Standard 3

Karen Donohoe

Standard 3

April 22, 2015

Standard 3        Knowledge of content and integrated curriculum 

1)    Educators should know, understand, and use the central concepts and tools of inquiry appropriate to the subject matter and age/grade levels they teach.

2)    They should be able to create meaningful learning experiences that develop children’s understanding of subject matter and increase their skills. 

3)    Educators should plan integrated units of curriculum, instruction, and assessment based upon their knowledge of subject matter, curriculum goals, and developmentally appropriate practices among the families, communities, and cultures from which their children come.

            It is important for teachers to follow the state standards and frameworks to make sure that the content of what is being taught is appropriate for the grade level and the students age. Teachers must teach within the standards in order to assure the best learning for students. If teachers teach in different grade levels the content may be too easy or too hard for the students. This also will affect the next grade that the student goes to because they will be behind in their learning or what they have already learned will be repeated. Teachers should create meaningful learning experiences by telling the students why they are learning what they are learning or what they are expected to learn. Stating the objective of each lesson helps the students understand what they will be able to do at the end of each lesson, giving the students meaning behind their learning. Teachers need to plan their curriculum keeping in mind that they need to be knowledgeable about the material but also the material needs to be appropriate to the community and cultures of the students.

            This standard is important because not only should the students be held accountable for their learning but the teachers need to be held accountable for their own learning as well. Teachers also need to teach for understanding of meaning. It is important for the students to understand why they are learning what they are learning and the relevance to their lives. It is important to relate their learning to their lives through their community or families. If you are teaching a social studies lesson on Mount Washington and a students parent has climbed Mount Washington you could bring that person in to share their experience making what the students are learning more relatable and personal. Teachers can do this by following the standards to see what is appropriate for each grade level.

            Wiggins and McTighe’s Understanding by Design notes, “In the first stage of backward design, we consider our goals, examine established content standards (national, state, prov- ince, and district), and review curriculum expectations. Because there is typically more content than can reasonably be addressed within the available time, teachers are obliged to make choices. This first stage in the design process calls for clarity about priorities.” (Wiggins, McTighe, 2005) Wiggins and McTighe address the importance of making sure that you are teaching within the appropriate grade level by checking the goals and content standards. Wiggins and McTighe also address the importance of reviewing a unit or curriculum and revising based on what is the most meaningful to your students learning.  This relates to this standard because 3.3 states that planning units and curriculum within the standards and developmental stage is important but modifying it to relate to the students and engage them in their own learning is extremely important.

            I believe that I have reached standard 3.2 by teaching an open circle curriculum lesson with my class. Open Circle is a curriculum where the students have a safe space to learn about how to deal with every day interactions. This specific lesson was on teasing. I talked to the kids about what teasing was and how it felt. The students already had talking cues on chart paper on the wall about how to deal with annoying behavior so we reviewed those language references. I introduced the book we were reading, Thank You Mr. Falker, and read the book aloud to the class stopping throughout asking higher order thinking questions. Artifact 3A shows the part of my procedure where I was reading aloud and stopping and also the talking points for after the book was over. This lesson is meaningful to the students every day lives where they need to learn how to deal with certain social situations. This lesson increased the student’s skills of being able to deal with social situations maturely and effectively. I had the students write an example of teasing in their notebook and how it made them feel to be teased or see someone else being teased. The students were able to reflect back on a time that they witnessed teasing and remember how it made them feel. This was a life skill that the students needed to learn because not all students are taught to deal with problems using words. It is important to give the students the tools to deal with situations properly.

