Embedded Files
Description
This artifact is the development of my curriculum process, which was based on the Lower Macungie Middle School science department. This artifact breaks down the development of the curriculum process into several categories. These are the philosophy and rationale, the data analysis, the standards, skill attainment, special education, instructional practice, assessment, curriculum writing process, staff development, resource evaluation, and finally timeline of the implementation. This curriculum is backed by research, is inquiry science, and has a lot of real-world contexts.
Purpose for inclusion
This artifact of curriculum design and analysis refers to connecting standards to the classroom in a real-world context. It focuses on the research which shows that to be beneficial in education. These standards were reduced in this particular curriculum but are very much linked to the PA Common Core Standards. There are also references to inquiry-based learning, which was followed up with supporting research as well. Inquiry-based learning allows the students to construct knowledge in their way regarding what they see happening. This presents a high chance of them retaining what they learned as was stated in the research. There is a knowledge of students being implemented in this artifact because it mentions all of the various breakdowns of students by gender and ethnic background. It then relates those numbers to the overall enrollment and how all of the students scored on various standardized tests. One of the nice avenues of this design is that students get to be exposed to STEM subjects and ways of learning that they would never otherwise be exposed to. This allows a higher proportion of the overall enrollment to consider a career in a STEM field. This curriculum design makes note of designing coherent instruction. Much of this design was student-centered in nature. It focuses on the research backing up that as a supportive element of education. As stated before, this design focuses on real-world contexts and inquiry-based learning. The research is present in the artifact that these means of instruction greatly benefit students on the whole. The design incorporates technology into helping the students learn better. This is also connected to designing coherent instruction. All of these ideas were backed by research throughout my artifact. This design refers to assessing students by employing formative checks as well as a summative performance-based learning activity. Formative checks for understanding are critical in the classroom to make sure that all the students are keeping up with the concepts in class and are not falling behind. A performance-based assessment is a great way to do a summative assessment because it allows for student choice. It also allows them to demonstrate their understanding and mastery in their way. This is much more effective than standardized tests because that is disjointed memorization of facts. This design mentions setting instructional outcomes by utilizing Understanding by Design (UbD). This design focuses first on the goals and outcomes and works its way back to the individual lesson plans. The student outcomes in this design focus on preparing students for college and/or a workplace environment. Much of that comes from inquiry-based, student-centered, real-world, and technology-based learning. There was a knowledge of resources in this design of curriculum because of the technology-based instruction. These resources are additional help to boost student understanding and performance. This was backed up by the design’s research. Additionally addressing the needs of special education are vital in terms of knowing your resources. Special education services are resources that need to be tapped in class. Especially since in this design many of the students are in a general class full-time. These paraprofessionals and co-teaching special educators are invaluable resources in the classroom. The personal and professional development in this design is another great resource for developing better educators.
Description
This artifact is my classroom management plan in website form. It conveys information about restorative justice through several connected links. It then continues to show my thoughts and feelings regarding restorative justice. There is also a section containing information on I statements and reflective listening. Another section contained within this artifact is my classroom rules and procedures. Furthermore, the inclusion of Dreikur’s understanding of the reason for misconduct was included. The final section of the website was the inclusion of my physical classroom layout. Each section contains many links to explore more information.
Rationale for Inclusion
This artifact expresses the background information on restorative justice needed to show a solid understanding of this type of pedagogy. I discuss on this website my rationale for using restorative justice. This shows my reasoning behind choosing this type of pedagogical approach. Further on I discuss the need for I statements and reflective listening. Those are critical to demonstrating an effective classroom through management pedagogy. Additionally, there are provided rules, procedures, and consequences in my classroom. These are another demonstration of understanding of pedagogy. I show an understanding of the students in the classroom by linking how to interpret the reasons for classroom misbehavior. There is information provided showing why students behave the way they do. Teachers can use their feelings to determine the intent of students’ actions. This is a demonstration of understanding your students and using researched-based pedagogy to help manage the classroom. In this particular instance, I am also setting student outcomes. I am addressing this in the sense that I am setting student outcomes regarding behavior in the classroom. By utilizing research-based pedagogy you can maintain classroom order by creating a democratic classroom, having conflict resolving itself through restorative dialogue, and taking a non-aggressive approach to discussion, such as using I statements and reflective listening. I demonstrate coherent instruction through this artifact. This is because students will have a classroom where they are involved in the rule-creating process. They will be treated with respect by each other and by myself. Students understand what the rules and procedures are as well as the consequences of breaking them. The research provided indicates that this will help in classroom management strongly. The instruction of the management process is clearly and coherently designed. Each student's behaviors are assessed in an ongoing way. All procedures and rules will be enforced consistently. Student bias should not be present when assessing student behaviors. Dreikur’s research shows that you can assess student behavior based on your personal feelings after misbehavior occurs. He also discusses how and why students behave the way they do in four ways. This allows you to not only accurately assess student behaviors but also be consistent in the process. This artifact addresses a very important resource in the classroom and that is time. If a classroom is managed well and well behaved, that teacher can teach more effectively and efficiently throughout a given period. If a teacher spends their time teaching and not punishing students, topics can be covered more thoroughly. Another aspect of this design that helps utilize time as a resource is that if there are problems they can be handled outside of class to further save time. Time is a critical resource in the classroom as you usually have about 45 minutes to cover any given topic. If half of that class is spent correcting misbehaviors, you only have about 23 minutes of actual teaching occurring. If that is the case over the course of a school year, it is easy to see how a teacher can fall behind. Effective classroom management is the backbone of strong pedagogy.
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