I Have Earned my Single Subject Teaching Credential and my M.Ed.

As of 4/11/2020 I have earned both my Single Subject English Credential and my M.E.d. Thank you to everyone who supported me.

Professional Development: Online Mandated Reporting Course

Act 31 Training Requirement for Mandated Reporters starts 1/1/15

• For LSW, LCSW, LPC and LMFT license holders- new licensees must complete 3 hours of training, licensee renewals must have 2 hours of training.
• These training hours can count toward the overall number of training hours needed to maintain licensure.

As of 06/06/2019 I have met this requirement.

Reference List - 24 Teaching Strategies

Resources:

These are the resources for:

A: Twelve General Teaching Strategies
B: Twelve ELA Teaching Strategies

10 Benefits of Inquiry-Based Learning -. (2017). Retrieved from https://www.teachthought.com/critical-thinking/10-benefits-of-inquiry-based-learning/

Annotating and Paraphrasing Sources. (2019). Retrieved from https://www.facinghistory.org/resource-library/teaching-strategies/annotating-and-paraphrasing-sources

CAST: About Universal Design for Learning. (2019). Retrieved from http://www.cast.org/our-work/about-udl.html#.XOgmdxZKiUk

Character Maps. (2019). Retrieved from https://www.facinghistory.org/resource-library/teaching-strategies/character-maps

Clever Prototypes, L. (2019). Plot of a Story | Plot Diagram Template. Retrieved from https://www.storyboardthat.com/articles/e/plot-diagram

Close Reading Protocol. (2019). Retrieved from https://www.facinghistory.org/resource-library/teaching-strategies/close-reading-protocol

Collaborative Learning | Center for Teaching Innovation. (2019). Retrieved from https://teaching.cornell.edu/teaching-resources/engaging-students/collaborative-learning

Connect, Extend, Challenge. (2019). Retrieved from https://www.facinghistory.org/resource-library/teaching-strategies/connect-extend-challenge

Cox, J. (2019). Top 5 Teaching Strategies. Retrieved from https://www.teachhub.com/top-5-teaching-strategies

Effective Teaching Strategies For The Classroom - Quizalize Blog. (2018). Retrieved from https://www.quizalize.com/blog/2018/02/23/teaching-strategies/

Exit Cards. (2019). Retrieved from https://www.facinghistory.org/resource-library/teaching-strategies/exit-cards

Exit Slips | Classroom Strategy | Reading Rockets. (2019). Retrieved from http://www.readingrockets.org/strategies/exit_slips

Five Strategies for Effective English Teachers. (2012). Retrieved from https://education.cu-portland.edu/blog/classroom-resources/teaching-strategies-for-english-teachers/

Gallery Walk. (2019). Retrieved from https://www.facinghistory.org/resource-library/teaching-strategies/gallery-walk

Glass, C., & Zygouris-Coe, V. (2004). Making Connections: Text to Self, Text to Text, Text to World - Diane Kardash. Retrieved from https://sites.google.com/a/alaska.edu/diane-kardash/Home/making-connections

Goodwin, J. (2018). Top 10 Teaching Strategies to Use in Your Classroom. Retrieved from https://go.magoosh.com/schools-blog/top-10-teaching-strategies

Guido, M. (2015). 20 Differentiated Instruction Strategies & Examples | Prodigy. Retrieved from https://www.prodigygame.com/blog/differentiated-instruction-strategies-examples-download/

How to Motivate Students by Letting Them Choose Books. (2019). Retrieved from https://www.teachhub.com/how-motivate-students-letting-them-choose-books

Jigsaw | Classroom Strategy | Reading Rockets. (2019). Retrieved from http://www.readingrockets.org/strategies/jigsaw

Juraschka, R. (2019). 4 Reciprocal Teaching Strategies To Use. Retrieved from https://www.prodigygame.com/blog/reciprocal-teaching/

Khan, B. (2019). 4 Major Benefits of Close Reading | Literacy in Focus | A Blog For Teachers. Retrieved from https://litinfocus.com/4-major-benefits-close-reading/

