Alexah Mellis

Portfolio
3/24/20

Standard 1. Advocacy for social justice.

Educators who embrace a social justice perspective are attentive to inequalities associated with
race, social class, gender, language, and other social categories. They consciously look for
alternatives to established educational practices that support the learning, development, and
academic achievement of children whose backgrounds place them outside of the dominant
culture. They employ multicultural, anti-racist, anti-bias educational practices that foster deep
engagement in learning and high academic achievement among all of the nation’s children.

This standard is important to my teaching philosophy because I believe that students will

achieve their best when they have culturally supportive learning environments. As a teacher, this

means that I need to have a strong understanding of my cultural identity so I can teach my

students how to recognize and appreciate their own identity within a safe learning environment.

To combat some of the cultural biases that impact education, I plan to include culturally diverse

books and lessons that are discussion based to increased thoughtful engagement from my

students. Having conversations about the experiences that my students are going through will

help me to determine what I need to do differently in order to meet their needs academically and

social/emotionally.

Zaretta Hammond’s work on culturally responsive teaching has informed a lot of the

decisions that I will make with my future teaching practices. When considering my students, I

will work to support their individual needs while still holding all of them to high, but reasonable

expectations. Hammond (2015) states that students of color, English Learners, and students with

low SES tend to receive instruction that is more repetitive and less cognitively demanding than

their same age peers. As a teacher promoting anti-biased and anti-racist teaching practices, I plan
to implement lessons that require my students to work collaboratively in groups to engage in

critical thinking and higher order skills such as creating and analyzing that is tied to relevant

content. It is important for both the teachers and students to be engaging in “problem-posing”

instruction that allows the students to make their own judgements about the topics they are

discussing (Cammarota, 2011). This not only allows all students to engage with what they are

learning, but is increasingly important for students whose cultures and voices aren’t of the

dominant privileged groups within this nation. These instructional strategies align with my

personal belief that all students can succeed when supported by their teacher. This will be one of

the many steps that I will take with my future students to support them as they learn how to

advocate for themselves and each other within our learning community.

Throughout my practicum teaching experiences and education classes, I have attended

community events, implemented lessons, and researched teaching strategies to meet this standard

on social justice, and I believe I have. My first piece of evidence of this is my Community

Experience paper (artifact 1.1) that was a reflection for my class on Disability Education and

Public Policy about my experience attending a Chinese New Year celebration in Dorchester.

This event was special because it was intended for families who had children with disabilities, so

the family could experience some traditional Chinese New Year food and events very close to

their homes. During this time, I was able to learn more about Chinese culture and the importance

of inclusion for all children in the community. Having this experience directly translates to my

teaching practices because I understand the importance of celebrating cultural holidays, and I

should foster those types of experiences within my classroom to acknowledge the different

cultural backgrounds of my students.

 A second artifact that I have is a paper (artifact 1.2) from my Racial and Cultural

Identities class that I took during my freshman year. This paper was an accumulation of the

conversations that we had in class about understanding our own cultural identity and recognizing

the difference between simply “schooling” students versus “educating them”. This paper helped

me realize how much of an impact that race, gender, and ability have in our society and in our

education systems. Once I learned this, I was able to begin developing my teaching strategies

that would make sure that these were not factors that were negatively impacting my future

students.

My third piece of evidence is a flyer (artifact 1.3) for a “Jazz and Friends” Reading day

that we held at my school this year. In our classroom, we read a story written by Jazz Jennings,

who is a transgender activist, about her experience growing up as a transgender girl. After the

reading, we held a discussion with our students about how it feels to be judged, and how gender

stereotypes can have a really negative impact on students within school. This is a great example

of how I plan to implement anti-bias teaching within my classroom and to make sure that my

students feel safe expressing their true identities.

References

Cammarota, J. (2011). The value of multicultural and critical pedagogy: Learning democracy

through diversity and dissent. Multicultural Perspectives, 13(2), 62-69.

Hammond, Z. (2015). Culturally responsive teaching and the brain: Promoting authentic

engagement and rigor among culturally and linguistically diverse students. Thousand

Oaks, CA: Corwin.

 Standard 2. Understanding all children in their many dimensions.

