Burns 1

Summer Burns

Dr. Ian Nolte

English 419

26 April 2020

Reflecting on Accomplishments

A1:

The first outcome in the “Attitudes” section sates that the student teacher candidate

“demonstrates recognition that all students have different learning styles and can learn”. To

represent this outcome, I chose the differentiated instruction section of day five in my novel unit

plan as a proficient example. This artifact exemplifies this outcome in many ways through the

different types of learning styles it addresses. For my main activity section, I had students

finishing their bell ringer prior to moving back into their presentation groups; however, in the

differentiated instruction portion, I acknowledged the fact that many students are slower workers

and they need the additional class time to really give credible feedback to their peers work. To

accommodate to the slower pacing of the individual, I stated that the team leader would give the

student the part they would be presenting. This wouldn’t be an issue because each student should

know the presentation well enough to present any aspect without difficulty. Another way I

modeled the first outcome in the “Attitudes” section was through acknowledging that some

students may have speech impairments and need to be challenged but at a lesser degree than

those who are lacking any verbal impairments. In the differentiated instruction section, I

suggested that students be given smaller characters to present in order to guarantee they are still

challenging themselves, but not challenging themselves to the point that it triggers their

impairments to become worse.

 Burns 2

Overall, I believe that this is a proficient example of acknowledging that “students have

different learning styles and can learn” because it can never be perfect. As an educator, you can

never walk into a room and know exactly what is going to be challenging for a student, and what

may be too modified for them. However, by taking into consideration that students can get

overwhelmed if they are slower workers or if they do have speech impairments, I demonstrated

that I understand that the first step to acknowledging they can learn in a different way is knowing

they need that extra time, or smaller parts, to excel at the same level as students who are not

noticeably struggling.

A2:

My short story unit is a distinguished example of the second outcome in “attitudes” as it

requests that the student teacher candidate “demonstrate a commitment to and a desire to develop

a good match between what students need to learn and the objectives, methods, and texts a

teacher selects”. For this unit plan, I felt as if students needed to learn how to create a short story

as well as summon their inner creativity. Far too often I feel like middle and high schoolers have

their creativity suppressed because teachers need to get through the standards required of the

educator; however, I used this lesson plan to demonstrate how the two can go hand-in-hand.

Before getting into the creative portions, I made sure that students were learning the basic

concepts of what goes into a short story as well as different strategies to assist in reading

comprehension since both of those concepts are important to the creation and continuation of

reading and writing stories.

A3:

The third outcome in the “attitudes” section asks that student teacher candidates

“demonstrate genuine enthusiasm for developing and expanding knowledge of texts, cultures,
 Burns 3

methods, of critical reading and reflection as a lifelong practice” which I believe I achieved at a

distinguished level. For this outcome, I am using my Romeo and Juliet lesson plan reflection

because I believe it discusses the expansion of my work in order to improve what I teach my

students. The larger portion of the outcome that is addressed is the expanding of knowledge of

texts and methods. As I stated in my reflection, I am not a big Shakespeare fan purely because of

frustrations with the literary gaps; however, as I worked with Romeo and Juliet I found that there

were a multitude of resources – such as the film adaptations – that helped open my eyes to the

possibilities of what a Shakespearean play could be. I also believe that in order to expand your

own personal knowledge, you need to expand the knowledge of your students by exposing them

to rich cultural texts that remain relevant in todays society. By working with Shakespeare as a

text, I am demonstrating my desire to expand my knowledge of texts and the cultural

significance that comes with it.

The different methods portion of the outcome is expressed in the reflection as I discuss

the different activities, I found useful through “Reading Shakespeare with Young Adult”, and

that I implemented to give a wider variation of activities for my students. I even claimed in the

reflection that I intentionally did not mess with the structure of two of the activities purely

because of my lack of experience with them. By expanding my knowledge of reading activities,

and by implementing them into my lesson plans, I am developing plans that could be potentially

useful in the years to come and be reflected on as actual lessons taught to my students.

