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Descriptive Statements:
- Demonstrate knowledge of basic assessment concepts, such as reliability, validity and fairness, and the characteristics, uses, advantages, and limitations of various types of formal and informal assessments.
- Demonstrate knowledge of appropriate assessment instruments and practices for given instructional situations or needs and how to select or construct assessment instruments for various purposes (e.g., monitoring, comparing, screening, diagnosing, and assessing progress).
- Apply knowledge of strategies for integrating assessment and instruction; for aligning assessment with instructional goals; and for using assessment to monitor students' progress and to plan, evaluate, and individualize curriculum and teaching practices.
- Demonstrate knowledge of the benefits of using multiple assessment methods for supporting instruction and appropriate strategies for adapting classroom assessments for students with various characteristics, strengths, and needs.
- Apply knowledge of strategies for providing students with timely, accurate, and effective feedback and for helping students use teacher assessment, peer assessment, and self-assessment to guide their own learning.
- Apply knowledge of strategies for gathering, analyzing, and reporting data related to students' performance and achievement.
- Apply knowledge of how to interpret assessment results and how to communicate assessment results responsibly and effectively to students, families, and colleagues.
Sample Item:
An elementary teacher receives information about students' performance on a norm-referenced language arts assessment. The teacher can most appropriately use this information to:
- verify the validity of classroom assessment results and student grades in language arts.
- identify various ways to group students in the class for group-based language arts activities.
- evaluate the effectiveness of alternative methods used in the class to teach language arts.
- compare students' achievement in various areas of language arts with that of peers who took the same test.
Correct Response and Explanation (Show Correct ResponseHide Correct Response)
D. Norm-referenced assessment is a type of standardized test where the examinee's scores are interpreted by comparison with an established peer-based normed sample. In this example, the teacher appropriately compares the students' results on the norm-referenced language arts assessment with a norm, or the average score obtained by the predefined population.
Descriptive Statements:
- Identify procedures used in curricular planning and decision making, such as defining scope and sequence, determining prerequisite knowledge and skills, and aligning the curriculum with content standards.
- Demonstrate knowledge of key factors to consider in instructional planning (e.g., local, state, and national standards; the nature of the content; students' characteristics, prior experiences, and current knowledge and skills).
- Demonstrate knowledge of how to define appropriate learning goals and objectives, select effective instructional approaches, and determine the sequence of instruction.
- Apply knowledge of effective lesson and unit plans and their characteristics, such as logical sequence, completeness, feasibility, and inclusivity, as well as how to use appropriate criteria to evaluate and select instructional resources, including technological resources to meet varied student needs.
- Demonstrate knowledge of the benefits of and strategies for integrating curricula, creating interdisciplinary units of study, and planning learning experiences that explore content from integrated and varied perspectives.
- Apply knowledge of strategies for modifying curriculum and instruction based on students' characteristics and needs and for adapting lessons to ensure the success of all students.
Sample Item:
A teacher is planning lessons for a new instructional unit. The teacher can best ensure the effectiveness of these lessons by considering which of the following questions first?
- What is the fairest and most efficient way to evaluate students' achievement of unit objectives?
- Which unit activities are best completed individually, and which activities are best done in a group?
- What background knowledge and experience do students already have regarding the unit topic?
- In what ways does the unit support the goals of the district curriculum in this subject area?
Correct Response and Explanation (Show Correct ResponseHide Correct Response)
C. An important aspect of delivering effective instruction is curricular planning. A critical step in curricular planning is determining students' background knowledge about a unit of study topic. During this step, teachers gain information about what students already know and can do related to the topic before they begin instruction. The extent of students' prior knowledge and experience with a topic helps determine the teacher's approach to planning instruction of this new unit. If most students have a good foundation regarding the topic, the teacher may only need to provide a brief review before beginning the unit. Conversely, if students have had limited or no experience with a topic, the teacher will need to help students acquire foundational knowledge of the topic before proceeding with the unit.
Descriptive Statements:
- Identify the characteristics, uses, benefits, and limitations of various instructional approaches (e.g., direct instruction, cooperative learning, inquiry learning).
- Demonstrate knowledge of various instructional approaches, including student and teacher roles and responsibilities, and their effectiveness in achieving instructional purposes.
- Apply knowledge of how to organize and implement instruction that promotes the ability of all students to achieve learning goals and of how to continuously monitor instructional effectiveness and respond flexibly to students' understanding, engagement, and feedback.