Lynch, E. (2019). Annotating Text Strategies That Will Enhance Close Reading [Printable Resources]. Retrieved from https://www.sadlier.com/school/ela-blog/teaching-annotation-to-students-grades-2-8-annotating-text-strategies-that-will-enhance-close-reading

News, B. (2015). Why peer editing is beneficial for young writers - Bright Education Blog. Retrieved from http://brightedblog.funeducation.com/blog/common-core-state-standards-news/why-peer-editing-is-beneficial-for-young-writers

Mansaray, H. (2013). Nine Strategies for Reaching All Learners in English Language Arts. Retrieved from https://www.edutopia.org/blog/stw-expanded-learning-time-individualized-learning-hassan-mansaray

Mareco, D. (2017). 10 Reasons Today’s Students NEED Technology in the Classroom. Retrieved from https://www.securedgenetworks.com/blog/10-reasons-today-s-students-need-technology-in-the-classroom

Masten, M. (2017). 7 Reasons Why Differentiated Instruction Works | ASCD Inservice. Retrieved from http://inservice.ascd.org/7-reasons-why-differentiated-instruction-works/

Pappas, C. (2015). 7 Benefits Of Mistake-Driven Learning - eLearning Industry. Retrieved from https://elearningindustry.com/7-benefits-of-mistake-driven-learning

Text-to-Text, Text-to-Self, Text-to-World. (2019). Retrieved from https://www.facinghistory.org/resource-library/teaching-strategies/text-text-text-self-text-world

Think-Pair-Share | Classroom Strategies | AdLit.org. (2019). Retrieved from http://www.adlit.org/strategies/23277/

Top 5 Reasons Learning Vocabulary is Important. (2019). Retrieved from https://www.k5learning.com/blog/top-5-reasons-learning-vocabulary-important

Top 5 Teaching Strategies. (2019). Retrieved from https://www.teachhub.com/top-5-teaching-strategies

Yin, H. (2010). Seeing the Value of Visualization | SingTeach | Education Research for Teachers. Retrieved from http://singteach.nie.edu.sg/issue22-mathed/

Visualization to Improve the Speed of Understanding - mysimpleshow. (2019). Retrieved from https://www.mysimpleshow.com/visualization-improve-speed-understanding/

What is Community-Based Learning? - Center for Teaching & Learning - Marshall University. (2019). Retrieved from https://www.marshall.edu/ctl/community-engagement/what-is-service-learning

Why Use Gallery Walk?. (2019). Retrieved from https://serc.carleton.edu/introgeo/gallerywalk/why.html

Word Analysis | Power Up What Works. (2019). Retrieved from https://powerupwhatworks.org/strategy-guide/word-analysis

Word Walls | Classroom Strategy | Reading Rockets. (2019). Retrieved from http://www.readingrockets.org/strategies/word_walls

Wolpert-Gawron, H. (2016). What the Heck Is Inquiry-Based Learning?. Retrieved from https://www.edutopia.org/blog/what-heck-inquiry-based-learning-heather-wolpert-gawron

Writing Workshop > Overview | LEARN - Children's Literacy Initiative. (2019). Retrieved from https://learn.cli.org/best-practices/writing-workshop/overview

Zorfass, J. (2019). Word Analysis to Expand Vocabulary Development. Retrieved from http://www.readingrockets.org/article/word-analysis-expand-vocabulary-development

Twelve ELA Teaching Strategies

12 Teaching Strategies for English

In addition to general teaching strategies, any English teacher will also need to have strategies aimed specifically at teaching English. With a variety of learning ability levels and unique needs these are a few methods to ensure everyone masters the content.

            1: Vocabulary Building: Virtually any new narrative will come with vocabulary and phrases the students are not familiar with. Vocabulary building involves identifying these unfamiliar words and using interactive vocabulary building strategies to increase the students’ familiarity with the narrative’s new vocabulary before reading it begins ("Five Strategies for Effective English Teachers", 2012). This skill is important for reasons beyond the obvious ones. In addition to helping students understand what they read, increased vocabulary increases their ability to use logic and persuade others. Often, we find ourselves judged on the quality of our speech. Obviously, the more developed the student’s vocabulary, the better impression the student will make ("Top 5 Reasons Learning Vocabulary is Important", 2019). 