A4:

The fourth outcome in the “Attitudes” section asks that the student teacher candidate be

able to “demonstrate recognition of the value of diversity of opinion and interpretation” which I

believe I did at a distinguished level through an artifact from CI 470. The artifact that I have
 Burns 4

chosen is the last day of the first week in my lesson plans. During this day, I had students read

“If You Find A Mouse in A Glue Trap” which was just a one-page short story that I believed

would be great for point of view. After students read that, I gave them a point of view – either

the human or the mouse – where they had to interpret the point of view their character was

coming from in the storyline. What I mean by this is that if a student was the human, did they

actually try to save the mouse or was it all a ploy to make them seem like they truly regretted

what had been done. Students had time to interpret the truth in whichever way they felt was

correct. Some students who were the mouse character took on the approach that the mouse was

the start of an animal rights protest as there were logical ways to save an animal that is stuck.

Other students took on the position of it being a humane way to end the life of a delicate

creature. Regardless of how students chose to take on this debate, they were free to interpret the

piece in whichever direction seemed the best fit. After teams had went against one another, I had

the other groups that were bystanders to find their own opinion on their peers’ performance in

order to judge who would move on to the next round. Students could have any opinion they

wanted if they could support their reasoning. This entire activity executes this outcome by

allowing students to interpret things without restrictions, and by letting students have opinions

without screening them first. Because of this, I believe that I demonstrated how much I value for

diversity in communication within my classroom at a distinguished level.

A5:

Through the use of the first day of my lesson plans for CI 470 , I have proved to be

distinguished in outcome five of the “attitudes” section as it request that the student teacher

candidate “demonstrate willingness to seek out resources independently to learn and to teach”.

The specific example I am pulling from this day is the grammar lesson on clauses. This was a
 Burns 5

difficult lesson to create since I haven’t had to teach anyone about this subject before. I also had

never worked with this class before, so I was unaware of where their grammar level was at the

time. When I created the grammar test that was used for their bell ringer, I had to research and

find quality examples that were age appropriate for my 9th grade class. This being the first-time

teaching grammar, I wasn’t sure what would be considered age appropriate let alone what would

be a quality example of something they could easily follow. Following that, I had to reteach

myself about clauses because in my own writing, I never thought about what I was doing, I just

knew how to do it and never thought more about it. Because of this, I had to reteach myself and

watch a few tutorials and then ask for someone to review my PowerPoint before I asked my

students to few it. While both things are things that I should know on my own, I didn’t know

them well, so in order to teach them to my students, I had to find resources and relearn

everything so that I could teach my students to the best of my ability.

A6:

My summative assessment and rubric from my Romeo and Juliet lesson plan are

proficient examples of “attitudes” outcome six as it asks for student teacher candidates to

“demonstrate [a] willingness to reflect upon and revise practices based on critical thinking and

inquiry”. The reason I believe that these are proficient examples of this outcome instead of

distinguished is because of the lack of revision needed for both portions. However, the revisions

I did complete required me to read over my original product, submit my product to Dr. Nolte for

feedback, find out the best way to implement his feedback without cluttering the assignment

sheet, or making the rubric lack in clarity, and then resubmit in hopes that my revisions were

correctly implemented. I believe that the reflection aspect came after I received feedback from

Dr. Nolte. This was difficult for me because I had always been taught that assignment sheets
 Burns 6

should never be more than one page because students could easily miss that there is more

information included. This being said, my feedback reflected that there wasn’t enough detail on

my assignment sheet which meant that in order to add that information, I was going to have to

run onto the second page. This doesn’t seem like a large deal, but I had to consistently reflect and

rework the assignment sheet because I had two conflicting messages coming through about my

layout and I did not want to submit something that wasn’t of great quality. Even though these

assignment sheets are going to students who could careless about how something looks, it is

important that the information is all there and not so clustered that it distracts them from

understanding what is meant to be done with it.

