SED-480NA Assignment Explanations & Samples

The syllabus is not always easy to understand so I created this page with explanations and samples.  As a reminder, please refer to rubrics before beginning your assignment, as all assignments are graded from the rubric.  If this webpage hasn’t addressed your question or concerns here, please call or send me a message Thanks!

 

Week 1 has two assignments: Introduction to Student Teaching

The 1st assignment is your official login with Professional Learning Network (PLN). The intention of the PLN is to provide a virtual space for teacher candidates, educational administration candidates, alumni, the cooperating teacher/mentor, GCU faculty supervisors, and faculty to learn, collaborate, and connect in a supportive environment.

 

You need to create a login on the PLN website (see flyer below). It may take a couple of days to be an approved member, so I suggest everyone be proactive to obtain a login early. Once you have been approved please login and make a screenshot showing your name. Save the document and submit as your assignment.

 

Every computer is different so these directions of what I would do on my laptop: Login to PLN>hold the fn & prntscrn keys>open a Word document>click on the paste command>save the document>submit the saved document into Loud Cloud

 

The 2nd assignment is your Cooperative Teacher Interview. Interview of Cooperating Teacher in 250-500 words, summarize and reflect upon your interview. Your interview questions and observations should review the following:

1.     The best methods for communicating with your cooperating teacher/mentor.

2.    School philosophy, policies, calendar, and daily schedule.

3.    The “Professional Dispositions” including expectations regarding dress, behavior, etc.

4.    Required reports and recordkeeping, grading standards, and discipline procedures.

5.    District/school resources provided based upon the learning expectations.

6.    Expectations for students, routines, procedures, and an established classroom management plan.

7.    What surprised you the most about your cooperating teacher’s responses?

Explain how you will use your findings in your student teaching practice and future professional practice.

 

Please click on the link to learn how PLN Flyer

 

I highly recommend you start working on week 2 assignments right away.

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Week 2 - School Environment and Contextual Factors -Learning About Your Students and Community

This week has three assignments. They are more comprehensive as you need to gather community demographic and student data.  The 1st assignment is Step Standard 1 Part 1 which require you to be a data expert on your school, district and community.  Please download the STEP Template in the Instructors add-ons. I recommend using the following sites and in combination to provide the necessary demographic data. Also call the district office as they are required to maintain all of this data.

 

Geographic Demographics - https://datausa.io/

District Demographics - https://www.niche.com/

School Demographics - https://www.greatschools.org/

 

The 2nd assignment is similar as it is STEP Standard I Part II – Covers demographic, environment, and academic factors understanding the learning needs of students is critical when designing instruction that is differentiated and geared to meet unique learning needs.

 

The sites above and the district office will help you gather all the data you need. A word of caution I take community, geographic and student data very serious. I want to see sited sources and valid information. Rather than water fountain gossip.

 

The 3rd assignment will be establishing your Professional Teaching Portfolio. A professional portfolio is a purposeful collection of work that exhibits efforts, progress, and achievement in multiple areas.

 

The finalization of your portfolio will be due the last week of your SED 480B class which will be a compilation of professional work, student samples, and a demonstration of your personal education philosophy. For week 2 assignment you only need to find and create a portfolio site.  The syllabus suggests using the OneDrive, you may prefer one of the following links to establish your portfolio:

 

Sample Portfolios

A past student’s portfolio very well done - https://www.portfoliogen.com/felicia-bd4369af/377841

 

Another past student’s portfolio well done - https://sites.google.com/site/ksolisportfolio/home

 

I found this student’s teacher portfolio online - https://sites.google.com/site/brentmbecker24/home

 

Reason for a teacher portfolio - https://www.best-job-interview.com/teacher-portfolio.html

 

Possible Portfolio Programs

Wix - https://www.wix.com/

 

Weebly - https://www.weebly.com/

 

Google Sites - https://sites.google.com/site/eportfolioapps/

 

Portfolio Box - https://www.portfoliobox.net/

 

Don't hesitate to call and remember I am only a click away.

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Week 3: Learning Goals to Inform Instruction – Writing Standards- Based Objectives

This week you will have two assignments. The 1st assignment is your Professional Dispositions Statement Assessment. Download the Professional Dispositions Assessment from the class resources.

 

Personally, I think of this as your mission and value statement, like a school or business. Leader’s need a mission statement, teachers are leaders, so you need one for your work too. Teachers as leaders in their classroom need continued motivation and rejuvenation to meet the demand of the profession. A professional mission (disposition) can ground you, motivate you and help you remember why you entered this profession. You may want to include statements that express professional values, commitments, and ethics in order to promote authentic learning.

