Professional Growth Plan Final Report

Stetson University
Carly Swanson

Senior Internship

Fall 2018
PART 1

1a. What data are you using to guide the development of your professional learning goal
(e.g. reflections on teaching, teaching observations, mid-program evaluations, student
feedback)

I am using my reflections on teaching, teaching observations, and student

achievement data to guide the development of my professional learning goal.
Immediately after I teach a lesson I try to write down everything about how that lesson
went from how I felt teaching to how my students were responding. I tried to be honest
and transparent as possible so I can go back and use that reflection to inform at my
future teaching. During post conferences with my professors I listen and internalize the
feedback they’re giving me so that I keep that in the back of my head as something I
need to work on during the very next lesson I teach. Then I read over the Assessment C,
Danielson Domain Assessment, and VSET assessment to see were exactly my
weaknesses lie. Finally I look at my students formative and summative assessments to
gauge whether or not my teaching accomplish the goal of each student demonstrating
proficiency.

1b. What does the data tell you?

My reflections tell me that the longer I teach the better I feel and the smoother
lessons go. If I could sink right into the comfort zone and routine of teaching on my first
lesson that would be excellent. Nerves just make the lessons go worse so there’s no
point in worrying. My student data shows me that all my students demonstrated
proficiency on the science unit I taught. My teaching observations and post conferences
have given me specific feedback. Based on the feedback I received from my
observations, generally speaking, my classroom management and classroom
environment are pretty good. I do fairly well at managing student behavior and creating
a culture where students are enthusiastic to learn and feel comfortable doing so. I need
to work on clearly communicating instructional purpose of my lesson to my students,
including its place in the students’ broader learning and explain procedures and
direction. I also could work on my use of higher order questions and questioning
techniques.

2. Using the information from question 1, what is your focus area (write both the
Danielson domain and the component that you have identified as having the greatest
potential for increasing student learning below)

Domain 3: Instruction

Component 3a: Communicating With Students

3. What goal will enable you to strengthen your practice (write your goal statement
below)?
My goal is to clearly communicate expectations for learning, directions and procedures
during lesson delivery, and explanations of content.

4. Describe what you will do to build professional background knowledge related to the
domain and component that you have selected in order for you to achieve your goal (e.g.
what articles/books will you read, what internet resources will you use, what workshops
will you attend, will you interview or observe teachers)?

The first place that I will start to build background knowledge related to Domain
Three, Instruction, Component 3a, Communicating with Students, on the Danielson
Group website. This will give me a good idea of exactly what each component contains
and what I will need to do to reach my goal. The next thing I will do is look at the domain
three rubric to see the exact expectations that I want to meet. Then I will watch the
video of Charlotte Danielson talking about her framework. Once I have a good idea of
what I’m trying to accomplish then I will go out and start to do the work. Over the
summer I will read Teach Like a Champion and The Power of Our Words to begin to inform
myself of how best to approach achieving my goal. I will watch videos on teacher tube
observed best practices and how others teachers communicate with their students
throughout the lesson.

5. What specific activities/actions will you implement to help attain your goal (e.g.
administer a student interest inventory, develop lessons that include multiple project
options for students, include the use of formative assessments during instruction, video
tape and critique one’s practice, establish procedures for the distribution and collection
of materials and supplies)?

Some specific actions I will implement to help me attain my goal are to look at the
Volusia County curriculum map, write the instructional purpose and where each day’s
learning fits in students’ prior learning in every lesson plan, and write clear procedures
and instructions for all activities. I think my work starts with the Volusia County
Curriculum Map for the grade level I’m teaching. Over the summer I will start to
familiarize myself with the content contained in the curriculum map. I will pull out the
instructional purposes of each unit to help me better communicate with students what
are doing each day and why we’re doing it. Then once I have established what the
instructional purposes are for each lesson I will include them in student friendly terms at
the beginning and end of each lesson. This will remind me that I need to communicate
my goal for student learning with my students. I will also work with my CT to develop
procedures and instructions specific to our classroom and the activities that we plan to
engage students.

6. How will you collaborate with other professionals to meet your goal?

I will collaborate with other professionals to learn how they communicate

instructional goals and content with students and what procedures and directions work
best for them. My grade level team will have so much experience teaching the content
that they will be an excellent resource for me. I can observe them in their classroom
communicating with their students to learn what good soon communication looks like.
Professors are also an excellent resource to go to for help clarifying procedures and
directions. They do an excellent job of picking out points where students get confused
and where I need to be more specific. I will ask my cooperating teacher to look over my
lesson in unit plans to make sure my instruction is clear, my objective is stated in
student friendly terms, and my directions and procedures are clear. During the beginning
of the internship I will have plenty of time to watch how my CT communicates with
students so I can mimic this communication once I start teaching.