The rubric was another conflicting fix because of the teachers I had when I was growing

up. On my original draft, I blacked out a square in the length row because I felt like students

either went over, were where they needed to be, or they didn’t meet expectations. I had always

seen my teachers block out a section for grading as well as my professors, so I believed that it

was a legitimate technique. When I received my feedback from Dr. Nolte, I learned that it was

not acceptable, but I didn’t know what to place there. What else was there for me to put their in

terms of length? This look a lot of reflection and looking at models and examples because I was

at a loss for what would fit best. Through both of these artifacts, I reflected and revised based on

the information I received and my own critical thinking on the documents.

A7:

Outcome seven within the “attitudes” section is rather lengthy in its request for a student

teacher candidate. Because of the lengthiness of the outcome, I will be addressing each part

directly; however, I believe I was distinguished with this task in all of the areas. Beginning with

the “demonstrates a sense of professionalism: self-direction” I believe that can be seen through
 Burns 7

the fact that I had to guide myself into the field where I knew I would find my passion which was

the Secondary English Education program. I also believe that my teaching philosophy

demonstrates “self-direction” through the fact that I am making it my duty to understand students

to help figure out what their literacy levels are so that I can be a better educator to them. The

next part of the outcome asks that the student teacher candidate take “personal responsibility for

working and learning actively on a communal schedule” which can be see within my teaching

philosophy as well. I believe that my personal desire to read outside of the classroom as a source

for joy demonstrates my active learning and working as I am finding new resources or ruling out

resources for my students to use. Reading in the classroom is not just about whole class readings,

it is about finding a piece of literature that grasps the attention of a student and makes them want

to continue to read. The “willingness to take risks” section of this outcome can be found within

my first paragraph on page two as I discuss pushing students who are not avid readers to write

their own story. This is taking a risk as an educator because of the student’s ability to shut down.

If we push our students too hard, they will shut down and reject the idea of becoming literary

involved in the class.

The last portion of the outcome states that the student teacher candidate have a “love [for]

reading/writing, students, and the learning process; commitment to always being present and

prepared”, and I believe that this additionally supports that I am distinguished within this

outcome. Throughout my entire teaching philosophy, I have made claims about my love and

appreciation for read and writing as well as my care for student growth and development;

however, my commitment to always be present and prepared are there in a more subtle way. To

be present as an educator, you have to understand that student see your presence as checking in

on them in more than just an educational standpoint. We have to check in on them as individuals,
 Burns 8

as people of a community, and as growing souls. By checking on their welfare outside of

education, we are demonstrating that we are present and prepared for anything they need

someone to tackle with them.

C1:

For the first outcome in “Content Knowledge and Skills Objectives” student teacher

candidates are asked to “demonstrate an expanding reading repertoire, familiarity with a broad

range of texts from a range of genres and cultures, including YA literature, film, drama, poetry,

and fiction” which I believe I accomplished at a proficient level. The distinguished level artifact

that would’ve been used was the completed novel lesson plan; however, because of altered

circumstance, my Romeo and Juliet lesson plan will be the closes accomplishment I have to this

outcome. This was an expansion to my reading repertoire as I am not a big Shakespeare fan, and

if I had read the play previously, I most likely did not digest what was being told. Because of the

creation of the lesson plan, I was able to become familiarized with the text in order to develop it

for my future students. This lesson plan also discusses a large aspect of culture and YA literature

because the playwright who created it is not only a cultural icon, but a global icon who’s plays

have been developed into a diverse range of adaptations. This play is considered a YA literature

because it was meant to represent young love and the cruelties of becoming adults. Any time this

play has been adapted; it typically is adapted at a young adult level.

