SPED 509 Supervised Teaching Experience Academic Needs Practicum Work Samples What are work samples? Work samples are a way of providing evidence that your teaching leads to improved student learning. Oregon Teacher Standards and Practices Commission (TSPC) requires candidates for special education licensure to prepare two work sample portfolios. Each work sample must represent 2 to 5 weeks of instruction. What’s in a work sample? The work sample you put together this term will use the skills you have acquired in your academic methods classes (primarily Instructional Methods I and Classroom-based Assessment) and carried out in your practicum site. TSPC (OAR 584-017-0185) requires that a work sample include: (a) (b) (c) (d) (e) (f) (g) Context (description of your school, classroom, community, and students) Goals (objectives) for the instructional unit Instructional plans Data on learning gains for each student in the group you teach Interpretation/explanation of the data on learning gains Uses of the data (recommendations for subsequent instruction Attention to literacy Think of the work sample as representing a reflective cycle. The cycle encompasses phases of planning, teaching, evaluating, and modifying. Initial assessment Instructional plans Interpret & modify Objective(s) Implement plans (teach) Data on learning gains (evaluate) We hope that this cycle will become a habit in your teaching when you leave PSU. Rev. 9/07 Rev. 9/07 To whom will I teach my work sample unit? You should work with a small group of three or more students for the academic work sample. If you feel you have an extenuating circumstance that makes it difficult to work with a group of three or more students, please discuss this with your cohort leader prior to beginning your work sample. (We recognize that although you may start out with three or more students, you may lose some students prior to the completion of your work sample. If this happens, document when and why the students were no longer included in your work sample.) What can I do as a work sample? New state guidelines require that one student work sample be focused on literacy instruction. These are some possibilities for a work sample relating to skills and strategies you learned in your first Instructional Methods class: Foundational Skills Saying the sounds in a word (segmenting) “Say it and move it” (segmenting with manipulatives) Sound blending (telescoping) “Stretching and shrinking” (segmenting and telescoping) Concepts about print (front of book, left-to-right, what is a word, what is a sentence, etc.) Names of alphabet letters Word Recognition Seeing the letter–saying the sound Reading words with common spelling patterns (e.g., sack, lack, rack, back, etc.) Reading high-frequency sight words Sounding out 2- or 3-letter phonically regular words Sounding out multi-syllable words Comprehension Teaching vocabulary Setting a purpose for reading (“What I want to learn”) Story mapping Using story grammar to retell a story Summarizing Paraphrasing (e.g., RAP) Visualizing Recognizing inferences (Question-Answer Relationships) Finding the main idea (“Paragraph Shrinking”) Generating your own questions Distinguishing real vs. make-believe Distinguishing fact vs. opinion Rev. 9/07 Academic Work Sample Study Skills Writing a summary Chapter previewing Answering chapter questions Using a dictionary Using a table of contents Using an index Certain skills are very simple to teach and will not demonstrate your teaching expertise as well as other skills. For example, any kind of stimulus-response learning (letter sounds, sight words) doesn’t require very sophisticated planning or teaching skill. A better work sample would be one in which you teach: • A strategy (a series of self-directed steps that lead to the completion of a task or solving of a problem) • Vocabulary concepts (a class of objects or events formed on the basis of some common feature or characteristic) • Rules (lawful relationships that can be applied across a large set of examples). What would my work sample look like? Present your work sample in a small (1”-1 1/2” width) 3-ring binder. This binder will be returned to you. Also save your work sample as a .pdf file (or set of .pdf files) that can be uploaded into Tk20. Use the following format, inserting tabbed dividers in the notebook to mark each section. Cover sheet Academic Work Sample [Title] [Your name] Winter Term, 2004 Completed at Sunny View Elementary LRC Cooperating Teacher: Mary Comment PSU Supervisor: Manny Visits 4 Rev. 1/07 Academic Work Sample SECTION 1. CONTEXT Use your “Getting to Know Your Field Experience Site” paper as the basis for this part of the work sample. It should include information about: The School. A description of the school including its size, size of its staff, facilities, and any unique programs or features. The Community. A description of the community in which the school is located, including the socio-economic status and occupations of its residents, its racial or cultural diversity, types of homes, etc. Special Education Services and Staff. Describe the types of services provided to students with special needs. Describe the roles of the cooperating teacher and instructional assistants. The Students. Include their age or grade levels and the disability categories for which they receive services. Describe other diversity factors and how they are addressed in the school’s programs. Case Study: PLEP, Goals, and Objectives. Choose one student that will be part of the group you teach. Include excerpts from that student’s IEP, specifically the Present Levels of Educational Performance, Annual Goal, and Short-term objectives related to literacy. Regardless of how the PLEP, annual goal, and short-term objectives are written on the student’s IEP, be sure they are written correctly on your work sample. SECTION 2. GOALS (OBJECTIVES) Unit objective(s). Student outcomes for the unit are defined by 1 or 2 correctly written objectives (conditions + behavior + criterion). Objectives may be taken directly from the students’ IEPs, if (a) they are specific to what you’ll be teaching, (b) they represent what the students can learn in a 2- to 5-week unit, and (c) they are correctly written. (If objectives from the IEP are not correctly written, rewrite them as they should be written.) The unit objective(s) should make clear how and by what standards performance will be assessed at the end of the unit. Rationale. Tell how your objectives reflect the students’ assessed needs, state benchmarks, and the general education curriculum. Discuss any factors related to linguistic or cultural diversity and how you will address them. Information from the students’ files may help you with this part. SECTION 3. LESSON PLANS AND MATERIALS The work sample plans begin with a unit plan that identifies the sequence of learning steps leading to the final objectives, your assessment plan, and ideas for ensuring maintenance and generalization of the skill. It is followed by lesson plans that will give the specifics of how you will teach the skill. 