Sarah Engström, Outdoor and Environmental Educator
K-8 Teacher Certified
ALASKA STATE TEACHING STANDARDS
Evidence supporting my ability as a teacher to adhere to Alaskan Teaching Standards
Standard 5: Instruction and Assessment
A beginning teacher facilitates, monitors, and assesses student learning.
Rationale
Artifact
Click buttons below to see Artifacts
Standard
This assessment research I conducted proves my ability to adhere to Standard 5B. This extended research paper I wrote details different types of assessment practices common in Outdoor and Environmnental Education, and how they can be applied to Traditional Classroom teaching. These techniques can be used in either setting to determin what students know, understand, and are able to do.
"Within Sarah’s lesson she consistently checked for understanding requesting thumbs up or thumbs down.
Sarah used brain breaks, engagement strategies, signals for understanding, modeling “I do, we do, you do.”
Again, this was evident in Sarah’s checking for understanding using thumbs up or thumbs down. If students were unsure she would rephrase or restructure the content for better understanding.
Within a 5 minute time period I recorded that Sarah made 9 positive comments to students to 2 negative, making the ratio 4:1."
~Polly Rowell, Host Teacher, Meadow Lakes Elementary
This artifact demonstrates my ability to meet standard 5A because all of the lesson plans I wrote in this section are aligned with student performance standards and Anchorage and Matanuska Susitna Borough School District(s) curriculum.
"Sarah met with the teachers to make sure that the lessons she had planned were part of the planned curriculum at the specific grade level. Sarah’s learning activities were suitable to the learning goals of the district curriculum and Alaska Academic State Standards. Sarah’s ability to reflect on her lessons and critique herself on her pacing in exceptional.
The Alaska Academic State Standards were referenced within her lesson plan documentation along with Grade Level Expectations."
-Poly Rowell, Host Teacher
Meadow Lakes Elementary
This standard was not met at the mid point portfolio. No artifacts to demonstrates my ability to meet standard 5C before student teaching.
This practicum evaluation demonstrates my ability to meet both standards 5D and 5E, because I am including instructional strategies (I Do, We Do, You Do,) to ensure that all the students present are given equal opportunities to learn. I also checked for understanding throughout my lessons. My thumbs up strategy is directly tied to the idea that students need to reflect on their progress.
Standards 5E-G were not met at the mid point portfolio time. No artifact(s) demonstrate my ability to meet these standards because I had not yet done student teaching.
MIDPOINT PORTFOLIO ARTIFACTS AND RATIONALE
mid point PORTFOLIO ARTIFACTS AND RATIONALE
5B. Selecting appropriate assessments that measure what students know, understand, and are able to do;
5A. Teaching lessons based on
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the student content or performance standards adopted by reference in 4 AAC 04.150;
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the district curriculum; and
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individual and special needs of students;
5B Selecting appropriate assessments that measure what students know, understand, and are able to do;
5C: Analyzing and using data from formative, interim, and summative assessments to guide instruction and planning;
5D. Identifying and using a variety of instructional strategies and resources that are appropriate to the individual and special needs of students, including students with disabilities, limited English proficient students, and gifted students;
5E. Assisting students to reflect on their own progress using assessment data;
5F. Using a record keeping system to monitor and report student progress and attendance
5G. Communicating ongoing student progress in a timely manner to students, parents, administrators, and other audiences
MIDPOINT PORTFOLIO ARTIFACTS AND RATIONALE
5C Analyzing and using data from formative, interim, and summative assessments to guide instruction and planning;
5D. Identifying and using a variety of instructional strategies and resources that are appropriate to the individual and special needs of students, including students with disabilities, limited English proficient students, and gifted students;
5E. Assisting students to reflect on their own progress using assessment data;
5F. Using a record keeping system to monitor and report student progress and attendance;
5G. Communicating ongoing student progress in a timely manner to students, parents, administrators, and other audiences.
5A. Teaching lessons based on
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the student content or performance standards adopted by reference in 4 AAC 04.150;
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the district curriculum; and
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individual and special needs of students;
This artifact proves my ability to meet standard 5B because my host teacher is describing some of the many methods I used to reach different learning styles and needs.
This artifact proves my ability to meet standard 5C and 5D because my lessons are built around assessment. There are multiple layers of assessment, formal and informal, summative and formative written into the design. In my "Rotate and Revolve" lesson, I show students the vocabulary in multiple formats, including an active outside game. I ask for "thumb-o-meters" throughout the lesson, as well as asking students to create simplified definitions of the words. I chose this form of assessment based upon a famous quote attributed to Albert Einstein, "If you cannot explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough."
As my closing for this lesson I had students repeat a word that they learned because of this lesson, to further emphasize long term memory retention of the material.
This artifact proves my ability to meet standard 5A because my astronomy unit written in the "Understanding by Design" method of starting with the district standards and working backward from them to accomplish the goals. Each lesson is based upon the district standards set forth for 6th grade science, language arts and math.
This artifact proves my ability to meet standard 5E because I used Plickers as a major assessment tool in many of my units and lessons. (This video is a tutorial about the technology in general, discussing the specifics of using and assessing with Plickers, not created by me) The way that this technology is designed, students can receive instant data about their performance, and helps me as an educator evaluate which questions in particular were difficult for students and focus my teaching efforts on those topics.
This artifact proves my ability to meet standard 5 F and 5G because I updated grades in this system every two weeks, and printed out progress reports for each student. Students who turned in a signed progress report got a responsibility grade at the end of the quarter, as well as edible incentives. This ensured that parents were aware of their students' progress, even if they were not plugged into the "iParent" website. This also served as a way for me to make comments on student behavior and work, and discuss it with parents if a problem arose
Final portfolio artifacts and rationales
"Sarah assesses students differently based upon their abilities. She has different types of tests for special needs students, such as a matching exercise vs a more traditional fill in the blank assessment that might be used for other learners. Sarah also differentiates towards the other end of the spectrum, and has extra projects for higher learners like the Spacebook pages. "
~ Host Teacher Comments
"Sarah utilizes state test data to plan different lessons for different classes at their level. She makes special assignments for higher end students who finish early, as well as lower performing students that need extra direct instruction.
Sarah has students act out stories, myths, and concepts. She uses a variety of mediums to convey the same information to appeal to learners of different abilities."
~Host Teacher Comments
This artifact, the data from my Student Teaching Project, goes further to prove my ability to meet Standard 5A. One of my classes had 15 students with learning disabilities, and I often notice that their comprehension and engagement is significantly less than other classes. My data from their pre and post test scores from my Astronomy unit shows remarkable growth. In the pretest, only one student recieved 100% from this class, but in the post test the mean score was 93% which indicates that my teaching strategies and methods were effective for these special needs students.