PS3 TQS Reflection 3 Cody Chipman

Demonstrating a Professional Body of Knowledge:

- A teacher applies a current and comprehensive repertoire of effective
planning, instruction, and assessment practices to meet the learning needs
of every student.

I have prided myself in my ability to create effective, detailed, and well-thought-out lesson
plans. I believe a big part of getting the most out of your students is setting up daily and weekly
routines that can provide stability and expectations for the students. Generally, the first time a
student is asked to do an activity they can’t complete it as well as if there are follow up
attempts because time will be wasted on asking clarifying questions or simply not
understanding the teacher’s expectations for the activity. Now that we have been at it for a few
weeks, I have established certain routines that have helped get the most out of each student
because rather than them waste time and not knowing what to do, they understand that they
only have a certain amount of time to finish the activity and they have had regular practice, so
their finished product continually gets better. For example, every day I provide students with 15
minutes to write in their physical writing journals. They are asked to respond to writing prompts
and use the entire time provided to respond and attend to conventions. Then, on the Thursday
of each week they are asked to select one of their entries to develop on a Classroom document
assignment for me to grade based on content, conventions, and growth.
I have continued to develop my professional body of knowledge regarding my assessment
practices and adjusting expectations for student abilities and practices. Being a new teacher, it is
hard to go into things knowing what the students you are assigned to teach are capable of so as
I’ve spent more time with them, I have better focused on things that are beneficial and age
appropriate for their academic and social growth. My TA is helping me learn a new way of
approaching summative assessment in the classroom. The plan is to collect all assignments and
rather than provide a number grade for each assignment I will give feedback and indicate
whether their submission is “Poor”, “Limited”, “Satisfactory”, “Proficient”, or “Excellent”. Then,
the week of report cards, I will have student-teacher conferences where we will reflect on ELA
growth and achievements up to that point and come up with a number grade for the report
card. Though this professional growth isn’t aimed at my subject knowledge it will help increase
my procedural practices.