Think
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Sherry TE801-09
THINK– Turn Helpful Inquiry into New Knowledge Description The best teachers are those who know how to learn from their own teaching. So what do you want to know? For this project, you'll decide on a problem, figure out how to address it, and document what you did/the results. This project will be year-long and will include a proposal, an action plan, several checkpoints, and a final in-class presentation.
Options/Possible questions Option 1 – Pursuing a practice Is there a particular teaching technique you’re interested in? What makes a good one? How do you know if it has worked? How could you get better at it? Option 2 – Studying your students What can you learn about your students in- and outside the classroom that helps you teach them better? Option 3 – Comprehending the community What can you learn about the particular class/school/community in which you teach that helps you be a better teacher of its students? Option 4 – Thriving as teacher How do you manage to be a good teacher without getting overwhelmed and discouraged? Option 5 – Your choice What is something that grabs your attention which you’d like to understand better?
Process (Note: this process applies to TE 801 FS’09; the project continues in TE 803 SS’10) 1. Generate ideas List things you are interested in knowing more about: problems, people, practices, and anything else associated with your teaching. 2. Group similar ideas together Arrange things that seem to go together; for instance, you might group “classroom management,” “motivation,” and “homework” together. 3. List professional resources for pursuing an idea Which colleagues could help you? What articles could you read? What examples of similar work could you find? 4. Plan a course of action What short- and long-term goals will you set for the semester/year? How will you meet each one? 5. Write a proposal In a letter, describe to me what it is you plan to do; include a rationale, a list of goals, a timeline, and an explanation of the product(s) you hope to have at the end of this semester, as well as a preliminary set of evaluation criteria (see “Assessment”).
Sherry TE801-09
Assessment Part of your job is to develop evaluation criteria for this project; by doing this, you improve the quality of the process and the product. Here are some guidelines for developing such criteria: 1. One way of evaluating is to use a rubric; though some teachers feel rubrics can be constraining, a rubric can also help to outline the expectations for the project, elaborating criteria for “what counts.” 2. You may want to begin by describing what you think an “excellent” and an “unacceptable” product might look like. What key features must be included? 3. Look through your descriptions for recurring key words like “creativity,” “insight,” or “effort”; for all of us these are hard to define, so try to revise your description and spell out what you mean. 4. A holistic rubric describes the features of the product for each level (i.e., 4.0, 3.0, etc.); if you’ve done step two, you’re halfway there. A categorical rubric breaks the product down into separate criteria like “organization” or “thoroughness”; if you’ve done step three, you should have some ideas. Look at the rubric for the TRACE assignment for examples of each of these if this seems like the best way to describe your project. 5. Take a last look at the criteria you’ve provided; are they evaluating what you think is most important about this project? For instance, if you’ve included “grammar,” ask yourself whether this is really an important quality to include for this project. 6. At the end of this project, I’ll ask you to grade yourself using the criteria you’ve developed, and we’ll compare and discuss our evaluations. If you are tougher on yourself, your project will be better, and I’ll be more likely to be impressed! The following website for designing and creating rubrics for all kinds of projects may serve as a resource: http://rubistar.4teachers.org/index.php
THINK– Turn Helpful Inquiry into New Knowledge Description The best teachers are those who know how to learn from their own teaching. So what do you want to know? For this project, you'll decide on a problem, figure out how to address it, and document what you did/the results. This project will be year-long and will include a proposal, an action plan, several checkpoints, and a final in-class presentation.
Options/Possible questions Option 1 – Pursuing a practice Is there a particular teaching technique you’re interested in? What makes a good one? How do you know if it has worked? How could you get better at it? Option 2 – Studying your students What can you learn about your students in- and outside the classroom that helps you teach them better? Option 3 – Comprehending the community What can you learn about the particular class/school/community in which you teach that helps you be a better teacher of its students? Option 4 – Thriving as teacher How do you manage to be a good teacher without getting overwhelmed and discouraged? Option 5 – Your choice What is something that grabs your attention which you’d like to understand better?
Process (Note: this process applies to TE 801 FS’09; the project continues in TE 803 SS’10) 1. Generate ideas List things you are interested in knowing more about: problems, people, practices, and anything else associated with your teaching. 2. Group similar ideas together Arrange things that seem to go together; for instance, you might group “classroom management,” “motivation,” and “homework” together. 3. List professional resources for pursuing an idea Which colleagues could help you? What articles could you read? What examples of similar work could you find? 4. Plan a course of action What short- and long-term goals will you set for the semester/year? How will you meet each one? 5. Write a proposal In a letter, describe to me what it is you plan to do; include a rationale, a list of goals, a timeline, and an explanation of the product(s) you hope to have at the end of this semester, as well as a preliminary set of evaluation criteria (see “Assessment”).
Sherry TE801-09
Assessment Part of your job is to develop evaluation criteria for this project; by doing this, you improve the quality of the process and the product. Here are some guidelines for developing such criteria: 1. One way of evaluating is to use a rubric; though some teachers feel rubrics can be constraining, a rubric can also help to outline the expectations for the project, elaborating criteria for “what counts.” 2. You may want to begin by describing what you think an “excellent” and an “unacceptable” product might look like. What key features must be included? 3. Look through your descriptions for recurring key words like “creativity,” “insight,” or “effort”; for all of us these are hard to define, so try to revise your description and spell out what you mean. 4. A holistic rubric describes the features of the product for each level (i.e., 4.0, 3.0, etc.); if you’ve done step two, you’re halfway there. A categorical rubric breaks the product down into separate criteria like “organization” or “thoroughness”; if you’ve done step three, you should have some ideas. Look at the rubric for the TRACE assignment for examples of each of these if this seems like the best way to describe your project. 5. Take a last look at the criteria you’ve provided; are they evaluating what you think is most important about this project? For instance, if you’ve included “grammar,” ask yourself whether this is really an important quality to include for this project. 6. At the end of this project, I’ll ask you to grade yourself using the criteria you’ve developed, and we’ll compare and discuss our evaluations. If you are tougher on yourself, your project will be better, and I’ll be more likely to be impressed! The following website for designing and creating rubrics for all kinds of projects may serve as a resource: http://rubistar.4teachers.org/index.php
