Education 640 Inclusion Artifact Description

Artifact Description
The artifact I chose for Education 640 class is the analysis of the article: What Ive
Learned About Effective Reading Instruction from a Decade of Studying Exemplary
Classroom Teachers by Richard L. Allington. My rationale for choosing this artifact
is that it helped me to identify my belief system, actions and areas for growth
regarding effective K-12 teaching practices in the six areas which are most effective
in helping students grown as readers: time, texts, teaching, talk, tasks, and testing.
It is aligned to the following teaching standards, which will be described in further
detail below.
1. Standard 4:
2. Standard 5:
3. Standard 7:
4. Standard 9:

Teachers
Teachers
Teachers
Teachers

know how to teach.

know how to manage a classroom.
are able to plan different kinds of lessons.
are able to evaluate themselves.

Professional Growth and Development

Taking this course made me realize how important all of the factors mentioned in
Richard Allingtons article are to being an effective educator. Before taking this
class, I did not realize how much a persons reading skills could be affected by these
6 areas. I have learned to become a more reflective practitioner as a result of
creating this artifact. For example, before taking this class, I didnt realize how high
the correlation was betweenminutes spent reading and test proficiency. I learned
how much student choice also impacts the learner, and how important it is
(especially at the middle school level) to have that power for student engagement
and stamina.
Impact on PK-12 Student Learner
The artifact allowed me to really analyze how I would like to improve my use of time
for next year, which will in turn improve outcomes for students. Richard Allington
states that, If children are read a lot throughout the school day, they need a rich
supply of books they can actually read.and that there is a potent research base
that supports supplying children with books of appropriate complexity.
Choosing this as an artifact also allowed me to analyze the texts I choose, and how
to organize them or use technology to make them more accessible to all students.
Richard Allington's article also states, "No child who spends 80% of their
instructional time in texts that are too difficult will make much progress
academically and that in the classrooms of exemplary teachers, lower achieving
students spent their days with books they could successfully read. Therefore,
choosing accessible texts and using technology will improve the amount of time
students actually spend reading.

Reading this article helped me become much better at demonstrating my thinking

out loud with students, and show them what it looks like. It has helped me move
away from the assign and assess model to using the gradual release model.
Allington also states that Studies show that active teaching, especially for those
who struggle, involves not only how to teach strategies, but also how to transfer
those strategies to independent use by the student. He goes on to say The assign
and assess model is of little benefit to all but the few students who have already
acquired a basic understanding of the strategy being taughtonly students who
already know the correct response can successfully do the task, and they dont
need the practice. Children who do not know what to fill in the blank cannot acquire
this knowledge from a worksheet. Similarly, when students are assigned to answer
questions at the end of a story, they must be taught how to do it through
modeling. The impact on student success will be that their ability to comprehend
will be deeper because it will have been modeled for them carefully first.
Creating this artifact helped me to think about how I encourage student talk.
Before taking this course, I was more of a sage on the stage kind of a teacher vs.
a guide on the side. Creating this artifact helped me to think about the use of
strategies to encourage student talk like turn and talk" or talking "elbow to elbow
and knee to knee."
Choosing this as an artifact will improve student outcomes because, according to
Allingtons article, Choice has been shown to lead to greater student ownership
and engagement with the work. Allowing more time and choice for students
means a higher motivation to read, which in turn reflects higher reading scores and
development of the life-long skill of reading for pleasure.
Finally, students will be impacted because I learned that achievement based
grading results in less effort from students, which I have seen in my own classroom.
By using rubrics and grading on improvement of skills, students will feel like grades
are less subjective and that they are not being compared to their peers. They will
take more ownership of their own learning, because they will have more of the
responsibility.
Understanding and Application of Standards:
Standard 4: Teachers know how to teach.
This artifact meets standard 4.S1 on evaluating how to achieve learning goals.
For example, I learned about turn and talk and elbow to elbow, knee to knee to
facilitate more talk time for students in the classroom.
Standard 5: Teachers know how to manage a classroom.
This artifact meets standards 5K.2 how social groups function. For example, one
of the things I would incorporate from my artifact is the use of peer buddies, reading

partners and literature circles because reading is social. People retain more when
they can share what theyve read with others.
It meets the standard 5S.3 organizing and managing time to engage students in
productive tasks because of the way I plan to rearrange the framework of my class
time to accommodate Readers Workshop into my existing schedule (please see the
artifact itself for a full description).

Standard 7: Teachers are able to plan different kinds of lessons.

The artifact meets standard 7S.1 creating learning experiences that are
appropriate for curriculum goals, relevant to learners and based upon effective
instruction. It meets this standard because I will be making changes to the middle
school reading program (time, text, teaching, talk, task and testing) which are
based on solid research by Richard Allington in order to improve student outcomes.
Standard 9: Teachers are able to evaluate themselves.
This artifact meets the standard 9.K.1 , 9.S.1 and 9.S.2 self-assessment and
problem solving strategies for reflecting on his/her own practice, using research
for evaluating the outcomes of teaching as a basis for reflecting and revising
practice and seeking out professional literature to support development as a
learner.
Throughout this artifact there were many examples of what I felt I did well and
what I needed to improve to make myself a better practitioner. One example,
under the heading of Tasks I wrote the following:
In my own classroom, since taking this class and reading these articles, I have
noticed that my students are much more focused when they are able to read what
they like to read vs. what I have assigned them. Even if given a choice between 2
things (like 2 articles on making inferences), my students respond better simply
because they have the power to choose. I have incorporated independent reading
time more consistently. Each of my students has their own book box or bag filled
with independent level books, and we read choice books each day for at least 10/43
minutes.
Another example of self-reflection is under the heading of testing:
As I reflected on this piece of the article, I realized that all of the grading I currently
do is achievement or standards based. I found it interesting that the article said
that when using achievement based grading, students sometimes think they are
unlucky when receiving a low grade. I have actually heard my students confirm
this, and say I got a bad grade because that teacher doesnt like me. Because of
this, I have taken time to show my students how achievement based grading works

mathematically, and how it is only supposed to reflect assignment completion and

quality (unless the teacher includes a portion on behavior as well).
I liked what the article said about having teachers grade on effort and improvement
vs. simply on achievement. I will have to carefully consider how to incorporate a
rubric into my next project based assignment. I will ask to see other teachers
examples of the rubrics they use. I think its also very important for the teacher.
Bibliography:
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Richard L. Allington, What Ive Learned About Effective Reading Instruction

From a Decade of Studying Exemplary Elementary Classroom Teachers.
Stephanie Harvey and Anne Goudvis. The Comprehension Tool-Kit. Heimann
Publishing Company.
Using YA Literature to Help Teachers Deal with Bullying and Suicide, Journal of
Adolescent and Adult Literacy. March 2013. Volume 56. pp. 470-479.
Laura Candler, Power Reading Workshop: A Step by Step Guide (Compass
Publishing, 2011).
Richard L. Allington and Patricia M. Cunningham. Classrooms That Work:
They Can All Read and Write. (Pearson Publishing, 2011). pp. 145-178.