Standards of Practice for the Teaching Profession
My name is Paul Michael Patrick Wood. I have been a teacher since 1979 and have taught FSL, regular classroom grades 3,6, and 8 (English), French Immersion grades 3 to 6 and secondary Religion, Italian and French. I hold a B.A. in Modern Languaes, a B.Ed. in Modern Language teaching, a Master's of Education and a Master's of Theological Education. I have been updating myself over the years especially in the areas of technology in education, Junior division studies and strategies, the use of visual arts in teaching and character education. In 2000, I taught ESL in South Korea and also in the Philippines in 2005-06.
I was born and raised in Toronto, sixth child of ten of Irish parents. My outside interests are camping, skating, hockey, painting and drawing, all sorts of music and volunteer work.
--------------------------
My PORTFOLIO
This is my professional teaching portfolio organized around the 5 Standards of Practice for the Teaching Profession. I have appended an artifact (sample of my work assignments as a demonstration of each standard)
Commitment to Students and Student Learning;
Professional Knowledge;
Teaching Practices;
Leadership and Community; and
Ongoing Professional Learning.
A Commitment to Values (which I have appended)
1. Commitment to Students and Student Learning
Demonstration of care and commitment: demonstrates concern for student character, peer relationships and personal aspirations; reinforces the rights and responsibilities students have as citizens.
Growing as individuals and as contributing members of society: encourages students to become active, inquisitive and discerning citizens; creates opportunities for students to understand, facilitate and respond to change; engages students in activities that encourage diverse approaches and solutions but also reinforce the social responsibilities
Multiple Intelligences LESSON PLAN
Paul Wood
July 14, 2008
Rationale:
In 1983, Howard Gardner, the creator of the Multiple Intelligences (MI) Theory, suggested that all individuals have personal intelligence profiles that consist of combinations of seven different intelligence types. These intelligences were ( Gardner 1983):
verbal-linguistic
mathematical-logical
visual-spatial
bodily-kinaesthetic
musical-rhythmic
interpersonal
intrapersonal
The purpose of this lesson is twofold: first, to demonstrate how teachers can cater optimally for learners with different intelligence profiles during a foreign-language lesson, and second, to show that this can be easily achieved using everyday classroom activities and techniques. It has been my great interest in this course to include a section on second-language learning. After all, we are all in a very multicultural teaching environment where ESL and FSL or French Immersion are taught. In my case, I have a straight grade four with 5 ESL students; I also am assigned to teach my own FSL. For that reason, I hope this lesson can behoove myself in teaching to those students and to offer teachers some ideas on how to implement Gardner’s theory for the benefit of newcomers and second-language learners of French. I must also add that I use art constantly in my teaching, since I am a trained artist, and wish to include art as indeed only a part of a lesson, but to show how it can be used. All teachers can use simple art effectively across the curriculum.
Interpersonal Sharing: Share the goals of the lesson with the learners. Tell them that after the lesson, they will be able to recognise the names of common rooms and other words related to houses. Furthermore, they will be able to use most of the vocabulary items productively or, more precisely, to be able to describe houses and name the various rooms that houses may hold, to ask questions about houses, and to argue in favour of their own as well as against other people's opinions. Next, invite them to suggest real-life situations in which they may have to discuss or describe houses in a foreign language. From speaking to reading (the oral to the written): Read out the text entitled "Our House" to the learners. Ask them to listen carefully and to pay special attention to the various types of rooms mentioned in the text. You could also invite one of the learners to do the reading. (linguistic/verbal learner)Our HouseI live in a big yellow house near the main road.
Our house has eight windows and two balconies that overlook a big garden. On the ground floor there are a kitchen, a hall, a living-room with many paintings on the walls, a dining-room where we have all our meals, a bathroom, a toilet, a computer room with lots of books in a giant bookcase that fills the whole wall, and a garage. In front of the house there are a garden, a swimming-pool, and a large, green fountain with fish. On the first floor there are three bedrooms, a bathroom, and a small toilet. On the second floor there is an attic which has all kinds of old furniture. Behind the house there is a vegetable garden. We have a large basement too, with a cosy sitting-room and an open fireplace. Student Reflection: Divide the learners into pairs and ask them to list the different rooms mentioned in the text and to provide answers to the following questions:
How many floors were mentioned in the text?
Which rooms were on which floors?
Was there something in the house or the garden that you do not normally find in an ordinary house or its garden?
