How will you supplement your curriculum? Part III

This series began with an overview of the Outside Resources section of the Professional Portfolio developed by each Teacher Assistant. In the second post, Brock, one of our TAs, shared his Outside Resources entry, and I admitted that I evaluated it incorrectly. The purpose of this, the final post in the series, is to explain what led to my error in evaluation and how the exit interview helped me to correct my misconception.

My original evaluation of Brock's work was Progressing. Here is how this level is described in the rubric: "The candidate collects outside resources but they are not related to the mathematics of the unit." Typically, TAs include an article/activity from NCTM that directly relates to the mathematical content of their unit. This is what I expected - my bias. 

When I read Brock's entry, I was surprised to find that he had included the NCTM Process Standards and Cambourne's Conditions of Learning as his Outside Resources. How did this relate to the mathematics found in his polynomial unit? I wrote a note reminding me to ask Brock about his choices and recorded "Progressing" in my NCATE spreadsheet.

About halfway through the exit interview, I questioned Brock about his Outside Resources. He responded that he thought the Process Standards and Conditions were important frameworks that should be implemented everyday in every lesson. My jaw dropped. How could I have missed this so completely? I had fallen into the old trap of judging instead of evaluating.

Based on my prior experiences with the portfolios, I was expecting TAs to produce a particular product - activities that would address some math content. Brock's entry was missing this product and so it was wrong. I had completely forgotten the fact that we had spent the semester discussing how the processes are as important as the content when it comes to math. I had completely forgotten to read Brock's entry with an open mind while using the questions from the Teaching-Learning Cycle to support my evaluation.

Fortunately, the exit interview provided me with the opportunity to be aware of my mistake, accept it, and make the necessary adjustment. Brock's entry was actually "Distinguished" given my new insight. He had gone beyond selecting a single activity that would enhance one topic in his unit. The Outside Resources he collected would impact every lesson, every day, regardless of what or who he was teaching. In his own words: "Including them in this portfolio is a way for me to have a constant reminder of them."

Sorry, Brock. Next time, I will be more open to alternative ideas and stick to our evaluation framework.  Next time, I'll do it better.

How will you supplement your curriculum? Part II

The previous post introduced the assessment used to evaluate Teacher Assistants’ ability to supplement their curriculum with outside resources. Typically, this entry includes an NCTM article related to the content addressed in a TA’s unit plan. Issues only arise when TAs select resources that are either unrelated to the mathematics in the unit or are not from NCTM.

(0) Unsatisfactory	(1) Progressing	(2) Proficient	(3) Distinguished
The candidate provides no outside resources from professional mathematics organizations.	The candidate collects outside resources but they are not related to the mathematics of the unit.	Appropriate resources are collected and the candidate explains how they relate to the content of his or her math unit.	The outside resources selected by the candidate either effectively extend students’ learning of a topic in the unit or provide scaffolding to students in need of support.

This year, one of our TAs, Brock Walsh, submitted the following entry. (He granted his permission for me to share this with you.) I was completely unprepared for this approach since it did not meet my experience or expectations. Consequently, I scored it as "Progressing" - surprise, I was wrong.

Outside Resources

The Process Standards from the NCTM website are a useful tool that I continuously find myself looking for and applying to my teaching philosophy. In particularly, I used these standards during one of my lessons this semester as I put myself at the front of the classroom to analyze a rational function problem on the white-board. I told the students that the purpose of this was for them to see what a good problem solver would look like so that they could reciprocate those ideas when they problem solved in the investigation. Showing the students my thought processes of problem solving, using reasoning and proof, and making connections were all things that I acted out in class for them to see. I then communicated to them what my thinking was and represented my work through graphs and charts. I had so much fun with this lesson and was able to improve on it teaching that lesson three times. I had an action plan set for that class as well looking to increase students’ engagement in problem solving and in the end, I felt that I did a very good job in my objective.

The Process Standards should always be a crucial framework to follow whenever I plan a lesson for my students. I want to make sure that when they are doing math, that they are able to somehow use these standards to show that they are mastering their work. My unit in particular needed a lot of connections to be made to understand new material. The students themselves needed to show me that they knew the material by communicating their thinking to me through formative assessments. We had projects where the students were able to represent their thinking on posters that were hung in the hallway. And lastly, they use reasoning during problem solving to work through problems and generate answers. My students will be successful when they are successfully using each of these standards appropriately.

Brian Cambourne’s Conditions of Learning is another great resource for really knowing how to engage my learners. Being an effective teacher means that I am reaching each student at the appropriate level that they should be learning. Being at Black River, we have high expectations for our students to be responsible for their own learning. In several lessons we allowed students to make approximations before we stepped in to demonstrate the correct way to problem solve. By doing that we gave them opportunity to achieve their own way of understanding the problem, which is powerful when it is accomplished. From the formative assessments, I was able to give students immediate response to their work and let them know how to make corrections to their understanding. All of these conditions truly make students progress towards better literacy of mathematics.

Cambourne’s conditions should be on my mind whenever I lesson plan. I need to know my students and present material to them in a way that they are engaged and are able to progressively develop their thinking. This is a framework that I should keep on hand and refer back to on occasion to make sure that I am reaching my student’s needs.

To be continued...

How will you supplement your curriculum? Part I

Last week 17 GVSU math majors completed their Secondary Teacher Assisting placement.  The final activity of the semester is an individual exit interview during which we meet with each teacher in training to go over his or her professional portfolio. Each portfolio includes 14 entries divided between three sections.

This series of posts focuses on the Outside Resources portion of the portfolio and what I learned about assessment and evaluation as a result of one Teacher Assistant’s entry in this category. Before we get to the TA’s work, however, here is some background information. The following details regarding the Outside Resources entry are given to the TAs at the start of the semester.

Objective: Select, use, and determine the suitability of the wide variety of available curricula and teaching materials for all students including those with special needs such as the gifted, challenged and speakers of other languages.

Task: Identify two outside resources that could be useful in the teaching of your unit.  At least one of these should be from the National Council of Teacher of Mathematics

Essential Questions: How does each resource fit into your unit? How does each resource aid in the planning, instruction or assessment of your unit?

Next, I want to share the rubric we use to evaluate our program for National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education. This is based on TA’s work but it does not impact their grade. Consequently, we do not share this with the TAs.

Outside Resources: The candidate develops a collection of instructional resources (from NCTM) related to the topics of his or her unit that could strengthen the curriculum. An overview of the ideas along with how they might be implemented will accompany the resources

Indicator 8.1: Selects, uses, and determines the suitability of the wide variety of available mathematics curricula and teaching materials for all students including those with special needs such as the gifted, challenged and speakers of other languages.

Indicator 8.5: Participates in professional mathematics organizations and uses their print and on-line resources.

(0) Unsatisfactory	(1) Progressing	(2) Proficient	(3) Distinguished
The candidate provides no outside resources from professional mathematics organizations.	The candidate collects outside resources but they are not related to the mathematics of the unit.	Appropriate resources are collected and the candidate explains how they relate to the content of his or her math unit.	The outside resources selected by the candidate either effectively extend students’ learning of a topic in the unit or provide scaffolding to students in need of support.

In the next post, we will look at one Teacher Assistant’s Outside Resources entry and I will discuss how certain expectations on my part interfered with my ability to accurately evaluate this work.