H5 – Preparing Students for Society

H5- Honor student potential for roles in the greater society. Teachers serve a vital role in a student’s life, because a significant part of their job is to prepare students to be successful citizens [1]. Although I work with first grade students, each of these students is progressing day by day towards adulthood and the career world, and it is my job to help prepare them [1]. To help guide students along the path to eventually becoming a successful and independent member of society, we include a unit on communities as part of the first grade social studies curriculum. During this unit students learn how to work together to create and successfully run a neighborhood. Figure 1 shows the neighborhood students in my internship classroom created [2]. The focus during this entire unit was cooperation. Students worked in groups to create houses, plan and create families, and solve problems that arose in the neighborhood, such as littering and car accidents. Teaching students that communities have to work together to be successful is an important skill students must develop in order for them to become active and positive members of society [3].

Through teaching this unit I learned the importance of including cooperative work activities, even for very young students [4]. It was interesting to watch how some groups of students had no problems working together and making compromises, while other groups struggled through each and every activity. By the time the unit was finished however, it was clear that the students who had struggled to cooperate with their group members had made great progress [4]. Through the various activities and classroom discussions about working together, students learned strategies for effectively negotiating with their team members in a respectful and productive manner [5]. Cooperation skills are vital to both a students’ academic, as well as social success [5]. During this unit, my mentor teacher and I even noticed new friendships forming, and behavior out at recess improving, which is likely a result of improved cooperation skills [5].

Overall, this unit on communities has inspired me to always strive to include opportunities for cooperative projects in my classroom [6]. Creating opportunities for students to work together stretches students both academically and socially, which is important at any grade level [6]. In the future, I would plan to include a cooperative project or unit earlier in the school year as well. That way, students would have multiple units during which they could focus on improving their cooperation and problem solving skills [6].

 

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P4 – Integrating Technology to Enhance Student Learning

P4 – Practice the integration of appropriate technology with instruction. Technology has become a part of our daily lives, both recreationally and professionally. As teachers, we need to prepare our students to be active members of a technological society. To accomplish this, we need to teach students to use technology in meaningful ways that enhance their academic experience as well as their technology skills [1]. Figure 1 and Figure 2 show a data collection project that my students created using a computer program called Kidspiration [2]. Our math unit focused on collecting, organizing, and analyzing data. As a part of this unit, students chose survey questions and gathered data from all students in the class. When it was time to organize the data, I guided them in using the Kidspiration software to create a graph displaying the data they collected [2]. Students had prior experience using the Kidspiration software, but they had not previously used it to create graphs. Following the computer lab activity, students analyzed their data, wrote 3 observations, and presented their findings to the class.

Various technology tools are used all the time to show data. Using technology to organize and display data is a task students will need to be able to do all through school and likely in their future careers. Practicing this skill at an early age will prepare them to do the same task in a more advanced way in the future [3]. This activity allowed me to gain experience using a technology project to enhance the work we had been doing in our everyday classwork. I had previously used the program Kidspiration, but only to enhance my writing instruction. By completing this project with student, I learned that the software also lends itself well to mathematics projects [4].

Through this activity, students were not only able to use technology to organize data, but they were also able to experience a real world application of data collection and organization [5]. While this activity went very well, in the future I would probably have students complete a second similar task. This would allow them to gain additional practice with collecting, organizing, and analyzing data. It would also allow them to become more comfortable using the Kidspiration software to create graphs, which is likely to be a technology skill they continue to use [6].

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E3 – Professional Responsibilities

E3 – Exemplify an understanding of professional responsibilities and policies. As teachers, we work in a profession that changes rapidly and it is our responsibility to keep up with these changes in order to best serve our students. One way that districts ensure teachers are keeping up with changes in the profession is through professional development.

Figure 1 shows an activity that I completed with other teachers at a district directed professional development meeting that was meant to prepare us for the implementation of the Common Core State Standards [2]. A component of the CCSS is an emphasis on asking students text-dependent questions. The activity shown in figure 1 was meant to familiarize us with the Hess Matrix, which is a reference tool for both Webb’s Depth-of-Knowledge and Bloom’s Taxonomy. The district hopes that through reviewing these well-researched levels of questioning, teachers will re-evaluated the questioning they are doing with their students during reading instruction. My completion of this activity addresses standard E3 because the implementation of the Common Core State Standards is a substantial change that is coming to the field of education. The state I work in has adopted these standards; therefore it is my professional responsibility to teach my students in a manner that allows them to succeed in reaching these new standards [3].

