Tell me and I forget. Show me and I remember. Involve me and I understand.
~Chinese Proverb
~Chinese Proverb
Standard 1
Knowledge of Subject Matter - The teacher understands the central concepts, tools of inquiry, and structures of the discipline taught and creates learning experiences that make these aspects of subject matter meaningful for students.
Reflection
As an elementary school teacher, I will be required to demonstrate appropriate background knowledge in science, math, reading, language arts, history, and more. I will be also asked to demonstrate ways in which I can make lesson plans within these areas meaningful for my students. In order to demonstrate my background knowledge of science, I have provided a paper detailing the history, geological makeup, and differences between areas found within Indian Creek.
This paper was especially important to me because it was one of the first times that I was able to provide a scientific discussion of a key landmark that would likely be included in many of the area’s science curriculums at the elementary level. It was also a way in which I was able to blend my interest in photography by including photographs within the text to support my examples and to heighten the reader’s interest. This is one way that I have found to develop students’ schema in order to make meaningful connections with the text. Many students may find it difficult to understand complicated scientific text, but would understand and relate to pictures. I have learned that this is especially important in helping students who are English Learners or who may struggle with reading.
Secondly, I provided two examples of mathematical concepts. Both are examples of difficult concepts that have been demonstrated in several different ways. The first focuses on the ideas of multiplication and partial products through the DMT method. The second piece is made up of abacus problems that demonstrate important concepts kinesthetically. Being able to demonstrate several ways of explaining material is key to helping different learners because many students struggle when a teacher can only teach a concept one way. By demonstrating my abilities several different ways, I have shown a mastery over the material and a clear understanding of what is needed to teach this subject in a meaningful way. I have also shown two ways in which physical representations of numbers can be helpful by demonstrating math equations.
For my third artifact, I have provided an example of one of the 50 book cards that we have constructed in a binder in order to help students read. These book cards demonstrate that I understand the problem that many schools are facing, in which a growing number of their students are aliterate, and am taking creative steps to overcome it. This is because the book cards are tailored to a variety of reading levels and subject interests. From picture books through chapter books, from history to animal fantasy, these book cards prove to be a valuable source and give me the ability to uniquely tailor reading suggestions to my individual students. They have also helped me to learn as a teacher the ability to tailor my suggestions to actual students’ reading level.
This paper was especially important to me because it was one of the first times that I was able to provide a scientific discussion of a key landmark that would likely be included in many of the area’s science curriculums at the elementary level. It was also a way in which I was able to blend my interest in photography by including photographs within the text to support my examples and to heighten the reader’s interest. This is one way that I have found to develop students’ schema in order to make meaningful connections with the text. Many students may find it difficult to understand complicated scientific text, but would understand and relate to pictures. I have learned that this is especially important in helping students who are English Learners or who may struggle with reading.
Secondly, I provided two examples of mathematical concepts. Both are examples of difficult concepts that have been demonstrated in several different ways. The first focuses on the ideas of multiplication and partial products through the DMT method. The second piece is made up of abacus problems that demonstrate important concepts kinesthetically. Being able to demonstrate several ways of explaining material is key to helping different learners because many students struggle when a teacher can only teach a concept one way. By demonstrating my abilities several different ways, I have shown a mastery over the material and a clear understanding of what is needed to teach this subject in a meaningful way. I have also shown two ways in which physical representations of numbers can be helpful by demonstrating math equations.
For my third artifact, I have provided an example of one of the 50 book cards that we have constructed in a binder in order to help students read. These book cards demonstrate that I understand the problem that many schools are facing, in which a growing number of their students are aliterate, and am taking creative steps to overcome it. This is because the book cards are tailored to a variety of reading levels and subject interests. From picture books through chapter books, from history to animal fantasy, these book cards prove to be a valuable source and give me the ability to uniquely tailor reading suggestions to my individual students. They have also helped me to learn as a teacher the ability to tailor my suggestions to actual students’ reading level.
Indian Creek response, detailing the landmark’s history, geological makeup, and more
idaho_natural_history_paper0001.pdf | |
File Size: | 2911 kb |
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Multiplying with base-ten pieces, an alternative approach to multiplication; abacus problems and pictures, a foundation for number sense
math1.pdf | |
File Size: | 9643 kb |
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math2.pdf | |
File Size: | 6949 kb |
File Type: |
abacus_problems.pdf | |
File Size: | 1299 kb |
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instructions_for_abacus.pdf | |
File Size: | 5630 kb |
File Type: |
Book cards, a reading content source for tailoring student reading suggestions
book_cards.docx | |
File Size: | 27 kb |
File Type: | docx |