New Jersey Professional Standards for Teachers, Essay Example

How did you measure the impact, if any, that this experience had on your student’s literacy skills, and what did you find?

In this content literacy course six weekplacement, my assignment allowed me to work with a high school student. My goal was enabling this student develop proficiency in writing, enhancing the present skills she possessed.Options were offered to my student in the course of our interactions. These included developing techniques that would create effective writing styles.  For example, narrative, dialogue, sonnets, journals were a few opportunities my student was given in producing professional writing styles. The student chose a poem as her manner of expressing a specific writing modality.

From observation it was clear that my student had a great commandofEnglish language because the vocabulary used was eloquent. Besides, there was evidence that this student was practicing writing poems. This was not the first attempt. During our communication she related to me that last summer she was engaged in a special writing course. In concluding my observationsI discovered that this student is very intelligent and a gifted writer.  A brainstorming session was conducted.  This produced consensus related to selecting a suitable topic for the poem she wished to articulate.

Further, during the summer my student spent time working with students in the special education program special Ed students. Interestingly, this offered an inspiration towards selecting the poem topic “Special.” She produced a wonderful piece of poetry.However, for professionalism although  thevocabulary was superb and description  very animated, after first draft we worked together in modifying words ensuring that they communicated the feeling, mood and sentiments she wanted to express as a budding poet.Certainly, in the end I felt accomplished being able to help her awake that sleeping poet inside her consciousness.

What NJ Professional dispositions did you focus upon or meet in this experience; how will that effect the way you engage students in future field placements?

During my placement and interaction with this student I focused on three New Jersey professional dispositions. They were subject matter knowledge; diverse learners and instructional planning and strategies. In articulating subject matter knowledgestandard I had to remember when communicating with this advanced student that as a teacher I must interpret for her‘central concepts, tools of inquiry, structures of the discipline’ (New Department of Education, 2004, p. 8) in relation to the New Jersey Core Curriculum Content Standards (CCCS). Consequently, I was expected to create relevant strategies suitable for my particular teaching-learning practice. For example, when I allowed my student to brainstorm a title for her poem it was applying this standard to the teaching-learning experience (New Jersey Department of Education, 2004).

The second standard focus was diverse learners. This meant that as an educator I was expected to discern cultural responsiveness while interacting with my student. Certainly, the brilliance and distinct mark of refinement in use of English language of my student was detected as soon as her first poetry draft was reviewed. Immediately, I realized that my innovations were with an ‘A’ student.She was culturally ready for the role of poet. Likewise,instructional planning and strategies were embraced when the writing style options given to my student. My role as facilitator allowed us to create efficient strategies that would produce a quality poem at professional standards(New Jersey Department of Education, 2004).   .

What did you learn about scaffolding literacy skills and students’ engagement with text?

I learnt how to dispense the three features of scaffolding literacy features, whereby we collaborated through knowledge exposure during the teaching-learning experience. Secondly, I became aware of the learner’s level of knowledge and thirdly I was able to provide adjustable and temporal support during development of the poem (Saxena, 2010).

How did the student progress? With their writing?

In my opinion the progress was excellent. For me it was moving herinto another dimension/level of excellence because she was already an excellent student.

How was the Literacy Camp like or unlike other field placements in which you have engaged?

This experience was different for me because unlike other literacy camp placement I was assigned to one student.For example, my placement was from July 23rd, the July 28^th and 30^th, 2014. On August 4^th and 5^th, 2014 we resumed. As such, it was not a consecutive 5-6 days placement as many other camps. Also, there were days when my student was allowed to interact with other campers even though I was her assigned teacher.

What would you change about this experience? In retrospect, what would you have done differently?

It was my desire to have more poems written with variety. For example, applying different genres. However, it seemed as though I was not motivational enough to encourage this feature with the teaching – learning exposure. As such, this is a quality I would work on for the next camp.Also, time allocation was another setback from the administrative management, which affected individual output of teachers and students

What was the most memorable or significant event of this field placement?

The most memorable and significant event of my field placement occurred when I was able to facilitate mystudent learning of grammar, spelling, syntax errors among many areas of writing she was never exposed to. A student of her caliber, being a teenager already felt that she knew everything.To see her glow with excitement of learning and mastering new areas was my Ah! Ah moment.

References

New Jersey Department of Education (2004). New Jersey Professional Standards for teachers and School Leaders. PDF

Saxena, M. (2010) Reconceptualising teachers’ directive and supportive scaffolding in bilingual classrooms within the neo-Vygotskyan approach. Journal of Applied Linguistics & Professional Practice, 7 (2); 163-184