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Learning Statement

The Learning Goal is as follows: A teacher facilitates, monitors and assesses student

learning. The project selected to represent this goal was the Teacher Work Sample that I created

during my student teaching. The Teacher Work Sample (TWS) was assembled from gathered

information about the school and data taken inside the classroom during the instructed unit.

The TWS is the capstone assignment for the School of Education at the University of

Alaska Southeast. Institutes have approved the TWS assignment as a culmination of knowledge

from practicum and student teaching courses. “To meet the demands of accrediting bodies and

standards (e.g. INTASC and NCATE), many institutions adopted the TWS in an effort to move

beyond isolating assessment (Darling-Hammond, 2000) to a more authentic measure to gauge

new teacher preparation” (Haraway & Pease, 2014). Throughout all of my education courses,

the TWS provided the opportunity to put myself in the place of the educator in the classroom and

consider all aspects while planning and reviewing my own TWS unit.

The TWS document contains many parts, each taken with consideration to the classroom

culture, teaching practices of the educator, the unit’s ability to assess and to meet state standards

and implementations that worked well for the given set of students. “In their study of the early

TWS, Denner and colleagues (2004) considered the following to judge the quality of learning

goals and assessments developed within the TWS: validity of learning goals, assessment design

in types of questions, alignment of questions to depth of knowledge established in learning goals,

and alignment of assessments to standards and the appropriate depth. They found a positive

relationship between overall performance on the TWS and the quality of learning goals and

assessments” (Stobaugh, Tassell, & Norman, 2010). The TWS unit that I created, Fire Safety,

included learning goals, assessments, and appropriate depth for kindergarten students.
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My TWS was created using the Backwards Design and Understanding by Design (UBD)

methodologies (as described in the Content Statement). This method of design allowed me to

ensure the Alaska State Standards were met for all learners. “A significant feature of the TWS is

its ability to facilitate pre-service teacher analysis of individual learner progress and reflection”

(Devlin-Scherer, Burroughs, Daly, & McCartan, 2007). Throughout the process of writing the

TWS I was able to look at my Fire Safety unit based upon the information received from

formative and summative assessments. Students’ scores and responses were then reflected back

to how the lesson was instructed.

Analyzing how receptive or non-receptive the students were to my instruction and

activities during the TWS unit, was very informative for future lessons. Some aspects of the unit

worked well, and some could use some modification for the benefit of students. The assignment

of the TWS fulfilled the spectrum of requirements for pre-service educators. “Teacher

candidates must understand their community of learners, design the learning experiences around

that community, and analyze outcomes through assessments designed around the learning goals.

These require structure and guidance that provide a scaffold for planning, implementing and

assessing” (Watkins & Watkins, 2011). The TWS process as a capstone project accurately

stretched my knowledge and abilities as a pre-service teacher during student teaching and

provided the experience to consider while planning and preparing future units of instruction.

Many institutions implement the Teacher Work Sample as a culminating project that

encompasses knowledge from practicum and student teaching experiences. My TWS project was

on Fire Safety for kindergarteners, where I was able to collect information from the school and

the classroom to create and assess Alaska State Standards. The purpose of the TWS allowed me

to analyze data collected for future learning units.

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References

Darling-Hammond, L. (2000). Teaching quality and student achievement: A review of state

policy evident. Educational Policy Analysis Archives; 8, 1.

Denner, P., Norman, A. D., Salzman, S., Pankratz, R., & Evans, S. (2004). The Renaissance

Partnership Teacher Work Sample: Evidence supporting score generalizability, validity,

and quality of student learning assessment. ATE Yearbook, 12, 23-56.

Devlin-Scherer, R., Burroughs, G., Daly, J., & McCartan, W. (2007). The Value of the Teacher

Work Sample for Improving Instruction and Program. Action in Teacher Education,

29(1), 51–60. Retrieved from

https://egan.ezproxy.uas.alaska.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?dir

ect=true&db=eric&AN=EJ762043&site=eds-live

Haraway, D. L., & Pease, J. S. (2014). Worthwhile Challenges in the Implementation of Teacher

Work Sample. Curriculum & Teaching Dialogue, 16(1/2), 37–46. Retrieved from

https://egan.ezproxy.uas.alaska.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?dir

ect=true&db=aph&AN=99391997&site=eds-live

Stobaugh, R. R., Tassell, J. L., & Norman, A. D. (2010). Improving Preservice Teacher

Preparation through the Teacher Work Sample: Exploring Assessment and Analysis of

Student Learning. Action in Teacher Education, 32(1), 39–53. Retrieved from

https://egan.ezproxy.uas.alaska.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?dir

ect=true&db=eric&AN=EJ915836&site=eds-live

Watkins, P., & Watkins, S. (2011). Predictors of Teacher Candidate Success in Developing a

Capstone Project: The Teacher Work Sampling (TWS) Methodology. Critical Questions

in Education, 2(2), 84–92. Retrieved from

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