Through participating in the activity shown in figure 1, I learned that the CCSS require teachers to incorporate more text dependent questions into their reading instruction [4]. Practice with text-dependent questions leads students to be more successful on the English Language Arts CCSS. By leading students back to the words of the text through questioning, they gain a deeper understanding of what they are reading [5]. After reflecting on whether or not I ask my students to answer text-dependent questions, I have decided that this is an area I could improve upon in my reading instruction. I also plan to begin to focus on incorporating questions that address various levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy and Webb’s Depth of Knowledge. By changing the way I question students during reading instruction, I hope to lead them to a deeper understanding of each text they read [6].

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O1 – Using a Curriculum Map to Target Standards

O1 – Offer an organized curriculum aligned to standards and outcomes. As a classroom teacher, it is our responsibility to provide instruction that targets the standards students are expected to meet by the completion of each grade level [1]. In order for teachers to be successful in covering all standards throughout the school year, it is important to have an organized plan, or scope and sequence [1].

Figure 1 shows the curriculum map that was created and followed throughout the school year by my internship grade level team [2]. Research has shown that students perform better on assessments when the instruction is aligned to the standards students will be tested on. In order to ensure that our first grade students are able to be successful on assessments of their ability to meet the Common Core State Standards, as a grade level we paced out all units and made sure all standards would be covered over the course of the school year. The evidence in figure 1 demonstrates that I am able to provide instruction that is aligned to the new Common Core State Standards. The curriculum map also demonstrates my ability to plan out instruction in an organized manner across an entire school year [3].

By assisting my grade level team in creating this curriculum map, I learned that there is a great deal of time and planning that goes into creating a scope and sequence for every subject for an entire school year. This is an incredibly important planning tool for the academic year, as following it ensures that all standards will be addressed, and all required curriculum will be covered [4]. This has important implications for student learning, especially with the implementation of the Common Core State Standards. Since the anchor standards build on each other each year, it’s vital that during each grade level teachers provide instruction that targets these anchor standards. By creating a curriculum map that is aligned to Common Core State Standards, teachers can make sure students receive adequate instruction and practice with the standards [5].

Next year, when I teach in my own classroom I plan to map out the curriculum with my new grade level team. I would make sure that this activity is completed before the start of the school year so that from the very first day of school we have a clear picture and plan for making sure curriculum is covered and aligned to the Common Core State Standards [6].

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H4 – Family and Community Involvement in Field Trips

H4 – Honor family/community involvement in the learning process. This standard asks that teachers invite the family and/or the larger community to participate in students’ learning. Teachers should invite family or community members into the classroom to broaden or enhance student-learning experiences. To meet this standard, teachers might also take students outside of the school setting to explore something in the community with the guidance of families [1].

Figure 1 shows the itinerary for a field trip my internship classroom took to the Pacific Science Center Butterfly House. We visited the butterfly house as a wrap-up experience for our life science unit on butterflies. The parents who accompanied us on the field trip, as well as the staff at the Pacific Science Center both helped to enhance the learning experiences of my students by providing guidance throughout the trip. According to Greene, Kisida, and Bowen (2014), research indicates that field trips do lead to positive effects on student learning [2]. The authors state, “We find that students learn quite a lot. In particular, enriching field trips contribute to the development of students into civilized young men and women who possess more knowledge about art, have stronger critical-thinking skills, exhibit increased historical empathy, display higher levels of tolerance, and have a greater taste for consuming art and culture.” These trips would not be possible without the involvement of parents and community members [3].

From taking students out into the community, I learned that field trips can be very impactful experiences for students if they are effectively tied into the curriculum and timed appropriately. As a grade level team, we timed our field trip to the butterfly house perfectly. The butterflies we had in the classroom had just emerged from their chrysalises, which made visiting the butterfly house meaningful for students [4]. Students learned a great deal about butterflies from our experience at the butterfly house. Specifically, they were able to witness a butterfly emerging from a chrysalis, something that they weren’t able to see in the classroom because ours had emerged over the weekend. They were also able to see a large variety of species of butterfly, as well as hold actual butterflies that had been preserved. Both the community members who work or volunteer at the science center and parents who came along, shared their own knowledge and experiences related to caterpillars and butterflies throughout the trip, further adding to student learning [5]. In the future, I plan to schedule field trips that are relevant to what students are studying, and at times that will be most meaningful to student learning. I also plan to make sure field trips will allow students to experience the expertise of members of the community as well as involve their families in the outing [6].

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Greene, J., Kisida, B., & Bowen, D. (2014). The educational value of field trips. Education Next, 14, 1.