Tuesday, May 10, 2011

Standard 3



Standard 3. Knowledge of Content and Integrated Curriculum
3.1
Know, understand and use central concepts and tools of inquiry appropriate in subject matter and age/grade level
3.2
Create meaningful learning experiences to develop children’s understanding of subject matter and increase skills
3.3
Plan integrated units of curriculum, instruction, assessment based on knowledge of subject matter, curriculum goals, and developmentally appropriate practices among the children’s families, communities, and cultures.

Unlike secondary education, teachers in the elementary grades are responsible for a baseline knowledge in all four subject areas: English, Math, Social Studies and Science. They are then required to create/utilize curriculum for each subject that is developmentally appropriate and further children’s understanding of content matter. Standard Three addresses the need for teachers to be aware of this responsibility.

During my student teaching experience in the Boston Public School system, I got to experience two perspectives on how curriculum should be introduced in a classroom. Through my pre-practicum experience at Winship Elementary in Brighton I was introduced to a traditional method. My cooperating teacher taught according to the Reading Street and TERC math curricula. Both curriculums provided activities to further students knowledge and develop skills related to content areas. Quite often the students class work and homework would be photocopied directly from student activity books.

My practicum experience, at Mission Hill Pilot School was completely different. First, the fact that Mission Hill is a pilot school means that the teachers have a greater flexibility in the curriculum that they use or don’t use and how they organize and present the content materials. Each classroom develops their own curriculum for Reading and Writing that includes the skills and standards for that grade level. Reading consists of independent reading time and guided reading small groups. The school uses leveled readers by Fountas & Pinnell. Fountas & Pinnell is a system in which teachers can level their books according to difficulty. In my classroom a heavy emphasis was placed on having “just right books”. These books fit the reading level of a particular student.

 Science and Social studies are taught through a school wide, rotating theme. The teachers are left to decide how they want to convey the ideas and concepts of each theme to their students. For example, the current theme at Mission Hill is entitled “Struggle for Justice”. The majority of classes are beginning with the Civil Rights movement. However, other classrooms begin with slavery in the 1800’s. The classroom I student taught in began with the Civil Rights movement. They addressed the issues of that time through the lenses of poetry, pictures, and songs. In my experience there, I found this approach very interesting. I feel that it definitely activated student curiosity about learning and motivation to get involved. However, I also recognize the potential for quite a bit of inconsistency with the material and concepts.

The flexibility that Mission Hill had in their academic schedule also accommodated my need to meet my portfolio requirements. I was able to plan and carry out many multiple lessons in the core subject areas. For Science I was responsible for two lessons that were a part of a unit on plants and flowers. The first lesson focused on the children obtaining an understanding of the parts of a flower. This lesson turned out to be particularly interesting to the students for two reasons. First, the class just wrapped up a unit on honey bees. The final lesson was on pollination and outlined the necessary relationship between flowers and honey bees. Second, the lesson on parts of a flower had the students play a game. Artifact 3A is the lesson plan. The bulk of this lesson is playing the game “Pin the Label on the Flower”. The game required students to work collaboratively with teammates and listen carefully to clues read aloud by the teacher. After the game was over, the students wrote in their journal about three flower parts of their choice. Looking back, I feel this lesson provided a meaningful and fun learning experience that encompassed learning and life skills. Also this lesson directly aligned with the Massachusetts Framework Learning Standards for Biology (Grades three through five), Standard Two: “Identify the structures in plants (leaves, roots, flowers, stem, bark, wood) that are responsible for food production, support, water transport, reproduction, growth and protection.”

The only subject taught by a scripted curriculum at Mission Hill, is math. The school uses TERC Math. Most often the lessons start with a warm up, followed by a discussion, and written activities. When I taught Math, I always had the issue of keeping the students on the rug for too long. During the last week of my practicum experience, I taught math for three consecutive days. Upon wrapping up day two, and previewing the next lesson in the teacher guide book, I felt my class was not ready to move forward. So I took it upon myself to create activities that reviewed material from day one but also presented it in a new and slightly more challenging way. Artifact 3B is my lesson plan from that day. Also to combat my usual problem of keeping my students on the rug too long, I planned a new warm up. As one can see, the warm up had the students at various table around the room using manipulatives to refresh their learning from the day before.

All in all, I believe that the TERC Math curriculum works at Mission Hill because of their allowed flexibility in how they present and the academic schedule in which they follow. Being immersed in the elementary teacher position, I can honestly state that the teachers have a lot on their plate. The amount of content knowledge and prep work they complete day in and day out is unbelievable. Looking ahead, I feel that I have some great experiences regarding a wide variety in the structure of curricula and how to present it to students. I also know that I will definitely take these experiences with me wherever I go in the teaching profession.   


References:
MA Curriculum Frameworks: Biology Grades 3-5 http://www.doe.mass.edu/frameworks/current.html

Fountas & Pinnell Homepage



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