Student Application and Interaction: Ask the learners to make individual lists of all the rooms they wish they had in their dream house. Also, ask them to specify whether their dream house is new or old, a single-family house or in a block of flats, located in a city or in the countryside, etc. (interpersonal)Phase
1: Divide the learners into groups of three and give each group a copy of the house plan shown below. Ask each group to agree among themselves as to which rooms there are in the house plan, and at the same time try to include as many elements as possible from every group member's individual dream house. (visual learner)Phase 2: When the learners are finished, invite them to walk around in the classroom, discussing and comparing house plans. Ask them to make notes of the types of houses included in everybody else's individual house plans while walking around, and also of the rooms found in the house plans agreed upon within the groups. (They are asked to prepare to discuss their reflections afterwards).Phase 3: Divide the learners into new groups of three and ask each group:
to decide among themselves which rooms were the most popular ones, and
to categorise the existing house types into whatever number and kind of categories that they find appropriate
Student Reflection: Play the background song "Our House" one more time (at a higher volume) and ask the learners to concentrate specifically on the lyrics1. Next, ask them to decide what the text is all about and then share their thoughts with the learners sitting next to them. (interpersonal)
Characteristics of learners representing different intelligence types
According to Gardner (1983, 1993, 1999) verbal-linguistic learners enjoy expressing themselves orally and in writing, and love wordplay, riddles and listening to stories. Mathematical-logical learners display an aptitude for numbers, reasoning and problem solving, whereas visual-spatial learners tend to think in pictures and mental images, and enjoy illustrations, charts, tables and maps. Bodily-kinesthetic learners experience learning best through various kinds of movement, while musical-rhythmic learners learn best through songs, patterns, rhythms and musical expression.
Intrapersonal learners are reflective and intuitive about how and what they learn, whereas interpersonal learners like to interact with others and learn best in groups or with a partner..The various intelligence types are catered for in particularly during the following phases of the proposed foreign-language lesson:
verbal-linguistic learners: “Our House Reading ”
mathematical-logical learners: phases 2,3
visual-spatial learners: phases 1,2,3
bodily-kinaesthetic learners: phase 6
musical-rhythmic learners: phases
interpersonal learners: phases 5, 6, 7,
intrapersonal learners: student reflection in Student reflection
References
1. Boyles, Nancy . 1997. The Learning Differences Sourcebook. Los Angeles : Lowell House
2. Gardner, Howard. 1983. Frames of mind. The theory of multiple intelligences. New York : Basic Books.
3. Gardner, Howard. 1999. Intelligence Reframed. Multiple Intelligences for the 21st Century. New York : Basic Books.
--------------------------
2. Professional Knowledge
As a teacher coming into a new division, it is a good idea to have a list of items you would need to begin teaching in your new classroom.
Begin a list of items that you would want for your classroom. This will serve as a checklist of items your classroom will require and we will be adding to it. By the end of the course, it may be a perfect addition to your portfolio
Detailed Description of my Classroom: grade 4 French Immersion
The classroom is essentially divided into four AREAS:
- 1.teacher’s work and student conference area:
- 2.area for purposeful talk : conversation, sharing, French drills and song
- 3.area for purposeful instruction/modeling: reading and writing
- 4.area for purposeful activity: eg. Art, science
- (.note: classroom colour –vital!-- will be changed often, items around the room as labeled are present for purposes of inclusion and integration of subject areas; they too will be changed and/or re-located for classroom variety and atmosphere.
- a fair distribution of books, materials, paintings, charts, and posters will respresent all subject areas and extracurricular areas so that learning is seen as integrating, sharing, including, telling, culture-making and ‘pleasant’)
1. teacher’s Area for personal work, ex. Assessment, lesson planning and for student conferences
2..Purposeful talk Area in the classroom will be provided to:
-discuss across the curriculum, in both French and English (synthesize, summary, language practice)
-negotiate matters of the classroom and the school (ex.equity)
-to brainstorm across the curriculum, esp, to build vocabulary
-Teacher “Storytime” and literary circles
-to read and to retell (board curriculum, “First Steps:”)
-to assure all are included
-to tell news, in both languages
-to debate esp. in Social Studies and Literature
-to question and to enquire
-to share and to reflect; to be silent
3..Purposeful instruction/modeling Area will be arranged in order to:
-learn about writing
-model writing
-write for different purposes
-model certain units of Math, ex. Number sense, numeration, geometry
-identify and discuss critical features of homework
-correct homework
4. Purposeful Activity Area for:
-a wide range of reading to take place: book racks, writing folders, portfolios, book recommendations
-computer work and research
-science experiments
-math manipulative activities
-separate group work for student needing space and equipment
-art supplies and space for painting
--------------------------
3. Teaching Practice
Providing artifacts is only the first step in presenting evidence of how the standards for teacher educators may be addressed. In order to better communicate how those artifacts may illustrate effective practice, accompanying written commentaries should be included to provide insight into the rationale for the events and processes represented by these samples. These written explanations are the final observable results of a great deal of less perceptible work. In the documents that accompany your artifacts, you should describe, analyze, and reflect on your work as a teacher educator as it relates to the standards.
Shared Reading - 5-day Lesson Plan
Paul Michael Wood
Lesson Focus:
The focus of this lesson is to learn how to access information form a textbook. This includes textbook forma t and informational text, in order to predict content. This is a pre-reading strategy that will provide a context for reading and will allow students to find specific information, especially for reading. Research, writing and presenting purposes in science. I will use a shared reading approach involving read-aloud, think-aloud, charts and slides, guided practice, parried practice and class discussion.
