Content Area and Pedagogical Knowledge

This essay was written for my Educ 311: Literacy in the Disciplines course at Trinity. It discusses research on literacy rates in schools as well as solutions on how to engage the reader. It focuses on issues but also solutions inside our classrooms.

This essay shows that I am aware and "understands the relationship of knowledge with the disciplines to other content areas and to life applications" (2D). In this paper, I focused on applying reading across all disciplines. In addition, "knows how to access the tools and knowledge related to the latest findings and technologies in the disciplines" (2G). I spoke about utilizing the school librarians as they are helpful in supporting the literacy culture with technology that is growing. 

By writing this essay, I learned about teaching and learning in high school reading classes for both the teacher and the student. In addition, I learned about engaging adolescents with the standards. It allowed me to see a new perspective as literacy is decreasing but English teachers can determine ways most effective to motivate, engage, and assist adolescents in the classroom who are struggling.

This lesson plan was written while I was student teaching at Victor J. Andrew High School. The lesson plan was written for the Sophomore level focusing on the most re-readable passages in the novel To Kill A Mockingbird. In this lesson, I displayed modeling for my students using the gradual release of responsibility. 

This lesson plan demonstrates that I "understands the cognitive processes associated with various kinds of learning and ensures attention to these learning processes so that students can master content standards" (2C) as students get the opportunity to see it modeled by the teacher. Then the student will work in a group to analyze a chapter within a small group. After working in a group, a student will then try the process on their own. This demonstrate different learning processes for students in order to analyze chapters in a book. In addition, it "engages students in the processes of critical thinking and inquiry and addresses standards of evidence in the disciplines" (2K). This lesson has students critically think about a specific chapter assigned to them. Then it allows them to pull evidence from the text to support their reasoning as to why the passage is the most re-readable. 

By writing this lesson plan, I learned about the ways to show that I am a competent teacher who has an in-depth understanding of content area knowledge. While the students were working, I was able to target the struggling groups in which I was able to assist them in finding evidence and being able to connect it to real life which is what makes it most re-readable.