The competent teacher has in-depth understanding of content area knowledge that includes central concepts, methods of inquiry, structures of the disciplines, and content area literacy. The teacher creates meaningful learning experiences for each student based upon interactions among content area and pedagogical knowledge, and evidence-based practice.
Artifact 1
The above was a paper I wrote for my Literacy in the Disciplines course in my Junior year of college. The assignment was to write a 10-15 page letter to the faculty of a new Christian high school, specifically directed at the department of our discipline. As a History Education major, I addressed my letter to the History department. In this letter, we were to describe a way to approach reading within our discipline. In order to back up our reasoning, we were to use notes from interviews that we had conducted throughout the semester with both professors and students, our readings and notes from the course, as well as our own research.
Illinois Professional Learning Standard 2D states that the competent teacher "understands the relationship of knowledge within the disciplines to other content areas and to life applications." This project focused on the role of reading and literacy in the discipline of History and how historians read and interact with a text. In other words, I was looking at how the disciplines of History and English Language Arts interact with each other. In this paper, I propose that the English and History departments work together to teach students how to identify biases of both themselves and others and therefore teach them critical thinking skills that will be helpful as they become adults.
Through this project, I actually learned quite a bit about myself and how I view history. I also learned how to connect with other disciplines and start thinking about how different disciplines could potentially work together. Some disciplines are easier to connect, such as English and History or Math and Science, but it is possible to connect disciplines such as History and Math. I think that it would take a lot more thinking and planning to do so, but it is definitely possible.
Artifact 2
The above presentation was a combined research project for my History of Chicago and 20th Century US History courses in the second semester of my Junior year of college. I presented it as a 50-minute lecture to each class as a way to practice teaching. I used a combination of primary and secondary sources as part of my research, as well as news articles and museum sites.
Illinois Professional Teaching Standard 2B states that the competent teacher "understands major concepts, assumptions, debates, and principles; processes of inquiry; and theories that are central to the disciplines." This research project was by no means my first. By this point, I had done many historical research papers. I know where and how to find sources and how to determine whether or not a source is credible. I also know how to combine information from multiple sources to support an argument or further my knowledge on a topic. I've done this in my student teaching in order to further my knowledge so that I can adequately teach a topic to my students.
This was the first time I presented my research in a lecture format and the first time I had presented something for longer than 15 minutes. I did a lot of research on this and I wanted to present all of it, but there wasn't enough time in a 50-minute class period. If this were an actual class I was teaching, I would have been able to continue the lecture the next day. I followed my professor's example of putting as little information as possible on the slides so that students pay attention to what you're saying. I like the idea, but I'm not sure that this method works best for me.