            In my pre-practicum I was in a second grade classroom and I taught a lesson on compound words. I knew that the students had talked about compound words in morning meeting when they had seen them on the morning message so I activated their prior knowledge and then we made a brainstorm of other compound words. The students made compound word books, where they were given a word and split the compound word into its two words and drew a picture of each word on each flap and then when you pulled the flaps back the two words were put next to each other with the picture that represented the compound word. This lesson showed the students the two words that a compound word can be broken up into and how separately they mean different things than the two words together mean. The pictures helped the students see that the words by themselves mean something different than they do when they are put together to make a compound word. This lesson helped the students comprehend the subject matter being taught. This lesson was also appropriate for second grade because it was somewhat hands on and created a visual for them to see how a compound word is two words put together.        This lesson proves my understanding of standard 3.1 and 3.2. This lesson was apart of the state standards for second grade making it not to easy or to hard for second grade. The students were able to grasp the concept and were very proud of their work. This also was a meaningful learning experience because their books literally showed them that the two words are not similar in meaning when they are separate but when you put them together they have their own meaning or definition.

            In the Teaching Social Studies class that I took last year, we had a family history project that we had to do that involved looking into the our personal family history. This project directly relates to standard 3.2 by creating a meaningful learning experience that increased my learning skills by giving me a creative idea of how to incorporate family into the classroom. I talked a lot with my Grandmother about my Papa’s side of the family and I learned a lot about my Mom’s side of the family that I did not know before. Artifact 3C is my family time line that I had to do for this project. Artifact 3C shows the meaningful learning that was put behind this project. This project was very personal and meaningful to each student in different ways. I thought that the general idea of the project, and involving our own lives was interesting and engaging, but it was not reasonable for all students. Some students may not know their family’s history or they might be adopted and feel conflicted on which part of them to research further. This project motivated me to incorporate family and culture into the classroom as much as I can. I have not yet had an opportunity to do this because I am not in my own classroom, but I intend to use a modified version of this project within my own classroom someday. I would modify it slightly by giving the students more freedom of how they want to represent and define their family. I would sculpt the assignment keeping in mind that this might make some students feel uncomfortable or sad.

            I feel as though I have met 3.2 of this standard by creating meaningful learning experiences. I think that I could work harder to reach this standard in full. Family involvement in my full practicum classroom is close to non-existent, making it difficult to picture an environment where the community, culture and families are participants in student learning. With that being said I do not believe that it is impossible, and I plan to make it possible. I want to work towards a goal of having the parents in the classroom once a month at least whether they are just saying hi as they drop of their child or they are participating in their child’s learning. In addition to family involvement I also want to create an environment where the students can speak freely about their community or cultures making it a natural part of the classroom.

Wiggins & McTighe (2005). Understanding by Design, 2^nd edition. [Ebrary introduction]

           

ARTIFACT 3A

State Standards:

Comprehensive Health: Grade 4

Interpersonal Relationships

Students will learn that relationships with others are an integral part of the human life experience and the factors that contribute to healthy interpersonal relationships, and will acquire skills to enhance and make many of these relationships more fulfilling through commitment and communication.

Procedure: Teasing Lesson

Read Thank You, Mr. Falker: Questions during and after reading

-Why do you think Eric and the other classmates teased Trisha?

-Why do you think that Trisha didn’t ask Eric and the other students to stop teasing her?

-What are some strategies that you could have used if you were in Trisha’s situation? Turn and talk

            -Tell a teacher

            -Ask the person to stop

            -Walk away

-Can teaching be a dangerous or destructive behavior? Why?

- What should you do when you see dangerous or destructive teasing happening?

-Your teachers and other adults in the school are always there for you to talk to if you come across a situation that makes you uncomfortable or upset, right?

-Okay, now we are going to write in our reading journals about a time that you have been teased, you have seen someone being teased, or you have teased someone. I want you to talk about how you felt and how you think the other person felt, but first I want you to turn and talk about writing ideas with your neighbor.

-Raise your hand if you have a personal story about teasing that you can write about? If you do not have an idea, out your chair away and come back to the rug and we can brainstorm together. When you are done with your writing you can read to self.

ARTIFACT 3B

MA Curriculum Standards:

Reading Standards for Informal Text: Grade 2

-Craft and Structure: 4.Determine the meaning of words and phrases in a text relevant to a grade 2 topic or subject area.

Language Standard: Grade 2

-Vocabulary Acquisition Use: 4.Use knowledge of the meaning of individual words to predict the meaning of compound words (e.g., birdhouse, lighthouse, housefly; bookshelf, notebook, bookmark).

