Domain A: Planning

and Preparing for

Student Learning






A1. Demonstrating subject matter knowledge and
PCK
The teacher demonstrates an understanding of subject matter and
subject-specific pedagogy during planning.

I am demonstrating an understanding of subject matter in the video
attached below. I am demonstrating my knowledge of animal
characteristics in the video. I used several sources to find my
information to make my video. The video was created because I was
researching information for a three-day science lesson that I will be
teaching. The information I have included in the video is much wider
than the information that is needed for the science lesson. The reason
for this is because I need to be able to answer students questions,
and to do this, I need to have a wide knowledge of what I am
teaching. Students may ask questions that go beyond the lesson, and
by creating this video, I will be able to answer these questions. This
video has allowed me to find the information that I need to be able to
teach a thorough science lesson. When creating this video, I included
children's common misconceptions about the topic I was covering. To
do this I had to research children's common misconceptions. This is
important to consider because I now know what I need to teach my
students so that I can clear up these misconceptions.





















A2. Using learning principles to understand
children
The teacher uses principles of learning and development, and
understanding of learners and learner diversity during planning of
instruction and assessment.

This artifact illustrates that I use principles of learning and
development, and understanding of learners and learner diversity
during planning of instruction and assessment. The reason for this is
because when planning this PSSA question, I had to think about what
was appropriate for fourth grade students. I also had to understand
the learners in my class to create this problem. The students are
learning division, focusing on division word problems. This problem
would be used to assess students once they have been taught division
to assess their ability to solve division problems. Not all of the
students in the class are at the same learning level, so I made sure to
use numbers that all of the students in the class would be capable of
working with. Even though I used nice numbers, I was able to still
make the problem stimulating. I did this by making the problem a two
step problem. This forces students to really think about what they are
doing. When planning this question, I had to think about what the
students in my class were capable of doing, and what I could do to
make the problem stimulating for all of the students in class.



















The artifacts that I have attached demonstrate my understanding of
learner diversity in my classroom. The reason for this is because I
know that not all students have the same abilities and strengths.
When I was planning this lesson and creating the power point, I
decided that I wanted my students to use guided notes. I
differentiated the guided notes because there is one student who
struggles with reading. I gave him less to fill in because I did not want
him to get lost in the words he was reading when trying to figure out
what to fill in. He reads and writes at a slow rate, so by differentiating
the guided notes I gave him, I was trying to reduce the amount of
frustration that he gets when trying to follow along. When he becomes
frustrated or overwhelmed he gives up, and struggles with getting
back on task. By differentiating his guided notes he was able to keep
up with the class and stay on task.






















A3. Using contextual factors in planning
The teacher uses relevant community, district, school, and classroom
factors and characteristics in planning.

The following three pieces of evidence show how I have considered
classroom factors and characteristics in planning my lessons. I thought
about the different academic characteristics in the classroom when I
was planning these lessons. When planning these lessons I thought
about what each student needed to help them to be more successful.
After deciding the academic characteristics of the students in the
classroom, I was able to determine which students should be placed in
which groups. I determined the academic characteristics of the
students based off of previous academic success, as well as classroom
factors such as who would be able to work with who. I was then able
to determine the activities to use with each group.





























A4. Developing appropriate instructional goals
The teacher develops and selects appropriate instructional goals and
objectives.

The evidence that I have attached is lesson plans that demonstrate
how I have developed and selected appropriate instructional goals and
objectives. When writing each lesson plan I went through the material
that I was going to teach and thought about what it was that I wanted
my students to learn. Once I had decided what it was that I wanted
my students to learn I wrote the objectives that I believed were
appropriate for each lesson. When I had finished writing the
objectives, I wrote the assessments that I would use in each lesson so
that I could determine if the students learned what I wanted them to
learn from my instruction. After writing the objectives, I was able to
determine what I believed was the best way to instruct the students
on the material.




























A5. Designing coherent learning opportunities
The teacher designs coherent short range and long range opportunities
for student learning and assessment.

My unit demonstrates how I have designed short range and long-range
opportunities for student learning and assessment. I have designed
what I want my students to learn overall in the long range of the unit
by creating three objectives that I want my students to complete.
These objectives will be assessed in the form of a post-examination. I
have also designed short-range opportunities for student learning and
assessment by creating seven lessons that allow students to learn
pieces of what I want them to learn in the long range. Each of the
lessons within the unit contain short-range objective that I want my
students to reach. These objectives will be assessed in each lesson to
determine if the students understand the material that I want them to
know for the long range.




























A6. Instructional resources
The teacher selects, adapts, and/or creates appropriate instructional
resources and materials, including instructional technologies.

This artifact shows that I adapted material to allow for learning. I
selected a piece of children's literature and incorporated it into a math
lesson the dealt with multiplication. I used this piece of literature as an
instructional resource because I used it in an interactive read aloud
where I asked multiplication questions that dealt with the piece of
literature throughout the reading of the book. During the read aloud,
there was a digit multiplication problem, so I used the board to write
the problem down. I did this so that students could visualize the
problem, and help me solve it. I created a worksheet of multiplication
problems that was based off of the piece of literature used in the read
aloud. The title of the book that I used was "The Lion's Share" and the
title of the worksheet I created was "The Lion's Share Math Sheet."



























The artifact that I have attached is a math game that I selected to use
as a review for the PSSAs. I have seen the math train game played
before using multiplication and division facts flash cards. I thought
about how this game was played to review math facts, and decided to
adapt it to what my students' needs were. I created math questions
based off of content that would be tested on the PSSAs and placed
them on a power point. I looked through the list of eligible content and
previous questions that the students had answered to come up with
new questions to use in the math train game. I used the power point
in place of flash cards by projecting it on the SMART Board for all of
the students in the class to see. I used this in my classroom a few
days during the PSSAs as a fun and stress-free way to review.


























A7. Preparing an appropriate learning
environment
The teacher plans for an inclusive, nurturing, stimulating, and
academically challenging learning environment.

My piece of evidence is a bulletin board that I use in my social studies
class and it allows for an inclusive, nurturing, stimulating, and
academic challenging learning environment. The reason for this is
because it allows for multiple choices on many different learning
levels. The students are given the choice to choose what activity they
want to complete. It is stimulating because the activities make
learning fun to help and get students engaged. It allows for an
academically challenging learning environment because it challenges
students to push themselves to complete an activity that is either at or
slightly above their learning level. It is inclusive because there are
activities that are appropriate for the different learning abilities in the
class. It is nurturing because students have some freedom, but within
that freedom they still have structure. When I say this I mean, that I
will be there to provide the students with the assistance that they
need and monitor their progress to make sure that they stay on track.
This allows for a learning environment that allows students to work at
their own pace and make decisions that they believe are the best for
their learning.



















This lesson illustrates that I planned for an inclusive, nurturing,
stimulating, and academically challenging learning environment. The
reason for this is because I planned that certain students would
struggle with this concept, so when planning, I made sure to plan on
telling students to ask questions and ask for assistance when it is
needed. This lesson is stimulating because none of the students have
ever used this method of multiplication before, so they will have to be
fully engaged in the lesson to understand it. It is challenging for
students because they are not used to this method, and must learn
how to use it effectively. When planning this lesson, I knew that it
would be challenging for students, but I also knew that it would be
stimulating because it is something completely different than what
they are used to. I planned to be very nurturing because I did not
want students to become frustrated trying to learn this new method of
multiplication.