FEAPs
NEW FL EDUCATOR ACCOMPLISHED PRACTICES
(a) Quality of Instruction.
1. Instructional Design and Lesson Planning. Applying concepts from human development and learning theories, the effective educator consistently:
a. Aligns instruction with state-adopted standards at the appropriate level of rigor;
All throughout my college experience as a pre-service teacher, our program has asked us to interweave Florida state standards into almost every area of teaching that we do as the backbone for our creativity. The standards are our compass, and the classroom is the jungle. CPALMS.org is a great website for teachers that contains hundreds of Florida State Standards across grades K-12 in all available subjects. In the section for artifact pictures, there will be one for this FEAP showing how I use backwards design in my lesson plans to look at the standards and then develop an open ended essential question for students to think complexly about the subject matter and get them engaged in the material on a deeper level. The lesson plan was taught on March 1st, 2015.
b. Sequences lessons and concepts to ensure coherence and required prior knowledge;
For the past two months that I have been in my final internship placement, it has been mainly a time learning how to teach second grade students mathematics concepts on top of gradually learning to teach other subjects. The students and I have been working through the last sections of Module 3 in their Eureka Math Engage NY workbooks. The concepts had to deal with basic understanding of place value of numbers 0-999, as well as making comparisons between such numbers according to greater than / less than / equal to. This new module that we just moved into after spring break (Module 4), calls for students to recall their place value knowledge and apply it to addition and subtraction problems. Their prior knowledge HAS to be there, otherwise they will be lost trying to navigate the lessons. The very first thing we did as teachers was to keep our students cognizant of place value after taking a 10 day math break. The simplicity and repetition of the number sentence ensured a sense of coherence in the lesson; tied to the past, and building towards the future. The artifact picture for this FEAP is below in the artifact section.
c. Designs instruction for students to achieve mastery;
http://maxmcelligott.weebly.com/level-3-internship-blog/category/feap1c
During my Level 3 internship, I was able to work with first grader students on improving their math skills in order to do the best they possibly could on the district's standardized achievement tests which included a mathematics section. In order for my students to achieve mastery of the concepts such as how to formulate a number sentence 3 different ways and still get the same answer (i.e. number composition and value), we gave students an exit ticket. With this piece of paper, we were able to see how well our students were grasping the concepts at hand. Then, we pulled small groups and color coded groups based on ability level and partnered them accordingly. The repeated practice for those who needed help really provided learning opportunities, while others gained enrichment through extra math worksheet activities. The artifact for this FEAP can be found at the bottom of this post. The exit ticket is for my current 2nd graders, and follows a similar structure of analyzing performances on exit tickets to assess learning outcomes after instruction and promote mastery. These data points can then be used to form targeted support for students in math.
d. Selects appropriate formative assessments to monitor learning;
Formative assessments are the ones that teachers perform the most in any given school day, and constitute anything as simple as body position checks on the carpet, to answering questions that students have while circulating around during a math lesson. In the case of this particular FEAP, I thought it would be best to discuss the formative assessments I have personally used with students in our recent math lessons. They are called "sprints" and they are rapid-fire drill and practice style questions with a timed limit to see how many students can get done in 60 seconds. Giving this in the middle of a lesson to see how well students are applying their place value skills can be a great way to see which students need to be in extended practice or with small re-teach groups guided by the teacher while other students are working on independent/enrichment items. Students get to assess themselves and see how much of an improvement they made from Sprint A to Sprint B, oftentimes giving them happiness and always giving immediate feedback on their efforts. For a subject such as English Language Arts, a formative assessment could be a rough draft of a poem that students started working on in class. The artifact photo for this FEAP is below in the artifact section.
