6. Reading, Writing, and Oral Communication

This artifact is something that I used during my middle school placement in Palos South. It was used at the beginning of a new unit regarding World War II and the Holocaust. The purpose of the artifact was to familiarize students with key terms that the unit will cover that they might not have been familiar with. After discussing it with my cooperating teacher, we had come to the conclusion that it would be best for the students to write their own definition of what they believe the word meant, utilize a picture, or clue, as well as come up with synonyms of the definition. From there, the student will utilize the textbook to correctly find the definition and re-familiarize themselves with the definition itself. All of this has been used with the hopes of reaffirming the definition to the students. This has been an assignment that I created and the students really enjoyed. My cooperating teacher and I came to the conclusion that this type of vocabulary should be utilized at the beginning of each unit and from that point on it was.

The artifact “facilitates the use of the appropriate word, identification, and vocabulary strategies to develop each student's understanding of content” (6L). The artifact does this by having the students utilize multiple strategies to identify vocabulary terms based on information that they had come up with. It allows them a sense of independence when thinking about the term because they are allowed to use whatever they wish to remember the term best. It ultimately allowed the students to expand their vocabulary, as well as familiarize themselves with new terms that would be present throughout the unit.

This artifact allowed me to realize the importance of coming up with new strategies for students to comprehend the material. This strategy and artifact allowed me to place the students in charge of their own learning, and how they familiarize themselves with new terms and definitions. Being able to think of creative new ways to implement vocabulary into the students’ minds Was a major takeaway for me. This artifact has allowed me to realize the importance of new strategies outside of the box linking to promote student learning. This artifact is something that I would like to carry within my own classroom because once again, it allows the students a sense of independence and how they wish to remember things. The sense of independence facilitates most student learning because it is based on the information and prior student knowledge that they come up with.

The artifact for this standard is a graded discussion on the Chicano movement. It was utilized with my juniors at my Reavis high school placement. The goal of the discussion was for students to be able to understand the beginnings of the movement itself utilizing a video for context. The students also within the discussion itself had to bring up similarities and differences between the two other movements we had discussed within that unit, those being the civil rights movement in the women’s rights movement of the 60s and 70s. The artifact was introduced through Schoology and students had the opportunity to write down their thoughts prior to having a whole class discussion that took up a large portion of the period.

The artifact “ integrates, reading, writing, and oral communication to engage students in content learning” (6Q). This artifact meets such standards by having students watch the video clip and write their thoughts on the clip itself, as well as answering questions on the beginnings of the movement. And then asks the students to engage in a whole class discussion with their peers that allows them to expose themselves to new ideas and perspectives. All of this allows the students to better comprehend the material and kind of breaks up the more traditional-based lecture and notes type of comprehension. It allows students to hear from their peers, as well as introduces them to perspectives they might not have been aware of.

Something this artifact taught me was to place trust in students' capability to learn individually. This artifact allowed me to establish guidelines and rules for the discussion with the students but in regards to effectively communicating their own ideas to their peers, this was completely independent, and on the student. I learned that when given the opportunity students will rise to the challenges and step outside of their comfort zone. If the information being presented to them, strikes a passion with them. I believe as an educator. This is the most important thing that we can do within our content expertise. We should be able to present content to the students, have them find and search for independent passion, and have them exemplify that to their peers as well as myself. This concept is something that I will look to bring into my own classroom by encouraging more classroom discussions that allow students to hear from their peers and relay their own thoughts.