For the film, drama, poetry, and fiction component, I believe my lesson plan is fairly spot

on as I try to take the time to single out each component. The fiction component is implemented

as student’s final assessment is to recreate a scene in any way they would like as long as it stays

true to the basic plot. By this I mean that students can put the scene in the ocean at the city of

Atlanta as long as they remain true to the basic fundamentals of the plot. The drama segment was
 Burns 9

utilized on day six as I had students act out the entirety of Act 4 in order to demonstrate the

emotion is takes to perform a piece and provide the same emotions that is given from text

version. Film is utilized on day 5 as students watch a clip of the 1963 version of Romeo and

Juliet in order to understand what the difference in mediums can have on the play as a whole.

While this is not the most ideal artifact for the outcome, it is the closest fitting artifact that

demonstrates this outcome at a proficient level.

C2:

My summative assessment and rubric from my clinical placement is a proficient example

of the second outcome in “Content Knowledge and Skills Objectives” because it asks that

student teacher candidates “demonstrate the ability to analyze, interpret, evaluate, and respond to

a variety of texts from a variety of perspective”. I believe that these documents demonstrated this

at a proficient level because my students were never able to fully complete the task do to the

pandemic. The reason this is a good fit with this outcome is because I was asking student to

create their own short stories which would have been a variety of texts from a variety of

perspectives. Students had little to no restriction on what they created, nor did they have

restriction of their topic choices. At the end of their two weeks with me, they would’ve turned

these in for my grading and feedback. During this process, I would have been analyzing the

students writing, interpreting the messages that were meant to be received, and evaluating the

accuracy at which these students completed their task. Had this assignment been fulfilled, I

believe it would have been a distinguished example to place with this outcome, and that the

analysis, interpretation, and evaluation could have been more strongly supported.

C3:
 Burns 10

The third outcome asks that the student teacher candidate “demonstrates the ability to use

literary terminology as a tool to analyze, interpret, evaluate, and to apply different literary critical

theories to interpret” which I believe I have completed at a distinguished level. The artifact that

belongs with this outcome is from the first and second day of the Romeo and Juliet unit plan.

The primary reason I believe that this goes along with the outcome is because the entire day is

based around vocabulary and understanding the odd words, and stage directions, used by

Shakespeare. One of the activities used in day was an interpretation activity where students

needed to figure out what the definition was based on the Shakespearean quote I gave them to go

with it. While the activity teaches them to think with context clues, it helps students learn how to

interpret the meaning of a passage, or word based on the surrounding words. On the second day

of the lesson, I had students to begin reading Act 1, Scene 1 of the play which would include

some of the words that were present on the vocabulary list. By having this included, I executed

another portion of the outcome because students still had to evaluate the word and analyze if the

meanings we found fit into the phrase where the word was found.

C4:

The fourth outcome from “Content Knowledge and Skills Objectives” asks that student

teacher candidates “demonstrate the ability to research the context, criticism of, and allusions in

a text and apply the research appropriately to reading and teaching” which I believe I

accomplished at a proficient level with my poetry lesson plan. The reason I believe this is a

proficient example is because poems are full of allusions, and many other techniques in order to

get a point across in a smaller amount of time. In my lesson plan, I assisted students in the

research of context as students needed to know the purpose of each type of poem as well as a

brief overview of the poems which were used so that they could gain a look at the meaning
 Burns 11

deriving from the context. I did this through the use of mini-lessons and I also help a quick mini-

lesson that would discuss the allusions, alliterations, etc. before students began working on the

creation of their own. By having students read poems and try to apply the content from the mini-

lessons, I was able to analyze the effectiveness of the approach and decipher which areas needed

further review, or additional teaching.