e. uses variety of data, independently and in collaboration with colleagues, to evaluate student learning outcomes, adjust planning and continuously improve the effectiveness of lessons;
For the purpose of keeping a variety of teaching methods in mind, I thought we could look at something that happened during my inquiry research that had to do with this specific educator practice. In the case of my focus student, Ciara (pseudonym), her behavior in the class leads her to lag on assigned classwork. Sometimes she doesn't even begin any of her work and chooses an attitude ill-suited for academic challenge. Through research and discussions with colleagues, I have created a sticker chart with 5 minute time progression slots, allowing me to track her time-on-task in a continuous manner. The reward for 25 accumulated stickers is a chance to write down one (school appropriate) thing for me to draw for her. Since she is a natural artist, she agreed to participate 100%. Where FEAP 1b comes into play is the fact that I had originally created a chart with 30 minutes as the maximum amount of time that could be tracked in increments of 5 minutes. My CT saw the effectiveness of what I was doing, and noticed that after the 30 minutes was exhausted on the chart, my focus student went back to behaving as she typically does, which is disruptive and purposefully distant. She suggested making a 60 minute chart to be able to have enough flexibility for ANY lesson that we teach, and would be in increments of 10 minutes. Honestly the effectiveness of the 10 minute intervals defeated the excitement level for her, and I believe the best hybrid chart would be to do a 60 minute chart, with boxes for each 10 minute interval, having two places to put stickers every 5 minutes. This way she can feel like she is "filling up" her chart instead of waiting a full 10 minutes for the next sticker. The artifact photo for this FEAP is in the artifact section below.
f. Develops learning experiences that require students to demonstrate a variety of applicable skills and competencies;
In my first supervisor-observed-lesson at my final internship placement, students were able to show their work using different strategies that best fit their learning style. They first demonstrated fundamental skills in analyzing a number for place value, then they worked with different manipulative to show their varying regrouping skills. Sometimes students would be able to write it out normally in Expanded Form; sometimes they would have to condense their number to fit the requirements. For example, sometimes they were only allowed to address a three digit number in tens and ones only.
Artifact for FEAP 1f
2. The Learning Environment. To maintain a student-centered learning environment that is safe, organized, equitable, flexible, inclusive, and collaborative, the effective educator consistently:
a. Organizes, allocates, and manages the resources of time, space, and attention;
http://maxmcelligott.weebly.com/level-3-internship-blog/co-constructing-for-moral-development
b. Manages individual and class behaviors through a well-planned management system;
http://maxmcelligott.weebly.com/level-3-internship-blog/individualism-and-collectivism
c. Conveys high expectations to all students;
http://maxmcelligott.weebly.com/level-3-internship-blog/structure-for-success
d. Respects students’ cultural and family background;
http://maxmcelligott.weebly.com/level-3-internship-blog/individualism-and-collectivism
e. Models clear, acceptable oral and written communication skills;
http://maxmcelligott.weebly.com/level-3-internship-blog/an-educational-purpose
f. Maintains a climate of openness, inquiry, fairness and support;
http://maxmcelligott.weebly.com/level-3-internship-blog/what-it-means-to-be-a-teacher
g. Integrates current information and communication technologies;
http://maxmcelligott.weebly.com/level-3-internship-blog/november-14th-2015
h. Adapts the learning environment to accommodate the differing needs and diversity of students;
http://maxmcelligott.weebly.com/level-3-internship-blog/co-constructing-for-moral-development
i. Utilizes current and emerging assistive technologies that enable students to participate in high- quality communication interactions and achieve their educational goals.
http://maxmcelligott.weebly.com/level-3-internship-blog/solving-disruptions-without-being-disruptive
3. Instructional Delivery and Facilitation. The effective educator consistently utilizes a deep and comprehensive knowledge of the subject taught to:
a. Deliver engaging and challenging lessons;
- At the end of this post, there is a picture documenting the sentence jingle that our classroom practiced. It was a fun way to learn about all of the basic parts of a sentence such as subject noun, verb, punctuation, and capitalization by singing in A/B partner style. For some song lines, the A partners (labeled at their seats) would stand up and sing, upon which the B partners would stand up and sign while the A's sat back down. The rhythm of switching lines was an appropriate challenge for activating their areas of the brain for movement on top of recitation. Multiple modes of learning were reached and everyone willingly participated. Sometimes there were closing lines where both partners (A and B) stood up to sing the lines. All of this was to teach students sentence fundamentals while engaging them in whole brain learning.
