Subject Matter Knowledge

A teacher candidate proficient in Subject Matter Knowledge "Demonstrates sound knowledge and understanding of the subject matter and the pedagogy it requires by consistently engaging students in learning experiences that enable them to acquire complex knowledge and subject-specific skills and vocabulary, such that they are able to make and assess evidence-based claims and arguments."

Though we guide through curiosity, not content, it is still imperative that a teacher have a strong understanding of the subject matter they are teaching students. This not only allows for deeper conversations and Q&A sessions with students, but, more importantly, provides you with greater context to the field and more room to approach difficult topics or struggling students from various, equally valid, angles. In addition, a deep understanding of a subject matter lends itself well to lesson planning and matching standards, as a breadth of topics can be covered to hit desired standards in ways that those without roots in the field cannot accomplish without significant efforts. You are a role model to your students, and by demonstrating your knowledge and confidence in your subject, you are signaling trust and respect between yourself and your students.

During my student teaching practicum, I feel that I learned more about the fundamentals of my field than I have in courses designed to teach those things to college students. By being forced to sit down and consider how I'd explain concepts to various grade levels, I developed a better understanding for these fundamentals. I constantly reflected upon the ways in which I was taught these very topics and how I'd improve upon that. I think that I was successful in getting a lot of content across during my practicum because I made those considerations frequently and put thought into small details that, in the end, were more work but definitely paid off.

An example of this was used with my 10th grade Exploring Computer Science course. The first unit I taught, Web Design, I created a reference sheet for students to use as they developed their websites. However, this was not a simple PDF or document that was shared with them. Instead, I made the decision to create my own website using only the tools that we learned up to that point to create the reference sheet. With this method, students always had an example they could look to for their own sites, a reference sheet for HTML, and they could view the source code for the sheet to see exactly how I created it. This took me a very long time to put together because, for each of the seven iterations, I'd have to sit down and consider the best way to put together the sheet to demonstrate the new concepts and explain them as a reference at the same time. Below is a link to the first and last reference sheets to display the evolution.