Teacher Quality Standard Three
Teachers plan and deliver effective instruction and create an environment that facilitates learning for their students.
Element A
Teachers demonstrate knowledge about the ways in which learning takes place, including the levels of intellectual, physical, social, and emotional development of their students.
Going over the reading for Romeo and Juliet after they’ve been assigned to read for homework
After we completed Act I in Romeo and Juliet, students were assigned to read the rest of the play on their own time and to bring that knowledge back to our classroom. We have a daily independent reading habit we prioritize at the beginning of class (for students to review, or if they didn’t get the opportunity to do the reading at home, this is a way for them to stay on track and keep up with the class and our progress) and we also have this slide included in all of our Interactive Notebooks for students to be able to write their questions down and easily access them. We go over the reading together immediately following the independent reading time, and students are encouraged to ask questions pertaining to our reading so that we may go over it in class together. I don’t expect students to read Shakespearean English and understand it immediately, so having these frequent opportunities to go over the text and become better acquainted with the play and all its accoutrements is integral to our taking on this powerful, dated text.
Element B
Teachers use formal and informal methods to assess student learning, provide feedback, and use results to inform planning and instruction.
Various Writing Prompts from Interactive Notebooks
In our Interactive Notebooks, I have opportunities for lower-stakes writing (Quick-Writes) and higher-stakes writing (mini writing assessments). Included is an example from my 10th grade Honors English classes of prompts for both. I use the Quick-Writes to gauge comprehension, to see student opinions and perspectives, and to have students give me feedback on what I’m doing. With the more formal writing assessments, these usually have more time devoted to them (whether it’s in-class work time or assigned to be completed as homework) and these responses make up a larger portion of the total Interactive Notebook grade. For Quick-Writes, I’m grading more for completion whereas for larger writing assessments I’m grading more critically.
Element C
Teachers integrate and utilize appropriate available technology to engage students in authentic learning experiences.
Social Media Activism Project
Students were assigned to use social media as a tool for activism in a project where they utilized the rhetorical triangle for effective communication. As they used social media, a lot of technology was incorporated into students’ projects. Many of my students have personal social medias and by constructing this project with this in mind, I’m trying to get some of these skills they already possess to be used for something practical and to aid in learning. Some of the products students came up with were memes (hilarious but simultaneously informative), TikTok videos, Instagram posts and stories, hashtags, and various other means of using social media to spread important messages and awareness of oppression across the planet. They used various internet tools (like Google Apps, Canva, and even the social media platforms) to complete the project.
Element D
Teachers establish and communicate high expectations and use processes to support the development of critical-thinking and problem-solving skills.
Compare and Contrast Writing Assessment
I scaffolded an assignment on compare and contrast writing through the Interactive Notebooks with my 9th grade Honors English classes based on their viewings of the 1968 Romeo and Juliet and 1996 Romeo + Juliet balcony scenes. By taking the writing step-by-step, starting off small with a simple statement, then transitioning to low-stakes note-taking on both films, then using these (along with a helpful foundation of words and phrases for this writing assignment) to produce a more formal writing response, most students were able to produce a response that answered the prompt and showed their argumentation skills.
Element E
Teachers provide students with opportunities to work in teams and develop leadership.
Romeo and Juliet Group Project
Students were allowed to choose their own groups to produce a project based on an act of Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare. Students’ groups are entirely self-directed and they’re allowed to choose and create some sort of product to showcase their learning and understanding of their respective act. Through this project, they develop valuable skills such as planning and preparation for a deadline, compromising with their groupmates on what their project will be, and public speaking skills when presenting their final product to an audience.
Element F
Teachers model and promote effective communication.
Agenda for any Interactive Notebook
At the beginning of any class, I go over what we will be doing in class (daily agenda). Included is an agenda from my 10th grade Honors English class Interactive Notebook. The slide with the agenda is cast onto our classroom television so that students have a visual as I go over our agenda. By being intentional with making this a daily practice, students see that I am committed to always telling them what we will be doing and being transparent with what I want all of us to get out of our class-time together.
Teacher Quality Standard Three
Reflection
I have grown the most in this third standard as I have been able to practice creating and delivering instruction more in this semester than any other. With previous practicum courses, I had maybe one-to-two opportunities to actually design and give lessons to students per semester. Now, I teach two-to-three lessons a day, and I feel more than ever that I’m understanding what it is actually like to be a teacher. Prior to this student teaching semester I would have qualified myself as emergent and now that I’m winding down for the semester, the highest I would rate myself is developing. It has been a struggle to navigate the transition between earlier semesters and my current semester, as I feel like CSU’s practicum courses at most allow you to dip a toe into the role of a teacher and then the student teaching semester just throws you into the deep end entirely. In retrospect, for the most part I have taken it in stride and have been able to keep up (I’ve never walked into a class and not had a plan for the period so I’ll count that as a win!) but I have also made many mistakes and have had this huge learning curve. This school is not at all like the one I went to high school at, and this time is not at all like the time when I was in high school. There’s AI plagiarism to think about, new slang I’m unfamiliar with hurled around the classroom, certain rules and routines that are newfangled to me. But I’ve also had successes along with mistakes: like group projects that have gone well, seeing a lightbulb go off in a student’s head and watching them apply newfound knowledge, pulling in examples to make a point that I’ve deliberately catered to the interests of my students in the room, etc. A highlight from this standard would be the Social Media Activism Projects I assigned to my sophomore students. I loved getting to watch the powerful and hilarious media they created to advocate for important causes. The impact on my students is that they’ve had an educator incredibly close to their age trying to make lessons and concepts applicable to their lives and the things they care about, which ignites their intrinsic motivation. The impact on me, besides the obvious whiplash, has been gaining even more respect and appreciation for everything that goes into being a teacher. I grew up in a family of teachers, I always attempted to be a teacher’s pet through K-12 and into my undergraduate education, but when I stepped into these shoes and adopted this role I realized I had severely underestimated everything that it would entail. My professional goals for the future as a result of this would be to find a job where I am fairly compensated for the amount of effort I put into my position, because through my own unpaid internship experience along with socializing with my coworkers and fellow teachers who are paid but not nearly enough, I have realized that we all deserve better than this. With the threats to our educational system nationally, I would be doing myself a disservice becoming a teacher and signing myself up for a life where I am not valued.