Alexis Mayhall

Reflective Action Activity

1. Choose one state standard you will be required to use in your curriculum planning.

Civics 13.0 - Citizenship and the Law - Students know why society needs rules, laws, and

government and understand the roles, rights, and responsibilities of citizens.

2. Write the Standard.

C13.K.5A Develop an Awareness of traditional U.S. and Nevada patriotic activities,

holidays, or symbols.

3. Reasons and motives your state adopted this standard.

I believe that these state standards are created to help make students aware of the

traditions and reasons why we celebrate certain holidays and why they are important in

U.S history or culture. For kindergartners, it is important that they develop a sense of self

and a sense of a world that is bigger than they are. This standard will help connect real

world experiences that students participate in connect to history content. I believe our

state adopted this standard so that students are aware of the reasons we are out of school

and why those days are important for us to observe and learn about.

4. How does this standard affect your curriculum planning and teaching?

For this standard, like most, it is important to plan ahead so that the holidays or traditions

I am teaching occur when the actual event occurs. This will allow for a relevant and

explicit reason for teaching content. For instance, I would typically teach a history unit

about our presidents during February so that we can connect our learning to President’s

Day. I believe this standard would be useful if I did not have standards to follow because
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it makes it explicit that I should be teaching content like this. This standard is one that

most kindergarten teachers would teach even if they did not have standards to follow.

This is due to the fact that it is easy and important to connect our learning to actual events

that are occurring throughout the year. I believe this standard could potentially be

difficult to teach because there is no explanation or guideline as to how the state defines

the standard. My definition might be different from the states, therefore, how I interpret

the standard (unless told otherwise) is how I would teach it. So, my definition might look

different from others.

5. How would you use this standard to guide planning?

I would use this standard as a blanket or guiding standard for planning long range plans.

For instance, this standard will be achieved through multiple experiences and lessons

throughout the year. I would use this standard as a question as to what U.S. and Nevada

Holidays and traditions can I cover throughout the year and when can I do this. So if I

were to create a long term plan, I would map out the holidays I want to focus on (Nevada

Day, MLK Day, Presidents Day, Labor Day, etc.) and make sure that I was covering at

least one holiday or tradition per month. This way, through our reading and writing

content, I can connect these holidays to those areas. So, in February, we might do a unit

on Presidents and learn about bibliographies, then connect our learning in writing by

writing a research paper on those presidents. This could also occur on MLK Day. So, this

standard would be one that is taught throughout the year.

6. How will you assess students' accomplishments of the standard?

This standard can be linked to project-based learning or through writing. My assessments

of student learning (kindergarten) would be done through formative assessments such as

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observations, conferences, and oral discussions about the holidays. I would prove my

students understanding to administration by displaying the projects, papers, or writing

that I link with this standard. The reason that student writing, in some cases, cannot be

my only form of assessment is because Kindergartners are building their skills in writing

therefore, their writing might not reflect their thinking because they simply do not have

the skills yet.

7. Reflect upon your planning.

I actually enjoyed this process when planning content-based standards. I think that there

are many different components to teaching the standard and thinking them through makes

the process more meaningful in preparing plans rather than reading the standard. I

thought it was difficult to do this on my own and that I would benefit having a discussion

with a grade level team or partner when planning.