C5:

My teaching philosophy is a proficient example of the fifth outcome as it requests that

student teacher candidates “demonstrate the ability to reflect critically on the methods used to

“read” and construct meanings from a text and willingness to revise appropriately”. Beginning

my teaching philosophy, my opening line even states that reading use to be that students where

meant to read to comprehend which can be a difficult challenge as many students cannot

comprehend a text until they find a connection or find their passion throughout a text. Before

students can begin reading it is the duty of the educator to find where each students literacy level

lies to determine what appropriate methods to take in teaching them how to be successful on

their level, and how to work their way up to higher levels of literacy. Another method I discussed

within my teaching philosophy was to reinforce silent reading so that students are getting reading

exposure for at least few minutes every day. I think that by having students silent read, I am

allowing them the opportunity to try different types of novels in order to find where they get

hooked on a text. Finding a hook will lead to the teacher’s ability to connect with the student

through other forms of literacy. My willingness to revise my methods of teaching is limitless

because every group of students is different. It is not my place to force students under the

constraints that they can’t learn; however, as stated in my philosophy, it is my place to push
 Burns 12

students to try new things in order to find an area where they can enjoy English. By putting the

students about the lesson plan, I am able to demonstrate this outcome on a proficient level.

C6:

My reflection completed on my Romeo and Juliet lesson plan demonstrated the sixth

outcomes as it states that a student teacher candidate “demonstrates the ability to write

effectively about texts and to improve writing about texts”. I believe that this artifact

complimented this outcome at a distinguished level as my entire reflection revolves around the

text in itself and the ways in which I would better teach the text in my own classroom. When

writing about the text itself, I made it clear that I was not a Shakespeare fan, but by using some

of the activities to go along with the reading, I felt that the text came across in a different way.

Typically when looking at a Shakespearean text you can see a lot of gaps where original visions

were changed without proper planning, or revision of behalf of Shakespeare himself; however,

when adding creative techniques to the writing, we are opening the door for the text to come

alive and be more involved with the individual reading it. Improving my writing about text

derives from my improving of the lesson itself. I believe that to adequately write about a play

like Romeo and Juliet, students need the opportunity to comprehend the text to the fullest extent.

In order to do that, I plan to implement more film clips and audio versions that students can not

only absorb the content in the text, but also the different ways in which we can observe the text

itself. By demonstrating how adaptations can change the meaning to a piece, we are opening up

the possibility of improved writing regarding the play, and improved reading as students are

getting exposed to more than one source of the text.

P1:
 Burns 13

For the first “Pedagogical Knowledge and Skills Objectives” outcome it asks that the

student teacher candidate “demonstrates ability to select texts, design appropriate objectives,

design clear assignments and develop activities to help students meet objectives” which I believe

I accomplished at a distinguished level. My portion of the novel unit plan was to design day five

as well as to design the summative assessment and rubric. These components fully accomplished

this outcome through every portion it asks for. My group chose to use the novel Treasure Island

by Robert Louis Stevenson which was looked oddly at because of the lack of knowledge our

peers had about the untraditional lessons that could derive from a creative text. By sticking with

our intuition about the lessons that could come out of this text, we were able to demonstrate the

“ability to select texts” portion of the outcome without peer doubt choosing for us. The next

portion of the outcome asks that the objectives be appropriately designed which I believe can be

demonstrated in day five as I set up the objectives around what their other teachers would be

working on, what they would be working on that day, and what they would be working towards

for their summative assessment.

On day five, I gave the students three objectives. The first one was in relation to their

movie casting presentation they had complete the day prior. For this objective, students had to

watch their peers present, evaluate the choices made by their peers, and then determine who

made the most accurate choice. This related to the summative assessment as students needed to

consider the characters from the novel for all they were, not just what one section said they were

to be. This fit the assessment because students needed to evaluate each character under a

microscope in order to appropriately assume their role. The next objective asked that students

have a discussion in order to check comprehension of the novel and characters up to this point in

the novel. This plays into the other teacher’s days by making sure that the methods we are using
 Burns 14

are working so that students understand the novel to the fullest extent. This also plays into the

summative assessment so that students can continually get back in touch with the characters so

that they can begin thinking on how to present them in the final assessment. The last objective

was based around the medium stakes assessment where students have to predict what will

happen to a specific character in the coming pages. This just helps students to think ahead to the

days they will be encountering, the days they have already dealt with, and the character they

want to use to finish out this assignment. The assignments used to help meet these objectives

were a medium stake writing assignment, a presentation, a whole class discussion, and an exit

slip for reflection.