Rationale:
The junior student is having their first introduction to large textbooks and are unfamiliar with this format. They need to develop literacy skill sot be successful in using their textbooks, to glean information from large technical texts and to respond to them.
Assessment:
I know my students will be able to recognize and use the features of their science textbook in a textbook scavenger hunt. They will also make realistic predictions of text when given only the key features of a textbook section. They will be asked, as a group, to predict what will follow while reading continuous text. They will be asked to search for and use connections to the knowledge that they have gained from text experiences. Then they will be asked to go beyond the literal meaning of a text to derive what is not there but is implied. They will also be asked to synthesize and put together information form the text and from personal, world, and literary knowledge/ finally, they will be asked to critique or to make judgments about a text based on their own life experience. Teacher will make quick notes, anecdotal notes during discussions, responses to reading, participate in a final activity/game and make note of student reflections.
Prior Knowledge:
Prior to this lesson, students will need to be familiar with the characteristics of a fiction text.
Curriculum Expectations:
Read a variety of fiction and non-fiction materials for different purposes
Read independently, selecting appropriate reading strategies
Summarize and explain the main ideas in information materials
Identify different forms of writing and describe their characteristics
Use a variety of conventions of formal texts to find and verify information.
Materials/Preparation for teaching:
Class set of grade 4 science textbooks, class set of a novel with standard format, chart paper and markers. PowerPoint of a section in the science textbook, student journals.
Differentiated Instruction:
- allow students to choose the section of the textbook to read, have some read portions of text online, choose a graphic organizer format, have students work in pairs for cooperative learning;
- For accommodations, give preferential seating for ESL students and students with special needs.
Day 1/Instruction
-Before reading:
Hand out textbooks and novels.
-brainstorm
-ask: a textbook is a form of informational text. What does that mean? What is the purpose of an information al text and how is it different from a fiction text like a novel?
During Reading:
- Teacher creates a chart titled “comparing text types with the heading “Text Feature”, “Fiction Text “and Information Text”... Teacher directs students to the different features of each, ne at a time. He reads aloud some key information from that text feature... and asks students to figure out the purpose of the feature.
After Reading:
-pairs
-students are asked to use the textbook features to locate various pieces of information.
--------------------------
Day 2/SKIMMING
Before reading:
-whole class
-define skimming: to read a text quickly to get the main ideas without reading every word; its purpose is to:
- discuss the reason for skimming
- get the main idea of a text
- preview what we ill be learning about and thinking about what you already know about the subject
- get an idea of the big picture before you start reading the details
- find information to answer a specific question
Whole class: discuss their answers. Each group presents their answers on chart paper
During Reading:
-whole class
-teacher skim reads the test aloud, doing a think-aloud and predicts the outcome of the text
-teacher asks s few key questions about the main idea and guides the class as they answer
-teacher asks a few questions about details of the reading and guides the class to find answers in the text.
Teacher asks students to rate how much of the information they learned from skimming
After Reading:
-Journal Reflection… e.g. “I think the hardest part of skimming is….
Day 3/Making Predictions
Before Reading:
- whole class
- -review chart paper on “skimming’
During Reading :
-teacher puts a copy of the text on overhead/LCD recorder
-in pairs, students red key parts of the text to the class
-students red the whole text together in pairs
-on chart paper, students rate their predictions. The teacher then asks the class to show how close the predictions were
After Reading :
-Journal Reflection: … “When I was trying to predict what the text was saying by skimming, I felt…
-Besides reading a science textbook, I could also use skimming to….
Day 4/Skimming to answer questions
Before Reading:
-whole class
-review how to skim
During Reading:
0 Teacher posts questions for a key section in science text
-teacher answers questions with read-aloud (slimming) and think-aloud (modeling prediction skills)
After Reading:
-Small Group
-Each student picks up a reading and questions. The goal is to answer the questions as quickly as possible (requiring skimming the text for main ideas).The goal is to answer the questions as quickly as possible, which requires skimming text for main ideas and predicting where details will be found. Another group member times this activity with a stopwatch. When complete, they bring the answers to the teacher who checks the answers. They continue until all answers are correct. Students produced to the next reading ands questions, each group tries to beat their own time.
Day 5/wrapping up/reflections
Before Reading:
-whole class
-review how to skim and define ‘predicting’
During Reading:
-students read a passage and create their own questions: reading for meaning, not just picking out key words
After Reading:
-review together, ‘what is skimming’, and ‘how do we do it’?
(first recall to the students: We skim in order to get the ‘main idea’ of a text)
In skimming, we read
I. the title, headings and subheadings
ii. the figures (illustrations, diagrams, charts, tables, etc.)
iii. the first and last sentence of each paragraph
iv. the key words in bold
v. we ask ourselves: what is this text talking about?, what do I already know about it?