Educators should know their students as individuals and as learners, and be able to relate to
them in a variety of ways. They should be familiar with the cultures, histories, and values of the
communities and families they serve, and know the attributes of the individual children and
families with whom they work. Educators should be aware of the range of special needs their
children may have, and seek out information concerning the strengths of specific children as
well as resources to address their developmental and learning needs. They should use their
knowledge of variations in development, second language acquisition, and disabilities to support
children’s physical, emotional, social, cognitive, linguistic, intellectual, and creative
development. Educators should observe and listen to children as they work, learn, and play in a
variety of settings to gain insights into what their students know, how they think, what they
value, who they are, where they come from, and what motivates them. Their knowledge of
children and families, language and culture, and community development should motivate
educators to view children’s actions and responses through multiple lenses. The more they learn
about their students, the better they can tailor their teaching to engage children in active
learning and meet their specific needs.

This standard reflects how important it is for teachers to get to know their students in

both personal and academic domains. I think this is why the first six weeks of school are so

important for teachers to create bonds with their students and to learn more about students’

interests, families, and cultural backgrounds. This information is essential in order to start

planning instruction and differentiation strategies so that each child has the opportunity to

succeed. When teachers first take the time to get to know their students as individuals teachers

will learn things about those students that they can use during instruction to increase their

engagement.

Getting to know our students requires us to understand their emotional needs as well.

Students will not be able to focus on learning if their emotional needs are not being met and that

can lead to school failure (Minahan, 2012). There needs to be a balance between understanding

students’ academic needs and their social/emotional needs. Jessica Minahan’s The Behavior

Code has been a very helpful tool in providing strategies for supporting student’s
social/emotional needs so that those students can do their best learning. In terms of academic

learning, to accommodate for all learners, teachers must plan for differentiated instruction.

Teachers have to understand that not all students will access the content they are simply teaching

to the whole group and a portion of them will need accommodations and extra support to access

it (Schumm, Vaughn, & Leavell, 1994). This is all instruction that needs to be planned before

teachers teach a lesson, so that they have the right tools to reach as many students as possible.

I believe I have met this standard. One piece of evidence that I have met this standard is a

FAIR Plan (artifact 2.1) that I created to assess the behavioral needs of a student who needed

some extra academic support. The FAIR plan included taking some time to understand the

student’s behavior that was impacting his learning in order to develop an intervention to better

support him.

My second piece of evidence is a lesson (artifact 2.2) that I wrote when I was teaching

skip counting by 10s to help with addition and subtraction word problems to a small group of

students. This lesson required me to asses student progress in order to determine what students

needed more specialized instruction on this topic. When I created my group, I made sure to look

at their math IEP goals and previous work to see what accommodations would help with this

lesson. I provided math manipulatives and a 120 chart so that students had visuals and tactile

options if needed. This lesson was a great example of how much planning and differentiation

goes into instruction to meet the needs of a diverse group of students.

My third piece of evidence is a photo (artifact 2.3) of a song called “Music for Fun and Profit”

that I listened to with my students as part of a reading/writing lesson this year. This lesson was

really important for the students to understand that people can communicate stories through

many different means and the ways that they do that can be very special to their home
community and culture that they live in. This really reinforced the idea that students are going to

express their learning in different means, and whether that’s in writing, drawing, singing, or

creating, it is important to allow students to do so. It can also create a safer and more fun

environment within your classroom when you do different and more creating things.

References

Minahan, J. & Rappaport, N. (2012). The Behavior Code: A Practical guide to understanding and

teaching the most challenging students. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Education Press.

Schumm, J. S., Vaughn, S., & Leavell, A. G. (1994). Planning pyramid: A framework for

planning for diverse student needs during content area instruction. The Reading Teacher,

47(8), 609-615.
 Standard 3. Knowledge of content and integrated curriculum.

Educators should know, understand, and use the central concepts and tools of inquiry
appropriate to the subject matter and age/grade levels they teach. They should be able to create
meaningful learning experiences that develop children’s understanding of subject matter and
increase their skills. Educators should plan integrated units of curriculum, instruction, and
assessment based upon their knowledge of subject matter, curriculum goals, and
developmentally appropriate practices among the families, communities, and cultures from
which their children come.

