Utah Effective Teaching Standards
1. Learner Developement |
Artifact:
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Macbeth Essay | |
File Size: | 26 kb |
File Type: | docx |
Rationale:
This essay was assigned to my 12th grade Language Arts class as an assessment measure for how well students have understood how to compose an essay. We have done 3 revisions of this essay after receiving a peer, personal,
and instructor critique. This artifact demonstrates learning development by highlighting changes, critical thinking and revising skills students exhibited over the course of the three versions of the same essay.
It is my belief that Learning Development takes time, patience,
practice and work to achieve. This artifact exemplifies these attributes. Students had to allow their final work to grow from their best efforts showing them how to improve upon their best and produce quality work. Elements of Revision and self-assessment were included in this assignment and also helped
students in their development as writers.
This essay was assigned to my 12th grade Language Arts class as an assessment measure for how well students have understood how to compose an essay. We have done 3 revisions of this essay after receiving a peer, personal,
and instructor critique. This artifact demonstrates learning development by highlighting changes, critical thinking and revising skills students exhibited over the course of the three versions of the same essay.
It is my belief that Learning Development takes time, patience,
practice and work to achieve. This artifact exemplifies these attributes. Students had to allow their final work to grow from their best efforts showing them how to improve upon their best and produce quality work. Elements of Revision and self-assessment were included in this assignment and also helped
students in their development as writers.
2. Learning Differences
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Artifact:
Multi-Genre Project
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Rationale: Students come in every color, shape, size and
personality. They are as different as the stars, each burning with their own unique light. The multi-genre project was designed to show learner differences and allow students to demonstrate their understanding, development and abilities in a variety of different ways. Students in 9th grade worked on this project over the course of 6 weeks while on this studying Romeo and Juliet. They were to explore the abstract idea of love by developing and connecting in at least 9 genres. Within this they were to examine the different types of love: Romantic, Familial, and Friend. This project allowed students to highlight areas of expression they are good at while stretching themselves to explore the theme of the reading. They demonstrated the ability to develop a definition and to support that definition in multiple ways and in multiple disciplines. Students were able to show their unique styles of writing, self-expression and talent within this project demonstrating sensitiveness to Learning Differences. |
3. Learning Enviornment
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Artifact:
Classroom Procedures
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Rationale: How the class runs on a daily basis influences how much students learn, how much time is utilized during the day and the expectations students have for themselves and their learning. I have included the classroom procedures I have developed to help my students learn in a productive classroom. I have tried to be as specific and clear with my expectations so that students understand from the get-go what I see as a good learning environment.
The majority of problems that arise in a classroom take place because students are testing boundaries and trying to see what they can get away with and what a teacher wants from them. By setting clear expectations from the get go student misbehavior and off task behaviors are minimized. I have seen this in my own student teaching. When students were unclear as to what I expected from them they pushed ever advantage. After explicitly explaining in detail my expectations students behaved more consistently and we were able to learn in a friendlier and more productive environment. |
4. Content Knowledge
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Artifact:
Lesson Plan
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Rationale: Nothing will showcase you as a charlatan quite so much as standing to teach something and finding you have nothing to say. I have chosen to include several lesson plans from a unit on Macbeth. this artifact shows that I have effective content knowledge regarding my subject, but also that I have the ability to make use of this content knowledge and put it to practical use in the classroom.
These lesson plans show my understanding not only of the Language Arts content, but also of teaching strategies, and applicable strategies to use in the classroom to help ESL students who have been mainstreamed into the classroom. |
5. Assessment
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Artifact:
Assessment Plan
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Rationale: Assessing students is a necessary part of education. It is how teachers gage if students are learning and drives how, when and what is taught. Assessment, evaluation and grading are all tools to see what a student has learned. Assessment is not meant to be a punishment. It is an opportunity to understand student progress or the lack thereof. Assessment is a marker for both student and teacher to see how well students are achieving the learning objectives.