            2: Peer Response and Editing: Peer Response and Editing allows students to think critically about each other’s work. It also allows students to see how their classmates tackled the same writing assignment, which may get the students to come up with new approaches they might not have thought of without the peer-editing step ("Five Strategies for Effective English Teachers", 2012). Peer editing is beneficial to students for numerous reasons. Those reasons include that writers need a wide variety of feedback and there are always enough peers in a class to give that wide variety of feedback. Additionally, peer editing helps students accept constructive criticism and gives them deeper insight into their own writing process (News, 2015).

            3: Student-Chosen Texts: When students are given a wide variety of choices of age-appropriate literature they are more likely to remain engaged and become life-long readers. After some time spent reading independently the students might break into groups and discuss what they read. This is usually followed by independent journaling. When this strategy is done well it can result in students understanding the material they read on a much deeper level, which in turn can lead to productive discussions with their classmates ("Five Strategies for Effective English Teachers", 2012). Allowing students to chose texts is beneficial on several levels. In addition to increased engagement, student choice is linked to scholastic achievement. It will also cause students to read more, improve their writing skills, and give the instructor a better idea which narratives will be interesting to their students ("How to Motivate Students by Letting Them Choose Books", 2019).

            4: Writer’s Workshop: Writers workshop allows students to participate in every part of the writing process: drafting, editing, revision, and publishing. ("Five Strategies for Effective English Teachers", 2012). It can be tied back into virtually any subject the students are studying. During writer’s workshop the students practice becoming capable writers. While they may start by choosing the topic, the instructor will become involved in helping students with organizing their writing, choosing their words, editing for mechanics, or expressing their own unique style. Done well, Writers Workshop mixes just enough explicit and implicit instruction that students can take on all the steps of writing in manageable chucks. This can result in becoming capable, confident writers ("Writing Workshop > Overview | LEARN - Children's Literacy Initiative", 2019).

            5: Annotating and Paraphrasing Sources: Annotating and paraphrasing requires students to underline key words, write margin notes, and summarize main ideas as they read a primary or secondary source ("Annotating and Paraphrasing Sources", 2019). Careful annotations will improve both reading comprehension and writing skills. It also gives cues into the authors tone, the narratives mood, and the author’s perspective and potential bias. When done with purpose, annotations keep track of main ideas, prompt thought provoking questions, and help the reader make inferences as well as draw conclusions about the text (Lynch, 2019).

            6: Character Maps/ Plot Diagrams: Character Maps are graphic organizers that use a simple drawing of a person, with questions connected to the characters physical, mental, emotional, and social traits. Character maps can be used with historical or fictional characters ("Character Maps", 2019). Meanwhile, plot diagrams serve to map out the exposition, conflict, rising action, climax, resolution, and falling action of a narrative. Plot diagrams help students pick out major elements of a narrative. They also help the reader understand how dynamic characters change over time. In addition to honing the student’s analytic skills, filling one out also meets several Common Core standards related to literacy (Clever Prototypes, 2019).

            7: Reciprocal Teaching: Within this strategy, teachers challenge students to interact more with the text they are reading. The students are taught strategies like predicting, questioning, making inferences, clarifying, or summarizing before they begin to read. The students practice these skills in groups, as they move towards being comfortable using them on their own. Done well this strategy can boost reading comprehension, engage readers, improve literacy, and help students work more effectively in groups. It also sets a secondary purpose for reading, which gives the students a well-defined direction as they start to read (Juraschka, 2019).

            8: Making Text Connections: Text connections are about making reading more meaningful. They usually come in three forms: text-to-text connections, text-to-world connections, and text-to-self connections. Making these connections as they read also gives students a purpose for reading. And, when students have set a purpose they will be more likely to comprehend the meaning of the text ("Text-to-Text, Text-to-Self, Text-to-World", 2019). Using this strategy helps readers understand a characters motivations. It also keeps readers involved, thus alleviating boredom. Moreover, when using strategies like text-to-text and text-to-world students see the narrative through parallel structure or through the eyes of others who read it before them (Glass & Zygouris-Coe, 2004)

            9: Word Walls: A word wall creates a space in a classroom where relevant vocabulary is prominently displayed. To be effective word walls should be placed where all students can see them. Teachers and students should decide together which words will go on the world wall. New information should be added to the word wall on a regular basis. And the instructor should refer back to the word wall in his or her instruction. Word walls are helpful because they help students identify patterns between the words and their spellings. Additionally, students are able to use them as a reference when engaged in any reading or writing activity ("Word Walls | Classroom Strategy | Reading Rockets", 2019).