b. Deepen and enrich students’ understanding through content area literacy strategies, verbalization of thought, and application of the subject matter;
During my most recent lesson to the whole class on using commas in a series and with dates, students had two different tiers of application work they were doing. At first, the content was introduced in a whole group manner, and then the cooperative learning practice had them write the commas in the dates correctly, and then, the classwork asked them to use the date they just constructed in a sentence, making them understand the importance of why we use commas. If a comma is put in a wrong spot, it changes the whole entire meaning of the sentence. It challenged their thinking to use what they had just learned in a way were they were free to ask questions during their first attempts. The presence of guided support and tiered application allowed most students to grasp the concept of where to put a comma in a date (after the day). Using commas with words in a series would be a good focus for next lesson. The idea for this FEAP was that their literacy development was improved on a deeper level because they were practicing the commas in dates only at first, and then enriched with an opportunity to use that correctly structured date in a sentence of their own creativity. The artifact for this FEAP is in the artifact section at the bottom of the page.
c. Identify gaps in students’ subject matter knowledge;
http://maxmcelligott.weebly.com/level-3-internship-blog/category/feap3c
Oftentimes the difference between an engaged learner and one who is "bored" can be the amount of prior knowledge they are able to access, ad to which task they are applying it to. Noticing my students had gaps in their prior knowledge of number sense made the lessons about greater than and less than difficult for some first graders who could count inconsistently past 10. We found a way to do whole group kinesthetic repeated practice and differentiated several assessment methods for our students. Also, during my final internship, there was a teachable moment where I identified knowledge gaps in my student's understanding of what a "concept" was. Some students thought a concept was a way of thinking of a plan of action. Other students who volunteered gave answers to the question "What concepts can we talk about when we are building structures?" with the answer, "Balance." The knowledge of what a concept is drove some students to perform better on the Makers-Monday task better than others, simply discussing it in Socratic fashion helps others to see the knowledge pieces they need to be successful. The artifact for how we introduced a Do It Yourself building challenge, using specific pieces and guidelines is below the post. Subject matter has concepts interwoven throughout all areas. The very fact that we could identify gaps in understanding between our students in this matter really gave me as an educator, a better insight into how my students think.
d. Modify instruction to respond to preconceptions or misconceptions;
Something that reminded me of this FEAP was something I recently did with a math lesson over comparing and evaluating inequalities between three digit numbers. Since my 2nd grade students have been showing great levels of confusion over which inequality symbols mean greater than or less than, it was decided that we should make and cut out little green cards so that students could always have inequality manipulatives in front of them in the form of something that they could use on just about anything (place value chart/paper/number line/number sentence). On the back of each card were the meaning of the symbols, always having repeated practice with partners and using their cards. The instruction was modified to meed the misconceptions of the students to help them see how three-digit numbers can be compared using inequalities. The artifact photo includes the misconceptions as laid out by the USF lesson plan template as well as representations of what the inequality cards looked like for each student. Each of the cards are also laminated to ensure repeated future use. The artifact for this FEAP is below in the artifact section.
e. Relate and integrate the subject matter with other disciplines and life experiences;
Almost everyday, I find myself needing to perform this educational practice in order to relate the school material that needs to be taught with the experiences that our students already have so that their connections are more meaningful and cause higher levels of knowledge attainment. In a specific instance, we were working with the school's STEM specialist, Mr. Palmer, and he was doing a unit on Biomes for 1st and 2nd graders. They seemed disinterested in the lesson after a couple minutes of him lecturing large words, so I had a very unique idea. I connected the lesson to a life experience of mine, being in summer camp when I was less than 10 years old and learning the rain cycle dance. There are three steps. the first step is for precipitation, and it looks like you raising both of your arms up from the ground into the air. The second step is to hold your body and shake, representing water molecules hugging each other in the air and creating clouds. Finally, the third step was for precipitation, and it looks like sparkle fingers from above your head to the ground. The students all got up out of their chairs and got some good glucose to their brains, and at the same time they developed kinesthetic understanding of precipitation levels for different biomes. It was cool to cross dance with science to increase overall engagement and comprehension. The artifact for this FEAP is a photograph that I brought into class for the science lesson on Biomes as well, it was taken on the Upper Tampa bike trail, and we discussed what levels of precipitation were needed to make an ecosystem that looked like that. It was connecting real everyday life to the lesson for the students.
