DRAFT: This module has unpublished changes.

 

Standard 7: Engagement with Subject Matter

 

The student teacher demonstrates mastery of the skills and knowledge central to the discipline. Interest in, and energy for, his/her discipline are demonstrated through the creation of lessons which present diverse students with challenging activities and projects, engage them, and encourage them to solve problems, raise questions, and interact in ways that contribute to a positive learning environment while development skills as critical, inquiring thinkers.

 

In regards to engaging with the subject matter, I was asked to address this standard in the preliminary stages of lesson plan with my first unit, Japanese-Internment. I knew the very basics of this material, strictly from a high school history class, and had never been asked to engage with this subject matter past an introductory overview. Having to teach it to eighth graders was a really excellent challenge for me as it forced me to not only research the material to create the lessons, but also study deeper into the content to ensure that I was ready to answer and respond to the countless questions that my students inevitably had. When the students asked a question of me to which I did not know the answer, I either researched it that night to respond to them the next day, or challenged them to look into it and report back to the class. Both of these strategies worked well to both help myself engage in the subject and for my students to become individual experts.

Another challenge I was posed with and something that I had to learn a lot about myself before sharing with my students was the ability to teach writing. I quickly learned that it is very different knowing how to write, and teaching others the craft. Additionally, narrowing down my own writing style and knowledge to fit the expectations and standards of eighth graders was difficult, but something that I learned a tremendous amount about while doing so. My primary opportunity for growth in teaching writing thus far was a summative assessment in the form of a research paper in Japanese Internment. By working with my mentor teacher and the school’s literacy coach, I learned how to break down and scaffold a writing assignment and to determine which skills to focus on. For this specific assignment, based on a previous writing assessment, we determined that the biggest areas of need were breaking down a question, forming a thesis, structuring the essay, and creating a counter-argument. Through workshops and graphic organizers, these skills were then relayed to my students, and I am proud of the work that resulted. To improve, I seek to continue to learn from the educators and peers around me and concretely, it is a goal of mine to invest time into reading new books regarding the study of history so that I can continually engage with my discipline.

DRAFT: This module has unpublished changes.