            10. Close Reading: Close Reading Protocol asks students to reread smaller portions of the text. During a close read the students may focus on the author’s purpose, the text structure, or what specific words mean in context. Close reads are important as they help students identify text evidence to back up their own claims. Additionally, the attention to the small details of the text ensure that students truly comprehend what they are reading ("Close Reading Protocol", 2019). Using this process students focus on what the text says, how the text says it, and what the underlying meaning is. Close reading is beneficial as it addresses some concerns of Common Core, develops critical thinking, and can be used in a cross-curricular way (Khan, 2019). 

            11: Genre Immersion: Genre Immersion gives the students a few weeks to look at narratives that fall within the same genre. There are numerous benefits to staying on the same genre for a few weeks. First and foremost, that’s the way most ELA texts are set up. Units tend to focus on several stories with similar structure. There may be one unit on fables, followed by a unit on realistic fiction, followed by a unit on expository text (Mansaray, 2013). Immersion exposes students to high-quality examples of a specific genre. In doing so, students internalize the language, structure, form, purpose, and possibilities of each genre. This is critical before expecting students to write within that genre.

            12: Word Analysis: Using this skill students break words down into morphemes, their smallest units of meaning. Each morpheme has a meaning that contributes to the whole word. This helps students build up to the word, even if they have never been exposed to the word they are looking at before. Because much of English is borrowed, there are many words in the lexicon, that it’s critical to understand the prefixes, suffixes, roots, and word origin to keep up. Though word analysis can be tedious, it can certainly help students keep up ("Word Analysis | Power Up What Works", 2019). Word analysis is a foundational reading skill, it is critical for students who are developing their vocabulary, and it also satisfies several literacy-related Common Core Standards (Zorfass, 2019).

* The resource list for both teaching strategies pages can be found HERE.

My Subject and Content Area

My name is Shayne M. Whitehead. I am a graduate of ASU’s journalism program. My content area is English Literature and English itself. I chose this content area because I have always had a large imagination and writing is one of the few skills that can take that imagination anywhere. The nuances of English are necessary for all other fields from reviewing history, to solving equations. You need a solid foundation in English to be proficient in math, science, history, and any kind of performance art. Effective communication is a spring board for all other disciplines; therefore, mastering it become crucial to success everywhere else. I also chose it because English is a flexible field to study. Math is somewhat rigid. Two plus two always equals four. Some students like questions with one answer; I like a wide range. I think it’s because I always felt like it improved my chances of answering correctly. There are always multiple ways of communicating a point, and I love the flexibility English gives me when more than one answer a direct question. It can also be a challenge when I get to the editing phase of writing, not to mention grading as an instructor.

My related content standard is CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.11-12.7. Analyze multiple interpretations of a story, drama, or poem (e.g., recorded or live production of a play or recorded novel or poetry), evaluating how each version interprets the source text. (Include at least one play by Shakespeare and one play by an American dramatist.) I think I first gained an appreciation for this skill when an English teacher asked me to imagine the Diary of Anne Frank, if it were told from another character’s point of view. So many questions formed in my mind, and with each new one, I had a deeper understanding and appreciation for the dairy in its original form. Each question the new POV generated gave me more insight into Anne's experience and her relationship with the other characters she went into hiding with.There are so many retellings of each classic, that finding the uniqueness of the tone, mood, and theme in each new interpretation becomes a unique escapade into investigation and discovery. Looking for those nuances aligns well with both Concept-Based and Project-Based learning. When you’re interpreting these works it requires students to formulate a hypothesis and find the text-evidence to support it. Shakespeare’s tone, mood, and theme will change each time the story is told from a new point of view. Romeo and Juliet could be a lesson on fate, it could be a warning about family pride, and it could also be meant to question our ideas of love over loyalty and loyalty over love. It all depends on who is telling the story and how the listener hears it when they do. Once they learn to find those differences they can start to see how things like point of view can alter or enhance as story's tone, mood, and theme.

