Danielson 1a
Demonstrating Knowledge of Content and Pedagogy
In order to guide student learning, teachers must have command of the subjects they teach. They must know which concepts and skills are central to a discipline and which are peripheral; they must know how the discipline has evolved into the 21st century, incorporating issues such as global awareness and cultural diversity. Accomplished teachers understand the internal relationships within the disciplines they teach, knowing which concepts and skills are prerequisite to the understanding of others. They are also aware of typical student misconceptions in the discipline and work to dispel them. But knowledge of the content is not sufficient; in advancing student understanding, teachers must be familiar with the particularly pedagogical approaches best suited to each discipline.
- Knowledge of content and the structure of the discipline
- Knowledge of prerequisite relationships
- Knowledge of content-related pedagogy
- Lesson and unit plans that reflect important concepts in the discipline
- Lesson and unit plans that accommodate prerequisite relationships among concepts and skills
- Clear and accurate classroom explanations
- Accurate answers to students’ questions
- Feedback to students that furthers learning
- Interdisciplinary connections in plans and practice
Possible Artifacts
Unit plan that include common misconceptions & where they will be addressed
Lesson plans (template)—with list of intended questions to spur deep thinking
Lesson Plan containing interdisciplinary lesson
Lesson Plan teaching how to use tool for lesson to prepare students for following lesson
Curriculum committee evidence
Written reflections regarding the sequence of instruction and learning activities
Spreadsheet of testing data
Notes from committees I belong to
Exit tickets—application of skills
College courses/transcripts
Sample of online collaboration w/colleagues regarding curriculum and instruction
List of workshops attended related to teacher’s content/pedagogical area/district initiative
Lists of presentations made at conference/meetings pertaining to content related material
Lists of websites visited/used that pertain to content-related material/district initiatives/Common Core/State Standards
List of content-related/pedagogical webinars that teacher participated in (include dates and certificates of completion, if provided)
List of free online courses that teacher took to advance content/pedagogical knowledge
List of courses taught at upper-level institutions
Examples of student work that show relevant, meaningful comments made by the teacher, comments that illustrate the teacher’s content/pedagogical strengths.
Summer reading lists and summer preparation
Lesson plans incorporating best practices
Sharing new knowledge with peers.
Attributes & Examples
• The teacher makes content errors.
• The teacher does not consider prerequisite relationships when planning.
• The teacher’s plans use inappropriate strategies for the discipline.
• The teacher says, “The official language of Brazil is Spanish, just like other South American countries.”
• The teacher says, “I don’t understand why the math book has decimals in the same unit as fractions.”
• The teacher has his students copy dictionary definitions each week to help them learn to spell difficult words.
Attributes & Examples
• The teacher’s understanding of the discipline is rudimentary.
• The teacher’s knowledge of prerequisite relationships is inaccurate or incomplete.
• Lesson and unit plans use limited instructional strategies, and some are not suitable to the content.
• The teacher plans lessons on area and perimeter independently of one another, without linking the concepts together.
• The teacher plans to forge ahead with a lesson on addition with regrouping, even though some students have not fully grasped place value.
• The teacher always plans the same routine to study spelling: pretest on Monday, copy the words five times each on Tuesday and Wednesday, test on Friday.
Attributes and Examples
• The teacher can identify important concepts of the discipline and their relationships to one another.
• The teacher provides clear explanations of the content.
• The teacher answers students’ questions accurately and provides feedback that furthers their learning.
• Instructional strategies in unit and lesson plans are entirely suitable to the content.
• The teacher’s plan for area and perimeter invites students to determine the shape that will yield the largest area for a given perimeter.
• The teacher has realized her students are not sure how to use a protractor, and so she plans to have them practice that skill before introducing the activity on angle measurement.
• The teacher plans to expand a unit on civics
Attributes and Examples
• The teacher cites intra- and interdisciplinary content relationships.
• The teacher’s plans demonstrate awareness of possible student misconceptions and how they can be addressed.
• The teacher’s plans reflect recent developments in content-related pedagogy.
- In a unit on 19th-century literature, the teacher incorporates information about the history of the same period.
- Before beginning a unit on the solar system, the teacher surveys the students on their beliefs about why it is hotter in the summer than in the winter.
- Fellow teachers regularly rely on the teacher for insight and ideas about how to teach various topics.
Uploading Artifacts to Evaluwise
On the dashboard, click on the evaluation.
Click on the Upload Document button (green) under Artifacts bar.
Click the Select File button, and select the appropriate document from your
drive.
Add relevant explanations or notes to the Notes/Comments box.
Pair your artifacts by checking the appropriate boxes that are represented by
your document. More than one box can be checked.
Click the Submit button.