Teacher reflection: Were my students successful? Did my instructional decisions meet the needs of all students? What worked well? How will it serve them? Can they handle large science/informational texts better now? My next steps?
END OF LESSON
--------------------------
4. Leadership and Community
The standard
Staff development that improves the learning of all students requires skillful school and district leaders who guide continuous instructional improvement.
The rationale
Quality teaching in all classrooms necessitates skillful leadership at the community, district, school, and classroom levels. Ambitious learning goals for students and educators require significant changes in curriculum, instruction, assessment, and leadership practices. Leaders at all levels recognize quality professional development as the key strategy for supporting significant improvements. They are able to articulate the critical link between improved student learning and the professional learning of teachers. They ensure that all stakeholders - including the school board, parent teacher organizations, and the business community - understand the link and develop the knowledge necessary to serve as advocates for high quality professional development for all staff.
Staff development
Strategies for engaging in diagnostic assessment
Diagnostic assessments (also known as pre-assessments) provide teachers with information about student's prior knowledge and misconceptions before beginning a learning activity. They also provide a baseline for understanding how much learning has taken place after the learning activity is completed. They can also allow teachers to see how well/appropriately he/she has taught.
· Screening identifies people who might benefit from language, literacy and numeracy support within and outside the classroom.
· Initial Assessment assesses starting levels and identifies appropriate learning opportunities.
· Diagnostic Assessment identifies skills and weaknesses and develops the individual learning plan. Diagnostic Assessment is a ‘part and parcel of teaching… it is an essential part of the teaching-learnng process. (The teacher learns too!)
--------------------------
5.Ongoing Professional Learning
Improving practice: reflects on practice and learns from experience; draws on various forms of educational research to improve practice.
It is an organized collection of artifacts that presents the many dimensions of your work as a teaching professional including: planning, teaching, dialoguing, creating, and reflecting. ‚ It is a display of artifacts selected from your Working Portfolio and accompanying commentary and reflection about each of the items. ‚ It is a collection of artifacts that provides evidence that you have attained specific teaching competencies
Three Principles of Evaluation and Assessment:
Paul wood
I have identified these three areas of evaluation/assessment and add why and how I could implement them in my Grade 4 classroom this upcoming school year:
Types of Assessment and Evaluation
There are three types of assessment and evaluation that occur regularly throughout the school year: diagnostic, formative and summative:
Diagnostic assessment / assessment OF learning provides teachers with instructional starting points. It identifies students’ learning abilities and needs, as well as their motivational and interest levels regarding specific topics and activities. Diagnostic assessments often occur at the beginning of the school year and prior to each unit of study Recording diagnostic data for comparison and further reference enables teachers and students to determine progress and future direction. It is important for teachers to communicate assessment and evaluation plans and criteria to students in advance, informing the students of the objectives to be assessed and assessment procedures to be used. This principle would relate mostly to direct instruction of principles taught. For example, to test whether the students know 1-digit division, I will give them tests, quizzes, drills, at-the-board exercises, flash-card drill, etc. The application of these skills learnt will come under a different form of assessment.
Formative assessment’ assessment FOR learning focuses on the processes and products of learning. It is continuous and is planned to inform the student, the parent/guardian and the teacher of the student’s progress toward the curriculum objectives. This type of assessment provides teachers with information for continuous feedback to students, and guides their daily instructional decisions and adaptations. Assessment and evaluation are essential components of the teaching-learning process. They should be continuous activities that determine if curriculum objectives have been achieved. In my Grade 4 class, to assess and to evaluate, I will use student journals, agendas, notebooks, and especially portfolios to assess students. I have found porfolios to be indispendable to see the ongoing progress of a student. I will also keep anecdotal notes, especially of guided reading and shared writing… these areas are key areas in our particular school area, as students were rated ‘low’ in
Summative assessment assessment AS learning occurs most often at the end of a unit of instruction and at term or year end when students are required to demonstrate their achievement of the curriculum objectives for reporting purposes. The main purposes of summative evaluation are to determine knowledge, skills, abilities and attitudes that have developed over a period of time. Using a variety of techniques and tools, teachers collect assessment information about students’ development as learners. Comparing assessment and evaluation information to curriculum objectives allows teachers to make decisions about further instructional requirements. This is a key are area of evaluation/assessment and I will use this especially for the “culminating tasks” of every unit.
--------------------------
6. A Commitment To Values
The Ontario College of Teachers Standards of Practice for the Teaching Profession provided exactly what I needed-an articulation of values. Three of the five principles at the beginning of the standards speak explicitly to values.
? "The standards of practice are reflective of the beliefs and values expressed by the participants in the development process."
? "The standards of practice recognize and value diversity in teaching."
? "The standards of practice are based on the premises that personal and professional growth is a developmental process and that teachers move through a variety of career and life stages."
The value of respect for diversity is expressed throughout the standards, with specific statements in four different sections: Commitment to Students and Student Learning; Professional Knowledge; Teaching Practice; and Leadership and Community. Clearly, respect for many cultural heritages with accommodation of absence for cultural days was a value supported by the professional educators of Ontario .
