Supporting the Teaching Experience

Center for Teacher Certification Program

Teacher Project Overview

Reflective teachers are always asking, “How can I do this better?” They review their lesson objectives and think about how students performed in the classroom. They count the number of students who “got” the concepts or who participated in a meaningful way. They ponder how to engage the unmotivated learner or how to challenge the high-achiever. As you have already discovered, reflective teachers think non-stop about ways to make a greater difference. Before you continue the project, read “Teachers as Researchers” by Andrea Babkie and Mary Provost.

One way for teachers to determine their success is to be deliberate about new ideas they implement and plan how to document if the strategy works in their classroom. This solution-oriented inquiry is sometimes called Action Research or Teacher Research. The steps involved include:

· Identifying a problem or concern

· Collecting data on this problem

· Reflecting on the data

· Analyzing ways to address the problem

· Implementing a strategy based on the data

· Redefining the problem and repeating the process again

Teacher Research facilitates meaningful reflection about strategies and interventions. One of the best ways to grow and develop as a professional is to conduct a teacher research project and share your inquiry with others. Other teachers can offer support and be a forum for sharing questions, concerns, ideas, and results. Part of the Teacher Induction Process involves working directly with your mentor, so consider him/her part of your team.

In EDTC 3005, the Teacher Project will be based on teacher research. It will involve the following steps:

1. Identifying of Areas of Strength/Needed Improvement

2. Collecting Student Data

3. Student Intervention

Identifying Areas for Intervention

Monitoring Student Progress

Using Student Work to Document Progress (Case Studies)

4. Final Teacher Project & Reflection

A note on 3005 process:

To complete this project, you will use the materials available to you for the 3005 course – including this project overview explanation – and submit each assignment via your ACC website. You will maintain a copy of the Teacher Research Project Template (TRPT) on your own computer. Each time you complete your assignment you will complete it in that copy of the TRPT and then upload it to your website. Then your instructor will review and evaluate your work from the webpage. Realize that for each assignment you are adding to your copy of the TRPT, not making multiple copies of it. Your work must be completed and submitted in the TRPT.

Know that your instructor will review your work on the day after the due date. So, if you have not uploaded your TRPT, you will receive no credit for that part of the project – NO LATE WORK WILL BE ACCEPTED.

What did you learn by reading Teachers as Researchers?

Note: During EDTC 3004, you were asked to collect the pre-test (before intervention) data that will show how your students have been performing and the basis for your concerns. You need to look at the whole class. So, for this part of the assignment collect:

· last year’s TAKS if available,

· the BOY and the MOY if it you have the scores yet,

· average homework scores for each six weeks

· average test scores for each six weeks.

· samples of student work completed to date (Scan these samples for use in Assignment 4.

Track a student’s performance on various assessments, such as reading assessments. For the elementary grades, benchmarks are not connected to the TAKS, but elementary teachers continually assess students for progress. See the “Reading First Progress Monitoring” sheet and the “Reading Assessments for K-3.” Data taken at several times, especially during an intervention, can be used to demonstrate progress or growth.

Assignment 1

5 points: due January 30 on website

Identifying Areas of Strength and Areas of Improvement

[This assignment provides practice in identifying the teacher’s strengths, opportunities for improvement, and improvement goals in anticipation of performing this task on 5 students to be selected for the study.]

Simply put, self-evaluation refers to understanding one’s strengths and weakness. It provides access for people to foster self-growth and development in both areas. As part of the teacher’s professional responsibilities, self-evaluation becomes an ongoing aspect of the teacher’s career.

At the heart of this process is reflection. Being reflective means thinking about the significance of our actions by asking questions, such as:

· How am I doing?

· What worked?

· What could I have done differently?

· What do I need to learn that would assist me?

Effective teachers are reflective practitioners, always thinking about how to improve instruction, developing new ways of reaching students, and establishing new methods of having students engage with learning. Teachers reflect most at the end of a lesson or an experience with a student or at the end of a semester. They ask themselves, how could this have been better? Teachers reflect on their planning, classroom management, relationships with students and colleagues, and on student success. Then, the best teachers use what they have learned from their students and their self-reflection to improve their planning, their classroom management, and their instruction. This project is designed to provide the Intern Teacher with the opportunity to develop and practice the skills that lead to useful self-reflection and effective transformations in teaching strategies – all with the ultimate goal of helping students to learn better.

Too often, people worry about how they can improve on their weaknesses. Although being aware of one’s shortcomings is important, strengths can be a powerful starting point for improvement. Teachers can build on their strengths to meet the needs of students in their classrooms.

First, teachers should determine what strengths they bring to the classroom. These strengths can be classified into the four different domains:

· planning for learner centered instruction

· sustaining classroom atmosphere and community

· classroom instruction and communication, and

· professional responsibilities.

Here are some questions that will assist you in identifying your areas of strengths in each of these domains.

Planning for Learner-Centered Instruction

· What insights do I bring to planning?

· In what ways have I been able to plan for student success?

· How do I best organize instruction for student learning?

· What has been my most success lesson?

· In what ways have I planned to meet the needs of students?

· What resources have I acquired to assist me in planning?

· Who else have I involved to assist me in planning?

Sustaining Classroom Atmosphere and Community

· What successes have I made with students in my classroom?

· In what ways do I best relate to my students?

· What actions have I discovered help create a safe learning environment?

· Who have I used as resources for sustaining a positive climate in my classroom?

· How have I overcome challenges in the classroom community?

