Joseph Crowley
Domain 3:
Planning, Instruction, & Assessment
The candidate presents artifacts and accompanying descriptions that demonstrate his or her ability to design coherent, developmentally appropriate instruction with effective assessment
NCTE Standard 4: Implementing
Instruction in ELA
NCTE Standard 4.1: Candidates implement coherent, relevant, standards aligned, differentiated and antiracist/antibias instruction that uses a variety of resources and technologies and incorporates theories, research, and knowledge of ELA to support and engage all learners in meeting learning goals.
NCTE Standard 4.2: Candidates implement formative and summative assessments that reflect ELA research, align with intended learning outcomes, engage learners in monitoring their progress toward established goals, and guide the next steps of ELA instruction.
InTASC Standard 8(h): The teacher uses a variety of instructional strategies to support and expand learners’ communication through speaking, listening, reading, writing, and other modes.
Ohio State Standards 4(a): Teachers align their instructional goals and activities with school and district priorities and Ohio’s academic content standards.
Candidates apply and demonstrate knowledge of theories, research, and ELA to plan coherent, relevant, standards-aligned, differentiated, antiracist/antibias instruction and assessment.
https://ncte.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/2021_NCTE_Standards.pdf
and
https://ccsso.org/sites/default/files/2017-11/InTASC_Model_Core_Teaching_Standards_2011.pdf
and
https://education.ohio.gov/getattachment/Topics/Learning-in-Ohio/Technology/Ohio-s-2003-Academic-Content-Standards-in-Technolo/The-2017-Ohio-Learning-Standards-in-Technology.pdf.aspx
Description
I created this artifact as a final semester project for Content Area Reading (EDU 320). The artifact is a lesson plan that uses a Big Book to help students comprehend Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s "The Bridge". The lesson plan details the learning targets, materials needed, any accommodations, and a teaching reflection for my instruction. My Big Book uses the Word Trees strategy described in an article by Danyan Huang (cited in the lesson plan) to help students understand complex sentences by diagramming parts of speech. I instructed the lesson to a third-grade class at the Weirton Christian Center and presented my Big Book to Catholic Central high school. The artifact includes pictures of my lesson plan presentation at Catholic Central, a copy of "The Bridge" that was used as a handout, and images of student work in the Big Book.
Implications
The Big Book is an original instructional activity created to teach students how to decode and diagram complex sentences in Longfellow’s "The Bridge" or any given work. I establish measurable learning goals in my instruction in my lesson plan, and my lesson plan properly aligns with Ohio state standards defined in the Common Core State Standards and the International Reading Association (IRA). Students were intellectually stimulated while working in the Big Book by causing them to critically think about how to break sentences into word parts. Students expressed their voices by choosing a quote from the poem that resonated with them to diagram. I differentiate my instruction by working with some students to understand the poem and parts of speech more clearly. I modified the lesson to allow students to write original simple sentences to diagram if a student struggled to diagram a quote from the poem. My lesson plan includes informal and formal formative assessments aligned with my instructional goals, and modifications to each of my assessments and general instruction to accommodate all types of students. Finally, my lesson plan includes a reflection on my instruction and how I can improve my teaching.
My Big Book assignment taught me how to prepare and implement an effective instructional activity. I had to gather and buy the materials for my Big Book, research an effective strategy for my lesson, and schedule my time to prepare my lesson. This project taught me to be thoughtful when preparing a formative assessment, and this experience showed me the benefits of a carefully crafted instructional activity. I analyzed my teaching analysis to my instruction to prevent student confusion and frustration toward my formal assessments. I plan to deliver concise and clear explanations for activities, prepare more examples that modeled simple sentences to diagram, and choose text more appropriate for the grade level. I learned to schedule my time efficiently to create instructional activities on time to include all the necessary work.