ELA TPE l

The candidate knows how to determine the effectiveness of instruction and students' proficiency after instruction.

What is this?

I wrote this journal entry following the first lesson I taught with my 8th grade ELA students during my placement at R.L.S. Middle School. In the entry, I discuss the activities we did, whether my learning objectives (to analyze how examples of figurative language impact storytelling and practice using figurative language as a writer in order to better identify it as a reader) had been met, and general observations about what went well and what needed improvement in terms of my delivery and student engagement. I have many similar entries about different lessons.

Why did I choose it?

I chose this reflection because it shares my thoughts on the effectiveness of my instruction, as well as whether or not I thought students had mastered the content and how I knew. On my lesson plan, I annotated what was successful and what was not, but it was in this format that I was able to unpack how and why I knew those things. It also shows multiple angles for analyzing the effectiveness of instruction, from accomplishment of learning objectives to student behavior to effective and ineffective teacher actions.

What did I learn?

Through writing this journal reflection, I learned the sorts of questions I can ask myself to prompt analysis of my own teaching practices and the success of lessons. I was able to use the frames provided to thoughtfully unpack the lesson I had just taught and consider how I would improve it in the future. The most useful questions for me were "Were the objectives met? How do I know?" because I had previously only annotated on my lessons whether or not the goals were met. Reflecting on the why created a resource to refer to in adjusting my instruction in the future.