I was born and raised in Toronto, sixth child of ten of Irish parents. My outside interests are camping, skating, hockey, painting and drawing, all sorts of music and volunteer work.
--------------------------
My PORTFOLIO
This is my professional teaching portfolio organized around the 5 Standards of Practice for the Teaching Profession. I have appended an artifact (sample of my work assignments as a demonstration of each standard)
Commitment to Students and Student Learning;
Professional Knowledge;
Teaching Practices;
Leadership and Community; and
Ongoing Professional Learning.
A Commitment to Values (which I have appended)
1. Commitment to Students and Student Learning
Demonstration of care and commitment: demonstrates concern for student character, peer relationships and personal aspirations; reinforces the rights and responsibilities students have as citizens.
Growing as individuals and as contributing members of society: encourages students to become active, inquisitive and discerning citizens; creates opportunities for students to understand, facilitate and respond to change; engages students in activities that encourage diverse approaches and solutions but also reinforce the social responsibilities
Multiple Intelligences LESSON PLAN
Paul Wood
July 14, 2008
Rationale:
In 1983, Howard Gardner, the creator of the Multiple Intelligences (MI) Theory, suggested that all individuals have personal intelligence profiles that consist of combinations of seven different intelligence types. These intelligences were ( Gardner 1983):
verbal-linguistic
mathematical-logical
visual-spatial
bodily-kinaesthetic
musical-rhythmic
interpersonal
intrapersonal
The purpose of this lesson is twofold: first, to demonstrate how teachers can cater optimally for learners with different intelligence profiles during a foreign-language lesson, and second, to show that this can be easily achieved using everyday classroom activities and techniques. It has been my great interest in this course to include a section on second-language learning. After all, we are all in a very multicultural teaching environment where ESL and FSL or French Immersion are taught. In my case, I have a straight grade four with 5 ESL students; I also am assigned to teach my own FSL. For that reason, I hope this lesson can behoove myself in teaching to those students and to offer teachers some ideas on how to implement Gardner’s theory for the benefit of newcomers and second-language learners of French. I must also add that I use art constantly in my teaching, since I am a trained artist, and wish to include art as indeed only a part of a lesson, but to show how it can be used. All teachers can use simple art effectively across the curriculum.
Interpersonal Sharing: Share the goals of the lesson with the learners. Tell them that after the lesson, they will be able to recognise the names of common rooms and other words related to houses. Furthermore, they will be able to use most of the vocabulary items productively or, more precisely, to be able to describe houses and name the various rooms that houses may hold, to ask questions about houses, and to argue in favour of their own as well as against other people's opinions. Next, invite them to suggest real-life situations in which they may have to discuss or describe houses in a foreign language. From speaking to reading (the oral to the written): Read out the text entitled "Our House" to the learners. Ask them to listen carefully and to pay special attention to the various types of rooms mentioned in the text. You could also invite one of the learners to do the reading. (linguistic/verbal learner)Our HouseI live in a big yellow house near the main road.
Our house has eight windows and two balconies that overlook a big garden. On the ground floor there are a kitchen, a hall, a living-room with many paintings on the walls, a dining-room where we have all our meals, a bathroom, a toilet, a computer room with lots of books in a giant bookcase that fills the whole wall, and a garage. In front of the house there are a garden, a swimming-pool, and a large, green fountain with fish. On the first floor there are three bedrooms, a bathroom, and a small toilet. On the second floor there is an attic which has all kinds of old furniture. Behind the house there is a vegetable garden. We have a large basement too, with a cosy sitting-room and an open fireplace. Student Reflection: Divide the learners into pairs and ask them to list the different rooms mentioned in the text and to provide answers to the following questions:
How many floors were mentioned in the text?
Which rooms were on which floors?
Was there something in the house or the garden that you do not normally find in an ordinary house or its garden?
Student Application and Interaction: Ask the learners to make individual lists of all the rooms they wish they had in their dream house. Also, ask them to specify whether their dream house is new or old, a single-family house or in a block of flats, located in a city or in the countryside, etc. (interpersonal)Phase
1: Divide the learners into groups of three and give each group a copy of the house plan shown below. Ask each group to agree among themselves as to which rooms there are in the house plan, and at the same time try to include as many elements as possible from every group member's individual dream house. (visual learner)Phase 2: When the learners are finished, invite them to walk around in the classroom, discussing and comparing house plans. Ask them to make notes of the types of houses included in everybody else's individual house plans while walking around, and also of the rooms found in the house plans agreed upon within the groups. (They are asked to prepare to discuss their reflections afterwards).Phase 3: Divide the learners into new groups of three and ask each group:
to decide among themselves which rooms were the most popular ones, and
to categorise the existing house types into whatever number and kind of categories that they find appropriate
Student Reflection: Play the background song "Our House" one more time (at a higher volume) and ask the learners to concentrate specifically on the lyrics1. Next, ask them to decide what the text is all about and then share their thoughts with the learners sitting next to them. (interpersonal)
Characteristics of learners representing different intelligence types
According to Gardner (1983, 1993, 1999) verbal-linguistic learners enjoy expressing themselves orally and in writing, and love wordplay, riddles and listening to stories. Mathematical-logical learners display an aptitude for numbers, reasoning and problem solving, whereas visual-spatial learners tend to think in pictures and mental images, and enjoy illustrations, charts, tables and maps. Bodily-kinesthetic learners experience learning best through various kinds of movement, while musical-rhythmic learners learn best through songs, patterns, rhythms and musical expression.