- Apply knowledge of how to provide instruction that promotes higher-order thinking and creativity; encourages independent thinking and learning; enhances students' ability to synthesize knowledge, solve problems, and acquire, analyze, and organize information; and helps students work together cooperatively and productively.
- Demonstrate knowledge of the use of technology in instruction and strategies for effectively integrating technology into specific instructional situations to support student learning.
- Apply knowledge of communication strategies for meeting specific instructional needs and for promoting understanding and engagement of all students in learning.
- Demonstrate knowledge of skilled questioning and how to use various questioning techniques to achieve instructional goals (e.g., facilitating recall, stimulating curiosity, encouraging divergent thinking).
Sample Item:
An early elementary teacher often plans lessons that use a guided discovery approach. During lessons of this type, the teacher should place the greatest emphasis on which of the following teacher roles?
- using advance organizers to highlight relationships among important lesson ideas
- offering illustrations, examples, and graphic representations to help students grasp a new concept
- helping students use their own observations to formulate general principles
- providing students with practice exercises to reinforce new knowledge and skills
Correct Response and Explanation (Show Correct ResponseHide Correct Response)
C. A guided discovery approach refers to the practice of intentionally cultivating a learning environment which engages students in the active participation of discovering knowledge. During such guided discovery, teachers create carefully constructed lessons wherein they provide concepts or information before asking students to reach logical conclusions, discern patterns or rules, or identify commonalities. An appropriate role for a teacher employing the guided discovery approach would be a supporting role, helping students to use their observations to formulate hypotheses.
Descriptive Statements:
- Apply knowledge of strategies and procedures for creating a safe, supportive learning environment that encourages all students' active engagement, risk taking, and collaboration in learning.
- Demonstrate knowledge of strategies for promoting positive student interactions; facilitating conflict resolution; and promoting students' understanding and application of ethical principles, such as honesty, courtesy and respect, academic and personal integrity, and civic responsibility.
- Apply knowledge of various strategies for managing student behavior and demonstrate understanding of the relationship between specific classroom-management approaches and students' learning, actions, and responses.
- Apply knowledge of strategies for creating an organized and productive classroom environment that fosters excellence, promotes learning, optimizes students' time on task, and encourages self-regulation and a sense of responsibility and accountability.
- Apply knowledge of effective strategies for organizing the physical environment of the classroom to meet instructional needs, managing class schedules and transitions, and handling routine tasks and unanticipated situations.
- Demonstrate knowledge of factors that can affect classroom communication and methods for interacting effectively with all students to achieve specified goals (e.g., clarifying content, communicating high expectations, building student self-esteem, promoting a climate of support).
- Demonstrate knowledge of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation, the relationship between students' direct engagement and motivation, strategies for gaining students' attention and promoting motivation to learn, and ways to sustain student interest and promote intrinsic motivation.
- Recognize factors and situations that tend to promote or diminish student motivation, appropriate ways to apply various motivational strategies, and the expected outcomes of different strategies in given situations.
Sample Item:
An upper elementary teacher holds regular class meetings with students. The teacher always begins these meetings by giving individual students an opportunity to recognize the efforts or achievements of a classmate or to thank a classmate for assistance with a difficult or challenging task. Beginning class meetings in this way is most likely to have which of the following outcomes?
- creating a learning environment that fosters excellence
- promoting students' self-monitoring of their own behavior
- building a supportive and caring classroom community
- communicating to students high expectations for their learning
Correct Response and Explanation (Show Correct ResponseHide Correct Response)
C. A key element to building a supportive and caring classroom community is establishing regular opportunities for respectful and open conversations and developmentally appropriate community-building activities. In elementary school, developing routines such as morning meetings and providing individual students an opportunity to thank or recognize the efforts or achievements of others fosters the type of environment where respectful and positive communication encourages all students to feel safe, to feel seen, and to look after one another.
Use the case study below to complete the assignment that follows.
Background
A third-grade teacher's class includes 23 students, most of whom read at or near grade level. The teacher pairs students who are not yet reading at grade level with stronger readers for certain literature activities. The teacher often uses literature to teach language arts skills. The teacher has presented an introductory lesson on the characteristics of adjectives and has selected a literature book that is particularly rich in adjectives for student partners to read. The teacher is planning a second lesson using simple character analysis from the literature book to reinforce this skill.
