INTASC Standards

INTASC Standard 1 The teacher intern understands the central concepts, tools of inquiry, and structures of the discipline he or she teaches and can create learning experiences that make these aspects of subject matter meaningful to students.

INTASC Standard 2 The teacher intern understands how students learn and develop and can provide learning opportunities that support a student's intellectual, social, and personal development.

In order to provide learning opportunities that supported each student's intellectual, social, and personal development, I gave students several opportunities to learn cooperatively. I truly believe that students learn best from one another and tried to have students work in groups as much as possible to explore the material with others and learn how to work well with others. For one of their major group projects, students conducted a mock trial in which they put the character Bob Ewell on trial for the crimes he commits in To Kill a Mockingbird. Students had to use evidence from the novel and work in two teams--the defense team and the prosecution team-- to charge, defend, prosecute, and convict Bob Ewell of his crimes.

INTASC Standard 3 The teacher intern understands how students differ in their approaches to learning and creates instructional opportunities that are adapted to diverse learners.

In order to support each student's unique intellectual, social, and personal development, I tried to vary assignments as much as possible to allow for student choice so that each student was able to succeed in his or her own way. With my on-level 9th grade class, during our study of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, I wanted students to have a better understanding of the mythological references and allusions that Shakespeare makes in his works. I had students research a God/Goddess of their choice from a list and create a visual representation of the information they found. Students had many options and were allowed to create one of their own as well. Mythology Project Guidelines

INTASC Standard 4 The teacher intern understands and uses a variety of instructional strategies to encourage students' development of critical thinking, problem solving, and performance skills.

As a teacher of English, I think one of the most important skills students can gain and strengthen are their critical thinking, problem solving, and performance skills. I tried to provide students with the necessary tools and scaffolding to help them become stronger critical thinkers and problem solvers which in turned enhanced their performance skills. While studying the themes and symbols in To Kill a Mockingbird, students worked in groups to think critically about the themes and symbolism that Harper Lee included in the novel and filled out a graphic organizerthat helped them organize their understanding of each theme and symbol. Themes/Symbols Graphic Organizer

INTASC Standard 5 The teacher intern uses an understanding of individual and group motivation and behavior to create a learning environment that encourages positive social interaction, active engagement in learning, and self-motivation.

Because of my belief that students learn best from one another, I focused a lot of my instruction around cooperative learning. I tried to create a learning environment that was conducive to frequent group work in which students were actively engaged in their own learning while interacting with one another at the same time. Students frequently took part in group work and small and large group discussions. I gave groups several discussions or quotations to discuss and then using the think-share-pair strategy, groups shared what they came up with with the class. Mockingbird Setting Groupwork

INTASC Standard 6 The teacher intern uses knowledge of effective verbal, nonverbal, and media communication techniques to foster active inquiry, collaboration, and supportive interaction in the classroom.

Students were exposed to as many media communciation techniques as possible. I tried to start a class wiki where students had an authentic audience to share their ideas and to collaborate with one another; however, because of logistics the class wiki was never able to take off. I did demonstrate how a wiki works and tried to expose students to the idea of using a blog or wiki for educational purposes so that one day they may be able to do so. I also incorporated several other modes of media into the classoom such as a PowerPoint on Romanticism to spark students' interests and a Grammar WebQuest I had students do for extra credit.

INTASC Standard 7 The teacher intern plans instruction based upon knowledge of subject matter, students, the community, and curriculum goals.

I focused my planning and my instruction heavily on who I was teaching. It would be impossible to plan instruction for students that I did not know or whose backgrounds I wasn't familiar with. Whenever planning a lesson, I took my students into account and tried to center my instruction around their individual needs and the needs of the course level they were studying at. For example, teaching pre-IB students comes with its own standards. I had to take into account the goal of the International Bacchaulareate program as well as the goals of the Virginia Standards of Learning. Having all of this in mind, I designed a unit plan for To Kill a Mockingbird that took into consideration my knowledge of all of these things.

INTASC Standard 8 The teacher intern understands and uses formal and informal assessment strategies to evaluate and ensure the continuous intellectual, social and physical development of the learner.

It was extremely important to me to incorporate different levels of assessment, both formal and informal, in order to ensure that my students were not only continuously learning, but grasping the material I was teaching them in the first place. If I didn't take the time to ask my students how things were going, or whether or not they were grasping something or not, I would have had no idea how to modify my instruction to allow for their learning. I used the "fist-to-five" method frequently to get an idea of how many students were getting something and to what degree they were comprehending it. I also used exit slips often to get feedback about what students were comprehending and what they needed more help on. I also tried to vary my assessment practices and allow for a variety of assessment measures such as journal responses, and writing activities like found poetry in addition to more formal assessments.

INTASC Standard 9 The teacher intern is a reflective practitioner who continually evaluates the effects of his/her choices and actions on others (students, parents, and other professionals in the learning community) and who actively seeks out opportunities to grow professionally.

As a student teacher, I frequently took the time to reflect on my teaching. After each lesson I reflected on what worked well and what could be improved to work better in the future. I took into account student feedback I received on exit slips and was constantly working to improve my lessons. I have begun finding opportunities to grow professionally. I am a member of both NCTE and NEA and also was able to attend the VATE conference in Fall 2007. I also took part in professional development seminars when I had the opportunity on teacher workdays at Salem High School. When possible, I also applied current literature. For our methods class we read How Does it Mean? by Lisa Schade Eckert, a book about strategies for engaging reluctant readers through literary strategy. I tried three of her strategies during my student teaching and detailed them, and described what worked well and what could be improved for class. Idea Try-Out Project

INTASC Standard 10 The teacher fosters relationships with school colleagues, parents, and agencies in the larger community to support students' learning and well-being.