6. Reading, Writing, and Oral Communication

Rationale, Standard Connection, Self-Evaluation

This artifact is a picture book unit I have created for my second-grade students based on the picture book, The Berenstain Bears Forget Their Manners by Stan and Jan Berenstain. These artifacts were created in Summer 2018 in my AEDU 310 Elementary Literacy course. This picture book unit gives the students an opportunity to learn about new vocabulary and manners through the practice of KWL charts, comprehension questions and pre, during, and post reading activities. The students are learning though visual, auditory and kinesthetic learning styles throughout the lesson. This artifact links to standard six because my picture book unit plan is a reading/language lesson plan that links reading, writing and oral communication between the students and the teacher.

The reason for creating my picture book unit is to know my knowledge of the Illinois Teaching Standard 6. The Illinois Professional Teaching Standards knowledge indicator 6B states, the competent teacher “understands that the reading process involves the construction of meaning through the interactions of the reader's background knowledge and experiences, the information in the text, and the purpose of the reading situation”. I have included KWL charts in my pre-reading and lesson plan #1; learning KWL charts allows students to analyze their prior knowledge and experiences for the first and second column in the chart and analyze information from the text for the last column in the chart. The Illinois Professional Teaching Standards knowledge indicator 6C states, the competent teacher “understands communication theory, language development, and the role of language in learning;” in my picture book unit I have included a vocabulary lesson that relates to my lesson plan #1. In the vocabulary lesson, I focus on three words from the text, The Berenstain Bears Forget Their Manners. Grasping an understanding of the new vocabulary will allow the students to better comprehend the message of the story and grow their vocabulary. In my unit plan, I assess my students by conducting a variety of formal and informal assessments throughout the lesson. This demonstrates the Illinois Professional Teaching Standards knowledge indicator 6H which states, the competent teacher “understands how to use a variety of formal and informal assessments to recognize and address the reading, writing, and oral communication needs of each student”.

In my picture book unit, I include a variety of differentiation instruction in my lesson plan #1 for students who are struggling, gifts, ELL’s and IEP and 504 students. The Illinois Professional Teaching Standards performance indicator 6I states, the competent teacher “selects, modifies, and uses a wide range of printed, visual, or auditory materials, and online resources appropriate to the content areas and the reading needs and levels of each student (including ELLs, and struggling and advanced readers)”. It is important for my instruction to be differentiated so all my students may reach their goals. The Illinois Professional Teaching Standards performance indicator 6P states, the competent teacher “integrates reading, writing, and oral communication to engage students in content learning;” included in my lesson is reading, writing and oral communication. I will read the book to my students as they follow along, the students will write in their KWL charts and talk about the theme of the book with their partners. Including reading, writing and oral communication in my picture book unit will engage students in wanting to learn, have fun and participate in the activities. As a future educator it is important to understand that all students learn differently and may need modifications when learning how to read, write and participate in oral communication.

Creating this picture book unit has given me more valuable knowledge on how to create a well-written lesson plan with a variety of activities and edTPA documents. By completing this picture book unit, I have grown as a future educator and I look forward to teaching my students the skills and strategies I have learned.

Rationale, Standard Connection, Self-Evaluation

In Fall of 2018 for AEDU 312 Middle Grades Literacy I created an assessment analysis for three students. After analyzing the data and information, I determined next steps for student D3 and developed a lesson plan to enhance the students strengths while focusing on improving the deficits. The lesson plan focuses on elaborating on ideas and utilizing the correct form of punctuation and conjunctions.

The lesson plan displays my ability to use assessments to implement new instructional material based on the student's previous work. The Illinois Professional Teaching Standards knowledge indicator 6H states, the competent teacher “understands how to use a variety of formal and informal assessments to recognize and address the reading, writing, and oral communication needs of each student”. Using textual evidence, I was able to determine the students individual needs to create a lesson that focused on the specific goals and objectives I expect the student(s) to master. It is important to dive deep into assessments to determine what next steps should be taken for instruction.

The skills utilized in this assessment plan can be transferred across all disciplines and will be used throughout my teaching career. Assessments are a great tool to assist teachers in improving instruction and further students' academic success. This assessment plan has prepared me for student teaching and my career as a special educator, I look forward to making use of assessments in my future classrooms to implement lessons for my students.