f. Employ higher-order questioning techniques;
- At the end of this post, there is a picture which provides evidence for this FEAP in my teaching practice. During my first post-conference with my supervisor, she complimented me on my ability to word Higher Order Thinking questions for students who were 7 years old. They truly love the challenge during math instead of just using numbers and worksheets. The questions are asked in a very structured way, and the photo for this indicator was during my math lesson that I taught on 3/2. The question is in two parts where students are using previous knowledge from two lessons ago, and applying what they think they know about less than, considering we reviewed the terminology before I went over the application problem with them. A good hook at the beginning of any lesson is always a H.O.T. question because it makes the students think in ways that seem to stretch their imagination.
g. Apply varied instructional strategies and resources, including appropriate technology, to teach for student understanding;
- At the end of this post is a picture that goes along with this FEAP for evidence. When students come down to their "rug spots" the teacher is then able to focus their attention to any papers they might receive and any directions that come with them. The teacher may ask students to look at the nearest SMARTboard to them (one on each side of the room), or to have them interact with the whiteboard easel, or even to participate on whole brain learning. Teaching for understanding means assessing more than a handful of students who think they know the right answer. Sticky high-fiving partners and pulling sticks is a great way to provide think time and allow everyone to share their opinions on the classroom questions.
h. Differentiate instruction based on an assessment of student learning needs and recognition of individual differences in students;
- At the end of this post is a picture that goes along with this FEAP for evidence. One of my students this semester has an auditory learning disability where she can only hear sounds if they are being emitted near to her eardrum. An assistive technology was used during my first supervisor observation so that this student could hear me and follow along in the lesson. There was a small clip that attached to my shirt and wirelessly transmitted my voice into her headphones. During the first teacher led portion of the activities, the student had the headphones on. When it was time for close partner work, the headphones come off and her learning was benefited greatly by the available choices.
i. Support, encourage, and provide immediate and specific feedback to students to promote student achievement;
- At the end of this post is a picture that goes along with this FEAP for evidence. Promoting student achievement through systematic and relatively immediate feedback is something that good teachers pride themselves with. At the school I'm at now, we have already established that I can take full responsibility in grading student homework and placing it in their "Thursday" folder mailboxes. Once students get these corrections back, they are allowed to redo the areas they need to, and turn it back in for stamps or stickers. This simple method of giving feedback right away on assignments can be specific and confidential, as no papers are returned "face down" on student's desks and all work goes home to be shared with parents on Thursday.
j. Utilize student feedback to monitor instructional needs and to adjust instruction;
http://maxmcelligott.weebly.com/level-3-internship-blog/week-5-diverse-data
We adjusted our instruction to meet the needs of the students who exhibited behavior problems in order to help every student in the classroom get the fairest and most equal education possible. When teachers have to divert instructional time to handle the situation of one student out of 27 in the class, it creates the need for change on behalf of learning opportunities. My CT and I utilized the feedback that students were giving us when it was time for them to practice challenging concepts in math, or when they were asked to write and spell words. Those students who said they didn't want to try were telling us that they still needed to know certain linguistic skills such as spelling and vocabulary banks. We used sticker charts to show students when they were going on mini-vacations to help them see that they needed to put more into their learning if they were to get better and show results. For the students who gave positive feedback during informal assessments, we kept track of these students in case we were to go into small group practice or if we were going to pair students for cooperative learning. During my internship now, it is a necessity to check in with students and learn as much as I can about their feedback. Students are one of the best ways to tell if your lesson is going well or not.
4. Assessment. The effective educator consistently:
a. Analyzes and applies data from multiple assessments and measures to diagnose students’ learning needs, informs instruction based on those needs, and drives the learning process;
http://maxmcelligott.weebly.com/level-3-internship-blog/week-4-internship-diving-in
Assessing students both in their personal interests and in their academic ability gives educators a great perspective on their students holistically. Often times in SCATTER workshops, I hear about "whole brain" learning. This means that while students are in school, their whole brain should be engaged in their schoolwork. Standing up, utilizing activities that spark right and left brain thinking, and assessing students in a variety of ways keeps them aware of what's going on in the classroom. there is a certain personal accountability piece to being able to contribute all of the time. In cooperative learning classrooms, there's a plethora of assessment strategies to use simultaneously. For the sake of the blog post that included FEAP 4a, we (my CT and I) were discussing the in-class assessments regarding all of our student's Elementary Spelling Inventory scores available to be analyzed through a feature point system in a Words Their Way book. We were also looking simultaneously at their running record scores and other literacy progress data, and we noticed that some of our students were scoring as low as 0 and 2 on their DRA (Developmental Reading Assessment). It is common to enter 1st grade with a DRA score of 6 or higher. A handful of students were at risk, given that amongst their DRA scores, their words per minute was 10 or less. We were able to judge how to start guided reading groups, focusing heavily on decoding strategies and basic phonics concepts of letter/sound relationships.