Wheelock College Educator Standards:

Standard 3: Knowledge of Content and Integrated Curriculum

-3.2 Create meaningful learning experiences to develop children’s understanding of subject matter and increase skills.

Standard 4: Educational Practices that foster learning, development, and achievement for all of the nation’s children

-4.10 Model effective communication strategies in conveying information, asking and responding to questions

Understanding: The students will be able to understand that compound words are words that have two words within them and together they make one word with one meaning.

Essential Question: What are compound words?

Activate Prior Knowledge: The students have been introduced to compound words and often talk about them during morning meeting. I will ask the students when they have talked about compound words before, and if they know what they mean. We will brainstorm compound words to also activate prior knowledge. They also have a hamster in the classroom named Cupcake and my examples word is Cupcake so I will give them time to make connections between the hamster, a cupcake, and my example.

Objectives: I want the students to be able to understand that the two words separately are different than they are together. Drawing the words separately and together will help the students with this. I want the students to show understanding through their work. I want their work to show me that they understand that there are two separate words within compound words.

Procedure:

1: As the students come back from lunch I will stand in the room asking them to come quietly to their seats and to clear everything off of their desk and take out a pencil.

2: I will then ask them what a compound word is? Compound words are words that are made up of two words. We will brainstorm some compound words that we know.

3: “So now we are going to do an activity using compound words. You are each going to pick a compound word out of this bag and you are going to make a card just like this one. I did this one so that you could all see what you will be doing. My word was cupcake. So on this side I drew a cup and on this side I drew a cake. When you open the flaps the word cupcake is inside and there is a picture of a cupcake. You will all do this with your compound words. If you finish early there will be two worksheets over on this table that you can work on quietly at your desk. You will have 15 minutes to make your card and then we are going to have some time for people to share their work. I will write the time that we are going to stop our work and listen to our friends sharing their work.

4: Does anyone have any questions?

5: I will circulate around the room seeing if anyone needs help or has any questions.

ARTIFACT 3C

Family Time Line

1904: Peter Syracusa came to America at the age of 2 from Sicily and settled in        Rochester NY

1933: Anthony Syracusa born in Rochester NY.

1956: Anthony Syracusa joined Air force became second lieutenant.

1957: Anthony met Elaine Smith in Plattsburg, NY. They got married and had their two children, Keith and Mark Syracusa.

1961: KI Sawyer Air force base, Michigan. Anthony and Elaine’s third child, Linda, was born in Michigan. (My Mom)

1964: Westover Air force base Massachusetts. Anthony and Elaine had their last child Melisa and Anthony became a Lieutenant Major.

1973: Pease Air force base, Portsmouth NH. Anthony became a Lieutenant Colonel and this is where Anthony and Elaine settled and Elaine still lives there today.

1980: Linda Syracusa met Barry Donohoe

1987: Barry and Linda got married and moved to North Hampton, NH.

1990: Barry and Linda had their first child, Kevin Syracusa Donohoe.

1993: Barry and Linda had their second and last child, Karen Syracusa Donohoe.

Present: Barry and Linda live in North Hampton still to this day and the story will continue when Kevin or Karen are ready to start a family of their own and create their own family history.

Standard 4

Karen Donohoe

Standard 4

April 20, 2015

Standard 4        Educational practices that foster learning, development, and achievement in all of the nation’s children          

1)    Educators should use teaching strategies and educational practices that develop children’s capacity to think critically, analytically, and imaginatively, and extend their knowledge and understanding of the world.

2)    They should provide multiple ways for children to deepen their grasp of concepts, stretch their thinking, express their understanding, and learn critical skills.

3)    They should search for appropriate materials, experiment with new technologies, collaborate with specialists and colleagues, and consult with families and community members to meet the instructional needs of all their students. 

4)    Educators should establish caring, inclusive, stimulating, and safe learning communities in which all children feel they belong, and in which they can assume responsibility, take intellectual risks, make mistakes, explore alternatives, participate in decision making and work both collaboratively and independently. 

5)    They should understand principles of effective classroom management as well as human motivation and behavior from the foundational sciences of psychology, anthropology, and sociology. 

