Wednesday, December 4, 2013

Educator Requirements

 Ed 612.04  Elementary Education.  The elementary education program for grades K-6 or K-8 shall provide the teaching candidate with the skills, competencies and knowledge gained through a combination of academic and supervised practical experience in the following areas:

          (a)  In the area of curriculum and assessment, the ability to:

(1)  Design, administer, and use the results of informal assessments to meet individual needs;

(2)  Use the results of standardized tests, observations, and daily student performance to plan instruction; and

(3)  Help K-6 or K-8 students develop the ability to assess their own progress as learners;

          (b)  In the area of planning and instructional strategies, the ability to:

(1)  Use the following strategies to promote student learning:

a.  Development of student literacy, including reading instruction that leads to development of student strategies for word recognition, decoding skills, and reading comprehension;

b.  Development of student writing skills, including writing process, usage, and grammar; and

c.  Development of student mathematics skills, including number systems, number series, algebraic concepts, informal geometry, measurement, data organization and interpretation skills;

(2)  Apply fundamental skills of social interaction, problem solving, and higher order thinking and to foster development of these skills in students by integrating them into all subject areas;

(3)  Use enthusiasm and appropriate language and behaviors to provoke interest, curiosity, and engagement in learning for all subjects;

(4)  Demonstrate understanding of all subject areas through the proper use of subject specific language, behaviors, and skills;

(5)  Use literature and artistic expression as teaching tools in all subject areas;

(6)  Use developmentally appropriate practices to create authentic learning experiences crucial to teaching elementary students; and

(7)  Integrate effectively a variety of content areas into a holistic, thematic approach to teaching;

          (c)  In the area of communication and collaboration:

(1)  Knowledge of the roles and responsibilities of various personnel, including principal, speech language specialist, speech language pathologist, occupational therapist, special education administrator, and paraeducator, indigenous to elementary schools and districts;

(2)  Ability to effectively access and collaborate with school district personnel to support student learning; and

(3)  Skill in using a variety of appropriate, constructive communication strategies that effectively engage families, parents, and guardians in discussions of children’s growth and development;

          (d)  In the area of professionalism:

(1) Knowledge of the laws governing the education of all learners and ability to use that knowledge to create an inclusive learning environment;

(2)  Ability to understand how the dynamics of the classroom and the teacher’s own behavior and skills can impact students’ behavior and learning; and

(3) Ability to create systems managing time, space, and discipline that effectively promote learning and a positive classroom climate;

          (e)  In the area of technology:

(1) Ability to discriminate between developmentally appropriate and inappropriate use of technology with children;

(2)  Skill in utilizing technologies effectively to assist student learning; and

(3)  Knowledge of how to provide equal access to the digital world;

          (f)  In the area of language arts content, the ability to:

(1)  Explain the usage of structure, grammar, and orthography of the English language;

(2)  Analyze, interpret, and evaluate the elements of literary works, including fiction, non-fiction, drama, and poetry; and

(3)  Apply knowledge of the influence of social, cultural, psychological, and economic factors to the acquisition of language and language learning and to the teaching of literacy;

          (g)  In the area of mathematics content, the ability to:

(1)  Explain the meaning and use of numbers and the standard algorithms for the 4 basic operations of addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division;

(2)  Explain basic algebraic concepts, representations, and formulas;

(3)  Explain the proportions of geometry, including relationships and theorems in figures and shapes;

(4)  Explain standard units of measurement; and

(5)  Organize and interpret data through the use of visual displays, probability, and statistics;

          (h)  In the area of social studies content, ability to:

(1)  Explain world geography and its effects on human, physical, political, and economic systems;

(2)  Explain the pre-history and early civilizations to those of the current day, including their developments and transformations;

(3)  Explain United States history from European exploration and colonization to current developments and transformations;

(4)  Explain the nature, purpose, and forms of local, state, national, and international government;

(5)  Demonstrate a working knowledge of the tools, goals, and areas of study in anthropology, sociology, and psychology; and

(6)  Explain basic micro- and macro-economics; and

          (i)  In the area of science content, ability to:

(1)  Explain, in the area of earth science, the structure and the process of the earth system and its relationship to the universe;

(2)  Explain, in the area of life science, the structure, function, and healthy maintenance of living systems;

(3)  Explain, in the area of physical science, the structure, property, and interactions of energy and matter;

(4)  Apply the inquiry process an educational standard of science pursuant to RSA 193-C:3,III(a) through the use of scientific inquiry; and

(5)  Apply an awareness of history and nature of science to an inquiry process an educational standard of science pursuant to RSA 193-C:3,III(a) illuminating the history of science.

