A1            Becoming familiar with relevant aspects of students background knowledge and experiences

·        I designed and conducted pre-assessment activities at the beginning of all Units. (See links below for sample materials)

·        I have reviewed both textbooks and other materials used in previous grades before I began planning and teaching the the present course. For example, I know that virtually all of my students have been introduced to the concepts empire and republic because of the prior curriculum.

·        I frequently ask students to share personal experiences that relate to the curriculum. Students have shared what they have seen abroad or in the media.  Others bring actual artifacts into the classroom.

            A2            Articulating clear learning goals for the lesson that are appropriate for the students

·        I built the learning goals for each lesson around the MCPS curriculum for the course and my understanding of the students' prior knowledge. 

·        I post the objectives for each days lessons and activities on the whiteboard before class began. This has been a semi effective way of communicating these goals to students.

·        I use color-coding when I write on the whiteboard so that students will be able to see which objectives are linked with which activities.

·        I present the learning goals for each lesson verbally and in writing to the students.

·        I repeat learning goals throughout class activities in order to remind students of the end result/product there are expected to achieve

·         I encourage students to express the directions for each activity in their own words.

·        I adjust learning goals (differentiated) for each class and each student as necessary. For example,

A3            Demonstrating an understanding of the connections between the content that was learned previously, the current content, and the content that remains to be learned in the future

·        The KWL charts maintained by my students help to keep track of what they knew when we began the Unit, what they learned each week, and what remained to be investigated.

·        We frequently compared civilizations, social groups, and other peoples studied during from one unit to the next..

·        The first Units for both courses I teach and the first section of every 7^th grade Unit reviewed physical and human geography, which gave students the opportunity to call upon what theyve learned previously.

A4            Creating or selecting teaching methods, learning activities, and instructional materials or other resources that are appropriate for the students and that are aligned with the goals of the lesson (see link below for sample worksheet)

·        I cross-reference all lesson goals with the MCPS Curriculum objectives and State M.L.O.s.

·        I create readings, worksheets, and other materials when differentiation was needed or appropriate materials for a lesson were unavailable.

·        I use a variety of pedagological approaches ranging from group inquiry to direct instruction.  I have at times taught 4 different lessons on the material to each of my four 8^th grade classes in order to meet the unique needs of those sections (pd. 1 is strongly GT, pd. 2 has two special ed students and one ESOL student, PD. 4 can be very challenging in terms of classroom management and has one ESOL student, and pd. 6 has 33 students)

A5            Creating or selecting evaluation strategies that are  appropriate for the students and that are aligned with the goals of the lesson.

·        To provide differentiation for my students, I have modified both original and pre-existing instructional materials and assessments.