Standard 4: Content Knowledge
The teacher understands the central concepts, tools of inquiry, and structures of the discipline(s) he or she teaches and creates learning experiences that make these aspects of the discipline accessible and meaningful for learners.
Artifact 1: CNN Student News
The teacher understands the central concepts, tools of inquiry, and structures of the discipline(s) he or she teaches and creates learning experiences that make these aspects of the discipline accessible and meaningful for learners.
Artifact 1: CNN Student News
Description: CNN Student News is a ten-minute and commercial-free daily news program designed for middle and high school classes. This program is used every day at the beginning of class in order to provide students an opportunity to be exposed to current events and to raise meaningful discussion surrounding these events.
Rationale: This artifact is relevant to standard four because it is an engaging, yet simple way to convey the content (current events) to the students. If the goal as a teacher is to use current events as teachable content, it can be very easy to get lost in loose news articles. CNN Student News does a wonderful job at covering a variety of topics in a very structured way. My knowledge of many of these current events contributes to a positive and meaningful discussion at the beginning of each class period.
Artifact 2: Cuban Refugee Lesson
Rationale: This artifact is relevant to standard four because it is an engaging, yet simple way to convey the content (current events) to the students. If the goal as a teacher is to use current events as teachable content, it can be very easy to get lost in loose news articles. CNN Student News does a wonderful job at covering a variety of topics in a very structured way. My knowledge of many of these current events contributes to a positive and meaningful discussion at the beginning of each class period.
Artifact 2: Cuban Refugee Lesson
Description: The Cuban Refugee lesson was the first lesson I taught solo during my student-teaching experience. This lesson covers the history of the Cuban Revolution as well as the migration of refugees to Florida at this time.
Rationale: This artifact relates to standard four because my prior knowledge of the topic assisted me in creating a well-developed lesson. Since this was the first lesson that I taught, it was nice to have such a strong feeling of competence surrounding this topic. This allowed me to focus on developing other teaching strategies. There were many times when students had additional questions about the content and I was pleased to be able to address those questions without struggle.
Rationale: This artifact relates to standard four because my prior knowledge of the topic assisted me in creating a well-developed lesson. Since this was the first lesson that I taught, it was nice to have such a strong feeling of competence surrounding this topic. This allowed me to focus on developing other teaching strategies. There were many times when students had additional questions about the content and I was pleased to be able to address those questions without struggle.