b. Designs and aligns formative and summative assessments that match learning objectives and lead to mastery;
Here, we have an example of a formative assessment that was used during the week before our students tested their reading and math skills on S.A.T. and O.L.S.A.T. assessments (1st/2nd grade). The formative assessment that I created was a worksheet that went in place of their normal reading comprehension questions that they complete in the morning. The worksheet that I created was in alignment with their homework that day and ultimately was aligned with the unit test at the end of every 3-4 chapters in Engage NY mathematics material. The first two questions of each place value type are geared towards students subtracting easily for each place value, and assesses their basic knowledge of how to subtract down in two digit subtraction. In questions 3-4 and 7-8, I made the questions so that the answer for being able to subtract in the ones place was no. This tests student's knowledge of how to take a ten from the tens place and move it over to the ones column in order for the subtraction algorithm of top to bottom can be completed. All of their conceptual thinking amounted towards them performing well on their end-of-unit assessments. The examples on the artifact photo will allow you to hopefully understand more of what has just been said. The photo for this artifact can be found below in the artifact section.
c. Uses a variety of assessment tools to monitor student progress, achievement and learning gains;
While using a variety of assessment tools, I have been able to hone my practices as an educator and see which of my students perform well on certain types of assignments. Monitoring their learning gains takes time and feedback, always giving them encouragement to try harder on homework, or do a piece of writing even better. We assess students to gauge their knowledge and skills in various ways in order to activate their different learning styles and needs. In the case of the math and reading work I am able to provide feedback on, they are based on the sprints and exit tickets we do in math. There are also reading comprehension questions which students complete after copying the day's agenda information. The photos for each assessment type are located in the artifacts section. When assessing them on their Sprint A/B in math, we are looking at computational fluency. Whereas, with the exit ticket, it is more summative knowledge of the day's lesson and depends more on conceptual understanding than automaticity. With reading comprehension, they are sometimes asked to do multiple choice, yet I feel day 5 (writing) is the best judge of how much the students understand the text. Written form shows letter/sound understanding, which subsequently leads to vocabulary development. The artifact photos for this FEAP can be found in the artifact section below.
d. Modifies assessments and testing conditions to accommodate learning styles and varying levels of knowledge;
In the classroom that I am interning in now, we have a combined grades group of 1st and 2nd graders. Their ages are dynamic, so the lessons we (and I) teach have to be dynamic. In order for that to happen, we allow students to express their thoughts however they wish. Usually, they are allowed to draw diagrams if they want. In the artifact photo for this FEAP, there is a photo of student work pertaining to a "Difference Maker" assignment where students researched a person who made a significant change for humanity such as Alexander Graham Bell, Sacajawea, Thomas Edison, Michael Jordan, or even Moses. The rubric stated that students could create 3-5 facts about each character trait, writing as much as they need to in order to explain each character trait for their "Difference Maker". As you'll notice, the space for writing is the same, yet the students are not limited to what they can do, therefore the lesson is accommodating to students whose various learning styles need to be addressed when thinking of assessments. Children were able to go home and work on the final projects, ensuring that they were assisted according to their needs in their own homes. Pre-planning and peer-editing allowed for students to gain valuable feedback on their project as it was developing. The difference in learning style and levels of knowledge about analyzing character traits can be seen below in the artifacts section for this FEAP.
e. Shares the importance and outcomes of student assessment data with the student and the student’s parent/caregiver(s); and
- At the end of this post is a picture that goes along with this FEAP for evidence. During Student-Led conferences, parents were able to schedule an appointment with the CT's and myself to discuss any positives and deltas the students thought about themselves. Leading up to the teacher-student-parent conferences, students were able to brainstorm 44 expectations in the Brilliant Bug classroom, and marked their own progress in each area according to honest self-evaluation. Reading Fluency scores were also shared between parents and their child in order for them to get justification as to why they were being suggested for extra reading groups provided by the librarian every Mon. and Thurs. after school. Sharing the importance of outcomes and seeing how much parents really care about their children re-ignited my passion for teaching.
f. Applies technology to organize and integrate assessment information.