Source.  #2055, eff 6-16-82; ss by #2714, eff 5-16-84; ss by #4632, eff 7-1-89; EXPIRED 7-1-95

New.  #6366, eff 10-30-96, EXPIRED: 10-30-04

New.  #8229, eff 12-17-04; ss by #8725, eff 9-9-06

Tuesday, November 19, 2013

Field Experience Assignment



Mrs. Coulon’s third grade class is one of eight third grade classes at Hooksett Memorial School located in Hooksett, New Hampshire. Every Monday afternoon, after lunch, Mrs. Coulon brings her 23 third graders to one of the computer labs located in the school. In the computer lab, she uses a SMART board to model for her students the process of logging in to the computer, navigating the school wiki page, as well as logging in to the AR application. The school homepage wiki is a Glogster design, with bright colors and easy to find tabs. Students clicked on the AR button, which brought them to a website by Renaissance Reader, called a Renaissance Page. On this page was the AR application, short for Accelerated Reader. This is a program that offers short quizzes on books, adjusted to size by the reading level of the book, that the students can take at their own pace. Almost every book that the children could think of was located in this site, searchable by title, author or keyword. The students worked together to type in the name of the story that Mrs. Coulon had spent the last few weeks reading to them, Charlotte’s Web, and each student answered 10 questions based on reading comprehension. They also have the choice of testing their vocabulary or literacy comprehension. The majority of the class navigated this whole process with ease. They were able to find the homepage tab at the top of the web page and many students typed with one finger or two.
After the students had finished their quizzes, they headed back to their classrooms to work on practicing cursive handwriting, and some students took additional book quizzes, using the AR app, on the classroom IPads. There are 30 IPads available to the entire school, so there are 10 shared per grade. The students remembered their logins that they had just practiced in the lab, and continued to show how easily they can manipulate technology by navigating the same process with the quizzes quickly and efficiently.  For these third graders, it was the first time they had used an IPad in their school classroom, although you couldn’t tell that from the way they handled the devices.
In my opinion, the use of the AR application is a very smart tool for these children because it is something they have the skills to navigate at their age and they can use the application on many different computers and hand-held devices. The quizzes themselves allow for modifications for students who are advanced, a little behind, or have special needs. Since the only technology I saw present during the day was SMART boards, computer labs, and IPads, I asked the teacher if she had plans to integrate any other kinds of technology. She said she did not have any immediate plans, and did not feel that they would likely have access to more than the 10 IPads any time soon. I feel that the ways that she has incorporated technology so far are certainly more stimulating than the alternative (for example, taking paper quizzes), but I do wonder if there are more tools or applications that could be used in her curriculum to further learning. The most interesting part of the observation was when the teacher confessed to me that she was not trained on her SMART board when it was brought into the classroom, that the children were trained and that she had to follow along with them and then rely on them later to help her. This reminded me of the co-learning environment we talked about in our class. Apparently the students really like when they get to help out their teacher and be the ‘expert.’

Tuesday, November 12, 2013

Is that my voice? Is that, my voice?


Enjoy my digital story! I hope it's not too long.

Oh and every time I listened to the playback, all I could think about was this- specifically 35 seconds into the video (the Emperor's New Groove video, not my digital story).

Tuesday, November 5, 2013

Kindergarten Lesson Plan

Enter your name and specific age group(s) to use this lesson: Amanda Tanguay. Lesson Plan for Kindergarten.

List the Web site you found your lesson on:  http://school.discoveryeducation.com/lessonplans/programs/animalAlphabet/
“Big Idea” this lesson plan supports:  Learn the letters of the alphabet and the different sounds they make. Also introduction to digital storytelling and working in collaboration with peers.


Lesson Plan Component
Criteria
Title - Name of Lesson

Animal Alphabet Shorts
GSE’s/GLE’s/
Frameworks/Common Core/NETS- Standards

(listed under Course Documents)

W-K-6.1 Naming or labeling objects or pictures
W-K-6.2 Representing facts through pictures
W-K-8.1 Using pictures to illustrate information related to topic
OC-K-1.2 Listening and responding to stories, songs or poems
OC-K-2.1 Speaking clearly and distinctly, orally sharing information and experience
OC-K-2.3 Telling stories about pictures, books or experiences
R-K-1.5 Recognizing and naming all upper and lower case letters
R-K-1.6 Identifying the primary sounds represented by most letters
NETS Standards:
1.Creativity and Innovation
Students demonstrate creative thinking, construct
knowledge, and develop innovative products and
processes using technology.
a.Apply existing knowledge to generate new ideas,
products, or processes
b.Create original works as a means of personal
or group expression
c.Use models and simulations to explore complex
systems and issues
2.Communication and Collaboration
Students use digital media and environments to
communicate and work collaboratively, including
at a distance, to support individual learning and
contribute to the learning of others.
a.Interact, collaborate, and publish with peers,
experts, or others employing a variety of digital
environments and media
b.Communicate information and ideas effectively
to multiple audiences using a variety of media
and formats

Lesson Objective(s) - The Student can or will … using a verb from Blooms Revised Taxonomy