6)    They should understand cognitive processes associated with various kinds of learning and how these processes can be stimulated. 

7)    They should also understand language development and the role of language in learning.

8)    Educators should understand principles and techniques, and advantages and limitations associated with various teaching strategies.

9)    They should be able to communicate effectively within many domains (oral and written discourse, mathematical/symbolic representation, non-verbal communication, audiovisual and computer-based technologies), and model effective communication strategies in conveying information and in asking questions.

            Standard 4 defines the heart of teaching. It is about the importance of diversity within teaching and learning. Teachers should educate in ways that challenge the students learning as well as encourage them to think in diverse ways by using different materials and resources to further student learning. Teachers must create a warm and comfortable environment for the students to feel safe in, teachers must recognize how student may learn differently and meet those needs, teachers must maintain an appropriate management of the classroom and teachers must act as an appropriate role model for students in every light.

            I feel as though this standard is the most important because it touches on so many important parts of being a teacher. This standard is about educational practices that will benefit our students in every way. This standard is broken up in nine essential parts that make a terrific teacher. We should be teaching our students how to think about the world in order to understand it. Teachers need to provide a safe environment for children to feel safe in. It is difficult for students to ask for help or feel passionate about their own learning if they do not feel safe in their own space. For some students, school might be a happy get away from home and it is important to give them a space to be themselves and for them to know that they have a trustworthy adult that is on their side. Students are more likely to take their learning in their own hands if the environment is safe. It is important to have a motivational method to classroom management. I believe that a classroom can be managed properly without yelling or dwelling on the negative actions, but praise the positive, and repeat your belief in each students success. Teaching to different learners is one key technique that makes a good teacher. Not all students are going grasp a concept at the same time or in the same way. It is important to teach students how to share their learning verbally. It is so important for students to be able to understand their learning well enough that they can explain the concept and their learning to another. There are advantages and limitation to all teaching strategies because all students are different learners. One teaching strategy might help one students but not another. Lastly it is important for the teacher to communicate with the students in different ways and model how to communicate with another person appropriately.

            Robert Marzano is the CEO of Marzano research on education in Colorado, and Maria Foseid is known for her research of education and learning and they authored, A Handbook for Classroom Management that Works.

            “Regardless of the specific rules or procedures established for general classroom behavior, it's important to follow through consistently and to reinforce these norms. You can do this in a variety of ways. Here are some specific suggestions:

            -Model the procedures for students, or ask students to participate in modeling.

            -Provide time for students to talk or write about why rules and procedures for general classroom behavior might be important and useful.

            -Provide feedback to students about the extent to which they are following the rules and procedures so they can refine, improve, or correct their behavior.” (Marzano, chapter one) 

            Marzano says that follow through and student involvement is key within managing a classroom. I agree that following through with rules that the class has established is extremely important. Rules are not rules unless they are enforced. I strongly believe in giving the students the control over their own actions, and what I mean by this is that if a student gets in trouble I think it is important for them to decide what should be done about their misbehavior rather than them being told what is going to happen. It is important for the students to create the classroom rules that way they will be more accountable for them because they created the rules themselves.

            I have reached standard 4.3 by reaching out to other teachers in the school for support for the students or for myself. The students just finished a social studies project on monuments and memorials in Washington D.C. I knew that the students would not be able to find resources at home to find information about their topic so I asked the computer teacher if they could use their computer time to find information. Artifact 4A is the guided worksheet that I gave the students to use during their computer time. I wanted the students to be able to find information through articles, online sites, and movies. I knew that this would be impossible for the students to do at home so I provided them with the proper resources for them to be successful in their research.

            I also reached out to a third grade teacher, who helped me come up with some great ideas of how to work with maps within social studies. She provided me with a lot of helpful materials that I could modify to a fourth grade standard. Artifact 4B is one of many materials that this teacher gave me. I modified the work she gave me and did a lesson specifically on North America with the students. I had the students color the different countries of North America different colors, so they could see where one country began and another ended.