Assessments come in all types, due to the fact that a diversity of skills calls for a variety of skill processes. One of the skill processes I assess with my students is their ability to perform math with automaticity in 60 second sprint trials. Students have 60 seconds to answer as many number sentences as they can, provided that they circle which question they reached at the end of time, and then proceed to put their pencils in their trays to avoid anyone working past time. The assessment information is also organized and displayed for students on an ELMO projector. I as the teacher use this technology to font-load students for their sprints, as well as for the purpose of us checking the answers in a slower pace together at the end of each sprint. Because there are two sprints (A and B), it is helpful to display and organize the assessment with technology so that students have a purpose for remaining quiet and focused on math in the transition times between sprints when students are counting up the amount of correct answers or practicing mentally for the upcoming sprint. The artifact photo for this educational practice can be found at the bottom of this page in the artifact section. In terms of keeping track of student grades on a whole class scale to give 0-100% report card grades go, it will be something that I will be unable to provide photos for this semester. The school that I intern for now has a system of Pass/Unsatisfactory letters to apply across all subjects as well as intramurals. Since it is a privately owned school, students are viewed as children instead of numbers and scores, and the school has a well-founded system for organizing and integrating assessment information. There is a column for academics and a column for behavior. Since there are very few number scores as grades, the purpose of keeping track of assessment data is to observe any tendencies in behavior from subject to subject. If there is a need for intervention or coaching on behalf of a child's actions, then there are multiple support systems in the school for positive phrasing, restitution (cleaning up the school after hours), and specified tutors after school for academic development. In terms of the Hillsborough public school system, the grading system used to generate report cards is Edsby. At each stage of the grading process throughout the school year, district school board members are able to see where teachers and students are at assessment wise and can make educated decisions about such data.
(b) Continuous Improvement, Responsibility and Ethics.
5. Continuous Professional Improvement. The effective educator consistently:
a. Designs purposeful professional goals to strengthen the effectiveness of instruction based on students’ needs;
b. Examines and uses data-informed research to improve instruction and student achievement;
c. Uses a variety of data, independently, and in collaboration with colleagues, to evaluate learning outcomes, adjust planning and continuously improve the effectiveness of the lessons;
d. Collaborates with the home, school and larger communities to foster communication and to support student learning and continuous improvement;
e. Engages in targeted professional growth opportunities and reflective practices;
f. Implements knowledge and skills learned in professional development in the teaching and learning process.
6. Professional Responsibility and Ethical Conduct. Understanding that educators are held to a high moral standard in a community, the effective educator adheres to the Code of Ethics and the Principles of Professional Conduct of the Education Profession of Florida, pursuant to State Board of Education Rules 6B-1.001 and 6B-1.006, F.A.C, and fulfills the expected obligations to students, the public and the education profession.
-Needed action plan for unexcused absences during final internship. Plan approved by cooperating teacher and final internship supervisor. Actions for improvement included no more absences for the rest of the semester.
-Strengths include: Dressing professionally, handling conversations with principal(s) in a formal and professional manner, keeping a friendly and safe rapport with students, responsible for any actions taken and supervisions performed with students while they are in all areas of the school, and able to keep track of extra-curricular schedules to ensure a smooth flowing school day for all class members.
Artifact for FEAP 1a
Artifact for FEAP 1b
Artifact for FEAP 1c
Artifact for FEAP 1d
Artifact for FEAP 1e
Artifact for FEAP 3a
Artifact for FEAP 3b
Artifact for FEAP 3c
Artifact for FEAP 3d
Artifact for FEAP 3e
Artifact for FEAP 3f
Artifact for FEAP 3g
Artifact for FEAP 3i
Artifact for FEAP 3h
Artifact for FEAP 4b
Artifact(s) for FEAP 4c
Artifact(s) for FEAP 4d
Artifact for FEAP 4e
Artifact for FEAP 4f