This standard is important to me because it shows how effective planning for instruction

can increase academic success. Students will not want to learn if they can’t relate to the content

or if they don’t see why learning it is relevant to them. These are little things that teachers can

build into their lessons to increase student engagement and make learning more meaningful for

their students. This is why, when designing a lesson that is developmentally appropriate, teachers

must first decide what standards and objectives the students should have met by the end of the

lesson (Wiggins & McTighe, 2008). This idea is called “backwards design” and it is a helpful

way for teachers to plan integrated units that meet different standards with each lesson.

When planning a unit, teachers can find ways to integrate academic areas such as writing,

math, and reading so that students are experiencing different skills while learning a new lesson.

Teachers share the lesson objectives with the students so that students are aware what they are

expected to know and be able to do by the end of the lesson. To be able to do all of this, teachers

need to research and understand the content that they are teaching. They must implement explicit

instruction strategies to make sure that ALL students can access the curriculum and develop

appropriate assessment tools to measure learning (Archer & Hughes, 2010).

The first piece of evidence that I have that I have met this standard is a Sound Unit

(artifact 3.1) that I created for my first-grade classroom last year. I created 8 lessons with

essential questions, objectives, and the standards that each lesson met that I taught over a span of
two weeks. This required a lot of planning and organization of the lessons to make sure they

could be integrated into math and writing every day and allowed for students to experiment with

creating different sounds.

My second artifact is from a Candidate Assessment of Performance (CAP) observation

form (artifact 3.2), the formal form required by the State during practicum My supervisor was

observing a math lesson (12/5/19) and commented “Alexah is knowledgeable about the

curriculum” and “...used concrete materials to help demonstrate tens and ones”. I had prepped

this lesson with all of the materials needed to make sure the content was going to be accessible

for my students. I also used different means of representation because I knew that my students

would not grasp the concept simply by me explaining it.

My third piece of evidence is a picture of student work (artifact 3.3) during my students’

Studios block. Studios is when we take what the students have been learning during Text Talk

(reading block) and Writing and the students can make an artistic representation of what they are

learning. Our students were doing a unit on erosion, and I helped a particular student take his

information on a landform called “Mushroom Rock” and turn it into a painting. This was a great

example of how we used integrated curriculum to enrich learning with our students.

References

Archer, A. L., & Hughes, C. A. (2010). Explicit instruction: Effective and efficient teaching.

New York, NY: The Guilford Press. A&H

Wiggins, G. P., & McTighe, J. (2008). Understanding by design. Alexandria, VA: Association

for Supervision and Curriculum Development.

Standard 4. Educational practices that foster learning, development, and achievement in all of
the nation’s children.

Educators should use teaching strategies and educational practices that develop children’s
capacity to think critically, analytically, and imaginatively, and extend their knowledge and
understanding of the world. They should provide multiple ways for children to deepen their
grasp of concepts, stretch their thinking, express their understanding, and learn critical skills.
They should search for appropriate materials, experiment with new technologies, collaborate
with specialists and colleagues, and consult with families and community members to meet the
instructional needs of all their students. Educators should establish caring, inclusive,
stimulating, and safe learning communities in which all children feel they belong, and in which
they can assume responsibility, take intellectual risks, make mistakes, explore alternatives,
participate in decision-making, and work both collaboratively and independently. They should
understand principles of effective classroom management as well as human motivation and
behavior from the foundational sciences of psychology, anthropology, and sociology. They
should understand cognitive processes associated with various kinds of learning and how these
processes can be stimulated. They should also understand language development and the role of
language in learning. Educators should understand principles and techniques, and advantages
and limitations associated with various teaching strategies. They should be able to communicate
effectively within many domains (oral and written discourse, mathematical/symbolic
representation, non-verbal communication, audiovisual and computer-based technologies), and
model effective communication strategies in conveying information and in asking questions.

It is so important for children to take ownership of their own learning. This standard is

important for teachers because the strategies that we use will directly impact the way students

think learning is going to happen within the classroom. If we are constantly presenting

information to the students without providing multiple opportunities for responses, then student

engagement will be very low (Archer & Hughes, 2010). Giving students enough time to turn and

talk to a partner before sharing with the entire classroom will give them more time to verbalize

their ideas so that they will want to add to the discussion. This will also help teachers see if any

students have any misconceptions about the concept they are teaching.