The summative assessment demonstrates my ability to “design clear assignments” as the

summative assessment was thorough for student to follow on their own time as well as in class

time. I made sure the assignment was clear by having the due dates for the students so that they

could pace themselves, specific step that would get them prepared for their summative creation,

and specific guidelines for the summative assessment. I believe that by including all of these

components, I demonstrated by ability to build clear assessments for my students.

P2:

My day four of my Romeo and Juliet lesson plan demonstrates a distinguished level as

the second outcome in “Pedagogical Knowledge and Skills Objectives” asks that student teacher

candidates “demonstrate [the] ability to sequence assignments and activities that encourage

students to work actively, both independently and collaboratively, to meet objectives”. This can

be shown in my core instructions section of day four as I had students alternate between peer

work, whole group discussion, and independent work in order to teach students the information

needed for their success. The first activity used to meet an objective was a short group discussion
 Burns 15

where students would go over the reading from the night previously. This allowed for students to

gain comprehension of the play as well as understand the differences that can come with

different mediums. Students will then turn to small group assignments where they will partner

read with their table mate. This ensures that the students are able to bounce ideas and

comprehension off one another in order for them to fully comprehend the play without my

additional assistance. This teaches students to used one another as collaborative resources. To

finish up the day, students will either work in groups or as individuals and create a mood using

only sounds. This meets one of the objectives by teaching students the importance that goes with

inputting sound directions and creating mood within a piece.

P3:

The third outcome asks that the student teacher candidate “demonstrate development of a

repertoire, a collection of a wide variety of activities and assignments, to help students learn to

read a variety of texts affectively, analytically, and interpretively” which I feel I accomplished at

a distinguished level with two of my homework activities from Gallagher and Beach. The

activities that I chose to look at were the “Importance of collaboration” and the “Book Club”. In

these activities are strategies to assist students with a variation of texts in a wide range of

activities. The first one by Gallagher is the importance of collaboration where students are asked

to get into small groups and look for instances of foreshadowing within the text. This can be a

useful source when reading analytically because students need to be able to analyze what the text

is providing to figure out the credibility. There may be a lot of placed that look as though they

are offering foreshadowing to the storyline, but it is the group that must figure out if this is an

aspect of information they need to pay attention to or decide is unreliable. By making an

 Burns 16

assignment sheet for this activity, I am building my repertoire of material to develop best

practices for students.

The next activity was taken out of Beach where I made an assignment sheet on the

activity called Book Club. In this activity, students are asked to read the class text and then come

to class ready to discuss it with your groups. This assignment forces students to read the text

affectively, analytically, and interpretively because they will never know what role they will play

in the book club the following day. Students may be required to answer any unknowns about the

text, they could be the leader of the discussion, they may have to help their group interpret the

meaning of a phrase, etc. Having this assignment created allows me to demonstrate my

distinguished capabilities to fulfill this outcome.

P4:

The formal assessment section of all 5 days of my short story lesson plan demonstrate

outcome four in a distinguished manner as the outcome asks that student teacher candidates

“demonstrate development of a repertoire of assessment techniques to determine level of student

achievement of objectives”. This is the distinguished example of outcome four because of the

different assessments used each day used to assess where students were at. My range of

assessments within this lesson plan go from the creation of a short story to observations to check

for repetition amongst multiple students. The color-coding activity that would be observed as I

walked around the room would help assess the class as a whole instead of assessing each

individual student. By checking for clues as to where students seem to be struggling with

comprehension, I am making it easier on myself to figure out which components to discuss as a

class at the end of the reading. Exit slips are another assessment technique that I use frequently

throughout my lesson plans because of their minor impact they have on students’ grade, but they
 Burns 17

assist in keeping tabs on students as well as a large assessment would. These are typically

opinionated responses that demonstrate where a student self-evaluates at. Self-evaluation is a

difficult level of achievement for students because of the inability to separate oneself from their

work; however, by doing this, students are showing how they can look at their work objectively

as a source of improvement. Another assessment format I used was having students fill out a plot

diagram based on their understanding of each component of a plot and the story itself. This is a

unique assessment that allows me to see if students are retaining information correctly. It also is

a less stressful way to test them since the answer is a little vaguer than it would on a traditional

exam.