Intrapersonal learners are reflective and intuitive about how and what they learn, whereas interpersonal learners like to interact with others and learn best in groups or with a partner..The various intelligence types are catered for in particularly during the following phases of the proposed foreign-language lesson:
verbal-linguistic learners: “Our House Reading ”
mathematical-logical learners: phases 2,3
visual-spatial learners: phases 1,2,3
bodily-kinaesthetic learners: phase 6
musical-rhythmic learners: phases
interpersonal learners: phases 5, 6, 7,
intrapersonal learners: student reflection in Student reflection
References
1. Boyles, Nancy . 1997. The Learning Differences Sourcebook. Los Angeles : Lowell House
2. Gardner, Howard. 1983. Frames of mind. The theory of multiple intelligences. New York : Basic Books.
3. Gardner, Howard. 1999. Intelligence Reframed. Multiple Intelligences for the 21st Century. New York : Basic Books.
--------------------------
2. Professional Knowledge
As a teacher coming into a new division, it is a good idea to have a list of items you would need to begin teaching in your new classroom.
Begin a list of items that you would want for your classroom. This will serve as a checklist of items your classroom will require and we will be adding to it. By the end of the course, it may be a perfect addition to your portfolio
Detailed Description of my Classroom: grade 4 French Immersion
The classroom is essentially divided into four AREAS:
- 1.teacher’s work and student conference area:
- 2.area for purposeful talk : conversation, sharing, French drills and song
- 3.area for purposeful instruction/modeling: reading and writing
- 4.area for purposeful activity: eg. Art, science
- (.note: classroom colour –vital!-- will be changed often, items around the room as labeled are present for purposes of inclusion and integration of subject areas; they too will be changed and/or re-located for classroom variety and atmosphere.
- a fair distribution of books, materials, paintings, charts, and posters will respresent all subject areas and extracurricular areas so that learning is seen as integrating, sharing, including, telling, culture-making and ‘pleasant’)
1. teacher’s Area for personal work, ex. Assessment, lesson planning and for student conferences
2..Purposeful talk Area in the classroom will be provided to:
-discuss across the curriculum, in both French and English (synthesize, summary, language practice)
-negotiate matters of the classroom and the school (ex.equity)
-to brainstorm across the curriculum, esp, to build vocabulary
-Teacher “Storytime” and literary circles
-to read and to retell (board curriculum, “First Steps:”)
-to assure all are included
-to tell news, in both languages
-to debate esp. in Social Studies and Literature
-to question and to enquire
-to share and to reflect; to be silent
3..Purposeful instruction/modeling Area will be arranged in order to:
-learn about writing
-model writing
-write for different purposes
-model certain units of Math, ex. Number sense, numeration, geometry
-identify and discuss critical features of homework
-correct homework
4. Purposeful Activity Area for:
-a wide range of reading to take place: book racks, writing folders, portfolios, book recommendations
-computer work and research
-science experiments
-math manipulative activities
-separate group work for student needing space and equipment
-art supplies and space for painting
--------------------------
3. Teaching Practice
Providing artifacts is only the first step in presenting evidence of how the standards for teacher educators may be addressed. In order to better communicate how those artifacts may illustrate effective practice, accompanying written commentaries should be included to provide insight into the rationale for the events and processes represented by these samples. These written explanations are the final observable results of a great deal of less perceptible work. In the documents that accompany your artifacts, you should describe, analyze, and reflect on your work as a teacher educator as it relates to the standards.
Shared Reading - 5-day Lesson Plan
Paul Michael Wood
Lesson Focus:
The focus of this lesson is to learn how to access information form a textbook. This includes textbook forma t and informational text, in order to predict content. This is a pre-reading strategy that will provide a context for reading and will allow students to find specific information, especially for reading. Research, writing and presenting purposes in science. I will use a shared reading approach involving read-aloud, think-aloud, charts and slides, guided practice, parried practice and class discussion.
Rationale:
The junior student is having their first introduction to large textbooks and are unfamiliar with this format. They need to develop literacy skill sot be successful in using their textbooks, to glean information from large technical texts and to respond to them.