 

I encourage you to search the Internet to view some sample teaching statements to garner your own teaching philosophies. Download and complete the “Professional Dispositions Assessment” to inform your statement. In 250-500 words, write a reflection that addresses the following:

·       Your personal professional disposition statement.

·       How your self-assessment supports your professional dispositions statement.

·       Reflects on how you have grown in your professional dispositions throughout your Program of Study, supported by specific examples.

·       Steps you will take to improve where necessary.

 

The 2nd assignment is writing standards-based objectives and learning goals of your upcoming unit. Complete STEP Standard 2 of the template that includes the following:

1.     Your State Academic Content Standards. Include both the standard code and the title.

2.    Learning goal, is the overall aims or big ideas.

3.    Make sure the objectives are measurable as shown in my announcements and CATs.

 

Disposition and Assessment Sample

 

If anyone experiences problems with the template or e-docs, please don’t hesitate to contact me. Your disposition and assessment will be included in your “Professional Teaching Portfolio”

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Week 4: Assessment and Data Literacy - Again, you have two assignments this week.

The 1st assignment is your Clinical Practice Evaluation 1. Your GCU faculty supervisor will observe your teaching performance and submit a report. Please find the directions on obtaining your report on the link below. Once you get your evaluation results save it on your computer and submit in the assignment box.

 

I understand that our class due dates don’t always coincide with your school, teacher or supervisor’s schedule. If you are early or late, that is fine. The only time we have to worry about due dates is our last week of class.

 

The 2nd assignment is STEP Standard 3 - Assessment and Data Literacy Pre- and post-assessments used to assess the learning that takes place from participating in a learning activity. The pre-assessment is given to students before instruction, in order to determine their prior knowledge of the topic, or inaccurate knowledge.

 

After students have participated in the unit, they will be given the post-assessment, which can be the same as the pre-assessment, a modified version, or something comparable that measures the same concepts.

 

For this assignment collaborate with your cooperating teacher to design pre and post assessments for your instructional unit that align to state standards. Copy the pre and post assessments into their respective tables in the STEP Standard 3. After administering the pre assessment, complete the pre assessment data table, and answer the questions in STEP Standard 3.

 

Be sure to view Week 5 assignments. I encourage to start working on them right away as they will take some time.

 

Clinical Practice Evaluation Retrieval Guide

 

All of your evaluations will be included in your “Professional Teaching Portfolio”

 

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Week 5 – Unit and Lesson Planning – 2 Assignments are due this week

The 1st assignment is STEP Standard 4 is your unit of instruction that aligns to your state content standards. Be sure to include technology integration and demonstrate how you will differentiate your lessons to meet the needs of individual students.

 

The syllabus states that you are expected to teach the unit by the end of Topic 6. However, I understand that time schedules don’t always coincide with this class. The main idea is that you will be taking over the classes and will need a unit plan which is what we are working on together. You want to work with the cooperating teacher on your unit plan.

 

The 2nd assignment is your Classroom Management Philosophy. Establishing a classroom management philosophy is a crucial aspect of teaching. Your philosophy will guide you in establishing procedures, routines, and behavior expectations in order to create a learning environment that engages students, achieves instructional goals, and meets the diverse needs of students.

 

In 250-500 words, describe your classroom management philosophy including:

1.    How engagement plays a role in classroom management.

2.    How you will establish procedures, routines, and behavior expectations in your future classroom.

3.    How you will use classroom management strategies to meet the diverse needs of students, achieve instructional goals, and effectively involve families.

Along with our class resources I recommend reading the two references below to develop your own style. Keep what you like and design your own management philosophy. You may have created a classroom management philosophy from a previous class. If you like it that is fine. Be sure that it covers the three points above. The LopesWrite percentage will be high so please let me know if you are submitting a previous assignment.

Marzano, R. J., Pickering, D. J., & Pollock, J. E. (2001). Classroom instruction that works: Research-based strategies for increasing student achievement. Alexandria, VA: Association of Supervision and Curriculum Development.

Wong, H. & Wong, R. (2014). The classroom management book. Mountain View, CA: Harry K. Wong Publications.

 

STEP 4 Example

 

Your classroom management philosophy will be included in your “Professional Teaching Portfolio”

 

Please plan ahead on your 2nd evaluation which is due the end of week 7. If the results will be available after the class ends, we will need to make some adjustments.