Writing is another way in which you can assess student achievement. My last two

assessments on the lesson plan are the rewriting of a story ending and the creation of a short

story. Having students model another author’s work and then make it their own assesses whether

or not a student can deal with limitation in writing, and work with new tools – such as another

authors work – to be creative. After student have proven they can accomplish that, I am able to

assess their creative skills that are only limited by the format and structure of the piece. Having a

student write their own piece gives me a way to assess their grammar, mechanics, ability to

remain in format, sentence structure, etc. All of these formative assessments allow me to see how

well a student is able to accomplish the short-term goals of the day – objectives – and the long

term goals for the semester – standards.

P5:

The fifth outcome in “Pedagogical Knowledge and Skills Objectives” asks that the

student teacher candidate “demonstrate [the] ability to fit assignments, activities, and

assessments to objectives” which I accomplished at a distinguished level through the use of the
 Burns 18

first day of my short story lesson plan. Within the first day of my short story lesson plan, my

objectives were to have students be able to determine the meaning of a short story through the

use of color-coding, and to have students analyze the structure of two short stories in order to

figure out which aspects work well within the stories themselves. In order to demonstrate how I

fit my assignments, activities, and assessments to these objectives at a distinguished level, I am

going to start with activities. The color-coding activity that I handed students required them to

read “The Lottery” and “The Cask of Amontillado” and yellow and pink highlighter to mark

through the short stories. Yellow will be for aspects the student understands while pink is for

what they are confused or unsure about. This activity relates back to the objectives because

students are being forced to take a closer look at the meaning behind each phrase. If a student is

lacking clarity, the pink will allow us to break that segment apart to analyze so that the student

can gain the entire meaning of the piece with little to no assistance. The assessment used for this

class period was an exit slip where students were to write down which structural components of

the stories worked well, and which ones should’ve been left out to make the structure more solid.

This fits back to the objective because I want student to be able to analyze the structure to

determine what piece of writing they hold within their hands.

P6:

My penniman chart is a distinguished example that asks student teachers to “demonstrate

[the] ability to use professional research tools to find resources for teaching and willingness to do

so”. Throughout the ten days of my penniman chart, there are several references to different

pieces that I had to researched in order to make my penniman chart the best it can possibly be.

One day one this was exemplified through the clause PowerPoint that I had to research different

models to make sure that I incorporated everything needed for the topic, and to make sure that
 Burns 19

students were not just learning what was presented in their textbooks. This same technique was

incorporated the next day as I had to put in a PowerPoint about elements of a short story. This

was the most important part that I cross referenced across different sources to make sure I got the

most common features because there are not strict guidelines. I wanted to make sure that the

content I provided my students was stable and secure, and that I could be confident in myself that

the resources I pulled from were credible. Day five demonstrated this outcome through the

finding of the third short story. I wanted something that could easily be read, could have a fun

activity, and would allow students to practice point of view. Through a few hours of searching, I

stumbled across “If You Find a Mouse on a Glue Trap” which was a short story that was no

more than page long told from the second person point of view. I was willing to spend time

digging for the perfect short story so that my students could focus on the point of view activity

that would derive from it.

