Standard 5: Reflection
Teacher leaders contribute to systematic, critical analysis of learning in their classrooms and beyond. They are lifelong learners who model and support ongoing professional development. Teachers embrace critical thinking, problem solving, and innovation. Indicators are:
- Promote an educational culture that values reflective practice.
- Model the development of meaningful professional goals.
- Model personal and professional reflection to extend student learning and school improvement.
Context
This literacy autobiography was written in Dr. Mooreman's course entitled Reading and Writing Instruction (RE 5730). I was asked to reflect on my own literary experiences in the form of a personal narrative.
Rational
In order to promote an educational culture which values practice being reflective, it was necessary for me to also reflect on my own literacy development as well as how this has affected my professional goals of becoming a teacher of reading as well as my personal goals of affecting the students at my school. During the course of this autobiography, I examined several titles I read as an adolescent and detailed how these texts affected my life.
Comprehensive Exam
Context
Dr. Frye (RE 5710) required me to reflect on the knowledge gained from the Master's Program as well as my own experiences and apply them to the practices I use in my sixth grade classroom in Seminar in Reading and Language Arts Research.
Rational
In writing this comprehensive exam, I was forced to reflect on what I have learned during my coursework. In doing this, I examined my own classroom practices which includes assessment using the Informal Reading Inventory, which is the best measure of a child's independent, instructional and frustration grade levels. This is important because this information provides me with a starting place for teaching my students. Instructional practices should include reading, writing, word sorts and reading aloud to my students. My professional goal is to eventually share the knowledge gained from this program (details are outlined within this exam) with the other teachers at my school.