Welcome to my Master of Arts in Education Showcase! The purpose of this webpage is to "showcase" some of my hard work I have completed throughout my time in the MAED graduate program at Michigan State University. I have divided my showcase work into two categories that encompass my learning throughout this program: Literacy Instruction and Learning in a Variety of Ways. Please explore the hard work I completed the past few years below!
Literacy Instruction
Literacy is the foundation of all learning. Students must have a solid foundation in reading, writing, listening, speaking, and phonics in order to grow and thrive in all other subjects. Because of the importance of literacy in students' academic careers, I chose to explore it deeper throughout my masters program and try to become better educated in teaching literacy concepts to my young learners.
This artifact demonstrates my exploration of analyzing a variety of literacy assessments and data collected that were given to two different students. I developed a variety of skills from this assignment including analyzing assessments and data correctly, creating realistic goals for my students, and providing instructional strategies that would improve the students literacy skills. I enjoyed having the opportunity to dig deep into assessment and instruction. I used my findings from this assignment to plan and guide future instruction, which is a skill that I feel all educators must learn!
This artifact demonstrates my reflection of the book Letter Lessons & First Words by Heidi Anne Mesmer. I chose to read this phonics book because I felt it would benefit me the most being a first grade teacher. Having a solid phonics foundation is one of the most important skills a young learner can have when beginning to read and write. Therefore, I chose a book that would assist me in phonics assessment and instruction. While reading the book, I was able to reflect on the key concepts in my book club review assignment. At the end of the book, I reflected on where I was in terms of teaching phonics before, and what I can do to improve on my phonics instruction for the future.
This artifact demonstrates my experiences working one-on-one with a student, conducting a variety of assessments and lessons to assist her in with literacy skills. First, I conducted several interviews with the students' parent, so I was able to gather information on the child's background, home and family life, and emotional climate when it comes to reading and learning. Having this knowledge helped me determine the assessments, assignments, and materials to use for the study sessions to come! After giving several literacy assessments and collecting data, I used this information to guide and plan literacy lessons and then reflect on the results of the lessons. Lastly, I created a recommendation letter for the child's parents and teacher so they are informed with my findings and how to plan instruction for the future.
This artifact demonstrates my findings and reflections from reading a variety of books about teaching writing. Throughout my first book club post, I write about how I can guide my students with special needs with their writing along with guiding students through expository texts. In my second book club post, I write about effective ways of being a writing teacher and mentor by encouraging risk taking and developing a writing voice. In my final post, I learned about teaching poetry to young writers, and how it is extremely beneficial for them to be encouraged to write creatively through poetry. Having the opportunity to explore how to teach different genres of writing was extremely helpful for me as a new teacher, and has been a course I think back to often when teaching my first graders today!
This artifact demonstrates my experience with observing my mentor teacher during my internship. My mentor teacher conducted an interactive read aloud with the class, and I noted the different elements, teacher moves, and student responses that resulted from the lesson. This gave me the insight and knowledge I needed to plan and conduct my own. I created my own Interactive Read Aloud lesson plan, including teacher moves, language, and ideas I had gained from observing my mentor teacher. I found this assignment extremely helpful because because interactive read-alouds are lessons I conduct often with my first graders even now as a full time educator. Before my internship and this assignment, I thought reading a book to students was a small, simple task. After this assignment, I found that students can learn SO much from an interactive read aloud lesson!
This artifact demonstrates my ability to create my own 10-day lesson plan template for writing, and teach it to my first grade students. I took our Lucy Calkins writing curriculum and created a 10-day sequence that included daily objectives, mini-lessons, mentor texts, plans for instruction and conferring with students, teaching notes, and resources. After teaching the sequence I had planned, I was able to reflect on my teaching. I found what seemed to work well with my students and what did not, so that I could guide my instruction further. Now teaching in Walled Lake and continuing to teach this Lucy Calkins curriculum, I think back on this assignment often when teaching this unit with my current first graders!
Learning in a variety of ways
Learning can happen anywhere and at any time. It is important for educators to recognize new ways in which learning can take place and encourage learners to learn in a variety of ways.
This artifact demonstrates the evolution of my own theory of learning. To begin, I thought about "what learning is" and wrote a short response in my developer's notebook. After exploring many resources such as articles, books, and websites I began updating my theory of learning. It was exciting to see how my theory and thoughts about learning evolved the more research I completed. By the end of my research, I was able to curate a personal learning theory I was proud of, and can refer back to when teaching my students.
This artifact is an Online Course Module (OCM) I created for my students. I created this OCM in order to assist my students who were learning virtually due to the pandemic. I hoped that in creating me OCM, I would learn skills I could use when literally teaching my students online. I created a math module with a variety of lessons that included assignments, learning resources, and assessments to assist my students' learning. Having the opportunity to focus on learning more about teaching my students with technology while my students were virtually learning, was extremely helpful for my teaching. I was able to take everything I learned and apply it to my everyday teaching!