P7:

The seventh outcome in “Pedagogical Knowledge and Skills Objectives” asks that the

student teacher candidate “demonstrates [the] ability to write effective, detailed, and usable grade

appropriate lessons plans for teaching read of texts”, and I believe that I have completed this

outcome at a proficient level. In CI 470 I had completed my first week of lesson plans, and

executed them, prior to the dismissal of school for the pandemic. I wrote these lesson plans off

the guidance of my hosting teacher and Dr. Nolte. This is a proficient example of the seventh

example for a multitude of reasons. This was not a distinguished piece because I did have to go

back everyday and either take some part of the lesson out or reconfigure it to meet the specified

needs of certain students. These were always last-minute changes because something would

happen within the school, or there would be a student who possible missed a few days and
 Burns 20

needed that additional help to catch up. Had my lessons been more effective – had they not had

to been changed daily – I would claim this as a distinguished document, but those changes hold

me back from that. These lessons were grade appropriate for teaching a text as I made sure each

short story they read either came from their 9th grade textbooks or had similar language that was

easy to read and follow along with.

Regarding the detailed portion of the lesson plan, I have several examples where I paid

close attention to the details that would matter in the classroom setting. The first was having the

URL in the materials section so that I could easily pull it up for my class, and so my hosting

teacher could do the same. Throughout each “core instruction” section of the week’s lesson plan,

I made sure I had cues for myself implemented where they told me when to switch directions,

and what I needed to bring up or pass out. The questions that I had set up for each day also

displayed the detailed lesson plans as they were typically what guided me through each phase of

the lesson.

P8:

For the eighth outcome in “Pedagogical Knowledge and Skills Objectives”, I am using

my host teacher’s evaluation of my performance as proficient example as it “demonstrates [the]

ability to teach effectively in a simulated classroom environment”. This is a proficient example

as I did not receive a distinguished across all marks within the classroom itself, but only received

two accomplished markings overall. This is also not a distinguished marking as my host teacher

was only able to experience one week of me teaching which shows that I wasn’t able to

demonstrate my full capabilities in teaching as I had only just begun to settle in to the

experience. The reason I believe this is a great artifact for this outcome is because it is fully a

reflection on my teaching abilities. In this evaluation, the only two areas where my teaching was
 Burns 21

below distinguished was in understanding the “characteristics of learners” where I received an

accomplished for not being completely ready for each different type of learner that I was dealt in

the classroom. I tried to diversify the different types of learning as much as possible, but I did

avoid technology usage to some extent because I felt like the students were constantly on their

laptops throughout the day. The other place where I failed to receive distinguished was in

“instructional strategies”. While there were no comments left on this area for explaining why I

received what I did, I personally thing that it falls back into the lack of technology in the

classroom component. While I made sure we did something every day, I should’ve been more

inclusive of technology within the classroom to accommodate for each variation of students that

I had.

P9:

The ninth outcome can be demonstrated through the use of my poetry lesson plan

revision at a distinguished level because the outcome states that a student teacher candidate

“demonstrates willingness to reflect critically upon the planning and executing of teaching and to

revise accordingly”. The largest issue with my poetry lesson plan was the fact that it lacked

details where there should have been an ample amount of details. For example, when I made the

claim – on two occasions – that I was going to have a mini-lesson of sorts for my students, I

failed to include any details as to what would be included to the mini-lesson or what the purpose

was for it. During my revision, I made sure to think about how I would be as a student if I was

listening to a mini lesson that will go along with the poem I am creating. For starters I knew that

if I had an idea pop up, I’d want to be allowed to write that idea down to the fullest extent before

I forgot it. Therefore, I added that under the mini lesson on allusions, metaphors, etc. Another

thought I had was what will happen if I decide to teach this lesson and I have nothing to refer
 Burns 22

back to on what I wanted some of those mini lessons to be about. So, I took the time and went a

gave myself key notes that would trigger my memory as to what I thought was important for

student to learn. For example, I am wanting to do a mini lesson on poetry form. I did not include

enough information to where I knew exactly which forms were acceptable for students to use for

this project, and which forms I wanted to avoid. This would’ve been problematic when I went to

teach the lesson because I could’ve potentially given students inaccurate information, and told

them they could use a form that doesn’t work well with the assignment. Because I was able to

notice my errors, and take the time to revise them to where they were teachable, I demonstrated

this outcome at a distinguished level.