My Learning and Teaching Style

My Learning Style

In ITL 528, took all four teaching and learning surveys. According to the results, I have a similar personality to George Washington and Cliff Claven from Cheers. Due to conflicts like that, I will take each survey with a grain of salt. However, there are quite a few places were the results of each survey overlap. Both personality surveys say I am an introvert. Though the second personality survey said I was more much more introverted than the first. Both surveys also suggested I rely on my senses more than my intuition and my judgment more than my perception. The initial survey suggests I feel my way through problems more than I think my way through them. The second personality survey reversed that.

I wasn’t surprised by this. I think I prefer to think my way through things, but often due to impatience, I will look for a quicker road feeling my way to the answer.

The initial survey suggests that I am a quiet, serious observer of people, listening intently and getting to know a great deal about them. It suggests that I pay attention to emotions and feelings. Further, it suggests that I have deeply-held values that direct the things that I do and say. I take a caring and sensitive approach to others, more so than may be apparent to others because I would show my feelings in acts of kindness rather than in direct statements.

How does or will your personality type affect your relationships with your students? Being an introvert makes me more sensitive to students who don’t want to put themselves on the line. However, being mostly a facilitator is probably not the best match for the current climate of education. That relates back to being a verbal introvert. As someone who had bad experiences with group work in college, I preferred instructors who lectured and tested. If you are a verbal introvert who retains facts easily, it’s a great path to earn a high grade. However, it’s important to understand that those grades aren’t great indicators of subject mastery. And just because I did well with a listen and lecture models of education, this isn’t an ideal strategy for everyone.

My Teaching Style

According to the second teaching survey, I am mostly a facilitator. My next most common teaching styles are subject expert, formal authority, delegator and personal model.  According to my learning style profile I have a high to moderate preference for reflection over action. It also suggests I am much more verbal than visual. And, that I tend to think of things slightly more globally than locally.

Do I believe your personality type had an impact on the choice of my subject area? I know that my learning style and personality influences the subject area I chose to teach. Part of the reason I prefer English over subjects like math and science is the flexibility of the answers. In math, there is one correct answer to each problem. This isn’t a great path for creative or artistic thinkers. Humanities is simply a better subject for someone who wants to feel their way through a problem rather than think their way through it.

How will my teaching and/or learning style affect my teaching? Being a verbal facilitator who grew up uncomfortable with groups has forced me to expand my idea of what it means to teach. I have brief interludes in my own education that help me understand this. When a Spanish teacher asked me to visualize a “Carta” is a cart full of letters, it was horrible advice. I have no visual memory. Of course, that teacher never stopped to ask if my learning style differed from hers. I doubt she ever considered it. So, how will these results affect my teaching style? It will force me to broaden them, so that I am not only reaching students who learn in manners like myself. Knowing my own learning style ensures that I don’t over rely on it, simply because it is comfortable to me.

Resources

Index of Learning Styles Questionnaire. (2019). Retrieved from https://www.webtools.ncsu.edu/learningstyles/

Personality Test & Personality Type Test, Find who you are for Free!. (2019). Retrieved from http://kisa.ca/personality/

Personality Test, in-depth analysis of Isabel Briggs Myers types. (2019). Retrieved from https://www.metarasa.com/mmdi/questionnaire/

Teaching Style Survey. (2019). Retrieved from http://longleaf.net/teachingstyle.html

My Autobiography and Philosophy of Education Examined

My Autobiography and Philosophy of Education Examined

Artifact One - Complete Essay

Use the tabs above the blog for summaries & reflections

My educational philosophy is definitely progressive, refined by a touch of realism. I realized that after taking Introduction to Elementary Education at CSULB. The course was taught by Erin Gruwell, the inspiration behind the film and book Freedom Writer’s Diary. It was chaotic and unstructured. Still, somehow it worked. Mrs. Gruwell had a talent for turning learning into a game as well as a knack for intuiting each student’s strengths and weaknesses. In the end, you passed with an “A” because it would be devastating to let her down.

