A teacher applies a current and comprehensive repertoire of effective planning, instruction, and assessment practices to meet the learning needs of every student.
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Planning and Literacy
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Planning and Differentiation
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Assessment Plans
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Full Inquiry Unit Plans and Assessment
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My plant journal
Kindergarten storytelling center
The following is a demonstration and explanation of a kindergarten literacy center as part of a unit on plant and growth with cross curricular ties to literacy, social studies, and environment and community awareness.
PLANNING AND DESIGNING LEARNING ACTIVITIES THAT ENSURE ALL STUDENTS CONTINUOUSLY DEVELOP SKILLS IN LITERACY
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This 10 minute video describes how I would run a kindergarten storytelling center as part of a plant unit in a classroom. Using "Plant the Tiny Seed" by Christie Matheson, and supported by hand on inquiry growing class or individual plants. This presentation addresses using technology to support multiple modes of learning, and the app Book Creator to enhance any stage of the writing process. This presentation was designed for Curriculum and Instruction for Early Childhood Education. This center uses meaningful connections, writing purpose, anchor charts, a mentor text, sight and vocabulary words, and teacher supports for students to create their own plant journals.
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Planning and designing learning activities that consider student variable including physical, social, and cognitive ability
I redesigned this lesson plan to fit a psychological case study of "Miki" who has a Mild Intellectual Disability. The following grade 9 science lesson incorporates FNMI knowledge, technology, the use of visual supports, choice, and collaboration to accommodate and differentiate for a student with MID. The lesson plan is followed by a rationale citing educational research to support my choices and adaptations.
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applying student assessment and evaluation practices that generate evidence of student learning to inform teaching practice through a balance of formative and summative assessment experiences
A Unit Assessment Plan for grade 11 social studies studying micro nationalism. This plan ensures that all outcomes are formatively and summatively assessed in a variety of ways. The design can and will be applied to further unit planning to ensure assessment for and of learning with multiple student opportunities and multi modalities to extend and show knowledge.
This assessment plan includes an inquiry project, reflections and exit slips, formative and summative debates, current events discussions, and a bullet point essay to promote a grade 11 standard of learning as well as meaningful and engaging learning and assessment.
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Applying student assessment and evaluation practices that accurately reflect the learner outcomes within the programs of study
The following files portray a Quiz blueprint and mock quiz for the grade 11 social studies unit "Exploring Micro Nationalism". In using a blueprint all of the outcomes are accounted for a varying taxonomic levels and students are offered different types of questions to show their knowledge. The quiz follows the principles of validity and reliability from Gareis and Grant's "Teacher Made Assessments" (2015).
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ELA/ Social Unit
How do our stories shape who we are?
This unit plan demonstrates my ability to develop a series of lessons and assessments of and for learning that are varied, engaging, and relevant to students and considers the local context and issues for my students at Napi's Playground Elementary School located on Treaty Seven Land and Piikani Nation Territory.
Full unit plan and rationale:
stories_unit_plan.docx | |
File Size: | 1710 kb |
File Type: | docx |
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Planning
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Instruction
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Assessment
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PLANNING AND DESIGNING LEARNING ACTIVITIES THAT ADDRESS THE LEARNING OUTCOMES OUTLINES IN PROGRAMS OF STUDY
This inquiry unit focusses on general outcome 4.2 The Stories, Histories, and Peoples of Alberta from the Social Studies curriculum, integrating literacy in oral, visual, and written forms into each lesson. Students begin by defining "story" as a social studies concept and using literary knowledge, telling their own oral stories using artifacts and moving to define various forms of literacy as examples and non-examples. Students research the Blackfoot Confederacy and Piikani Nation in small groups using books and websites, and create their own historical stories using photographs.
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Students go on to research their own community and use the literary form of narrative verse to create a class book about their own culture. Finally, students tell their own unique stories about their lives and history, share about their culture and land, connecting research done in class to the stories that have shaped who they are. Oral, written, and visual literacy are all strongly promoted in this unit. Since many of the students are below grade level for literacy skills, using groups to assign a reader and a writer is one strategy used throughout while using Levelled Literacy Intervention alongside the unit strengthens the literacy of all students. Students also have time to develop these skills.