7. What evidence/artifacts will you collect to demonstrate that your goal is being met?

The evidence that I will gather to demonstrate that my goal is being met will come
in the form of my next unit planning guide, professor observations, and student data. My
lessons and unit planning guide will demonstrate how I clearly outline my instructional
goals in student friendly terms at the beginning and end of each lesson. It will also show
the clear instructions and procedures I gave students throughout instruction. Professors
will observe my clear communication with students when they come to watch me teach.
My student data will show that they are demonstrating proficiency on the standards
being taught because they received the communication I was delivering through clear
instructions.
PART 2

1. What did you do to build your professional background knowledge related to the
domain and component that you selected? Did you add any new professional
learning opportunities during your internship?

I built professional background knowledge related to domain three, instruction,

component 3a, communicating with students, on the Danielson Group website. First, I
watched a video of Charlotte Danielson talking about her framework to better
understand the framework as a whole. On the website I specifically looked at the
domain three rubric to give me a good idea of what exactly this component
contained. It also allowed me to see the exact expectations I needed to meet. This
gave me a good idea exactly what I needed to do to reach my goal. Over the summer
I read Teach Like a Champion and The Power of Our Words to begin to introduce
myself to how best to approach achieving my goal. At the beginning of the semester,
before I started teaching, I watched closely to see how my cooperating teacher
communicated with the students.

2. What specific activities/actions did you implement to help attain your goal?

Some specific action I implemented to help me attain my goal were to look at the
Volusia County Curriculum Map. I started looking at the curriculum map for
kindergarten because that is the grade level I teach. Over the summer I started to
familiarize myself with the content contained in the curriculum map. I pulled out
the instructional purposes of each unit to help me better communicate with
students what we are doing each day and why we’re doing it. I used the
curriculum map to write the instructional purpose, and where each day’s learning
fits in students’ prior learning in each lesson plan. I included this information in
student friendly terms at the beginning and end of each lesson. As I taught
throughout the semester I started looking at the first grade curriculum to make
sure I was getting students to where they needed to be in first grade. This also
helped me connect what we were learning now to what my students would learn in
the future.

3. Did you meet your intended goal? Describe the evidence and artifacts that
demonstrate the professional learning goal was met (include at least 5 descriptions
of evidence). Two pieces of evidence must be the focused observations by your
cooperating teacher in your selected area of growth (attach the feedback provided
by your cooperating teacher).

As my artifacts below demonstrates, I believe I have met my intended goal of improving

communication with students. I started off this semester right by planning good lessons
that included my objectives and goals in student friendly language at the beginning and
end of each lesson. Then I used activities like monitoring students response opportunities
to improve my practice. My first PGP observation shows that I’m on the right track but
there’s still a ways to go. My second PGP observation shows how much I’ve grown in the
stand of just one month improving my communication with students. Finally my student
work speaks for itself! Clearly the work I have put in throughout this semester to improve
my communication with students has paid off. My students are now able to effectively
communicate they’re learning!
PGP Observation 1 by CT:

During my first PGP observation done by my CT, strengths she observed were positive
praise to student response and following up on vocabulary words students used. She also
notes that I used follow-up questions and made eye contact, smiled and used my
students names. Throughout the lesson I used gentle behavior reminders to keep
students on track. My CT suggested that I use more specific feedback to link
expectations for learning. She also suggests I use more leading questions. This
observation tells me that in early October I was effectively communicating with students
but there was still a lot of room to grow.
PGP Observation 2 by CT:

During my second PGP observation, strengths my CT observed were reviewing math

concepts prior to starting lesson and engaging students with guiding questions and
taking turns on the board. In the description comments section of the observation you
can see that I used many more open-ended, guiding questions during this lesson. I also
linked what students were doing in this lesson to what we have done in the past and
what we will do in the future. At the beginning of the lesson I engaged students by
asking them to turn on their math grade and explaining what we were going to be
working on. In a month I think I learned a lot about how to better communicate with
students. I think this demonstrates that I’ve achieved my goal of improving my
communication.

Activity 3.3 Monitoring Students’ Response Opportunities:

 After examining the results, respond to these statements:

Two things I learned about my interactions with these students are I tend to call on student who are
behaving more often then students who are off task and I do not praise students often for correct
responses. Drake is often off task on the carpet so I rarely call on him.