Assessment:
I know my students will be able to recognize and use the features of their science textbook in a textbook scavenger hunt. They will also make realistic predictions of text when given only the key features of a textbook section. They will be asked, as a group, to predict what will follow while reading continuous text. They will be asked to search for and use connections to the knowledge that they have gained from text experiences. Then they will be asked to go beyond the literal meaning of a text to derive what is not there but is implied. They will also be asked to synthesize and put together information form the text and from personal, world, and literary knowledge/ finally, they will be asked to critique or to make judgments about a text based on their own life experience. Teacher will make quick notes, anecdotal notes during discussions, responses to reading, participate in a final activity/game and make note of student reflections.
Prior Knowledge:
Prior to this lesson, students will need to be familiar with the characteristics of a fiction text.
Curriculum Expectations:
Read a variety of fiction and non-fiction materials for different purposes
Read independently, selecting appropriate reading strategies
Summarize and explain the main ideas in information materials
Identify different forms of writing and describe their characteristics
Use a variety of conventions of formal texts to find and verify information.
Materials/Preparation for teaching:
Class set of grade 4 science textbooks, class set of a novel with standard format, chart paper and markers. PowerPoint of a section in the science textbook, student journals.
Differentiated Instruction:
- allow students to choose the section of the textbook to read, have some read portions of text online, choose a graphic organizer format, have students work in pairs for cooperative learning;
- For accommodations, give preferential seating for ESL students and students with special needs.
Day 1/Instruction
-Before reading:
Hand out textbooks and novels.
-brainstorm
-ask: a textbook is a form of informational text. What does that mean? What is the purpose of an information al text and how is it different from a fiction text like a novel?
During Reading:
- Teacher creates a chart titled “comparing text types with the heading “Text Feature”, “Fiction Text “and Information Text”... Teacher directs students to the different features of each, ne at a time. He reads aloud some key information from that text feature... and asks students to figure out the purpose of the feature.
After Reading:
-pairs
-students are asked to use the textbook features to locate various pieces of information.
--------------------------
Day 2/SKIMMING
Before reading:
-whole class
-define skimming: to read a text quickly to get the main ideas without reading every word; its purpose is to:
- discuss the reason for skimming
- get the main idea of a text
- preview what we ill be learning about and thinking about what you already know about the subject
- get an idea of the big picture before you start reading the details
- find information to answer a specific question
Whole class: discuss their answers. Each group presents their answers on chart paper
During Reading:
-whole class
-teacher skim reads the test aloud, doing a think-aloud and predicts the outcome of the text
-teacher asks s few key questions about the main idea and guides the class as they answer
-teacher asks a few questions about details of the reading and guides the class to find answers in the text.
Teacher asks students to rate how much of the information they learned from skimming
After Reading:
-Journal Reflection… e.g. “I think the hardest part of skimming is….
Day 3/Making Predictions
Before Reading:
- whole class
- -review chart paper on “skimming’
During Reading :
-teacher puts a copy of the text on overhead/LCD recorder
-in pairs, students red key parts of the text to the class
-students red the whole text together in pairs
-on chart paper, students rate their predictions. The teacher then asks the class to show how close the predictions were
After Reading :
-Journal Reflection: … “When I was trying to predict what the text was saying by skimming, I felt…
-Besides reading a science textbook, I could also use skimming to….
Day 4/Skimming to answer questions
Before Reading:
-whole class
-review how to skim
During Reading:
0 Teacher posts questions for a key section in science text
-teacher answers questions with read-aloud (slimming) and think-aloud (modeling prediction skills)
After Reading:
-Small Group
-Each student picks up a reading and questions. The goal is to answer the questions as quickly as possible (requiring skimming the text for main ideas).The goal is to answer the questions as quickly as possible, which requires skimming text for main ideas and predicting where details will be found. Another group member times this activity with a stopwatch. When complete, they bring the answers to the teacher who checks the answers. They continue until all answers are correct. Students produced to the next reading ands questions, each group tries to beat their own time.
Day 5/wrapping up/reflections
Before Reading:
-whole class
-review how to skim and define ‘predicting’
During Reading:
-students read a passage and create their own questions: reading for meaning, not just picking out key words
After Reading:
-review together, ‘what is skimming’, and ‘how do we do it’?
(first recall to the students: We skim in order to get the ‘main idea’ of a text)
In skimming, we read
I. the title, headings and subheadings
ii. the figures (illustrations, diagrams, charts, tables, etc.)
iii. the first and last sentence of each paragraph
iv. the key words in bold
v. we ask ourselves: what is this text talking about?, what do I already know about it?
Teacher reflection: Were my students successful? Did my instructional decisions meet the needs of all students? What worked well? How will it serve them? Can they handle large science/informational texts better now? My next steps?
END OF LESSON
--------------------------
4. Leadership and Community
The standard
Staff development that improves the learning of all students requires skillful school and district leaders who guide continuous instructional improvement.