Classes, lessons and evaluations should be designed with the purpose of allowing students to succeed and show what they have learned and understand.Grades should not just reflect the final outcome but also the effort that was put into what is being evaluated. Grades should never come as a surprise to students and their own self-evaluation should be included when determining their grade. Assessment should allow not only the teacher but also the student to see how far they have come in their understanding, This assessment plan demonstrates these attributes. |
6. Instructional Planning
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Artifact:
Curriculum Map
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Rationale: If you don’t know where you are going, you can bet you’ll never get there. Knowing what the destination and overall learning outcomes of instruction are essential to good teaching. Planning how, when and what to teach are just
important as the actual teaching. For this reason I have chosen to include a Curriculum Map I developed for a 9th grade classroom. This Map was developed based on the Utah Core Curriculum and my experience in teaching 9th grade during my student teaching experience. It is a highly ambitious curriculum map and show my attention to details, my ability to organize and plan material to ensure student learning and development, and my ability to scaffold new concepts onto previously learnt ideas. |
7. Instructional Strategies
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Artifacts:
Diversity Practices
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Rationale: The old saying goes that “There’s more than one way to skin a cat.” The same is for teaching. There are a plethora of strategies and ways for teachers to help students learn. All too often we get stuck in a groove of repetition. Students all have different backgrounds and different ways of thinking and expressing themselves. Teaching practices should reflect the diversity of the students.
My Diversity Plan was designed to show the teaching strategies and practices that I generally use. Like all parts of teaching it is an idea that is continually growing and deepening as I gain more experience working with students. This particular diversity plan focuses on helping students whose primary language is not English. The wonderful thing about strategies such as these however, is that they help all students, despite their backgrounds, learn. |
8. Reflection and Continuous Growth
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Artifact:
Student Letter
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Rationale: Even the bad experiences can be good as long as you learn something from it. Reflection is an essential part of being a teacher. As a student teacher I was test driving every lesson and trying new ideas and teaching techniques out every day and in every class. Reflection became a key point of my learning. Some lessons and activities worked and several fell flat on their face. Reflection is what makes us better. Through reflection on what went well and what didn’t I was able to better understand both myself and my expectations as a teacher as well as better understand what types of content will help students engage.
As important as it is for me as a teacher to reflect on what I have learned it is equally important for students to reflect on what they have learned. I have chosen as my artifact a letter given to me by one of my 12thgrade students at the end of my student teaching. In this letter she reflects back on what she has learned this semester. In looking back at our experiences it is often much easier to remember the things we did wrong and what didn’t go as planned. I include this letter as a reminder to myself that learning is a journey; there will be bumps and falls along the way, but the important thing is to continue in the climb. |
9. Leadership and Collaboration
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Artifact:
Supply Drive
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Rationale: A load shared is a load more easily and comfortably carried. Teaching is not just the job of one it is a collaboration between student, teacher, parent, administration and so forth. During my student teaching I strove to become involved both with other teachers and with the parents of my students. The artifacts I have selected was a collaborative effort to improve East High School (where I did my student teaching) and to build partnerships between parents/ families and the school.
The artifact I have chosen is a supply drive I organized on behalf of the English Department at East High. As all students must take an English class all four years of High School this project has the potential to influence all students. For three weeks the four classes I taught did a supply drive at home and in their community. I had previously met with the teachers in the English department and composed a list of supplies they needed. By the time the Supplydrive ended we had gathered over fifty 3-ring binders, hundreds of pens, pencils and markers and an assortment of other classroom materials to benefit the teachers and students at East High School. This project exemplifies my leadership abilities and abilities to collaborate and get things done in order to make a difference in the school and community. |
10. Professional and Ethical Behavior
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Artifact:
Disclosure Statement
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Rationale: In addition to a good education students are entitled to learn from a teacher who exemplifies professional and ethical behavior. A teacher is a role
model for students and a lime lighted occupation in the community. The effect a teacher can have on students, families and communities is insurmountable. As such as a teacher I always try to hold myself to the highest moral standards of honesty, integrity and professionalism. For my artifact to demonstrate this standard I have chosen to include my disclosure statement. I feel that people should live up to what they say they are going to do, My disclosure statement shows not only my expectations for my students but also the expectations my students should have for me. I view a disclosure statement as a contract; both parties have the right and obligation to expect comportment from the other. |