I eventually took what I learned from her to a third-grade literacy class I was teaching. It worked wonderfully while I was teaching the class, yet it failed them miserably after I left.

Background

Early in life, my negative experiences in education were continuous. I moved from New York to Arizona at age six. After about a year I moved again. Whatever friends I made were always gone within a year. Because of this, and an unemotional family, I didn’t have a support system to discuss feeling out of place. Not surprisingly, I was bullied all the way up until middle school. Often the bullying happened in front of my teachers. Most did nothing to intervene.

According to Eric T. Moore, author of My Educational Philosophy, “The classroom climate must be safe, professional, and collaborative, allowing students to feel at ease to express their views, share experiences, and discuss differences of opinion (Moore, 2018).” In retrospect, my educational experiences were anything but safe. That had a profound effect on me. I rarely raised my hand. I never volunteered. And asking questions terrified me.

A turning point came in ninth grade as I enrolled in AFJROTC. At the time, my interest in science was replaced with an interest in creative writing. I started to devour papers on writing well; I also started to write for the school paper. By the time I graduated high school I was on the honor roll while maintaining almost a 3.5 average. After I enrolled at Arizona State University, I refined my major from liberal arts to journalism. But, without a great interest in writing about plane crashes, I eventually took my BA and became a substitute teacher.

Analysis

After four years at Washington Middle School as an on-site substitute, I’ve come to realize, I owe my students more than my own intuition about teaching. The realization came when I watched my principal, Meghan Traver, handle a class that I failed to control. She managed to connect that bland textbook to the students’ lives as required by TPE 1.3. (Ctc.ca.gov, 2018). Once that happened, the classroom management took care of itself.

Ironically, I have a similar educational philosophy as Mrs. Traver. Based on the survey by Sadker in Teachers, schools and society, I am primarily a Progressivist when it comes to education. “Progressivists believe that education should be student-centered, focused on active participation, questioning, and experimentation.” (Sadker, 1997, P. 405) I am not surprised I would align with Progressivism. I know from first-hand experience if the student isn’t engaged, it’s hard to teach anything.

Essentialism was the philosophy I aligned with the second most. Again, I am not surprised. While I believe in tailored learning, I believe there are some core educational concepts that cannot be ignored. For instance, teaching students Algebra when that student can’t pass a timed basic multiplication test usually ends badly. Some of those core concepts don’t lend themselves to individual tailoring.

Ethics

So how do you maintain a balance between tailoring curriculum to individual needs and an understanding that some core concepts don’t lend themselves to personal tailoring? That comes with an educator’s understanding of ethics. The Association of American Educators breaks down ethics into four core responsibilities: the educator’s responsibilities towards the students, the community, the educator and the educator’s colleagues (Association of American Educators, 2018). 

I found myself agreeing with most of the responsibilities to students while questioning the requirements for continuous growth in teaching methods. In my own experience, I think educators often throw out old ideas because they’re old, not necessarily because they are bad ideas. A good example with when all of LBUSD threw out Open Court, because the school district didn’t want to focus on phonics. LBUSD instead wanted to take a “wholistic” approach to reading and literature. However, based on my own experience, students who can’t break words into their parts, will never get the wholistic intent of any literature. That’s me temporarily abandoning Progressivism for Essentialism.

Conclusion

I do think all the ethics can be boiled down to one simple question: Is this approach good for the student I am teaching now?  Unfortunately, the realist in me also knows teaching is rarely a one on one occurrence.

Remember that third grade class? They loved learning turned into a game.

Unfortunately, the teachers that came after me didn’t all believe in that progressive theory of education. Some of those teachers clung to the old fashion notion learning should be its own reward. Some never tailored the lessons to the student’s own personal needs and background. So, when some of those students encountered a different teaching style, they couldn’t handle it. And students need to be able to handle every kind of teaching style they might encounter.

It seems to me, the code of ethics published by the American Association of Educators is a solid starting point for educational ethics in general. However, I also think it occasionally ignores that reality that one size never fits everything, including educational styles.