An effective teacher will integrate practices into their teaching that motivate learning

from different perspectives. Children comprehend information and express their knowledge in

many different ways, and what works for one student within one classroom may not work in a
different class (Hall, Strangeman, & Meyer, 2011). This is where teachers need to assess their

classroom very closely to see what strategies will promote learning most efficiently. In the end,

the goal is to have students who can problem solve, work collaboratively, and engage in rich

discussions within the classroom and using strong teaching practices can help foster that learning

environment to grow.

The first piece of evidence that I have met this standard is my Character Education lesson

(artifact 4.1) that I taught last year. The goal of this lesson was to build community through

teamwork. With this lesson, students were able to discuss the main idea of a read aloud, apply

teamwork strategies to complete an activity (puzzle), and come back together and discuss some

challenges and success of working on a team. Students were actively engaged throughout the

lesson and provided meaningful discussion about the reading by reinforcing the lesson

objectives. I think that the way I developed this lesson allowed the students to really analyze

their own work and have fun while doing it.

The second piece of evidence (artifact 4.2) is a picture of the classroom rules that my

second graders made this year with their head teacher and myself. The goal of having the

students develop their own class rules was to give them a sense of ownership and safety within

the classroom. By creating the rules that they thought were fair, the students were more likely to

follow those rules and understand why they were being implemented. This strategy is a very

good way to promote achievement and community within our classroom.

The third piece of evidence is from an interview question reflection that I did (artifact

4.3). The question asked me to “Describe the strategies you will use in your classroom to meet

the needs of diverse learners”. In this reflection, I demonstrated that I would provide different

learning strategies such as movement breaks, independent work stations, and group work stations
to keep my students engaged and meet their diverse learning needs. I also mentioned that I will

assess student learning in different ways, formally and informally, to make sure that I am seeing

all of the different ways that my students work and succeed in our learning environment.

References

Archer, A. L., & Hughes, C. A. (2010). Explicit instruction: Effective and efficient teaching.

New York, NY: The Guilford Press. A&H

Hall, T., Strangeman, N., & Meyer, A. (2011). Differentiated Instruction and Implications for

UDL Implementation, National Center for Accessing the General Curriculum.

Standard 5. Assessment in a multi-racial, multicultural democracy.

Educators should understand that assessment is an integral part of teaching, and that children’s
developmental and academic interests, accomplishments, and challenges should drive their daily
instructional decisions. They should know that various types of assessments, including self-
assessment, have different uses, advantages, limitations, and biases. They should understand
that appropriate assessment must consider the cultural, familial, and community contexts from
which children come. Educators should know how to use a variety of formal and informal
assessment tools and strategies to monitor and promote each student’s learning and
development; use both formative and summative assessments to determine students’
understanding in each subject area; and be aware of technological tools that can facilitate
assessment.

Assessment is essential and must be continuous in both teaching and learning. Teachers

need to constantly be assessing their own practices as well as their students' work. It is

important to first understand that working with a diverse group of students means that academic

achievement isn’t going to look the same for every student. Due to this, it is very important for

teachers to begin assessment on the most basic level with all students. From there, assessments

should become more individualized as you move to a smaller group of students who need more

support (Fuchs, Fuchs, & Compton, 2012). This is the basic principle of Response to

Intervention (RTI), which is a means of assessing all students at varying levels of interventions

that are in place.

It is important for teachers to make sure they are implementing assessments that are fair

to all of their learners. That means that language barriers, cultural differences, and abilities

should not be affecting how students perform on an academic task. For English Learners, it is

very important that teachers use multiple means of assessment to determine if each student’s

success is going to be impacted by their English proficiency or academic abilities (Seo &

Hoover, 2009). This is where assessment is important, because it can help teachers determine

exactly what the student needs support in without assuming that the student just doesn’t know

anything.
 The first artifact I have which demonstrates that I have met this standard is a data

tracking sheet (artifact 5.1) that I have been using to track how many sight words one of my

students has been learning since the beginning of the school year. This sheet accounts for any

days the student may have been absent and how many words that student has mastered each

week. When a new week starts, I review any previous words to see if the student does recall

them or not, and I log that data in the tracker on a weekly basis. I am able to see growth as well

as which words the student took a while to master. This tracker has been a very good assessment

tool for working with sight word vocabulary acquisition.

