1a: Demonstrating Knowledge of Content and Pedagogy

In order to guide student learning, teachers must have command of the subjects they teach.

They must know which concepts and skills are central to a discipline and which are peripheral;

they must know how the discipline has evolved into the 21st century, incorporating issues such

as global awareness and cultural diversity. Accomplished teachers understand the internal

relationships within the disciplines they teach, knowing which concepts and skills are prerequisite

to the understanding of others. They are also aware of typical student misconceptions in the

discipline and work to dispel them. But knowledge of the content is not sufficient; in advancing

student understanding, teachers must be familiar with the particularly pedagogical approaches

best suited to each discipline.

Danielson, C. 2013

Artifact 1a-1

One example of being able to show knowledge of content and pedagogy was demonstrated during my Senior Practicum. On one of the days, the students were taught to use more acceptable and precise terms. For this lesson, I picked some "dead words" that were overused and boring. These words were not precise. We decided to bury them with the class, and list the survivors (synonyms) that were more precise and exciting. During this lesson, I demonstrated knowledge of the content of the lesson and materials by showing my understanding of a synonym and describing it in a way for my students to understand. I also provided the students with a thesaurus for them to practice and look up certain words in the thesaurus. For some words that were not in the thesaurus, I taught the students how to use an online thesaurus to find the terms they needed. For this lesson, I came to class with prepared knowledge of the content of the lesson and demonstrated knowledge of the resources available for the students in order for them to succeed. The lesson plan for this lesson is linked here.

Artifact 1a-2

During my Senior Practicum I have also been able to show different pedagogy in my teaching that had suited my students and the content that they are learning. Every subject is different and require different methods of teaching in order for growth to occur. One way that I have been able to demonstrate this has been through my introduction to different informative texts. For this instruction, I had the students discover for themselves the different types of informative text. I created four stations. At each station were mentor books that served as an example of that type of text. The students were given a worksheet with a set of questions. At each station, they turned to the correct page and answered the questions about that type of text using the mentor books that were at each station. This demonstrated a different method of teaching that promotes student discovery and independent and group learning. The questions found on the informative text worksheet show proof of my understanding of informative text and highlight the main points that I wanted each student to take away and learn in each station.