P3- Practice standards-based assessment.

P3.- Practice standards-based assessment. Teacher-candidates use standards-based assessment that is systematically analyzed using multiple formative, summative and self-assessment strategies to monitor and improve instruction. For each unit taught, teachers should monitor student understanding throughout the whole unit. Some of the monitoring will come in the form of quizzes or tests, other monitoring may be informal during class or through self-assessment assignments for students to complete. I have included two documents showing how the units I write incorporate various methods of assessment to improve student learning. Document 1 (bacteria unit overview) shows the progression of the bacteria unit as it occurred in class. Document 2 (assessments) shows the various methods of assessment I used throughout the unit to monitor student learning. The assessments include summative, formative and self-assessment strategies to gauge student understanding from day one until the unit quiz. While writing the unit and compiling the assessments, I noticed how natural assessing students in various ways occurs during instruction. What does not come as natural is creating alternative summative assessments that allow students at various levels to succeed in class. In future units, I would like to prepare multiple forms of summative assessment to ensure students who learn in different ways are able to be assessed appropriately. I would also like to include more opportunities for students to self-assess their progress as self-assessment is a key skill for success in academia and life.

Bacteria unit overview                                                         Assessments

Chemistry Course Rationale

The attached document is the course rationale for the Chemistry course I have been participating in during my internship.

Course Rationale_Chemistry

P2- Practice differentiated instruction.

P2.- Practice differentiated instruction. Teacher-candidates apply principles of differentiated instruction, including theories of language acquisition, stages of language, and academic language development, in the integration of subject matter across the content areas of reading, mathematical, scientific and aesthetic reasoning. As students come into science, they are at all different stages of growth and knowledge of scientific workings. In order to reach each student individually, a certain amount of tailoring must be done for each student in order to give students their best shot at acquiring the academic language necessary to survive in the academic world. To demonstrate differentiation, I have included two versions of a conclusion I asked students to complete during the bacteria unit of Biology. One was offered to the majority of students and the alternative version was offered to students that needed additional guidance and alternative expectations for the assignment. By offering two versions of the same assignment, I was able to appropriately assess more students than if I gave only one version of the assessment. While going through the submitted work offered by students from the standard and alternative assessments, I noticed how helpful simplifying the expectations was for the students of the alternative assessment. I would not have received as high quality of work if I hadn't done so, because these students were able to show me what they really knew by completing the alternative assessment. Student learning  would have suffered if every student had the same expectations in this situation. In the future,  I hope to make an effort to create alternative assignments for each major assessment (such as tests or lab reports) to offer students I feel need streamlined expectations to show me what they really know. Bacteria Lab Analysis Questions

microbe modified lab rubric

O2- Offer appropriate challenge in the content area.

O2.- Offer appropriate challenge in the content area. Teacher-candidates plan and /or adapt curricula that are standards driven so students develop understanding and problem-solving expertise in the content area(s) using reading, written and oral communication, and technology. In other words, teachers are responsible for exposing student to not only the standards society has determined high schoolers need to reach, but also problem-solving skills in various mediums. To give you an example, I have included a link to a different blogpost here. This blogpost gives an overview of a unit I wrote and taught about cells. In this unit, students are given information about cells, and then asked to complete several different projects and labs. This unit shows that I can give students a variety of problem-solving tasks that are aligned to standards. During this unit, students had to read about membranes, write about cheek and onion cells, and orally present a project comparing a cell to something of their choosing. Students naturally included technology into this unit through the use of PowerPoint and Prezi to present their cell projects. 


 Through this unit I noticed I have a tendency to hand-hold students through laboratory procedures. I also noticed that I was actually surprised by the sophistication of their cell analogy presentations. From reflecting on my personal behavior towards students, I have realized that students are capable of absorbing and synthesizing the information I give them, they just lack the practice adults possess. Students benefitted from this unit in several ways. They were able to practice their public and laboratory skills and learn about cells; foundations for successful students of biology. I think this was a great unit and students got a lot out of it, but in the future, I would like to work on integrating more standards into lessons in an effort to increase connections between topics.

Cell Unit Overview

Description: This is the first full unit I have written at my placement. I have included both the unit overview and the calendar I have been following which outlines the handouts students will receive each day and the warm-up questions that I foresee will be used each day as well. Note: the warm-up questions may not be what was actually used on the specified day due to flexibility in student learning.

calendar for cell unit cells unit overview