Planning & Preparation

  I meet the standards in Domain 1 in various ways. I exhibit expectations for learning, accuracy of content, clarity of explanations, and use of academic language.  I begin every class by naming the day’s objectives to students; I write them on the board, project them on the screen and read them orally. Additionally,  I write directions on all assignment worksheets and slides so students know what I expect them to do. To ensure the “accuracy of content,” I always share my lesson plan with my mentor so that she can give me feedback and I can fix any mistakes in the content I plan to teach.

I make constant efforts to model academic language. I am very intentional about how I use academic language with my multilingual students. A strength of mine is balancing academic talk with speech that is appropriate for students’ proficiency levels. I use academic language to say something and repeat myself using more accessible language. I have found this method helpful because even if students don’t understand me at first, I am still exposing them to academic speech that is essential for their language development.

Aligning activities and assignments to the instructional purpose is another area I am strong in. My lesson plans and objectives always refer back to the Common Core State Standards. Relatedly, my detailed lesson plans are evidence of planning documents that state the instructional purpose and planned activities. I am very thorough in my lesson plans to ensure that I know the purpose behind an activity and can communicate them to students. Students need to know that there is a reason behind the work they do because it increases motivation.