5 Rev. 1/07 Academic Work Sample Sequence steps. You won’t be able to teach everything at once, so think about how the skill should be broken down into small teachable steps. These steps will be written as intermediate objectives on the unit plan. The objectives will show how students will progress from their current skill level to proficiency and must follow the same form as the terminal objective (conditions + behavior + criterion). Preskills/prior knowledge. Describe the prior knowledge or prerequisite skills necessary for beginning the unit. Assessment plan. For each unit objective, describe how you will measure students’ learning gains. The assessment method should directly reflect the conditions and criteria in the objectives. Include the assessment tool you will use. Describe your scoring methods and criteria as clearly as you can. Maintenance and generalization. Because students with learning problems have deficits in long-term memory and often do not transfer what they’ve learned in one context to another, write a few ideas about how you will provide review and promote generalization. Lesson plans. Use any of the formats presented in seminar or your classes. There should be a lesson plan for every lesson or every step of the instructional sequence (mastery model). All lessons must begin with at least one objective (identical to the intermediate objective for its corresponding step on the unit plan sequence). Lesson reflections. Following each lesson, write a short evaluation of the lesson. Did the students meet the objective? What parts of the lesson were successful? What would you do differently? What will you need to alter or reteach? Materials. Include materials developed for the unit: handouts, graphic organizers, overheads, charts. Consider using technology (low-tech or high-tech) if appropriate to your objectives. SECTION 4. DATA ON LEARNING GAINS Pretest or baseline assessment. Give your students a pretest OR, if using curriculumbased measurement, take 3-5 days of baseline data. Present/summarize the scores. Posttest. Show how you assessed student performance at the end of the teaching unit. (It can be the same instrument that you used for the pretest.) On one graph or table, summarize for comparison the pretest and posttest scores for all students in your work sample. Formative Data. Include a chart that shows in graph form how you monitored each student’s performance over the 2 to 5 weeks of instruction. You should have at least 6 data points. Make sure the reader will understand what you were measuring (clearly 6 Rev. 1/07 Academic Work Sample linked to either the unit objective or step objective). Include the procedures and materials used for your probes. SECTION 5. INTERPRETATION/EXPLANATION OF LEARNING GAINS Interpretation of data trends. Use the Weekly Interpretation of Learning Gains (WILG) form (from the Formative Assessment monograph) to show changes in performance from week to week. This interpretation should be an objective analysis of your data, not your subjective feeling about how it went. Also write a paragraph that summarizes the information reported on the WILG. SECTION 6. USES OF THE DATA (Reflective Summary) Reflections. Reflect on your use of the data. What changes did you make in response to student performance? How successful were those changes? Having reflected on the data you’ve collected, think about their implications for future instruction. What seemed to work/not work? What would you do differently? What did you learn from the experience? Recommendations. What recommendations would you give to others who will teach this skill to these children? ELECTRONIC COPY REMEMBER to save your work sample as a .pdf file (or set of .pdf files) that can be uploaded into Tk20 upon final submission. The binder will be returned to you. How will my work sample be evaluated? Your supervisor and possibly another university faculty member will evaluate your work sample using the scoring guide on Tk20. The evaluation takes into consideration the completeness of the work sample (everything is there and in order), the accuracy and thoughtfulness with which you developed it and discussed what you learned, and the professional quality of its presentation. All parts should be typed or, when typing isn’t practical (as on forms), very neatly written. Materials must be free from misspellings, typos, and grammatical errors. Work samples have been returned to students to revise and resubmit when the correctness or appearance has not met professional standards. We recommend that you refer to the scoring guide as you put together your work sample. 7 Rev. 1/07 Academic Work Sample SPED 509 Supervised Teaching Experience Work Sample Presentation You will be asked to present your work sample in our last seminar session. Prepare two overheads: (1) one that outlines or illustrates your instruction and (2) one that shows your data and how the student(s) responded to instruction. Your presentation should follow a structure similar to this: Context Briefly describe the students and the setting in which you’ve worked. Objective(s) Share your objectives and tell how your objectives reflect the students’ IEPs, state benchmarks, and/or their assessed needs. Lessons Briefly describe your instruction: the strategy you taught, materials you used, and other activities. Data Show your data chart that shows in graph form one student’s performance over the 2 to 5 weeks of instruction. Share your interpretation of data trends and discuss any alterations you made in response to data decision rules. Examples (Optional) If time allows, share a few representative samples of student work. Reflections What seemed to work/not work? What would you do differently? How did you grow professionally from the experience? 8 Rev. 1/07 Academic Work Sample SPED 509 Supervised Teaching Experience: Academic Needs Presentation Evaluation The presentation is thorough. Incomplete It includes: Y Y Y Y Y N N N N N 1 Context Objectives Brief description of instruction Data Your reflection Y N Y N Y Y N N 1 Logical link from students’ needs to objectives Creative and/or instructionally sound ideas shared Correct/objective interpretation of data gathered Points clearly made Thoughtful discussion of successes and challenges Y Y N N Y Y N N 5 2 3 4 5 Comments: Sloppy, careless 1 2 The presentation is professional in its presentation. It has these characteristics: 4 Very thoughtful Inaccurate It reflects these qualities: N 3 Comments: The presentation is thoughtful. Y 2 Thorough Very professional 3 4 5 Comments: Keeps to time limit (10 minutes) Visuals/overheads are clear, easy to read Good eye contact with audience Good voice: volume, inflection 9 Rev. 1/07