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Week 6: Assessment and Data Literacy - Using Assessment to Engage Students

This video assignment has two parts. Many of you may be a little nervous or apprehensive about doing a video.  Believe me it won’t be difficult, different but not difficult.  You can use a cell phone, video camera or laptop to create the video. 

 

Part I

Use one of the following programs to upload your video file:

OneDrive – Through you GCU Outlook email account.

YouTube - https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/57407?co=GENIE.Platform%3DDesktop&hl=en

Vimeo - https://vimeo.com/join  (you need to create an account.  Be proactive and start working on this now).

Loom - https://www.useloom.com/login?redirect_after=%2Fmy-videos

 

·       Save the video as “Unlisted” if you prefer, however, if you save it as “private”, I will not be able to access it. Test your link out prior to sending it to me.  Send it to a friend to make sure it works for someone besides you. 

·       Paste your URL on your reflection document.

·       Now you may ask, what do I need to do on this video.  Just give me 10 minutes of you teaching one of your lesson plans.  If possible, doing the video in front of a class is best, however, I understand the constraints.  As an alternative, you can video yourself teaching this lesson at the kitchen table, to your colleagues, in the garage, in a classroom or at a park.

·       Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns.  I think you will find this to be a fun project, if not you can yell at me later LOL!!

 

You have already implemented and analyzed the pre-assessment. This week, you will implement your lesson activities, correlating formative assessments, and the summative post-assessment. Choose one of the lesson activities to video record a 5-10 minute segment to review and reflect on your teaching.

 

Part II

Both you and your cooperating teacher/mentor review the recording and provide feedback. Complete STEP Standard 5 by summarizing, in 500-750 words, your experience teaching your unit. Include the following:

 

1.    Discuss each lesson activity and whether the execution of each lesson went exactly as planned.

2.    Describe the engagement strategies used and if they helped foster the learning goals.

3.    Summary of Student Learning by describing your initial perception of the overall student learning.

4.    Briefly describe the results from your observations and each measurement of learning that supports your initial perception of student learning.

5.    Describe one student’s learning or response that caused you to rethink your plans. How you responded to that student and why you thought this would improve student progress.

Reflection of Video Recording. Describe your perceptions of your teaching performance. Identify one thing you would like to improve upon in your future teaching (be specific), and one thing you felt you did well and how you will build upon it. BE SURE TO SHARE THE URL IN YOUR PAPER SO I CAN SEE YOUR VIDEO.

 

This is an example of what I think is great teaching - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_SZvD9xvGdo&feature=youtu.be

Keep in mind that this video recording will be included in your Portfolio under the section Teaching Resume and Statements.

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Week 7: Analyzing Assessment Data and Student Results

The 1st assignment is your Clinical Practice Evaluation 2. Your GCU faculty supervisor will observe your teaching performance and submit a report. Once you get your evaluation results save it on your computer and submit in the Loud Cloud assignment box.

 

Since we are at the end of this class please let me know if your 2nd evaluation will be available after the class is finished.

 

The 2nd assignment is STEP Standard 6 – Analysis of Student Learning. After you have implemented each lesson in the unit, as well as the post-assessment, collaborate with your cooperating teacher/mentor to analyze the results and determine student learning. On the STEP Standard 6 answer the question by discussing your data and whether there is a student or group of students who have not mastered the objectives and discuss what to do to develop these students’ knowledge and skills.

 

STEP VI EXAMPLE

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Week 8 – Reflecting on Instruction

STEP Standard 7 - Analysis and Reflection to Improve Planning and Practice Reflective practice is crucial in education and becomes the foundation for ongoing growth and development as a professional. Once you have implemented the lessons within your unit, you should reflect on how the instructional practices influenced the learning outcomes. The assessment data from week 7 provides tangible evidence that you can use to tie outcomes back to instruction.

 

After analyzing and reflecting on your experiences developing and delivering your instructional unit, complete STEP Standard 7. In the template, list three short-term goals to improve specific areas of your teaching practice based on the unit of instruction, as well as your plan to reach each short-term goal.

 

This assignment will be included in your “Professional Teaching Portfolio” that will be due at the end of your SED 480B class.

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Updated 4/8/2019

Email Address:         Cindy.Barnes@my.gcu.edu
Phone Number:         (480) 685-0116
Postal Address:         Grand Canyon University