There are two standards in this section.

Standard six is concerned with my

knowledge and understanding of the link between research and social justice.
My knowledge of the theories and research associated with social justice,
diversity, equity, and schools as institutions will better my students' opportunity
to learn English language arts, and also to become successful outside of the
classroom. The first element is about planning and implementing ELA
instruction designed to enhance student equity and justice. This instruction is
responsive to students and is concerned with creating a safe place where
students may discuss difficult issues. The first piece of evidence is two lesson
plans that are a part of a unit I planned when teaching the Absolutely True
Diary of a Part-Time Indian in which students were able to talk about the
importance of diversity and self-awareness in the class. Although our lessons
did not take a stance on any given topic, I was able to demonstrate proficiency
in this area by having students think and respond from inward on the type of
person they are and what they are faced with in societyhow they can and
should handle societal views that may be different form their own as well.
Students were able to view their own lives and what people may have done to
wrong them and combat that with establishing themselves as someone who is
credible and capable of defeating any odds set against them, just like Junior in
the novel.
The second element is concerned with planning instruction that is responsive
to the histories, individual identities, and dialects of the students you teach.
The piece of evidence I included in this section is a group of lesson plans from
the same unit from above, except in these lessons, we were able to use the
student history and past to formulate how those experiences help to create
their identity now. In addition, students were able using their identity as a
means to discover where they want to go from here, and so to help with that
personal inquiry stage, I created a lesson in which students had to create a
personal accountability plan to detail how they would take their lifes dreams
and create a personal timeline with realistic expectation for how they would
achieve one goal they set for themselves prior to graduating. We were able to
set up a tracking system (Blog) so students had to continuously track their
progress as well.
Standard seven requires candidates to be able to interact knowledgeably and
professionally with students, families, and colleagues. Candidates must show
their commitment to professional growth and willingness to accept leadership
and collaborative positions. The first element in this standard is about a
candidate's ability to model literate and ethical practices in their teaching, and
reflect on these practices. The first piece of evidence I used is my own
literacy reflection. Not only is it as important for teachers to understand the

literacy of the students who come into our classrooms, but it is also important
to be able to show students where we come from as readers and writers too. If
students see that we too struggle with certain things, I believe it will make
them more interested in working in the classroom. The second piece of
evidence I used is the reflections I write for my Profile of a Reader
assignment. After each session with my students, I reflected on my own
planning and instruction. I was able to determine what worked well, what
didn't, and what I was learning about the growth and learning of my students.
Because of these reflections, I was consistently able to meet the needs of my
students.
The second element showcases the engagement and reflection of the
candidate in a variety of experiences. These experiences show the candidate's
understanding and readiness for leadership, collaboration, and community
engagement. For this section I included one piece of evidence. I chose to
include my reflection on my experience at the South Carolina Council of
Teachers of English conference that I attended and presented at in January
2016. Not only did I learn and grow as a future educator, but I was able to make
contact with key first and second year teachers who are more than wiling to
serve as mentors for me. This conference provided me the opportunity to
present my resource collection to other veteran teachers who were very
interested in learning what we had to offerthe opportunity for professional
development was great!