· How do I create community?

Classroom Instruction and Communication

· What are my strengths in communicating knowledge, skills, and procedures to my students?

· How do I foster creativity and higher-thinking skills through questioning?

· In what ways do I most successfully engage students?

· How am I responsive and flexible in my classroom?

· What are my strengths in encouraging students to be successful?

Professional Responsibilities

· What successes have you had with communicating with parents?

· What relationships have you built with colleagues?

· In what ways have you grown and developed since you began teaching?

· How have you advocated for students?

· What strengths do you possess as an employee for the school district?

Establishing Starting Points

When addressing student needs, new teachers often make the mistake of not first reflecting on student strengths. Instead, many react to student needs without fully identifying the resources students have, internally and externally.

Working with your mentor, begin to fill in the chart, remembering shared conversations, TIPs with your mentor and supervisor, and personal reflection and insight. Notice that in these example questions there are questions from each of the four domains. When you assess your strengths in Assignment 1, remember to include one or more strengths from each domain.

After identifying your strengths, consider the areas for improvement that you have identified with the support of your mentor and your ACC field supervisor. What are the things that you need to work on the most? Is it classroom management? Perhaps you need to improve parent involvement? List all of the identified areas for improvement. You will use this process to identify the areas for improvement for your students.

It does little good to list areas for improvement if you choose to ignore them. Instead, the goals you identify for each improvement area will help to clarify and motivate the changes that you need to make. List the changes that you plan to make – associating a goal or planned change with each area for improvement.

Complete the Teacher Self-Evaluation and submit online to your website for credit by January 30.

1. Teacher Research Project: Teacher Self-Evaluation

(Due January 30 online on website – 5 points)

Achieved Score: ____of 5 points

Before beginning to use the template, click on the footer and type your name next to student name.

Use Fall TIP/s and conversations with mentor and supervisor as well as self-efficacy to determine individual teacher strengths. First list your strengths. [This exercise gives practice for identifying your students’ strengths]

[1pt] Strengths (In relation to teaching domains)

2a. The Teacher creates an environment of rapport and respect.
I am very supportive and encouraging of my students I feel this strength is also addressed in 1a.
2c. The teacher manages student behavior.
At the beginning of the semester, I was using the “Free to Teach” plan. I was told by my AP that I cannot use that plan any longer.
3a. The teacher communicates clearly and accurately.
My communication is generally clear, but there are times that the students ask me to clarify what I mean.
1e. The teacher designs activities that promote student learning.
I currently try to have group learning centered activities every couple of chapters.
3d. The teacher assesses student learning.
I use the standard assessment tools available to me to assess my students’ achievement.

Now, on the T-chart, list your areas for improvement and how you recognize that you can be more effective during the second semester. [This task provides practice for identifying students’ needs and possible interventions]

[2pt] Areas for Improvement (In relation to teaching domains) [2pt] Improvement Goals for the Semester

I have not collected the correct data and made copies, so I need to take this responsibility seriously and ask students for past, graded assignments to scan and compare in assignment 4. / Collecting samples of student work to use for data in showing student progress.
I still have 3 students who tend to be very disrespectful. I need to work harder to get to know them to understand what the block between us is. / Building relationships with students inside and outside of class.
I am rewriting my classroom management plan to be sent home at the beginning of the semester. / Creating a learning community.
I am going to start working on scripting my communication better so I can practice it before I present. I am also going to begin using the discovery method of learning with my PACE class, this I am working on with my mentor. / Increasing teacher effectiveness.
I need to have more learning centered activities. I have settled in a more direct teach routine that is not engaging enough. I am going to have learning centered activities on Tuesdays with the assistance of the LISD curriculum coordinator who is on our campus every Tuesday. / Increasing student productivity.
I am going to start having weekly assessments planned into my lessons; this will enable me to have a smaller snapshot of what is going on. / Determining interventions as early as possible.

Assignment 2 (A and B)

20 points: due February 5 on website

[This assignments provides practice in planning a research project such that the data provide useful information in deciding how to improve teaching strategies.]

When we think about data, sometimes we have images of an endless roll of green numbers scrolling on a screen, as in the movie The Matrix. However, data comes in different types and conveys different pieces of information.

Successful teachers use data to determine how their students are progressing. In fact, many teachers view the grade book as a resource for monitoring student achievement. In addition, teachers informally assess students in both academic and social areas based on recollections or anecdotes what a student did or said.

Understanding the different types of data and their uses can assist teachers to collect and analyze how students are doing in the classroom.

The What and How and Why of a Teacher Research Project

There are two areas of classroom teaching that we will collect data for as part of your involvement in class. Data will be collected regarded academic achievement and social skills.

· Academic achievement data seeks to determine how students are learning skills and knowledge associated with the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS). In addition to standardized tests such as the TAKS, the teacher should consider each six-weeks’ homework scores and test scores. For grades in which the students do not take the TAKS, the teacher might use reading progress and use of increased vocabulary.

· The realm of social skills, however, refers to the ways in which students develop personally and contribute to the atmosphere or learning environment of the classroom. These skills are not always measured by report card grades. These may include: classroom behavior, positive contribution, performing to expectations, sharing, demonstrating responsibility, and respecting others.

However, before we can begin, we need to know what we need to know. By reflecting on all of the students in the class and reviewing their work, the teacher can identify areas of improvement for both academic skills and social skills. For this assignment, select an area for improvement that best reflects your greatest concerns regarding how your students are performing – both academically and socially.