The second piece of evidence that I have met this standard is a picture of student work in

their text talk notebooks (artifact 5.2). This is an example of how I collect informal data on

students during a lesson. While I am teaching a lesson, students are given time to write, draw,

and take notes in their notebooks about questions and ideas that they have about the content we

are learning. This helps me see which students can produce any written information and allows

for students to write instead of having to speak during a lesson if they don’t want to.

My third piece of evidence is a unit that I wrote on Sound (artifact 5.3). In this unit, I had

written into each lesson how I was going to assess students formally and informally. To

accommodate my students who were English Learners, I allowed them to use pictures and

drawings to show their work or they would be assisted by me during writing time if needed. I

used notebook writing, graphic organizers, and worksheets during this unit to track student

success and determine which students needed more time to work on a previous lesson before

moving onto the next one.

References
Fuchs, D., Fuchs, L. S., & Compton, D. L. (2012). Smart RTI: A next-generation approach to

multilevel prevention. Exceptional Children, 78(3), p. 263-279.

Seo, K. & Hoover, J.H. (2009). Navigating a strange culture: Nurturing new English learners.

Reclaiming Children and Youth, 18 (3), 58-61.

Standard 6. Reflective practice in diverse settings.

Educators should continually reflect on their practice to extend their knowledge, improve their
teaching, and refine their evolving philosophies of education. They should stay abreast of
developments in the profession, and be able to think critically about various teaching practices.
Educators should continually strengthen their knowledge of subject matter through scholarly
study, professional reading, and discussion with colleagues. They should deepen their
understanding of children’s learning and development through classroom-based action
research. Educators should be open to change and innovation, continually engaging in the
process of professional growth.

This standard is important to me as a future educator because I know that I am going to

make mistakes as a new teacher. Those mistakes are going to help me learn a lot in my first few

years if I am able to reflect on them and make the changes that I need to make in order to

improve my practices. The more practice that I have within my practicum experiences is going to

help me learn what strategies work for me that I want to bring into my own classroom. This is

why it is important during a lesson to first determine what the objectives are going to be, so that

teachers can have an idea of how they are going to assess their practices after the lesson as well

as student achievement (Wiggins & McTighe, 2008). This is where lesson reflections are very

important, especially in our first few years of teaching. It will allow me to see how many

students I was able to reach during that lesson and I can assess my own strategies to improve the

lesson for the next day.

Reflecting on our own teaching can be hard, so it may be beneficial to have another

teacher that we know come in to watch one of our lessons. Using this reflective practice is a

good way to get another perspective on a lesson and to help us to problem solve if we need it.

Some teachers might also feel that it is hard to reflect on their teaching when all of their lessons

come out of a pre-established curriculum. This is where a team effort will be beneficial. Teachers

are more likely to develop adaptive teaching practices when given help by cooperating teachers

(Hoffman & Duffy, 2016). The best way to reflect on our strengths and areas of need is to have
team meetings with others who can help us improve upon our work. There is no “one size fits

all” approach to teaching, but with a lot of reflection and team support, teachers can find what

works for them and their students.

The first artifact that shows that I have met this standard is a CAP Self- Assessment form

(artifact 6.1) that I wrote at the beginning of the semester (1/30/20) when I was starting my

student teaching. This self-assessment was a tool that I used to determine where my strengths

and areas for growth were in my teaching practices. I used this assessment to determine what

areas I needed to focus on during my student teaching this semester. This was helpful because it

made me pinpoint an area that needed work and actively find ways to work towards

strengthening that skill.

My second piece of evidence is a lesson reflection (artifact 6.2) that I wrote after a lesson

that I did on skip counting by tens and hundreds (12/5/19). Using this worksheet, I was able to

reflect on what went well during my lesson and what I would change if I taught the lesson again.

I completed this reflection after I met with my supervisor to discuss how my lesson went. I took

recommendations from my supervisor and was able to reflect on how I wanted to improve this

lesson for the next time I would teach it. Using this reflection sheet was very helpful in

determining the practices that I wanted to continue to use to be an effective teacher.

My third artifact is a CAP observation form (artifact 6.3) from my supervisor which she

completed during my practicum from (2/11/20). During the lesson, I realized that one student

was not understanding the concept of the lesson and I had to adjust the lesson as needed. After

the lesson, when I debriefed with my supervisor I was able to identify what worked and what I

needed to do to check in with that one student the next day. This strategy of problem solving

with another teacher educator to reflect on my lesson was very helpful and it helped me realize
what students needed more support for this particular lesson before I move forward with the next

one.