The rationale
Quality teaching in all classrooms necessitates skillful leadership at the community, district, school, and classroom levels. Ambitious learning goals for students and educators require significant changes in curriculum, instruction, assessment, and leadership practices. Leaders at all levels recognize quality professional development as the key strategy for supporting significant improvements. They are able to articulate the critical link between improved student learning and the professional learning of teachers. They ensure that all stakeholders - including the school board, parent teacher organizations, and the business community - understand the link and develop the knowledge necessary to serve as advocates for high quality professional development for all staff.
Staff development
Strategies for engaging in diagnostic assessment
Diagnostic assessments (also known as pre-assessments) provide teachers with information about student's prior knowledge and misconceptions before beginning a learning activity. They also provide a baseline for understanding how much learning has taken place after the learning activity is completed. They can also allow teachers to see how well/appropriately he/she has taught.
· Screening identifies people who might benefit from language, literacy and numeracy support within and outside the classroom.
· Initial Assessment assesses starting levels and identifies appropriate learning opportunities.
· Diagnostic Assessment identifies skills and weaknesses and develops the individual learning plan. Diagnostic Assessment is a ‘part and parcel of teaching… it is an essential part of the teaching-learnng process. (The teacher learns too!)
--------------------------
5.Ongoing Professional Learning
Improving practice: reflects on practice and learns from experience; draws on various forms of educational research to improve practice.
It is an organized collection of artifacts that presents the many dimensions of your work as a teaching professional including: planning, teaching, dialoguing, creating, and reflecting. ‚ It is a display of artifacts selected from your Working Portfolio and accompanying commentary and reflection about each of the items. ‚ It is a collection of artifacts that provides evidence that you have attained specific teaching competencies
Three Principles of Evaluation and Assessment:
Paul wood
I have identified these three areas of evaluation/assessment and add why and how I could implement them in my Grade 4 classroom this upcoming school year:
Types of Assessment and Evaluation
There are three types of assessment and evaluation that occur regularly throughout the school year: diagnostic, formative and summative:
Diagnostic assessment / assessment OF learning provides teachers with instructional starting points. It identifies students’ learning abilities and needs, as well as their motivational and interest levels regarding specific topics and activities. Diagnostic assessments often occur at the beginning of the school year and prior to each unit of study Recording diagnostic data for comparison and further reference enables teachers and students to determine progress and future direction. It is important for teachers to communicate assessment and evaluation plans and criteria to students in advance, informing the students of the objectives to be assessed and assessment procedures to be used. This principle would relate mostly to direct instruction of principles taught. For example, to test whether the students know 1-digit division, I will give them tests, quizzes, drills, at-the-board exercises, flash-card drill, etc. The application of these skills learnt will come under a different form of assessment.
Formative assessment’ assessment FOR learning focuses on the processes and products of learning. It is continuous and is planned to inform the student, the parent/guardian and the teacher of the student’s progress toward the curriculum objectives. This type of assessment provides teachers with information for continuous feedback to students, and guides their daily instructional decisions and adaptations. Assessment and evaluation are essential components of the teaching-learning process. They should be continuous activities that determine if curriculum objectives have been achieved. In my Grade 4 class, to assess and to evaluate, I will use student journals, agendas, notebooks, and especially portfolios to assess students. I have found porfolios to be indispendable to see the ongoing progress of a student. I will also keep anecdotal notes, especially of guided reading and shared writing… these areas are key areas in our particular school area, as students were rated ‘low’ in
Summative assessment assessment AS learning occurs most often at the end of a unit of instruction and at term or year end when students are required to demonstrate their achievement of the curriculum objectives for reporting purposes. The main purposes of summative evaluation are to determine knowledge, skills, abilities and attitudes that have developed over a period of time. Using a variety of techniques and tools, teachers collect assessment information about students’ development as learners. Comparing assessment and evaluation information to curriculum objectives allows teachers to make decisions about further instructional requirements. This is a key are area of evaluation/assessment and I will use this especially for the “culminating tasks” of every unit.
--------------------------
6. A Commitment To Values
The Ontario College of Teachers Standards of Practice for the Teaching Profession provided exactly what I needed-an articulation of values. Three of the five principles at the beginning of the standards speak explicitly to values.
? "The standards of practice are reflective of the beliefs and values expressed by the participants in the development process."
? "The standards of practice recognize and value diversity in teaching."
? "The standards of practice are based on the premises that personal and professional growth is a developmental process and that teachers move through a variety of career and life stages."
The value of respect for diversity is expressed throughout the standards, with specific statements in four different sections: Commitment to Students and Student Learning; Professional Knowledge; Teaching Practice; and Leadership and Community. Clearly, respect for many cultural heritages with accommodation of absence for cultural days was a value supported by the professional educators of Ontario .
Demonstration of care and commitment: demonstrates concern for student character, peer relationships and personal aspirations; reinforces the rights and responsibilities students have as citizens.
Knowledge of teaching practice: establishes classroom management strategies that support learning and respect the dignity of students.
Growing as individuals and as contributing members of society: encourages students to become active, inquisitive and discerning citizens;
The standards of practice are based on the premises that personal and professional growth is a developmental process and that teachers move through a variety of career and life stages
