Teachers demonstrate mastery and pedagogical expertise in the content they teach
Element A :
Teachers provide instruction that is aligned with Colorado Academic Standards, their District’s organized plan of instruction, and the individual needs of their students.
--> See my blog entry on "Proficiency Walls" to understand how I give students a visual link to our standards.
--> I believe that the skills of listening, speaking, reading & writing are essential to my world language curriculum. My tests, called "Integrative Performance Assessments" or "IPAs", incorporate the essential elements of communicative speech -- the Interpretative, Interpersonal and Presentational skills that we practice with our language in class. An handout with more information on IPAs can be found here. An example of an IPA I created for my Level 1 Spanish class for Chapter 1 can be found here.
--> I believe that the skills of listening, speaking, reading & writing are essential to my world language curriculum. My tests, called "Integrative Performance Assessments" or "IPAs", incorporate the essential elements of communicative speech -- the Interpretative, Interpersonal and Presentational skills that we practice with our language in class. An handout with more information on IPAs can be found here. An example of an IPA I created for my Level 1 Spanish class for Chapter 1 can be found here.
ELEMENT B :
Teachers demonstrate knowledge of student literacy development in reading, writing, speaking, and listening.
ELEMENT C :
Teachers demonstrate knowledge of mathematics and understand how to promote student development in numeracy (i.e. operations, algebra, geometry and measurement, and data analysis and probability) as appropriate to content and level.
--> One skill that I use on a regular basis in my classroom is the skill of "inductive reasoning" versus "deductive reasoning". For example, when first presenting a grammar point, I usually present a series of examples to my students. I then ask them some leading questions, or I perhaps give them a partially-filled out graphic organizer, and have them try to make the connections before I give them the "rules." Many years ago, I learned at a conference that this method leads students to greater retention when their brains have been activated to question the meaning of structures rather than just simply passively take notes or be told about structures. An article that explains this method of teaching well is located here.
ELEMENT D :
Teachers demonstrate knowledge of the content, central concepts, tools of inquiry, appropriate evidence-based instructional practices and specialized character of the disciplines being taught.
--> My double major in French and Spanish, with cum laude being awarded by the French Department at CU-Boulder, my induction to Phi Beta Kappa, and then my Master's degree in Spanish Literature, all attest to my knowledge of my content area. In my Master's program at CSU-Fort Collins, I was especially proud to be awarded with the Ronald Walker Award for Academic Excellence, the award given to only one graduate student each year.
--> In my years of experience as a middle school, high school, community college and university instructor I have built an arsenal of tools that I use to teach every day.
--> I have attended many professional conferences (some of them multiple times) to help build the toolkit I use every day as a teacher; among these are:
* CCFLT (Colorado Conference for Foreign Language Teachers)
* ACTFL (American Council of Teaching for Foreign Language)
* TIE (Technology in Education)
* ISTE (International Society for Technology in Education)
--> In my years of experience as a middle school, high school, community college and university instructor I have built an arsenal of tools that I use to teach every day.
--> I have attended many professional conferences (some of them multiple times) to help build the toolkit I use every day as a teacher; among these are:
* CCFLT (Colorado Conference for Foreign Language Teachers)
* ACTFL (American Council of Teaching for Foreign Language)
* TIE (Technology in Education)
* ISTE (International Society for Technology in Education)
ELEMENT E :
Teachers develop lessons that reflect the interconnectedness of content areas/disciplines.
I created a cross-cultural simulation that I called "Apples and Oranges. I based it on the "bafa bafa" game available at a high cost to educators and businesses. I created a lesson that was used in conjunction with our Arabic 2/3 class. The goal of this lesson was to understand cultural assimilation, and it was very popular with the students. You can view that plan here.
element f :
Teachers make instruction and content relevant to students and take actions to connect students' background and contextual knowledge with new information being taught.