References

Hoffman, J. V., & Duffy, G. G. (2016). Does Thoughtfully Adaptive Teaching Actually Exist? A

Challenge to Teacher Educators. Theory into Practice, 55(3), 172–179. https://doi-

org.ezproxy.bu.edu/10.1080/00405841.2016.1173999

Wiggins, G. P., & McTighe, J. (2008). Understanding by design. Alexandria, VA: Association

for Supervision and Curriculum Development.

Standard 7. Family, community, and professional partnerships in a diverse society.

Educators should view their students’ families as partners in their work. They should understand
that children’s academic success is fostered by strong communication, shared goals, and
mutually reinforcing practices, and that children’s motivation and sense of well-being in the
classroom is supported by the setting’s affirmation of the child’s home and culture. Educators
should define their professional responsibilities to include a commitment to the continuing
growth and development of their colleagues, their settings, their profession, and their
communities. They should be familiar with legal, ethical, and policy issues, and understand the
importance of advocating for children, families, and themselves in a variety of professional,
political, and policymaking contexts.

This standard shows how important parent involvement and professional collaboration is

in determining student success. As a teacher, I hope to create an environment where parents feel

as though they are a part of the classroom and school community. I have been lucky enough to

student teach at schools within Boston and Brookline that have strong school-family connections

that make the school feel like a second home. When it comes to finding ways to connect with

families, teachers can take the role of “learner” in terms of getting to know about a family’s

culture and home life (Moll, Amanti, Neff & Gonzalez, 1992). This can be an important step in

squashing any stereotypes about families and parent involvement in student success. This is also

a good way to determine what modes of communication best work for that family.

I think parent and professional partnerships are the strongest way to advocate for

students. When teachers have support of other teachers within the school and they can easily

communicate with parents, they will be able to communicate the needs of their students more

efficiently (Knackendoffel, Dettmer, & Thurston, 2017). It is especially important to create a

connection between home and school for students with disabilities. This is important because a

lot of families can get overwhelmed with a lot of the IEP information that has to be signed and

understood. I feel as though teachers can help support families by allowing open communication

between parents and the school. Teachers can also ask parents for support in knowing what
works best at home with their children and to decide what strategies they can use in the

classroom.

My first piece of evidence that I have met this standard, is an ongoing relationship

(artifact 7.1) that I have built with the parents of one of my students. This particular student has a

lot of trouble managing his behavior in school and he has become a student that I have worked

with closely. It has become very normal to meet with his mom at the end of the school day and

have a brief conversation about how her son’s day had gone. Over the months we have built a

relationship and have had meetings together with the general educator to discuss how to solve

behavior issues with this student. It has been very efficient being able to talk with this parent on

a daily basis and it has helped create a stronger bond with this family entirely.

The second piece of evidence that I have met this standard is a shared experience (artifact

7.2) collaborating on student assessments with the learning specialist. This past year I have

worked very closely alongside the learning specialist through observations and written

assessments we have done together to strengthen my skills in Special Education. This has helped

me work very efficiently with this particular team member and has strengthened our skills as a

cohesive unit within the Second-grade team. This has been beneficial for my teaching practices

because I have learned how to work efficiently alongside different professionals within my field

and have used that as an advantage when needed to understand professional documents that I

have come in contact with.

My third artifact is a picture (artifact 7.3) from our second grade student presentations

that we held inside our classroom last month. Students presented their power points and posters

from all of the work they had completed about Erosion in Unit 2 through their writing, painting,

and sculptures. Parents were invited as well as staff and other students within the school. This
was a great example of how we incorporated families and our community into our learning and

created an environment where students were proud of the work they created and the community

was able to see that. I plan to allow families and the school community to be a part of my

classroom environment to strengthen the bonds between school and home.

References

Knackendoffel, A., Dettmer, P., & Thurston, L.P. (2017). Collaboration, Consultation, and

Teamwork for Students with Special Needs. New York, NY: Pearson.

