectiveness throughout the unit by asking questions about the new material by referring back to the information they learned during the direct instruction. Lessons in my class tend to follow the Discovery lesson format and incorporate strategies like advance organizers, collaborative learning in small groups, Jigsaws, and reflective assessments. The students demonstrate the effectiveness of these strategies during times of formative and summative assessment. I use Checking for Understanding strategies that are highly encouraged by the administrators at our school; these give the students a chance to show me the effectiveness of the lesson by modeling that they have grasped the objective for the day. For example, one day of APGI was spent studying women in Islamic culture. I read a magazine article aloud to the class about Muslim girls who were attacked with battery acid to stop them from going to school. As we read the article we stopped and discussed major points of the article and used different reading strategies. After, students had to read two more articles on their own, both about women in Islamic cultures. The students used the 3-2-1 Checking for Understanding strategy to model their own understanding of the articles they read alone. This encouraged students to use the same reading strategies as individuals that we used as a group. Their 3-2-1 journal entries demonstrated their understanding of the article and made connections to their prior knowledge of Middle Eastern Islamic culture. While the journal articles were immediate demonstration of their understanding of the articles, they reemphasized their understanding of this knowledge to me during our human rights unit when students brought up examples of how the women are treated in Islam from the previous unit. It is a learning process for me as I write more and more lessons; however, as students continue to demonstrate strong understandings of certain topics, I know that those are the lessons that are proving to be effective and worth using again.
Artifacts for T3
Instructional Strategies Final Paper-
T4: Informed by Technology
Students are constantly utilizing various technologies throughout the day, both in school and out of school. The Tahoma School District where I am interning encourages digital backpacks. This is a project makes “it possible for students at Tahoma High School to bring their own wireless capable devices and use them at school to access those digital tools, resources, content, and connections” (TSHS 2010). Students are able to use constructivist learning in the classroom by using their own laptops/netbooks or by using the department netbooks when we have them checked out. By utilizing the Internet to research new topics, students can learn the most up-to-date information instead of from books in the library that were published ten years ago. While there is value in using books for research, using the Internet to post on discussion boards, make blogs, and conduct research creates the digital citizens that our students will need to become for life after high school. Students in American Studies created blogs about industries that are sustainability issues on Puget Sound Off. These blogs became meaningful projects to the students because they were not only reaching the students in their class, but their blogs are available to anyone else with an Internet connection. The students understood that the work they were doing could have a heavier impact because it was extending beyond the classroom. Whenever we do Internet research in any of my classes I remind the students about what websites will be appropriate for the research they are doing. Students are learning that some websites do not have enough credibility to be cited in a research paper. They are also learning how to conduct searches that are deeper than typing a few words into the Google search engine, where the answers may not immediately show up. Technology is relied upon every day at our school, from attendance, to grading being all online, to emailing parents, to discussion boards on class websites, to eliminating paper report cards because they can be done via email, students know that we live in a technological world and it is my responsibility to utilize the opportunities that I have to prepare them for it. Whether I am using the document camera to go over an assignment, using a PowerPoint presentation during some direct instruction, or showing a video or audio clip to enhance student learning, all of these moments show students that we live in a digital world.
References
Tahoma Senior High School (2010). Digital Backpack. TSHS <http://tshs.tahomasd.us/students/academics/digital-backpack/>.
Karen Murphy said
Alison, your understanding of Standard T is well done!
T 1 – I wonder if you would have given the groups your ‘formative assessment question’ (Can I Get a Paraphrase?) BEFORE the groups made up their skits, if the skits would have been more instructional? Just a thought! You are applying all of the correct assessments and formative feedback. Great job!
T2 -”I try and provide my students with a variety of learning opportunities that are designed around the state standards for social studies and integrate reading, writing, sustainability, and technology.” This shows competency in planning intentionally along with the time intensive feedback. “While providing additional feedback takes more of the teacher’s time, it is something that helps students to track their own learning and come closer to achieving their own learning goals as they strive to improve.”
T3 – I like this ‘learning statement’! “It is a learning process for me as I write more and more lessons; however, as students continue to demonstrate strong understandings of certain topics, I know that those are the lessons that are proving to be effective and worth using again.”
T4 – “it is my responsibility to utilize the opportunities that I have to prepare them for it.” Looks like you have done an excellent job preparing your students! “Whenever we do Internet research in any of my classes I remind the students about what websites will be appropriate for the research they are doing. Students are learning that some websites do not have enough credibility to be cited in a research paper.”
Karen Murphy said
T1 –Informed by standards-based assessment – 5 (exemplary)
T2 –Intentionally planned – 5 (exemplary)
T3 –Influenced by multiple instructional strategies 5 (exemplary)
T4 –Informed by technology 5 (exemplary)
Alison, well done!