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The final task can be spoken or read, visuals or artifacts can play a role as well to support all forms of literacy. “Speaking, writing and representing are used in the social studies program to relate a community’s stories and to convey knowledge, beliefs, values and traditions through narrative history, music, art and literature” (Alberta Education, 2005, p. 10). Students take Blackfoot language classes everyday which will be promoted in the unit through the oral story recordings in both Blackfoot and English, when looking at Napi stories using Blackfoot words, and through students choosing to bring in language to their own stories. Since promotion of literacy is a key goal for this class, there are lots of opportunities to
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promote reading and writing skills as well as oral and visual literacy. This unit could be combined with literacy outcomes to promote analyzing stories, support reading abilities, and promote writing and taking note of ideas to form an oral presentation.
USING INSTRUCTIONAL STRATEGIES TO ENGAGE STUDENTS IN MEANINGFUL LEARNING ACTIVITIES BASED ON AN UNDERSTANDING OF BACKGROUNDS, PRIOR KNOWLEDGE, AND EXPERIENCES
Story is an essential part of Indigenous cultures, for my students of Piikani Nation storytelling is woven into their home and school lives already. Using stories in social studies allows my students to connect with the material and to use the skills in relation to something that is meaningful to them. The grade four program of studies states that “stories provide students with opportunities to understand the dynamics of peoples, cultures, places, issues and events that are integral to Alberta’s history and to contemporary society” (Alberta Education, 2005, p. 5). This unit is also meaningful since by reflecting upon the places and stories in Alberta, “Grade 4 students will develop a sense of place, identity and belonging within Alberta” (Alberta Education, Grade 4, 2006, p. 1). This is essential for the students in my school, since for generations, indigenous people have been excluded, so it is purposeful in that students are discovering their own place, histories, cultures, and stories to shape and explore their own identity.
My students are being immersed into their culture and traditions after experiencing generational disconnect even as recently as their parents, the students are learning from their grandparents and elders so this inquiry unit allows students to bring traditional knowledge into the classroom as well as utilize research materials to discover more about their own community and heritage. Through this, students will “thrive in their evolving identity with a legitimate sense of belonging to their communities, Canada and the world” (Alberta Education, 2005, p. 2). Another significant purpose of this unit is to allow for students to express themselves and their own stories in a safe space. This aligns with Aboriginal Perspectives and Experiences in the Program of Studies which reinforces the role of social studies in “providing opportunities for students to express who they are with confidence as they interact and engage with others” (Alberta Education, 2005, p. 4).
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USING INSTRUCTIONAL STRATEGIES TO ENGAGE STUDENTS IN MEANINGFUL LEARNING ACTIVITIES BASED ON SPECIALIZED KNOWLEDGE OF THE SUBJECT AREAS I TEACH
As a Canadian Studies and Social Studies major one of my primary focusses in my Bachelor of Arts has been Indigenous Studies. I am grateful for the opportunity to be welcomed into the Blackfoot community and to have learned so much in my short time at Piikani Nation. While I have taken many classes surrounding Indigenous history, literature, resistance, culture, and politics none of this amounts to the real lived experience and histories of Indigenous peoples in Canada. For this unit I ensured that I was well read and researched about Piikani culture and history, however I was also always open and honest with my students about my limits as an English immigrant in Canada on their territory. I encouraged my students to share their knowledge and lived experiences in this project and made it known that as they were learning I was learning with them.
APPLYING STUDENT ASSESSMENT AND EVALUATION PRACTICES THAT PROVIDE A VARIETY OF METHODS THROUGH WHICH STUDENTS CAN DEMONSTRATE THEIR ACHIEVEMENT OF THE LEARNING OUTCOMES
The final summative task is based upon ideas and information and as such can take many forms of demonstrated literacy. Students can tell their story orally, read from a written piece, record a video, act it out, use drawings, pictures, or artifacts. Posted below is the final activity in full, including opportunities for formative peer and teacher feedback, adequate planning time, student choice, and demonstration of learning.
APPLYING STUDENT ASSESSMENT AND EVALUATION PRACTICES THAT GENERATE EVIDENCE OF STUDENT LEARNING TO INFORM TEACHING PRACTICE THROUGH A BALANCE OF FORMATIVE AND SUMMATIVE ASSESSMENT EXPERIENCES
This unit incorporates formative feedback on an ongoing and daily basis. After instructional activities, such as telling a story using artifacts, I comment on each group as to what they did well and things to think about in storytelling. All work is commented upon daily (written or verbal) and put into student folders. Exemplary work is posted to our class bulletin boards to encourage students who have done well and to demonstrate high standards to other students. This inquiry unit also has three summative assessments which are graded holistically on a four point scale used by the school for report cards. These grades are submitted to the class teacher to be put into power school. The summative assessments range from a daily activity (researching and extracting information and making connections in a written or scribed form) to more timely activities. For example, creating 1-2 pages of the class Piikani book and telling their final story.