Victoria Wilson's Teaching Portfolio

Here you will find each NCTE/NCATE standard in bold as well as a link to a sample assignment sheet, rubric, student example, or explanation that demonstrates how I've met each standard (with a brief rationale for each artifact beneath each standard).

NCTE/NCATE Standards:

2.1 Create an inclusive and supportive learning environment in which all students can engage in learning.

To ensure that every student in my classroom was given the opportunity to show off his/her skills, I created many informal assessments that allowed for creativity and artistic expression. For example, I often allowed my students to draw a picture of what was happening in a story while I read it aloud to the class. Click the following link to see an example of a student's drawing for Edgar Allen Poe's "The Fall of the House of Usher": Student Sample

2.2 Use ELA to help students become familiar with their own and others’ cultures.

To help my students put themselves in someone else's shoes, I created the following activity: Money Activity

2.4 Uses practices designed to assist students in developing habits of critical thinking and judgment.

I provided my students with the following opinion chart to encourage them to think critically and make judgments about a short story’s major themes: Opinion Chart

2.5 Make meaningful connections between the ELA curriculum and developments in culture, society, and education.

After reading/listening to several persuasive speeches from the American Revolution era, students wrote persuasive papers about current events/controversies. Click on the following links for the persuasive essay assignment sheet and persuasive essay rubric:Assignment Sheet Rubric

3.1 Demonstrate knowledge of, and skills in the use of, the English language.

Students completed several grammar/puntuation tests, such as the following: Grammar/Punctuation Test

3.2 Demonstrate knowledge of the practices of oral, visual and written literacy.

Throughout my student teaching semester, I assigned students vocabulary words. To help them retain and visualize the meanings of the words, I used the following graphic organizer: Vocabulary Sheet

Each student was assigned a word and required to fill in the graphic organizer and present it to the class.

3.3 Demonstrate knowledge of the reading process.

Because there are many ways to assess whether or not students are comprehending what they are reading, I created many different types of assessments. For example, I often allowed my students to draw a picture of what was happening in a story while I read it aloud to the class because imagery is an important aspect of the reading process. Click the following link to see an example of a student's drawing for Edgar Allen Poe's "The Fall of the House of Usher": Student Sample

3.4 Demonstrate knowledge of different composing processes.

My unit plan provides examples of how I took into account different composing processes.

3.5 Demonstrate knowledge of, and uses for, an extensive range of literature.

While student teaching, my students read a variety of short stories, personal narratives, philosophical essays, poems, and plays from different time periods and perspectivies.

3.6 Demonstrate knowledge of the range and influence of print and nonprint media and technology in contemporary culture.

In lieu of a Civil War/Realism unit test, my students created persuasive videos using Windows Movie Maker that were inspired by the Lincoln-Douglas debates. Click on the following links to see the assignment sheet and rubric I provided: Persuasive Video Assignment Rubric

3.6.1 Understand how media can influence constructions of a text’s meaning, and how experiencing various media can enhance students’ composing process, communication and learning.

My students were required to create Transcendentalism videos using Windows Movie Maker to show me that they understood excerpts we read in class from Henry David Thoreau and Ralph Waldo Emerson. The videos required visual images and written narration. Click the following link to see the assignment rubric I created and distributed: Transcendentalism Video Rubric

3.6.2 Show an ability to construct meaning from media and nonprint texts, and to assist students in learning these processes.

I used the following youtube.com video to help students understand the main ideas behind Transcendentalism:Youtube.com Video

3.6.3 Incorporate technology and print/nonprint media into instruction.

I used the following youtube.com video to help students understand the main ideas behind Transcendentalism:Youtube.com Video

4.1 Examine and select resources for instruction such as textbooks, other print materials, videos, films, records, and software appropriate for supporting the teaching of English language arts.

My students watched biographical films about Edgar Allen Poe and Ernest Hemingway. I wanted my students to look at both authors' works through a biographical lens.

4.2 Create literate classroom communities by presenting varied structures and techniques for interactions by employing effective classroom management strategies and by providing students with opportunities for feedback and reflection.

Through small, group-led discussions and workshops, students reflected on what they read and collaborated with one another to share ideas.

4.3 Integrate interdisciplinary teaching strategies and materials into the teaching and learning process for students.

I exposed students to primary sources from the American Civil War, such as photocopies of medical slips, newspaper clippings, etc. to help them look at the readings from a historical context.

4.4 Create and sustain learning environments that promote respect for, and support of, individual differences of ethnicity, race, language, culture, gender and ability.

My students read excerpts from Frederick Douglas' Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglas and Harriet Jacob's Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl and compared the two texts in terms of how race and gender played roles in their experiences by creating Venn diagrams. Click the following link to see the procedures for that lesson plan: Venn Diagram Lesson Plan

4.5 Engage students often in meaningful discussions for the purposes of interpreting and evaluating ideas presented through oral, written and/or visual forms.

After reading each assigned text, we held big and small group discussions about a work's meaning, construction, main ideas, etc.

4.6 Engage students in critical analysis of different media and communication technologies.

I used the following youtube.com video to help students understand the main ideas behind Transcendentalism:Youtube.com Video

After watching the video, we held a class discussion about the accuracy of the clip.

4.7 Engage students in learning experiences that consistently emphasize varied uses and purposes for language in communication.

During the American Revolution Unit, my students pretended to be either a loyalist or a patriot and wrote hypothetical letters to family members/friends back home in England to discuss what was going on in the colonies during that time period. Click on the following link to see an example of a student's letter: Student Sample

This assignment forced students to take on a specific persona and write to a very particular audience.

4.8 Engage students in making meaning of texts through personal response.

After reading an excerpt from Emerson's "Self-Reliance," students completed a quick-write about a time when they went against the majority. The following is a student example: Student Sample

4.9 Demonstrate that their students can select appropriate reading strategies that permit access to, and understanding of, a wide range of print and nonprint texts

Often, students were allowed to choose whether they wanted to listen to me read aloud, listen to an audio-cd, or if they wanted to read something on their own.

4.10a Integrate assessment consistently into instruction by using a variety of formal and informal assessment activities and instruments to evaluate processes and products.

Students completed several informal vocabulary assessments. For example, once a week, students were given a vocabulary word and had to draw a picture that exemplfies that word's meaning. However, students also took formal vocabulary tests, such as the following multiple choice/matching test: Vocabulary Test

4.10b Integrate assessment consistently into instruction by creating opportunities to use a variety of ways to interpret and report assessment methods and results to students, parents, administrators and other audiences.

I created a class wiki for my journalism students so that they could share broadcast packages with each other, teachers, their parents, etc. You can view the site at http://journalismchs.pbwiki.com/