Standard #4: Content Knowledge
The teacher understands the central concepts, tools of inquiry, and structures of the discipline(s) he or she teaches and creates learning experiences that make these aspects of the discipline accessible and meaningful for learners to assure mastery of the content.
Artifacts:
Reflective Statement:
This standard emphasizes the importance of teachers being knowledgeable in their content areas, so that their students, in turn, are able to master the content as well. Furthermore, teachers help students become masters of the content by creating and using meaningful strategies.
The artifacts that I have chosen are from my fall 2014 student teaching placement. These artifacts are from two of my math lessons where the objective was for students to come up with fact families for given sets of numbers. During these lessons, I demonstrated my understanding of the content and created opportunities for students to explore and learn about the content through the use of modeling and visuals. When teaching fact families, I first taught the students how to write turn-around facts; turn-around facts are a quick way to make fact families. I did this by having students come up to the front of the classroom and hold pieces of paper to make addition and subtraction problems, as seen in the video above. Next, I explained what fact families were through the use of an anchor chart. I knew that with my second grade class, the more modeling and visuals, the better. I then showed the students the process that I went through when creating the anchor chart and my example fact family. In addition, I was able to utilize a clever trick to explain fact families. The trick was to say that fact families only consist of three family members, or numbers, and that we should not let any strange numbers into the "house." Knowing that fact families were a new concept, I thought that this creative trick would help my students remember the components of a fact family better. After modeling and doing some examples whole group, students completed their math journal worksheets independently. Having this independent work time allows students to explore and test their understanding. Lastly, it is important to come back together whole group and discuss any questions students might have, and go over any problems that I, as the teacher, saw as difficult for the class.
This reflection, together with the described artifacts, show my growth as a teacher. First, I have continued to appreciate the importance of the teacher fully understanding the content before he/she teaches it and expects his/her students to master it. Second, I have learned the importance of also having knowledge of one's students before teaching a lesson. It is important to know what background knowledge one's students have before teaching a lesson so that a teacher knows the proper supports that need to be put into place.
The artifacts that I have chosen are from my fall 2014 student teaching placement. These artifacts are from two of my math lessons where the objective was for students to come up with fact families for given sets of numbers. During these lessons, I demonstrated my understanding of the content and created opportunities for students to explore and learn about the content through the use of modeling and visuals. When teaching fact families, I first taught the students how to write turn-around facts; turn-around facts are a quick way to make fact families. I did this by having students come up to the front of the classroom and hold pieces of paper to make addition and subtraction problems, as seen in the video above. Next, I explained what fact families were through the use of an anchor chart. I knew that with my second grade class, the more modeling and visuals, the better. I then showed the students the process that I went through when creating the anchor chart and my example fact family. In addition, I was able to utilize a clever trick to explain fact families. The trick was to say that fact families only consist of three family members, or numbers, and that we should not let any strange numbers into the "house." Knowing that fact families were a new concept, I thought that this creative trick would help my students remember the components of a fact family better. After modeling and doing some examples whole group, students completed their math journal worksheets independently. Having this independent work time allows students to explore and test their understanding. Lastly, it is important to come back together whole group and discuss any questions students might have, and go over any problems that I, as the teacher, saw as difficult for the class.
This reflection, together with the described artifacts, show my growth as a teacher. First, I have continued to appreciate the importance of the teacher fully understanding the content before he/she teaches it and expects his/her students to master it. Second, I have learned the importance of also having knowledge of one's students before teaching a lesson. It is important to know what background knowledge one's students have before teaching a lesson so that a teacher knows the proper supports that need to be put into place.