            I connected with a fifth grade teacher who is reading the book, Pay It Forward to her class. I was thinking about reading this book to my class during my take over week and we did not have time to do so. The fifth grade teacher gave me artifact 4C, which she has been using, in her classroom because of the book that they are reading. This teacher is connecting a read aloud to the student’s everyday life by encouraging them to take the kindness they receive and pay it forward to another person. I plan on using this book in the future because I really like the message that it send and I like how the teacher connected the reading to the classroom, it is more meaningful and memorable for the students to act on what they are learning or listening to.

            I have met standard 4.3 by reaching out to different teachers within in the school along with different grades. Connecting with different grades helps me with the main idea but then I still need to adapt the idea to fit my students and their learning needs.

            I feel as though I have met standard 4.5 through observations of my cooperating teacher and through my own experiences with the students. I have one student in my classroom that has a self-control and emotional disability. I found myself at the end of each day extremely frustrated and almost in tears that this student was giving me such a hard time. I went home one day and after talking to my mother who is also a fourth grade teacher I decided I needed to create a positive relationship with this child and see if she responded well to it. I went into school the next day and spoke with my cooperating teacher about my frustrations and my intended plan. My cooperating teacher then told me that this child has a disability. It was clear to me that the negative attention the student was receiving in the classroom was not helping her in anyway, and that my plan to connect with her in a positive way is necessary. I spoke with this student and asked her if she would like to have lunch with me once a week, and she eagerly said yes. I told her that lunch would be a treat and what could she do to earn lunch each week? The student said that if she could earn her points each week we could have lunch on Fridays. We both agreed to this and the student felt held accountable for her actions more so than she did before because there was a positive outcome to good behavior. Artifact 4D is a picture of the point system that my cooperating teacher keeps track of each day. If students meet a certain number of points they can participate in the points party, which varies from movies, to ice-skating. My cooperating teacher did not have a point’s party for the month of January, February or March. The students’ motivation towards good behavior was deflated slightly because what they were promised did not happen and was not made up for. I felt that reaching out to this student individually would help my classroom management with the entire class because this student is usually the one that is disruptive so creating a trusting relationship with her has made her respect me more while I am teaching. I believe that it is important to make more of an effort to connect to the students who acts out during class, because if you have a personal relationship with them they will respond to you with a more positive attitude and you will overall have better control of the classroom as a whole.

            I did a focused observation at the beginning of my full practicum of my cooperating teacher and five-second interactions. I focused on whether or not the interactions were positive, negative or neutral. Artifact 4E shows the notes that I took during the lesson. Most the students question were about the state testing that the students have to take called PARCC. My cooperating teacher responded neutrally almost every time she interacted with a student. If a student got something correct she would just tell them what to do when they are done and if a student got something wrong she would ask them a question to get them thinking and then move on to another student. Once within the 30 minutes observation did the teacher respond to a student positively, meaning that she praised them for getting something correct or say that their question was a good one. I learned, through this observation, that this is my cooperating teachers style of classroom management. She does not praise the students but also does not always yell at them unless they are misbehaving. This method to classroom management definitely kept the students from getting off track but it also seemed a little bit cold. I understand that this is one method of classroom management and making sure the kids are not goofing around in very important. I learned from this observation that I would like to find a balance between a stern and compassionate style of classroom management. I feel as though I have reached standard 4.5 through observations of my cooperating teacher and personal experiences with my students. I believe that how you handle a child needs to be in the best way for the child. Yelling at children might make them shut down because it embarrassed them and then they are incapable to learn.

            I have met standard 4.7 through what I have learning in the classroom and through the two English Language Development courses I have taken at Wheelock. These classes have taught me to always preview vocabulary and content before a lesson. Previewing content before a lesson can be difficult when still having the rest of the class to manage. My cooperating teacher often gets the class started on independent work and then will pull the level ones and work with them on something else. I taught a social studies lesson on North America and I had time to pull the level ones before I taught the lesson and preview the content with them. There were two other teachers in the classroom at this time that were circulating with the other students. I was able to do a mini lesson with the students so they would not be left behind. Artifact 4F is apart of my lesson plan for this lesson on North America. Artifact 4F is the accommodation section of my lesson plan where I state my plan for making accommodation for individual education plans and English language learners. This shows my planning and thinking of how I am going to teach to all my students. There are five English Language Learners (ELL’s) so we were able to work on the rug together and work on saying countries in English and Spanish. We worked in such a small group that I was able to work on the students’ language.