Adjective Activities
After providing a brief overview of the assignment at the beginning of the language arts period, the teacher has students complete the following activities on adjectives.
Activity One
Students will work with their partners to review the first few chapters of the literature book and identify adjectives that describe each main character. Students will share their adjective lists with the class, and the teacher will write the adjectives on the board under the appropriate character's name.
Activity Two
Students will complete an adjective chart independently, listing at least five adjectives of their own for each of the main characters.
Chart for Activity Two
The teacher gives each student four blank charts like the partial chart shown below to use for Activity Two. The teacher instructs students to think of their own adjectives to describe the character's actions, feelings, or thoughts instead of using adjectives they find in the book.
Character Name: _________________________ long blank line
| Things the Character Does, Feels, or Thinks |
Adjective |
| intentionally left blank |
intentionally left blank |
Implementation of the Activities
Students worked diligently on their lists of adjectives, and though it took a full language arts period for them to complete Activity One, they overlooked many adjectives that the teacher thought should have been on their lists. The teacher continued the lesson the next day, with students working independently on Activity Two. Students had more difficulty with this activity. Although students were able to identify character actions, feelings, or thoughts without much trouble, assigning an adjective presented a much greater challenge. At the end of the language arts period, many students had listed few adjectives even though they listed several actions, feelings, or thoughts.
Teacher Reflections
This lesson did not go as planned. I didn't expect students to take so long to complete Activity One, and then they did not do as well as I anticipated. They don't seem to have fully grasped the idea of adjectives yet. And Activity Two was a failure in many ways. It also took much longer than I expected, and the students seemed to have real difficulty thinking of an adjective of their own instead of just listing an adjective from the book. Maybe this task was too abstract for them. We're going to have to spend more time on adjectives over the next few weeks. I really enjoy using literature, but I think I'm going to have to modify my approach and find additional ways to help them understand this concept.
Write a response in two parts based on the elements of the case study.
Part One
- Describe one strategy the teacher used to try to promote students' understanding of adjectives; and
- explain why this was a good strategy to try.
Part Two
- Describe one additional strategy the teacher could have used to further promote students' understanding of adjectives; and
- explain why this strategy would be effective in further promoting students' understanding of adjectives.
Sample Responses
Sample Strong Response (Show Sample Strong ResponseHide Sample Strong Response)
Part One
A strategy the teacher used for Activity One was use of reading levels as a basis for establishing paired learning groups. For Activity One, student pairs reviewed the first few chapters of the teacher selected book to identify adjectives describing each main character to then share out with the class.
This strategy is good to try because when students participate in paired learning it prompts discussion about the concept students are studying. Stronger connections can be made when there is more than one person's ideas and perspectives being shared to complete the task. It was noted in the teacher's reflections and implementation that although Activity One did take a full language arts period to complete, students were working diligently on their list of adjectives.
Part Two
To further promote students' understanding of adjectives the teacher could model the character analysis chart students will need to independently complete for Activity Two. Prior to passing out blank charts, a think aloud with elicited student responses would help guide the class to work through some examples together. It might go something like this, "Class, in the first column of our chart, we have identified that Bear has folded arms and has a pouting face. What adjectives can we list in the next column to describe Bear's actions, feelings, or thoughts?" Naming adjectives like 'grumpy' and 'stubborn' in the adjective column will show students a representation of what is expected when they proceed to independently fill in their own character analysis charts. This will be effective in that it gives students a process for using cues and questioning from the list in the first column of their chart to deepen their understanding of what adjectives are and how to use them to describe actions, feelings, and thoughts.
Sample Weak Response (Show Sample Weak ResponseHide Sample Weak Response)
Part One
In a third-grade class of 23 students who read at or near grade level, independent work was a decent strategy to use. By having students work independently, the teacher can identify what each student knows about adjectives. Since students must provide adjectives for what characters do, think, and feel, it should be no problem for students to tap into their own individual thoughts, feelings, and actions to complete the assignment. Everyone has their own feelings and thoughts, and this will certainly be advantageous for this assignment. For this assignment, especially, independent activities are good to do.
Part Two
An additional strategy to further promote students' understanding of adjectives is to give a more expanded overview. The teacher only gave a brief overview of the assignment and reflected that the activity was a failure and even thinks it was too abstract for students. If there was a longer overview, students would be able to write more words and show the mastery the teacher is seeking for the assignment. It might also improve the speed at which students advance through the tasks, as this seemed to be a concern of the teacher's as well.
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