CHECK AGAINST NEWEST!  Specific Instructions for Putting Together Your Teacher Work Sample  

Specific Instructions for Putting Together Your Teacher Work Sample   SE 320

The following outline was derived from the long document from the Renaissance Partnership  “Teacher Work Sample.”available at

http://www5.semo.edu/studentteach/TWS/tws_student_guidelines.pdf

This report needs to be in 12 point font, 1 inch margins, and double spaced.  The body of the TWS (elements I-VIII) should not exceed 20 pages.  References, attachments, and credits are not included in these 20 pages.  Use no real student names, likewise, disguise the names of your teacher and the school and district in which you worked.

Cover Page with:  your name, the date submitted, the grade level taught, subject taught, your university, and the course number and title (The course requiring the TWS)

Table of Contents:  List the pages on which the following Roman Numerals begin..  If you have any attachments beyond the basic structure of the TWS, number these pages and include the headings in your Table of Contents.

Charts and Graphs:  Charts, graphs and assessments are required for the “analysis of learning” element.  These should appear in the analysis and as an appendix.

I.       Contextual Factors:  Discuss how relevant factors may affect teaching/learning

A.     Levels of context – for each identify challenges and supports

1.      community = size, general location, # going to college, general wealth level, race/ethnicity, political climate, community support for education, etc.

2.      classroom = physical features, technology availability, parental involvement, rules, routines, grouping, scheduling, arrangement of classroom.

3.      student = age, general level of the students (basic, advanced), special learning issues (details below in C), gender, culture, interests, skills, learning styles, etc.

B.     Instructional implications of these factors for

1.      planning

2.      assessment

C.     Specific factors for at least two characteristics, as well as any other factors that you think will affect the planning and implementation of your unit.

II.    Learning Goals

A.     List the measurable learning goals of your unit below, coding them by number

1.      goal 1

2.      goal 2

3.      etc.

B.     Justify your choices of goals

1.      alignment with state and national standards

2.      type and level of learning expected

3.      appropriateness for these students (development, prerequisites, other needs)

III. Assessment Plan

A.     Provide an overview of Assessment Plan, as a table . 

1.      Goals being assessed and when (two columns)       

2.      Formats of each assessment (one column)

3.      Adaptations for individual student needs (one column)

B.     Describe your pre and post assessments

1.      criteria you use to show that students are meeting aligned learning goals

2.      include copies of the assessments themselves

3.      include scoring guide showing your criteria

C.     Formative assessments (during instruction)

1.      tell the assessment methods you will use to check on student progress during the lesson, while you are teaching and give rationale for your choice of methods

IV.  Design for instruction

A.     Results of pre-assessment

1.      analyze the pre-assessment relative to learning goals.

a)      include a chart or graph showing patterns of student progress toward EACH goal

2.      tell how this pattern and analysis will guide your instruction

B.     Unit overview

1.      Block plan:  in each block include the following

a)      topic for the day

b)      activity planned for the day

c)      coded goals addressed that day

2.      Activities.  List activities from your unit that show the following (do for each)

a)      variety of instructional methods

b)      why you are choosing this activity

(1)   how the activity relates to the goals

(2)   how activity stems from preassessment results and contextual factors

(3)   materials and technology required for this activity

(4)   formative and summative assessment plans

C.     Technology:  If none used, tell why.

1.      tell how you used technology in the planning processs

2.      tell how you plan to use technology in instruction

V.     Classroom Management for Instruction

A.     Write a management plan to be shared with parents and students, with strategies for managing

1.      transitions

2.      expectations (co-developed with students and communicated to parents)

3.      monitoring student behavior

4.      consequences for misbehavior

5.      motivational for reinforcement of positive behavior, extinguishing negative behaviors such as .

a)      attention-seeking

b)      power-seeking

c)      revenge

d)      avoidance-of-failure

B.     A seating chart that accommodates the planned learning activities (e.g., for group activities with 3 people)

VI.  Instructional Decision Making

A.     Choose two examples of how you modified instruction twice during the lesson because of student learning or responses.        For EACH

1.      describe the student response that caused you to modify

2.      tell what you thought this response meant and how it informed your actions ( I saw he didn’t get it and realized I would have to give more time to this topic)

3.      tell what you actually did to modify and why

VII.           Analysis of Learning Results – your reasons for why students did or did not learn  will be in section
             VIII.  Here, you provide the data and its analysis

A.     Whole class:  Table of every student, pre and post, for every learning goal.

1.      relate whole class data to attainment of each learning goal

2.      use visual representations as well as narrative to summarize

B.     Subgroups (one learning goal)

1.      relate data to subgroups, however relate to only ONE learning goal.  Choose subgroups by sex, performance on pre-test, SES, special needs, etc.

2.      use visual representations as well as narrative

3.      tell why this goal is important for these subgroups.

C.     Individuals (two learning goals)

1.      choose two students with differing performances on the same two learning goals for each student.  Tell importance of understanding the learning of these two students.

2.      give your interpretation of why these students learned or not

VIII.        Reflection and Self Evaluation:  Relating your teaching and student learning.

A.     Reflect on your instruction relative to student learning

1.      identify TWO strategies that you think contributed most to student learning

2.      tell why you think they were effective

B.     Reflection on improving your own practice as a teacher

1.      identify the TWO greatest barriers to your students’ learning.  These must be things you as a teacher can control.

2.      tell what you could do differently to improve students learning performance relative to these barriers.

C.     Reflection on your teaching performance

1.      Assess your teaching relative to the 8 TWS standards

a)      teacher uses information about context and individual student differences to set goals and to plan instruction and assessments

b)      teacher sets significant, challenging, varied and appropriate learning goals

c)      teacher uses multiple assessment modes and approaches aligned with goals to assess learning before, during and after instruction.

d)      teacher designs instruction aligned to goals, contexts and student characteristics and needs

e)      teacher uses an understanding of individual and group motivation and behavior, creating a safe learning environment.

f)        teacher uses systematic and regular evaluation of student learning to make instructional decisions

g)      teacher uses assessment data to profile student learning and communicate information about student progress and achievement

h)      teacher reflects on instruction and student learning to improve teaching practice.

2.      Reflection on how your performance on these TWS standards impacted student learning (use VI data above).

D.     Reflection on how to access specialized services

1.      describe fully steps you WOULD take to access specialized services for a student who needs them.

E.      Reflection on Ethical Practice

1.      describe a time when you had to consciously apply professional ethical standards while teaching

2.      describe how ethical standards applied to your use of technology for planning or teaching your unit

F.      Reflection on possibilities for professional development

1.      describe 1-2 areas of professional growth RELATED to TWS standards that you think are critical for you to work on to improve student learning.

2.      identify 2 professional growth activities likely to improve your performance on these two areas you have identified.

IX.  References and Credits

A.     give credit to any person’s ideas or materials used in this document

B.     use APA or other approved format