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Descriptive Statements:
- Demonstrate knowledge of the importance of school-home communication, factors that facilitate or impede communication, and methods of initiating and maintaining effective communication with all students' families.
- Apply knowledge of strategies for developing partnerships with families to support student learning and for encouraging and facilitating the involvement of families in their children's education.
- Demonstrate knowledge of strategies for conducting effective conferences with parents/guardians, addressing the concerns of parents/guardians in various contexts, and interacting effectively and appropriately with all families.
- Apply knowledge of effective methods for establishing and maintaining supportive, collaborative relationships with professional colleagues in given school contexts.
- Demonstrate knowledge of strategies for collaborating effectively with specialists and other members of the school community to meet student needs and enhance student learning.
- Demonstrate knowledge of how to develop partnerships with individuals, businesses, and institutions in the community and how to use community resources to expand and enrich student learning.
Sample Item:
A high school mathematics teacher has a new student in their class who has a learning disability. The teacher has planned a new instructional unit and wants to make sure that the student can participate fully in unit activities. Which of the following steps should the teacher take first to best ensure this outcome?
- preparing a selection of alternative mathematics activities for the student
- reviewing the student's Individualized Education Program (IEP) goals and accommodations and/or modifications with the student's special education teacher
- meeting with other teachers in the mathematics department to request suggestions for approaches to use with the student when working on this unit
- having the student work on unit activities with a peer partner who has strong skills in mathematics
Correct Response and Explanation (Show Correct ResponseHide Correct Response)
B. In this example, the mathematics teacher meeting with the student's special education teacher is an appropriate initial step to help the math teacher gain insight into the student's needs, identify appropriate supports, collaborate effectively, ensure compliance with legal requirements, and build positive relationships that support the student's success in the classroom.
Descriptive Statements:
- Demonstrate knowledge of the structure and components of the U.S. public education system as it relates to teacher roles in various educational contexts, and appropriate teacher interactions with students, parents/guardians, other educational professionals, and community members.
- Apply knowledge of the rights and responsibilities of students, teachers, and parents/guardians in various educational contexts.
- Apply knowledge of legal requirements for teachers in given situations, such as providing instruction to students with special needs, ensuring educational access for all students, maintaining the confidentiality of student records, and seeking copyright permission for use of instructional resource materials.
- Demonstrate knowledge of ethical guidelines for teachers and how to apply the guidelines in various educational contexts, including school and student safety protocols.
- Demonstrate knowledge of professional development opportunities and resources (e.g., professional organizations; research; action research; interactions with mentors, supervisors, and colleagues) and their use in enhancing professional knowledge, skills, and practice.
- Demonstrate knowledge of strategies for using reflection and self-assessment to identify teaching strengths and challenges and to improve professional practice as well as behaviors and beliefs associated with effective teaching (e.g., modeling love of learning, and open-mindedness; recognizing and addressing personal assumptions).
Sample Item:
In which of the following situations is a teacher most clearly using reflection and self-assessment to improve professional practice?
- A teacher asks another teacher to review their lesson plans prior to instruction and provide feedback on planned activities and materials.
- A teacher engages in co-teaching with a more experienced teacher when introducing particularly challenging content to students.
- A teacher reviews videos of their instruction with a more experienced teacher to identify teaching strengths and challenges.
- A teacher creates a comprehensive description of activities used during each grading period to submit to the department chairperson.
Correct Response and Explanation (Show Correct ResponseHide Correct Response)
C. In the example, the teacher's engagement in reviewing instructional videos with a more experienced teacher demonstrates a commitment to reflection and self-assessment as integral components of professional practice. By seeking feedback, identifying strengths and challenges, gaining different perspectives, promoting continuous improvement, informing goal setting, and ultimately enhancing student learning, the teacher is actively working to improve their effectiveness as an educator.
Use the information below to complete the assignment that follows.
Imagine that you are a new high school teacher. The principal has asked you to serve on a faculty committee whose goal is to identify ways to increase faculty collaboration with the school library media specialist. Although the library media center has expanded its resources significantly in recent years, the library media specialist reports that many faculty members still do not take advantage of the resources that are available. Increased faculty collaboration with the library media specialist is a schoolwide goal for the following year.
Write a proposal to other members of the committee describing your ideas about the issue of faculty collaboration with the school library media specialist. Your response should:
- explain why increased faculty collaboration with the library media specialist is important;
- describe two steps faculty members can take to increase collaboration with the library media specialist; and
- explain why each step would be beneficial by describing the impact it would have on the overall goal.
Sample Responses
Sample Strong Response (Show Sample Strong ResponseHide Sample Strong Response)
Library media specialists are equipped with knowledge and resources that can help keep us and our students up to date on the latest advances in technologies available and can also instruct students on the many uses the library media center provides to enhance their education. We need to make use of the knowledge these educators have as we prepare units and lesson plans that will keep students engaged. Increasing collaboration with these experts will help ensure that we are providing a quality education that engages students of all abilities and interests.
One way we can collaborate with the library media specialist is to set up times to meet with them, take a tour of what is available in our school library media center, and reach out to the library media specialist when preparing lessons, for guidance on using these resources for more engaging lessons. The library media specialist can provide training in using any unfamiliar equipment or resource allowing us the most productive way to incorporate what the center can provide into our current curriculum. If we set meeting times with the library media specialist throughout the school year, we can better ensure that we are providing innovative lessons that will keep our students engaged and learning.
Another way to collaborate is to work with them on common goals we both have for our students, such as helping students become more familiar with appropriate and user-friendly websites for research. We can incorporate their goals with our goals, teaching the process of producing research projects and papers by collaborating on interdisciplinary lessons. Students will see more relevance to their education when it is presented to them in line with other avenues of their learning, and we can provide them with a more positive and productive learning experience.
Sample Weak Response (Show Sample Weak ResponseHide Sample Weak Response)
Collaboration is one of the key factors to success and growing as an individual and school. Collaborating with your fellow school faculty, including the library media specialist is an important part of professional development, especially as a young educator, because you simply do not know it all and can always be learning and growing as an individual. There is always something to learn or grow in and as educators it is important to always strive for growth. The librarians in our building can help us grow.
One step we can take to increase collaboration with the library media specialist is to get to know them in a more casual environment. Not all collaboration needs to take place in a classroom or library. Invite the library media specialist out for coffee and get to know them. By doing this, you will find areas that you each have in common and can work to create dynamic lesson plans from the base you have built. Learning from what interests us is important to students and should be to us too. Getting to know the library media specialist this way can help us build stronger bonds with our students.
Another step we can take is to immerse ourselves in their environment. Use the library. Ask questions. Do this not only for our lesson planning or as a place to take our students to do research, but as a place for our own learning. This will show the library media specialist that we are interested in and dedicated to nurturing what they do for our students. By that example, the librarian feels validated, and our students see us using the same resources they do for our own educational experiences.
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