Competency 1

             The teacher uses an understanding of human developmental process to nurture student growth through developmentally appropriate instruction.

           Collect and Learn. Understanding this competency is especially vital in the development of literacy in young children. According to S. Krashen’s book entitled “The Power of Reading” the single most important factor in literacy growth is access to books and time in which to read them. Access includes libraries in the classroom, school, and community as well as in the home. One of the most appropriate allocations of instructional time in the school day is the scheduling of FRV or Free Voluntary Reading. This period which ranges from 15 minutes to 60 per day has been found to improve vocabulary, spelling, grammar usage, writing style, as well as reading comprehension and retention.

            The student learns best when able to guide his or her own reading by choosing the topic, length and level on which the text is written.  Studies sited in his aforementioned book demonstrate the effectiveness, which FRV lends to learners of all languages and developmental levels.

Apply. Watch video (Real Player Format) of students engaged in FVR.

            Reflect. When I read “The Power of Reading” I felt like I was given permission to try what I had always believed to be true. Simply if left to their own devices –given structure and resources- students are their own best teachers. In the first weeks of school my class performed FVR using the books in the classroom library. After two weeks or so it was apparent that an infusion of new material was needed. I went to the public library and checked out 84 books –much to the dismay of the librarian. When my kids saw them they devoured them. They had 84 books on all levels books about everything, silly stories, scary stories, science, artists and goats. Every two weeks I’d pick up 50 or so new books and return all but the most popular ones. They loved the books in English, Spanish, French and Chinese. At first some of the students on developmentally “lower” footing tried to be seen reading the “hard” books, but after seeing the “high” readers pouring over the simple books as well they too gravitated towards books they could read.

Competency 2

             The teacher considers environmental factors that may affect learning in designing a supportive and responsive classroom community that promotes all students’ learning and self-esteem.

             Collect and Learn. According to the Child Study Journal, vol. 10, no. 1 (1980), one of the integral factors in student success at school tasks is that each learner in a group of individuals feels like a member of the classroom community and that the community as a whole values school success. The idea of a positive community concept thereby gives support to the enhancement of each learner’s self-concept. Kelly (1962) and Mead (1934) both suggest that the self develops almost entirely as a result of interaction with others. Thereby Beane and Lipka in “Self-Concept Self-Esteem and the Curriculum” imply that the foundations of self-concept lie heavily in what society perceives one to be. This leads to the need for a strong community of learners who believe that certain positive things about themselves are true simply because they are part of the community. While this may not overcome all outlying environmental factors it will serve to negate many of them as well as aid in the development of a separate self-concept at least within the confines of the classroom.

Apply. List of Community Beliefs:

• We the members of this class will respect each other. 

• We will work hard and give our best effort to learn to be better friends, better students and better people. 

• We expect great things from ourselves. 

• We know we need others to help us. 

• We will not give up on anyone. 

• We the members of this class will respect ourselves.

            Reflect. Developing a sense of community was vital in building success in some of the students in my classroom. They had been told that they were lazy, that they were thieves and troublemakers, that they did not want to learn. I started with their in-class attitude, setting up / eliciting from them the core community beliefs and values. We expected these things from each other. The “biter” was first not a biter in the classroom, then not a biter in the school, then at home. The self-proclaimed lazy student had to change at first within the group. There was no room on the list of community beliefs for those who did not try. Effort functioned as the cornerstone for the community, effort, togetherness, respect and expectations. They found that effort was related to the respect they received, that effort raised their expectations, increased their sense of togetherness and in the end began to change their own self-concept.

Competency 3

             The teacher appreciates human diversity, recognizing how diversity in the classroom and the community may affect learning and creating a classroom environment in which both the diversity of groups and the uniqueness of individuals are recognized and celebrated.