            I have also met standard 4.7 through my ability to accommodate in different ways for the level one English language learners. The students have morning work each morning and it is usually a math problem. During my take over week I have the morning work relate to whatever we were doing that day or what we did the day before, to be more of a review or preview. I gave morning work on Matter because that was what we had learned about in science the day before. The level ones had a picture-based paper and the rest of the class had more of a reading about matter packet. Artifact 4G is a copy of the morning work that I gave to the level one English language learners. I was able to grasp the students learning of the subject in the best way for them. I think that I have met standard 4.7 through my ability to preview the material ahead of time and that I was planned to be able to preview the material with the students. I also was able to find different resources for level ones that still tested their knowledge of matter but in the most effective way for them.

            Standard 4.10 really resonates with me because it is a teacher’s role to model appropriate communication and interactions. I believe that if teachers yell at the students they are modeling that it is okay to yell at someone when you are frustrated with them. When the students come up to me and say, “I don’t get it” I say you need to ask me a more detailed question about your learning. I don’t get it, does not show me that the students have tried. If a student comes up to me and says can you help me with problem 3 I am not sure if I should multiply or divide. I know that they have thought about the problem and narrowed down the methods that they could use. I try to motivate the students to take their own learning in their own hands through questioning. Although I do not have artifacts for this standard, I believe that I have met this standard through my own philosophy of learning. I believe that it is important to teach students how to be responsible for their learning and modeling that is the only way to show them how to do so. If the students ask me a question that I do not know the answer to I often will tell them I do not know the answer and I will tell them I will look it up and get back to them. This models me taking responsibility of my own learning. Through this example I am modeling being an engaged learner.

            Standard 4 as a whole is the heart of teaching and shows the many pieces that make up a good teacher. I have met some pieces of these standards but I have much more learning to do and I plan on working closer and closer to meeting each and every piece of this standard as my teaching experience goes on. Teaching to achieve the development of young engaged learners is the goal of teaching.

           

Marzano, R., Gaddy, B. & Foseid, M. (2005). A handbook for classroom management that works. Modules 1-6 ending on p. 33 [ebrary chapter one]

           

ARTIFACT 4A

Your Name:                                      Group Members:                               

Social Studies: Research Project

http://www.factmonster.com/ipka/A0772993.html

https://www.brainpop.com/socialstudies/

Name of Monument:                                                              

When was it built?                                                                                 

Who was it built for?                                                                             

Describe what it looks like

Height:                                                             

Color:                                                               

Shape:                                                                                                  

Unique features:                                                                                                                                                                              

Sketch a picture of what the monument looks like:

Five fun facts about the monument:

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

ARTIFACT 4B

ARTIFACT 4C

ARTIFACT 4D

ARTIFACT 4E

ARTIFACT 4F

Accommodation/Differentiation

-Each table group that has a level one ELL also has a native Spanish speaker in the group so they can translate if needed. Students will be working on the “we do” puzzle in their table groups.

-I have already previewed a labeled map of North America with the level one ELL’s in their map books. I have named countries and they had to point to where they were on the map of North America.

-While students will have time to work on their S.S. projects in the morning I will work with the level ones on the rug. I will do a mini lesson with them so they will be prepared for the whole class lesson in the afternoon.

-We will start with looking at a labeled map of North America and I will have the students find countries that I say out loud.

-The students will each be given a puzzle of North America that they will put together using the map in their map books as reference.

-We will then play a game with the globe ball. We will take turns naming countries in North America and throw the ball to a friend who has to then find the country that was named.

-IEP / ELL students have already seen and colored a labeled map of North America.

-I will be using manipulative to help students who need a visual. (Puzzle)

-Word banks will be used to help ELLs.

ARTIFACT 4G