Skip to main content

Standard 10

Standard 10 for Seattle Pacific University's Standards For Teacher Leadership states that teacher leaders "understand effective use of research based instructional practices."  The course "survey of instructional strategies was perfect for deepening my skills and understanding in this area.  When reflecting during this course, I often would say that while I was using many of these strategies regularly, I now had the skills to help support others with them because I had the foundation of common language and research based reasons about why they are effective.  

This course looked into various instructional strategies, many of which we demonstrated through planning or teaching lessons using these skills.  I have chosen some of the instructional strategies that were learned to demonstrate my understanding in this standard: 


The first instructional strategy that we demonstrated was involving students in the lesson's learning target and connecting it to previous and future lessons.  Here is a video of the lesson I taught along with the lesson plans.  I also have a screenshot of how I communicated my math topics to parents.  This was sent out through class dojo, a website I use to communicate with parents and have students store digital portfolios.  Here is a picture of the exit ticket I used to monitor whether students understood learning target.  Each student completed this after meeting with me in a small group.  Communicating and Engaging students in the learning target is crucial for measuring student success (Moss, Burkart, 2009).  

Another set of important instructional strategies that we worked on were cooperative learning, effective cues/questioning, and advance organizers.  Here are some sample clips from a writing lesson where I demonstrated these strategies.  Linked are also my lesson plans, and group work samples.  Much of the planning that went into these cooperative groups such as how to organize my groups and which jobs I gave my students came from Hattie's research and from his visible learning text (Hattie, 2014).

I have continued to implement these strategies in my classroom since this course, and have also had some opportunities to partner with other teachers on these.  Both sharing what I have learned and co-teaching with other teachers using these strategies also helps me strengthen my teaching practices.




References:

Hattie, J. (2014). Visible learning and the science of how we learn. Place of publication not identified: Sage Publications.

Moss, C. M., & Brookart, S. M. (n.d.). Formative Feedback for Teaching. Formative Assessment: Making It Happen in the Classroom Formative Assessment: Making It Happen in the Classroom,57-78.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Standard 1 Reflection

Standard 1 of Seattle Pacific University's Standards for Teacher Leadership states that teacher leaders “model ethical and moral behavior”.  The class EDU 6085 was one class that focused specifically on this standard.   Below is a reflection from reading “The Charged Classroom” by Judith Pace that demonstrates my understanding related to this standard.    When considering “The Charged Classroom”, Judith Pace is primarily referring to the many challenges that both teachers and students face when encountering differences or potentially uncomfortable conversations within the classroom.  Many factors can contribute to a “charged” classroom, such as academic rigor and pressures that both teachers and students face, opportunities for discussion around conflicting viewpoints, or communicating academic standards and results.  While Pace highlights the many difficulties that can accompany a “charged” classroom, it is evident that such is unavoidable and can c...

Standard 6 Reflection

Seattle Pacific University's Standards for Teacher Leadership Standard 6 states that teacher leaders "communicate and collaborate with a variety of stakeholders".  Both within the classes "Communication and Collaboration" (EDU 6600) and in "Engaging Communities" (EDAD 6589) I realized the huge impact that partnering with involved parties can have on a school building.  Prior to my teacher leadership program work I felt as though I was very narrowed in on things that I felt directly related to my students and I: my student's families engagement with curriculum, communicating academics to parents, providing updates, etc.  It wasn't until I looked more broadly at the entire school community that I realize the more involved I am as a teacher and the more community outreach we do as a building, the more successful our students can be.   One artifact that demonstrates my learning process when engaging with communities is my Community Engagement ...

Standard 12 Reflection

Standard 12 for Seattle Pacific University's Teacher Leadership Standards states that teacher leaders "evaluate and use technology for teaching and learning".  The class EDTC 6433, Teaching with Technology, was a great learning tool to move forward in this standard.  Technology is something that has been a passion of mine since before becoming a teacher.  It seemed so natural to me to integrate technology into my classroom practices in order to get the most out of instructional times.  Where this class helped me the most, however, is thinking about leveraging technology for our entire school building, our communities, and in working with teachers who aren't as comfortable with technology.  While I think the entire "Teaching with Technology" blog page demonstrates various aspects of this standard ( linked here ), I think both reflection #3 and reflection #5 highlight key understandings from the course related to the standard.  These two subjects, digital...