New Mexico Teacher Competencies

Competency 2: the teacher appropriately utilizes a variety of teaching methods and resources for
each area taught.
Competency 2 means the teacher must have an understanding of how students learn so lessons
can be planned. COE Framework, Understanding Pedagogy means teachers need to understand why
certain teaching strategies work in order to plan the lessons. For this lesson I used the constructivist
theory. I believe students learn best when they create their own understanding. A lesson based on the
constructivist theory also provides students the ability to take control of their own learning, COE
Framework, Practices Learner-Centered. This is important because students then can become
intrinsically motivated. Taking control of their learning also reuires that students take risks. For
students to feel comfortable, the teacher must listen and not !udge student work, COE Framework,
Professional Identity. "istening to the students gives the teacher the information needed to provide the
student with the support they need to answer the essential uestions in the lesson.
Artifact Context
The artifact that I chose to represent #ompetency $ is a lesson I wrote and implemented with %
st

and $
nd
grade students learning place value. &uring a discussion with 'r. (oung, my cooperating
teacher, we noticed the students were struggling with understanding base ten. )e decided they needed a
lesson to help them make the abstract concept of base ten concrete. This is also one of the 'ath ##**
for %
st
grade, place value.
##**. 'ath.#ontent.$.+,T.,.$ -nderstand that the two digits of a two.digit number represent
amounts of tens and ones.
The lesson began with students playing with a variety of manipulatives. Then they chose manipulatives
to build a model of base ten. I wanted them to learn that ten units and one units need to be
different.

Significance
#ompetency $ and COE Framework, Understanding Pedagogy mean the teacher is able to
use a variety of teaching methods. These $ points are represented by this lesson because I chose to use
a constructivist model. *ince the goal was to take the abstract concept of base ten and make it concrete,
I wanted the students to create their own understanding. *tudents did this by creating their own
representation of base ten. I introduced the lesson in a whole group. Then students worked in groups of
/. This strategy made it possible for students to help each other. 01*" also part of #ompetency $.
*tudents were able to take control of their own learning, COE Framework Practices Learner-
Centered. They first played with the different manipulatives and then chose manipulatives to create
their representation. I noticed the more control of their learning they had, the stronger their intrinsic
motivation became and the more they learned. Taking control reuired students take risks, also part of
COE Framework Practices Learner-Centered. To feel comfortable enough to take risk I had to listen
carefully to the students and not make !udgments. This is part of Professional Identity: Caring!
"istening also helped me know how to facilitate student learning.

Future Improvement
I had difficulty determining what students had learned. I wasn2t sure where to take the ne3t
lesson. In the future I would ask students to draw a number using their base ten model. Then I could
look at the drawings later to determine students2 understanding of base ten. *tudents worked only in
groups. This also made it difficult to know student growth. +e3t time I would have students work
independently to draw their models.