FINAL REFLECTION

1. Understanding of Practice

a. Differentiation
Differentiation is a guiding philosophy that drives all of the
assessments, instruction, and activities that I plan. There is no such
thing as one-size-fits-all in education; students come from such a
diverse array of cultural contexts, backgrounds, educational histories,
and readiness levels that it is impossible to deliver effective instruction
without considering how differentiation applies. This belief is especially
apparent in the way that I approach writing instruction. During the
writing workshops, I make sure to incorporate time to small group and
one-on-one conferencing. Students have many different instructional
needs when it comes to writing skills, so it makes the most sense to be
efficient with the time I have by putting them in groups where I can
target instruction. My commitment to differentiation is also evident in
the student choice that I provide throughout my activities and
assessments. Students choose their SSR books, which helps with
engagement and investment in their own reading, and in the Mini
Memoir activity, students are able to choose what they wish to write
about. Student choice and tailored instruction are key to leading a
differentiated classroom.

b. Assessment
Assessment is as powerful tool to make informed pedagogical
decisions. Diagnostic and formative assessments are essential for
guiding instruction so that it is appropriate for students readiness
levels. In this unit, I used quick writes and other assessments like the
Comic Strip Activity to assess both student readiness and their
comprehension of the concepts we covered in class. These types of
assessments are engaging, low-risk, and provide valuable information
for the teacher on the misconceptions, difficulties, and successes that
are happening on the metacognitive level for each student during
instruction.
Assessments are also valuable in making content seem relevant,
engaging, appropriately challenging, and authentic to students. The
summative assessment, Walk a Mile Project, is designed so that
students are role-playing in real-life situations where the stakes are
authentic to what can be seen outside of the classroom. This
summative assessment also provides students an opportunity to
synthesize what they have been learning throughout the unit about
traditions, diverse perspectives, and values. Through summative
assessments like this, students are actively practicing noncognitive
skills that will help them succeed outside of the classroom.

c. Reflective practice
Constant, consistent reflection on the thinking, processes, and the
results of the major activities and assessments students engage in is a
critical part of the learning process. Its an essential noncognitive skill
that students need to develop to become successful, well-rounded,
self-aware adults. My reflective writing prompts and exit slips at the
end of lessons gives students a chance to stop and consider what level
of understanding theyve reached, and where they still might need
help. Reflective practice is achieved mainly through writing in my
course, which is meant to give students more opportunities to work on
their writing skills. In addition, writing forces students to slow down
and take a moment to understand the why behind what they are
doing. It is my hope that this is a practice that transfers into other
areas of their life, where mindful moments can make the difference
between growth and stagnation.

2. Understanding of my Development as a Practitioner

a. 2 course objectives Im making progress on
i. Teach students a range of strategies to comprehend,
interpret, evaluate, and appreciate texts through
whole group, small group, and individualized
reading/writing workshops (IRA/NCTE 3, 5, 11)

Ive become very comfortable in using a variety discussion structures

to complement the different types of learning that needs to take place.
Most of my lesson plans include instances of whole group, small group,
and individualized reading and writing. In addition, all of my lessons
incorporate a variety of strategies viewing guides, reading guides,
reflective writing prompts, read-alouds, think-alouds, double entry
journals, etc. that give students multiple avenues to reach and
demonstrate their understanding. In my summative assessment,
students work in pairs to learn how to understand each others
perspectives, but they also get to work individually to bring their
creative pieces to life on their own terms. In my writing workshops,
students are constantly moving in and out of these three different tiers
of working, which is teaching them both collaborative and self-
monitoring habits. In addition, Ive built in several days of workshops
so that I can provide differentiated and individualized attention for
students. Finally, giving students 20 minutes every day to invest into
reading silently is one major way that I am helping them develop into
readers that appreciate texts.

ii. Develop a principled approach to responding to

diverse students work and guiding editing and
assessment of their texts
This goes back to my principle of differentiation. I have worked in
plenty of time to provide individualized attention as students write,
revise, and edit their work. Students also have several low-stakes
opportunities to get feedback on their work from me and from their
peers, which makes writing more enjoyable and writing instruction
more effective. Im a major supporter of the workshop style, because it
allows me to engage with student texts consistently to provide
feedback. Ive also worked hard to develop a rubric that would allow for
flexibility and would be clear to student how I am assessing their
writing.

b. 2 course objectives I need to work on

i. Make informed selections from a range of diverse
print and electronic texts for use with adolescents
based on student interest, literacy background, and
relevancy to conceptual content (IRA/NCTE 1, 2, 9)
I still feel that I have a lot of room to grow in making informed
decisions about the kinds of texts I provide in class. I have started to
make a list of texts that other student teachers, mentor teachers,
professors, etc. have recommended, but I need to build on it more
intentionally. Id also like to delve into more diverse genres of texts I
tend to focus on short stories, so using poems, essays, other types of
nonfiction, science fiction, and even more multimedia texts would
benefit my students. I am committed to finding out and using the
information that students give me through the interest inventory I
created, but in order to do that effectively, I have to expand my own
knowledge of texts and how they can be used in the classroom.
In my internship, I can be intentional about growing in this area by
explicitly asking me mentor teacher for recommendations. I can also
keep adding things like potential concepts to explore, activities to try,
etc. to my list of texts, so that when I am looking for one to use in a
unit, I already have a starting point.
ii. Provide students with a range of experiences with
diverse print and electronic texts that will guide
students learning, writing processes, and writing
development (IRA/NCTE 1, 7, 8)
This objective relates to the one above; I could definitely stand to
expand my knowledge of diverse texts and my knowledge of
pedagogical possibilities with those texts. Making an intentional habit
of considering how these multimodal texts not only enhance
understanding, but shape the kind of thinking students can engage in,
will maximize their pedagogical potential in my classroom. There are
certain texts (like the winter break reading assignment) that I will
return to in order to refresh my memory on how to begin building my
own list to draw from when creating lesson plans. I can also consult
specialists at the school I will be teaching at (i.e. librarians and other
STEM teachers) that can help me do this. In addition, brainstorming a
list of different unit concepts, assessments, and activities before I start
my student teaching will help prime me for considering a wider array
of texts, as opposed to scrambling around to find the easiest ones to
use at the last minute.