Professional Growth Plan

Target Area

Classroom
Management

Assessment

Literacy

Objectives
Keeping students
engaged
Giving clear and direct
instructions
Determine and set
classroom expectations
Get the students
attention at the same
time
Know various
assessment methods.
Perform assessment
throughout class time.
Knowing what areas
students are struggling.
Determine what
assessments gives most
accurate results.

Know what type of

literacy students
understand best.
Find technique to use
various literacies in the
classroom.
Be able to teach literacy
to students.

Strategies
Observe my TA and the
techniques that are utilized in the
classroom and determine if they
are effective.
Research different strategies from
various teaching resources.

Apply different strategies from

Evaluation and determine if they
are effective.
Throughout the practicum
observe different assessments
performed by TA.

Research the multiple strands of

literacy and see how they apply in
the classroom with the TA.
Observe the various methods TA
uses within the classroom to teach
literacy.

Expected Outcomes
Students will be engaged throughout
the whole class.
Instructions will be clearly understood
and followed through by the students.
My expectations will be known by the
students behaviour and attention.

Use various forms of summative and

formative assessments and know that
they are reliable, valid and fair.
Use different methods depending on
students abilities.

Knowing that the student is learning

with the strand that they understand
best.
Being able to teach a literacy lesson
and students understand the concepts
throughout the lesson.

Notes:
Classroom Management:
It is about letting the students know what your expectations are. It is important to explicitly state what you are expecting the students to do. Students
need to know what their boundaries are, if you do not tell them what they are, students are unsure of what is expected of them. If students are
unaware, you as a teacher cannot hold them accountable. One thing that I learned was teaching that students act upon their expectations of them. If
you call them leaders and expect them to follow The 7 Habits they will do their best to show you their leadership skills and how they are capable of
doing all the habits.
Techniques:

TA counts down to get students attention. Pause. Begin with instructions.

Standing and waiting for everyone to listen and have eyes on the teacher.
Incorporate name of student, without embarrassing, when giving instruction.
o Know which students it is effective and which ones will shut down.
1,2,3, Eyes on Me. 1, 2 Eyes on you.
Voices off, hands ups
Lets make sure that we are listening
Giving students heads up to finish their sentence during discussion.
Gives students a time limit and lets them know what they are getting close to be being done.
o 5 minutes to work on it. 1-minute left. 5,4,3,2,1 Hands up
Says, Im waiting to show me that you are ready to listen.
o It is about reminded them what their responsibility is.
o Showing what good leadership is.
o Also, letting students know that they are wasting precious class time
Having students do a lot of elbow talking and sharing with the class helps them stay more engaged and participating throughout class
Classroom management is letting students know that they are wasting precious class time, they should be trying to please teacher with good
leadership and being role models for other students in the classroom.
The 7 Habits and Leadership
o Based on Steve Coveys The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
o Teaching children how to become leaders and use the habits daily.

Assessment:
Throughout the semester assessment was done daily, which was mainly formative. Each day the teacher is getting information from the students that
help make instructions decisions for the next day or even the lesson. Often lesson started with a review which could be used as assessment and the
teacher analyse the student responses and decided if more time needed to be spent on a certain topic. For example, at the end of one math lesson, it
may appear that students have figured out the addition on their whiteboard. They fill out an exit slip and their answers are wrong. The teacher starts
the next lesson with the review to figure out if students do not know it or if they just made simple computation mistakes.

Exit Slips
o Used as a tool to make decision about instruction
o If students are all doing well on their own, there is no need to continue working on this
o If students have done poorly, you can assess which steps they are not doing properly
White Board Work
Discussions from THINK/PAIR/SHARE
Leveled Literacy Intervention (LLI)- reading with the students who are below grade level and testing continuously for progress
Guided Reading Groups- reading groups are divided based on reading level.
o Group 1 consists of only Level O readers
o Continually working with teacher for improved reading
Worksheet at the end of a section in a unit (math) to see if students know the concepts well enough to move along.
Performance task- a bigger assignment in which they utilize the skills of a unit.
o Summative assessment
o A way to end the unit often used instead of a test at the end.
If students are not doing well in whiteboard work, worksheets, exit slips, more time is spent on the topic
o If only a few students are not doing well, teacher spends extra time working with them.
Summative test generally happens at the end of the unit

Literacy:
Literacy was one thing that was emphasized throughout the school and across the curriculum. It appears majority of the day was spent working on
various literacy skills.

Writing-Lucy Calkins
o Writing program that builds writing skills using various methods
o Fast and furious writing- getting a lot of words onto your paper and going back later to make changes and add more details
o Making students author
o Showing and not telling the story- creating a movie in the readers mind
o Writing for skill building and not for mastery

Word Skills:
o Word Wall Words
Each month new words are taught to the whole class
Words are per the grade
o Spelling tests are based on each individual students needs
They work on them daily doing various things
Speed words sorts with categories
Spelling on white board
Spelling with playdough or popsicle sticks
Writing them down repeatedly-writing, cursive, bubble letters, block letters
Leveled Literacy Intervention (LLI)
o For readers who are below grade level have an extra half hour reading with teacher
o Reading with the students and testing continuously for progress
o Reading occurs at home and at school
Guided Reading Groups
o Reading groups divided by reading level
o Reading on their own and teacher and checking for fluency and comprehension
o Having same level students together to make it more effective-not overwhelming some students while other are not being challenged
at all
Having students read quite a bit during school/ class time
o When they are finished their word
o Twice a week for half an hour is independent reading.
Expectation of reading for per week at home
o If students do the expected reading they get a reward at the end of the week
o Those students who do the expected reading, read an addition half hour at school
Shared Reading
o Teacher chooses an article which student analyses
o Students will start by skimming the article for words that are important or unsure of the meaning
o The reading is chunked by doing a paragraph at a time
o Second time, students will read closely for comprehension
o They will summarize or tell one interesting thing about the paragraph