STANDARD 1: TEACHING FOR LEARNING
Candidates are effective teachers who demonstrate knowledge of learners and learning and who model and promote collaborative planning, instruction in multiple literacies, and inquiry-based learning, enabling members of the learning community to become effective users and creators of ideas and information. Candidates design and implement instruction that engages students' interests and develops their ability to inquire, think critically, gain and share knowledge
Candidates are knowledgeable of learning styles, stages of human growth and development, and cultural influences on learning. Candidates assess learner needs and design instruction that reflects educational best practice. Candidates support the learning of all students and other members of the learning community, including those with diverse learning styles, physical and intellectual abilities and needs. Candidates base twenty-first century skills instruction on student interests and learning needs and link it to the assessment of student achievement.
Prior to this practicum, I have built my knowledge of learners through three and a half years as a substitute teacher at Myers Park High School. Through this experience, I have learned to work with students with diverse learning needs, including different learning styles, varying levels of rigor (I have taught everything from standard level to International Baccalaureate), different levels of English familiarity, and learning disabilities. I came to realize that many students are not just one type of learner, but actually benefit from a combination of learning styles. Collaborative learning is also a huge part of the AASL standards we are supposed to teach, and I’ve learned how to design lessons that build collaboration skills without the issues group work often included when I was in school. I’ve also learned a lot more about working with students who require accommodations due to learning disabilities or ELL status.
Candidates implement the principles of effective teaching and learning that contribute to an active, inquiry-based approach to learning. Candidates make use of a variety of instructional strategies and assessment tools to design and develop digital-age learning experiences and assessments in partnership with classroom teachers and other educators. Candidates can document and communicate the impact of collaborative instruction on student achievement.
All of the standards for school libraries indicate how important inquiry and assessment are in giving students authentic learning opportunities. Harada and Yoshina explain that assessment doesn’t have to be formal, so long as students get constructive feedback on their work. As evidence that I can design lessons that meet this standard, I have the Makerspace lesson that I designed in LIS 654, a physics project using the littleBits robotic components. This lesson included several stages of the inquiry process and provided a real-world connection to the concepts students learn in the classroom. Both informal conferences and student logs were to be used for assessment. This was one of my first experiences including assessment strategies in my lesson plans, and it helped me determine the assessment tools I like to work with (informal or narrative-based work best for me, to get real feedback on how students are learning and thinking).
Candidates model, share, and promote effective principles of teaching and learning as collaborative partners with other educators. Candidates acknowledge the importance of participating in curriculum development, of engaging in school improvement processes, and of offering professional development to other educators as it relates to library and information use.
At the beginning of November, I led a professional development session with the 8th grade team. This professional development session gave me a chance to share our online/digital information resources with teachers so that they can incorporate them into their lessons. Including a discussion period gave me insight into better ways to use the resources available to improve instruction.This PD session shows my ability to collaborate with teachers and offer relevant professional development. I was better able to tailor my PD to the teachers I was working with because I already had some familiarity with their classes and their curriculum, so I felt like I was able to show them resources that would really be useful. They got really excited about some of it, which gives me real hope that they will use these resources with their students in the future.
Candidates advocate for twenty-first century literacy skills to support the learning needs of the school community. Candidates demonstrate how to collaborate with other teachers to plan and implement instruction of the AASL Standards for the 21st-Century Learner and state student curriculum standards. Candidates employ strategies to integrate multiple literacies with content curriculum. Candidates integrate the use of emerging technologies as a means for effective and creative teaching and to support P-12 students' conceptual understanding, critical thinking and creative processes.
I collaborated with a classroom teacher to add inquiry and technology skills, along with community engagement, to a unit on the legal system, as part of my coursework for LIS 654. This plan showed that I can work with other teachers to incorporate multiple literacies and technology skills into content curriculum. Though the teacher did not use all of the unit plan we developed, she reported that she saw improvements in the quality of information sources students used after the lesson on evaluating online sources, leading to better class discussions. In this process, I learned that teachers often want to include more inquiry and technology in their lessons, but are often unsure of where to begin, and that approaching them with a specific idea works better than a vague offer to collaborate. This is part of why being familiar with the curriculum is so important, so that you know when and where to best incorporate inquiry, multiple literacies, and technology tools.