Two things I will try to do differently the next time I teach a large-group lesson are remember to use
specific praise for correct responses and call on Drake. I will use specific praise to improve my
feedback to my students. I will also remember to call on students who are misbehaving.

This is one of the activities I completed for Dr. Heins. I think it’s a great artifact to show
for communication with students because it is important to recognize which students
you’re giving the opportunity to communicate with you and what that communication
looks like. During this activity I became much more aware of what students I was calling
on and my general lack of positive praise. This activity was done prior to my first PGP
observation. As you can see in the PGP observation one of my strengths was positive
praise. This activity really helped me recognize that I needed to grow in this area and
allowed me to make that important change.

Writing lesson Plan:

Name: Carly Swanson Date: Tues, Sept 11 Time: 11:00-11:30

Big Idea/Topic: Brown Bear/ Sight Words Grade/Subject: Kindergarten / Writing

Lesson Structure: Direct Instruction, Whole Group

Standards:

LAFS.K.W.1.3: Use a combination of drawing, dictating, and writing to narrate a single event or
several loosely linked events, tell about the events in the order in which they occurred, and provide a
reaction to what happened.

Instructional outcomes/objectives(s):

Students will:

 narrate a single event using a combination of drawing, dictating, and/or writing.

Language Objective(s):

Students will:

 write/draw/dictate an event from a story

Key Vocabulary Instructional
Materials/Resources/Te
Narrate- give a spoken or written account of chnology

Event- a thing that happens

Character- a person in a book, play, or movie

Setting- the place where a story takes place

Story- an account of imaginary or real people and events

H.O.T.S. Bloom’s Taxonomy Graphic

Organizer/Thinking
COMPREHENSION: Students will draw a picture of an event from a story Map:
and write a sentence.

Lesson Portions: Pacing ESOL Support

 How will you introduce the lesson, assess or activate For each level EL at each
prior knowledge, motivate students to learn? instructional step. (Add
 How will the lesson develop or proceed? What steps will additional rows with Tab)
you follow? What are the students expected to do?
 Highlight differentiated strategies.
 Underline Higher Order/High Quality Questions in
lesson.
Introduction/Building Background: B:

Students on carpet 2 min I:

Yesterday we drew a picture and wrote ‘I see the bear.’ Today A:

we are going to write and draw something new.

Instructional Steps: B: Show me. (hold out

book)
I am going to draw a picture of the red bird.
I:
Draw bird with details in a tree
A:
Write ‘I see the bird.’ 5 min

You are going to go back to your seats and draw a picture from
the story Brown Bear and write a sentence underneath just like
mine.

Dismiss by table

Student work will differ

Sound out words

20 min
Who is in the picture?

Where would that animal be?

Add more detail.

Pick one or two students to narrate their picture and sentence

to the class using the doc cam.

Closures Pacing ESOL Support

Content Closure: B:

Pick one or two students to narrate their picture and sentence 3 min I:
to the class using the doc cam.
A:
Procedural Closure:

Line up for special area.

Assessment of Student Learning:

Objective 1: Drawing/Sentence

Post Lesson Analysis

Lesson Adjustment: (How are you re-teaching objectives for mastery based on formative
assessment? Include evidence.)

Done over the phone with Dr. Parks

Reflection on Teaching: (Analyze and evaluate your lesson and class management.)

Done over the phone with Dr. Parks

This lesson plan demonstrates how I planned for communicating with students. This
lesson was one of the first lessons I taught. At the beginning I specifically tell and show
students what exactly I want to do. Then I love them to go back to their seats and use
open-ended questions to help them achieve the leaning goal. At the end of the lesson I
chew students who didn’t excellent job to share their work with the class. This creates
communication between students which is just as important if not more important than
my communication with students. My next artifact will show you how I took this a step
further later on in the semester.
Student Work:

I think this student work exemplifies some of my best communication with students. We
have been working on our writing all year and this is the culmination of what we have
done thus far. My explicit modeling and students sharing their work each day has grown
to the point where students can now pick up an iPad, take a picture of their work, record
themselves reading their sentence and tell you all about the picture. This video recording
can then be sent home for parents to see what their kids are working on at school in real
time. It took a lot of communication to get us to this point. I had to give students specific
instructions about what I wanted them to draw and how to write their sentence including
finger spaces and periods as well as sounding out words. I also had to communicate the
procedures necessary to use seesaw. I’m so proud of what my students can do!

