Standard 4: The teacher understands the central concepts, tools of inquiry, and structures of the discipline(s) he or she teaches and creates learning experiences that make these aspects of the discipline accessible and meaningful for learners to assure mastery of the content.
1. The teacher understands the central concepts, tools of inquiry, and structures of the discipline(s) he or she teaches.
Evidence 1: Vermont Early Learning Standards
Description: The Vermont Early Learning Standards were created to provide guidance for families, teachers and administrators. The VELS describe guiding principles that serve as the core for making informed decisions about what is developmentally appropriate for young children.
Analysis: The Vermont Early Learning Standards provide a checks and balance system for determining if lesson material is developmentally appropriate for the children within my class. It also aids in planning lesson content that touches upon the various developmental domains contained within it's covers.
Evidence 2: Preschool Curriculum Binder
Description: This binder was created by our staff and contains the Next Generation Science Standards, Math Common Core, Vital Results and Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts & Literacy in History/Social Studies, Science and Technical Subjects.
Analysis: This resource aids in preparing my current students for Kindergarten. I am able to observe skills that they are currently working on as contained in the Vermont Early Learning Standards, and then build a foundation for later work as delineated by the Science, Math, English Language Arts and Literacy in History and Social Studies frameworks.
Evidence 3: Introduction to Early Childhood Education, ECE 105, Community College of Vermont, Fall 2001, Transcript
Description: This course was an overview of early childhood education . We examined historical, philosophical, and practical issues related to the education of children from birth to age eight. Topics included early childhood learning, behavior, and motivation; curriculum models and materials; observation techniques; and instructional issues.
Analysis: One piece of information that was presented multiple times throughout this class was that children share many characteristics including the need for affection, acceptance, consistency, respect and appropriate challenges, but there are many differences as well. While falling within the normal range of development, each child possesses a unique blend of attributes that makes him or her one of a kind.
2. The teacher creates learning experiences that make the discipline accessible and meaningful for learners to assure mastery of the content.
Evidence 1: "The Doorbell Rang" Lesson Plan
Description: I use this lesson during one of our math centers to introduce various math concepts.
Analysis: Developing number sense is a large part of of our math curriculum in preschool. Children are beginning to understand the relationship between number symbols and quantities. As children do this, they are building fluency in counting, recognizing, representing, naming and ordering numbers of objects from one to ten. This activity helps children to learn the names of numbers, and that each number is is a separate entity in itself, which helps them learn the sequence of one to ten and to make the association between spoken number and quantity. After an understanding of quantity is attained, number symbols are taught. The final step in work with numbers from one to ten is associating the symbol and the quantity.
Evidence 2: Five Senses Center
Description: I developed this lesson plan when introducing the concept of observation to a Kindergarten-First grade class.
Analysis: As children engaged in this lesson, they were prepared for year-long learning. Children learned that observations of living things can be gained and represented in various ways. They were prepared to extend their learning throughout the year as topics in physical, life and earth sciences were studied.
Evidence 3: Mammals vs Birds Kindergarten-First Grade Lesson
Description: I taught this as a follow up lesson to assess understanding while in a K-1 class.
Analysis: Children participating in this lesson were able to become the teacher as they described and explained information that they had learned the previous day in class. I was also able to assess each child's level of understanding as magazine pictures were placed on the dry erase board. Children were able to engage in and show their level of understanding of this lesson in a variety of ways.