             Collect and Learn. In the text “Learning in Two Worlds” by B. Perez and Torres-Guzman, one of the ways to recognize as well as utilize classroom diversity is through the use of student, parent and group interest inventories. Such tools place a student’s prior knowledge in a position of great usefulness as the learner perceives the connection the curriculum has to his or her own knowledge base and consequently take ownership of it. Using such information to plan thematic units increases the amount of material which can be covered due to the positive effect student-based lessons have on motivation and interest.

            In the same way that children often read books by the same author, an integrated unit which contains elements with which the student can culturally identify create an environment of improved communication and heightened achievement.

Apply. See story English  Español  and integrated unit on El Salvador Español only.

            Reflect. Several of my students are from Latin American counties other than Mexico, however most Spanish Language materials use Mexico as the sole reference point to student culture. After returning from El Salvador I wrote a story about my adventures and constructed a thematic unit around the book. A student in the class who was actually from a city mentioned in the story, could hardly contain himself as he read, those from other countries including the US seemed to enjoy it as well in that the story gave them further insight into my non-academic life. After sharing the story and going over the unit together I felt closer to all my students and “Alejo” in particular. He even asked if he could take a copy of the story home to read to his mom and dad.

Competency 4

             The teacher understands how learning occurs and can apply this understanding to design and implement effective instruction.

             Collect and Learn. As in competency 1, the best example of an author’s ability to demonstrate how a student learns is Krashen’s “The Power of Reading”. According to Krashen, learning occurs most efficiently when individuals are not aware said learning is taking place. Whether in the form of discovery, entertainment, or celebration, having fun implies engagement and a latent benefit of being engaged can be and often is- learning. Free Voluntary Reading, FVR, comes closest to this storied zone of self-directed, self-motivated instruction. Give a learner a wide variety of books, magazines, comics and newspapers and according to studies, an intense interest in one will function as a gateway to other genres and areas. The 60 minutes donated each day to FVR not only makes a habit out of reading, but also awakens in the learner a better idea of what the world is, how it works and where they stand in it. Such knowledge leads to new questions and those questions to self-directed learning through reading and other forms of inquiry, which serve to empower the individual in that they learn how to learn.

Apply. Link to lesson plans which include FVR as an element.

            Reflect. I think about all the books on teaching, and the money spent on computers, networking, vice-principals and plastic forks and wonder if we wouldn’t be better off channeling that capital into more books. Our libraries should be sprawling colossal centerpieces of learning and inquiry. Administrators should share rooms so that more space for more books can be made. No, we cannot cut back on everything in favor of books, adults in the form of parents, teachers and community members need to demonstrate / cultivate their own excitement for the printed page an exuberance which children see and decide to mimic.

Competency 5

             The teacher understands how motivation affects group and individual behavior and learning and can apply this understanding to promote student learning.

             Collect and Learn. In the case study “Enhancing Motivation and Learning Through Collaboration and the use of Problems” John R. Savery documents the efforts of two Midwestern educators who had frequently encountered students with little motivation to excel in their course. They found that if they assumed students would be motivated to learn and presented a student centered curriculum which included: a variety of real world simulations / problem solving opportunities, individual mentoring, and collaborative planning. Savery also states through the findings of Brooks and Brooks, 1993; Savery and Duffy, 1995; and Duffy and Cunningham, 1996 that effective learning communities may be fostered when teacher: anchor learning activities to a larger task or problem; design authentic tasks which simulate the environment in which students should be able to operate after instruction; give the learner ownership of the process used to develop a solution to the overall problem or task; support and challenge the learner’s thinking; provide learners with an opportunity for both support and reflection on both the content learned and the learning process.

Apply. Link to the Science Fair Assistant.

            Reflect. The Science Fair Assistant I created was my way of increasing their motivation to succeed in terms of creating a quality science fair project. For the five weeks leading up to the fair students learned skills such as web navigation, search engine usage, word processing skills and the copy and paste functions of the windows 98 / office 2000 suite. Students could see how each task at hand was related to the greater goal of the completion of their science fair project. Their time in the computer lab included portions for discovery, direct instruction as well as team planning.