As evidence of my competency in the “Mastery and Knowledge of the Subject Matter”, I offer a lesson plan I developed and implemented during my Practicum Experience in the second semester of the 2024–2025 academic year. This lesson was completed under the guidance of my cooperating teacher, Prof. Mariell González Miranda, and was created in order to introduce second-grade students to the pluralization of regular and irregular nouns, while also guiding them in the application of that knowledge within context.

These lessons took place during the week of March 17–21 accompannied by its respective instructional materials that supported the teaching and learning of singular and plural nouns. I began by introducing the basic rules of pluralization, like, adding -s or -es to regular nouns. I also prepared instructional materials like a plural noun cut and paste where they had to clasify between singular and plural. Transfroming singular to plural in writing, a singular to plural crossword and a wordsearch.  This teaching experience exemplifies not only my mastery of the subject matter, but also my ability to transform that knowledge into an effective lesson that promotes student understanding of noun pluralization.

This experience not only affirmed the importance of the subject matter, but also the importance of a teacher having the ability to translate that knowledge into engaging and meaningful instruction. Effective teaching requires more than just knowing the content, it also requires the ability to respond to students’ needs and challenges related to the subject. While it is true that teachers may not always have all the answers and should model curiosity and research skills, being well-prepared for a lesson and anticipating student questions is essential for effective teaching. Children are naturally curious, and when a teacher demonstrates confidence and content knowledge, it fosters trust, a sense of security, and contributes to a positive learning environment. Ultimately, this lesson plan and its implementation demonstrate my mastery of the content and my readiness to support language development.

As evidence of my competency in the "Mastery and knowledge of the subject matter", I offer as evidence a noun’s portfolio. I completed this portfolio as a requirement of the course Eing4047: Teaching Grammar in English as a Second Language, taught by professor Elizabeth Torres Otero in the second semester of the 2023-2024 academic year. The purpose of this exercise was to use what we had learned of nouns in the classroom and apply it by making worksheets for students. 

Having mastery and knowledge of the subject matter is imperative for any educator. This leads us to effective teaching practices, where we use the knowledge to develop meaningful experiences focusing on students' needs. The subject matter that I major in is English Education in the Elementary level and with this evidence I demonstrate that I have increased my knowledge of the subject matter that I teach. I recognize that true mastery comes with continuous learning and teaching. As educators, we are lifelong learners, constantly refining our skills and deepening our understanding of our subject areas.

For the grammar course I was tasked with creating a comprehensive portfolio on nouns which include worksheets on nouns, possessive nouns, plural forms of nouns, and finally, common and proper nouns. This required us, as student teachers, to have an in-depth understanding on the topic and to apply that knowledge and develop meaningful learning experiences for students using themes that might seem attractive to them, in my case I used movies that I know are popular with children. This experience allowed me to reinforce my own understanding of the subject matter and how to use it to teach effectively; it also allows me as a teacher to be prepared to anticipate and address students' questions, fostering an environment conducive to meaningful learning.

As evidence of "Mastery and Knowledge of the Subject Matter", I offer a powerpoint of an activity with a focus on ESL (English as a second language) teaching activities. This presentation was carried out as a requirement for the course EING4006: Teaching of English to Spanish Speakers offered by professor Roberto Olmeda Rosario in the first semester of the 2022-2023 school year. The purpose of this assignment was to demonstrate what we had learned of the Natural Approach and how to apply it in a classroom setting. Together with my classmate Lizbeth Rodríguez, we chose to do an activity of TPR (Total Physical Response). 

Having mastery of the subject matter includes knowing which strategies and approaches to use to offer our students efficient instruction. In my case, I major in English as a Second Language and it is important for me to know which strategies work best for Second Language Acquisition. Through this evidence I demonstrate that I have knowledge of the subject matter because I know and understand strategies that I can use for effective second language teaching. I demonstrate as well that, I can organize meaningful learning experiences of the subject matter by creating an activity using the TPR approach. TPR is an approach used to achieve second language acquisition. The teacher gives students instructions and models the movements that are expected of them and eventually they repeat the teachers actions. With time and practice students will eventually respond to the teacher’s instruction verbally without the movements that the teacher has modeled. TPR is also a strategy that works for first language acquisition, it also helps students lower their affective filter and lower potential stress that can cause producing a language that a person does not yet master. It is an approach best used for language learners that have basic knowledge, because of this it can be useful for elementary level students although it could be used in other levels.

Lizbeth and I decided to use this technique to teach vocabulary to students. First, we chose an adequate reading for elementary level students. We chose the short story titled “The hare and the tortoise”. Afterwards we chose 6 vocabulary words that we considered would be difficult for elementary level students to comprehend. We chose the following words: Hare, Assented, Tortoise, Assertion, Dozing and Fatigue. We created movements appropriate for each word so that students would associate the movement with the word and its meaning. When it came to applying it to our classmates we first provided them with the instructions. We explained that we would be learning new words and we wanted them to repeat the actions that we modeled for them every time that they would hear the word. We began by providing a short definition of each vocabulary word with a picture beside it and providing the movement that was appropriate for the word. For example, the word “Assented'' means expressing approval, because of this we made a movement of putting thumbs up and forward for them to associate. After explaining to them each vocabulary word we began reading the short story and the students made the movements that we had modeled for them each time that they heard the respective word. The last step of the TPR activity was to review the concepts that we had learned. We mentioned the vocabulary words and the students would repeat the actions one last time. 

It is imperative for teachers to have mastery of the subject matter of their specialization. If the teacher does not have mastery of the subjects they cannot expect to provide effective and meaningful instruction for their students. Participating in the application of TPR activities will help me apply this in my future classroom and modify it for different teaching objectives. It will not only help me in second language acquisition but, while reflecting, I realized that I can also apply it to first language acquisition when teaching preschoolers. I would not change anything out of this assignment but one thing that I now know and have learned is that there are different ways in which we can use TPR to offer effective instruction.