Sub Categories

Each of the categories or taxonomic elements has a number of key verbs associated with it
Lower Order Thinking Skills (LOTS)
  • Remembering - Recognising, listing, describing, identifying, retrieving, naming, locating, finding
  • Understanding - Interpreting, Summarising, inferring, paraphrasing, classifying, comparing, explaining, exemplifying
  • Applying - Implementing, carrying out, using, executing
  • Analysing - Comparing, organising, deconstructing, Attributing, outlining, finding, structuring, integrating
  • Evaluating - Checking, hypothesising, critiquing, Experimenting, judging, testing, Detecting, Monitoring
  • Creating - designing, constructing, planning, producing, inventing, devising, making
Higher Order Thinking Skills (HOTS)


Students will be able to…

    -Recognize the letters of the alphabet in both upper and lower case form
    -List the letters alphabetically
    -Classify sounds to letters
    -Find animals and additional words that match the sounds of the letters
    -Create pictures of animals and matching words
    -Plan the script for the story about the animals
    -Construct a digital story




Materials - What will they need to complete this assignment?

Be as specific as possible.

-5 computers with internet access and the ability to support the website slidestory.com
-scanner
-projector screen and speakers
-paper and markers

Anticipatory Set - Prior Knowledge - How will you “hook” students prior to teaching the lesson
Students will sing the “Alphabet Song”
Students will practice lining up alphabetically by first letter of first name
Students will watch Alphabet video as a class


Procedures - What will student and teacher do? Best practices - Ask 3 questions here to promote higher order thinking related to lesson plan.
1. After watching the Alphabet video and reviewing the letter sounds as a class, students will be broken up into groups of four and assigned four letters to each group, consecutively next to each other in the alphabet. (For example, group 1 would have letters A, B, C and D, etc.)
2. Each student will then pick a letter and an animal to represent that letter, using this site as a resource if he or she needs help finding animals with names that mimic the sound.
3. Each student will also write a short story, about 2-4 lines about the animal including 2 more words that start with the same letter-sound.
4. Once the student has completed his or her script, he or she will draw 2-3 pictures illustrating the story and showing the animal as the main character, again using this site if needed for pictorial inspiration.
5. With the help of the teacher or parent helper, students will scan their drawings into their computers and, using the slidestory website, record their script to go with the coordinating pictures. The group of four children will edit their video.
5. The teacher will then edit all the videos together into one and the class will watch it together.
Discussion Questions:
1. What are the letters of the alphabet?
2. What letters make similar sounds?
3. What changes would you make to the digital story? What did you like about the process and end result?

Closure - How will you have students reflect on what has been learned in this lesson?
Students will re-group into their groups, be handed a piece of paper with four letters of the alphabet that they did not work on before, and try to remember what stories the other students told to match the letters. If there is time, they can draw pictures as well as discuss.

Students will answer the three discussion questions listed above.







Assessment- Assessment is directly correlated to stated objectives (listed above) and provides an opportunity for every student to demonstrate progress toward meeting the objective(s)  

Create a rubric that shows objectives relating to project. - Assessment can be completion of project. Something student creates.


Students are assessed on how well they understood the assignment of matching the letter sounds to words and animals, the quality/quantity of the drawings, and the ability to collaborate with peers as well as create an entertaining and meaningful digital story.
See rubric below:
Category:
3 Points
2 points
1 point
0 points
Understanding and Drawings
Students were highly engaged in class and group discussions; clearly identified all the letters of the alphabet and their sounds; and created colorful and unique drawings that demonstrated a solid understanding of a particular letter and its sounds.
Students participated in class and group discussions; adequately identified most of the letters of the alphabet and their sounds; and created somewhat colorful and unique drawings that demonstrated a basic understanding of a particular letter and its sounds.
Students participated minimally in class and group discussions; were unable to identify most of the letters of the alphabet and their sounds; and created incomplete drawings that did not demonstrate a basic understanding of a particular letter and its sounds.
Student did not participate.
Digital Short
Students collaborated to create a seamless presentation, rehearsing and trying to articulate for the voice recording. Student fulfilled minimal requirement of 2-3 scripted sentences to tell the story.    
Students struggled to collaborate. Story was in some order and almost fulfilled requirement of sentences and words to match the sounds.
Students did not collaborate on the work. The short was disjointed or hastily done. Not enough words or scripted sentences.
Student did not participate.

Modifications/
Accommodations

Lesson plan includes appropriate modifications and/or accommodations for students needing enrichment, remediation, or alternative strategies

Students with IEP - Individualized Educational Plans or 504’s would require modifications or accommodations -
Students who are showing advanced knowledge can choose to make his or her digital story longer by including more words that start with the same letter, a longer script, and may even choose to add music to the presentation.

Students with an IEP or 504 could have the option of buddying up with a friend on the same letter, choosing less words to include in the story, using an online drawing tool if paper and marker is not an option, or can use the animal from the original Animal video.