Effectiveness in Education
Going Beyond the Classroom Walls
Teacher Preparation - The Danielson Framework
In order to fully prepare educators for the classroom, Charlotte Danielson has written multiple texts about teacher preparation programs. In her book, Enhancing Professional Practice: A Framework for Teaching (2007), she outlines the dispositions necessary for effective educators. This non-fiction text is revisited at the start of the Block C Literacy course, EDEL 461. During this time, students are simultaneously reading The Year of Miss Agnes (2002) by Kirkpatrick Hill.
Teacher Preparation - The Year of Miss Agnes
As students read the year of Miss Agnes, they search out twelve of the dispositions outlined in the Enhancing Professional Practice Text which align with qualities of an effective educator. These professional practices are highlighted in the Kindle Fire devices and then screenshot and shared with the instructor.
Kirkpatrick Hill shares her experiences as a classroom teacher and gives insight on where the inspiration for this text came from on her website, http://kirkpatrickhill.com/the-making-of/the-making-of-the-year-of-miss-agnes/
Additionally, there are plenty of teacher resource websites for lesson plan extensions. Examples of lesson plan extension ideas for various subjects and chapters can be found here.
Teacher Preparation - Miss Spitfire
Reaching students with disabilities is a challenge for any educator. Annie Sullivan is the educator who worked with Helen Keller who was deaf, blind and mute. She was able to not only teach Helen, but formed a close bond with her student and assisted her with writing her autobiography. http://www.biography.com/people/anne-sullivan-9498826#star-pupil In the book, Miss Spitfire (2007) by Sarah Miller and Sarah Hutt, the perspective of Annie Sullivan is shared at a student friendly level. The website above is a biography of Annie Sullivan which gives more of her personal background.
Teacher Preparation - Your Classroom Toolkit
There is much to do as an early career educator; the website Edutopia.org has multiple resources, articles, blogs and extensions for educators at all levels in the profession. As novice educators finish reading Enhancing Professional Practice as well as The Year of Miss Agnes, I plan on having them explore the Resource Toolkit for New Educators. The extension here would be that students will explore resources for Curriculum and Lesson Planning and for Becoming Connected Educators. During this exploration students will reflect upon what ideas and suggestions they can implement for literacy in their classroom and which pieces of the Danielson Framework it would fit in.
Students also present to the class at least one strategy from the book, 50 Literacy Strategies by Gail Tompkins (2012). This text gives different strategies for teaching literacy with students from K-8th grade. It serves as a timeless resource to use with students at all grade levels and abilities.