4. How did you collaborate with other professionals to meet your goal?

I started by collaborating with my CT on how she communicates with students to meet

my goal of better communication with students. At the end of the day I would talk to my
CT about specific things I noticed she did when communicating with students. We would
discuss why she did it that way and where she learned it. These discussions really helped
me internalize these tactics so I could use them in my teaching. I also talk to my grade
level team about what they did to communicate with students during PLC. After Dr. Parks
came in to observe me one of the things we almost always talked about was centers.
Teaching kindergartners how to effectively work at centers is a challenge because it
requires a lot of specific and clear communication. Dr. Parks gave me a lot of helpful tips
on ways I can better communicate with my students how I want centers to work. We
collaborated on different ways I could express this to my students. Halfway through my
teaching I realize that I needed to do a better job of remembering to explicitly state the
goal of each lesson. My CT came up with the idea of posting the goals on a bulletin board
in the front of the classroom. Together we collaborated to make this bulletin board and
use it throughout the day.

5. What new learning did you acquire as a result of the professional learning
opportunities in which you engaged?

Over the summer I read Teach Like a Champion and The Power of Our Words. These
books taught me a lot about teaching that I needed to know before starting my
internship. Teach Like a Champion gave me strategies to use in my classroom to improve
student learning. The Power of Our Words top me how important what I say and how I act
it is to my students. I learned a lot about how to better use technology in my classroom
through the technology training I engaged in at the beginning of the semester. One of
the ERPLs I attended was on responsive classroom. I had the opportunity to engage in
responsive classroom activities I could take back and use in my classroom. The
Comprehensive Classroom Management activities were another professional learning
opportunity I engaged in that allowed me to take a critical look at my own practice and
gave me the chance to improve.

6. What impact did the changes in instructional practice have on you as a

professional?

These changes in instructional practice had a profound impact on me as a professional.

Teach Like a Champion encouraged me to provide the best opportunity for learning to
each student. I implemented no opt out to ensure that all students had the opportunity
to answer the question correctly in class. The Power of Our Words made me examine the
words and attitudes I use with students. It made me think critically about what I do in
front of students everyday and the impact that might have on them. On a personal note
the technology training allows me to broaden my toolkit of technology I can use in the
classroom both to benefit my students and myself. The responsive classroom ERPL
showed me what kind of a professional I want to be. Outside of teaching students’
content I also want to provide the correct environment for them to learn and grow. The
Comprehensive Classroom Management activities made me take a critical look at my
professionalism and gave me specific things I could do to improve in the areas of:
behavior management, student response opportunity, parent contact, and establishing
rules and procedures.

7. What impact did the changes in instructional practice have on your students’
learning?

The changes in instructional practice impacted my students learning in a positive way.

Implementing no opt out from Teach Like a Champion taught my students that I don’t
know was not an acceptable answer and listening to peers is important for their own
learning. The Power of Our Words allowed me to use better language when speaking to
my students. Which I think they benefited from based on the lack of behavior problems
in my class.

My students are familiar with and often use technology in the classroom this prepares
them for real-life and allows their parents to see their work throughout the day. My
student work indicates how much my students have improved with using technology
throughout the semester. This technology allows students who might be struggling
readers and writers to express their knowledge through an organic format of recording
their thoughts.

My students have definitely benefited from some of the responsive classroom activities.
One of the activities is quiet time after lunch. This gives students an opportunity to settle
down and get their minds ready for learning. Students work is much better quality if we
have quiet time before starting writing as opposed to if we skip quiet time. Another
responsive classroom activity we have implemented is opening and closing circle. At the
beginning of the day we get into a circle, sing a song, share something, go over the
calendar and talk about our day. This settles my students in and get some ready for what
is coming. Our closing circle is that the end of the day. We go over what is in the students
folders, do a quick activity, and then lineup. This gets students ready to go home.

The Comprehensive Classroom Management activities have improved my behavior

management skills which I know my case study student is benefiting from in particular.
The activities have also improved the variety of students I call on during class giving
more students the opportunity to answer questions. It also has pushed me to
communicate better with parents which in return gives me more information about
students. Finally, the activities have allowed me to improve implementation of rules and
procedures which allows our day to go more smoothly and gives students clear
instructions of what they’re supposed to be doing throughout the day.

8. How will you continue to develop in this area?

I will continue to develop in this area by keeping up the intentional effort. Is very easy to
slip into old habits so I will continue to think critically as I teach. I would like to make sure
I continue to express what we are doing to students in clear kid friendly language at the
beginning and end of each lesson. Occasionally I find myself slipping out of this habit and
I need to keep reminding myself to do it. I also want to work on praising students in a
more positive way. The reason for doing something should be the good of the people not
pleasing me as a teacher. I need to work on rewording my praise statements to include
the good of our classroom and school. Communication with students will be in the
forefront of my mind as I teach.