Moll, L. C., Amanti, C., Neff, D., & Gonzalez, N. (1992). Funds of Knowledge for Teaching:

Using a Qualitative Approach to Connect Homes and Classrooms. Theory Into Practice,

31(2), 132. https://doi-org.ezproxy.bu.edu/10.1080/00405849209543534

CEC Standards
Initial Preparation Standard 1: Learner Development and Individual Learning Differences
Beginning special education professionals understand how exceptionalities may interact with
development and learning and use this knowledge to provide meaningful and challenging
learning experiences for individuals with exceptionalities.

This standard is important for special educators because it shows how necessary it is for

teachers to know their students in many different ways. When teaching a diverse group of

learners, it is important for the students to be engaged and motivated by the content (Hammond,

2015). To increase engagement, the content has to be relevant to the students’ lives. Whether

teachers make connections to a student's interests, language, or family background, it is

important to incorporate these topics in the curriculum to relate to students. Teachers need to

build strong relationships with their students to better understand their students’ learning

differences in order to differentiate instruction (Hammond, 2015).

When it comes to supporting academic success and understanding student behavior, there

are many things a teacher can do to get support. Talking with families is a great way to get to

know more about a student’s cultural norms and behavior. Communicating with families can

help teachers understand more about students’ backgrounds and to learn what might work and

not work for students within the school setting. This standard holds teachers accountable for

really knowing what works best for each and every one of their students.

The first piece of evidence that shows that I have met this standard is a project (artifact

CEC 1.1) that I did for a class called Teaching English Language Learners. This project required

me to research a language that was spoken within my classroom community and I chose to study

some generalizations about Chinese language and culture. Through my research I learned about a

few educational implications for teaching students with diverse cultural backgrounds. I learned

how important it is to acknowledge cultural differences and create a positive environment in the

classroom for all students to learn.

 The second artifact that shows that I have met this standard is a Fair Plan (artifact CEC

1.2) that I created for one of my second graders. A Fair Plan is a behavior intervention plan that

stands for determining Function of behavior, Accommodations, Interaction strategies, and

Response (Minahan & Rappaport, 2012). I observed this student frequently during the school

day in order to better understand why he was exhibiting challenging behavior. This helped me to

learn more about this student’s needs in order to develop an intervention that would help him be

more successful in school. By creating an individualized plan for this student, I was able to target

areas that he needed more support in.

The third artifact that I have that shows that I have met this standard is the reflection

(artifact 1.1) that I mentioned in an earlier standard from a Chinese New Year event that I had

attended two years ago in Dorchester. This event allowed me to work with students with

disabilities outside of the school setting and during a cultural celebration. I was able to talk with

children about their culture and what they liked and didn’t like about the celebration (i.e. the loud

noises, many people, and winning prizes). This experience allowed me to meet some new

students and their families and talk about their life experiences outside of the school day. It is

important for teachers to know their students inside and outside of school so they can provide

more meaningful connections with their students when teaching.

References

Hammond, Z. (2015). Culturally responsive teaching and the brain: Promoting authentic

engagement and rigor among culturally and linguistically diverse students. Thousand

Oaks, CA: Corwin.

Minahan, Jessica & Rappaport, Nancy (2012). The Behavior Code: A Practical Guide to

Understanding and Teaching the Most Challenging Students. Cambridge, MA: Harvard

Education Press.
Initial Preparation Standard 6: Professional Learning and Ethical Practice
Beginning special education professionals use foundational knowledge of the field and their
professional ethical principles and practice standards to inform special education practice, to
engage in lifelong learning, and to advance the profession.

This standard is a necessary reminder for teachers that learning continues throughout

one’s entire life. For special educators, it is important to know your students and the foundational

information about their disabilities so that you can support their development and learning.

Special educators should keep up to date on current issues within the field in relation to

evidence-based practices, education policy, and effective interventions. As a future special

educator, I look forward to the many teaching opportunities that will come from attending

professional development sessions, working with parents, and working with my students. I know

that the more that I continue to have a growth mindset for learning, the more I will be able to

help my students do the same.

Over the last two years of my special education training, I have researched and developed

many strategies for creating lessons for my students. I have learned the importance of using rules

and routines, teaching in small groups, and reviewing critical content with my students in order

to make instructional time most effective (Archer & Hughes, 2010). It is so important to go into

teaching having some idea of what strategies work and what strategies don’t in order to find what

works best for our classroom that year. Research and practice are key elements for any beginning

educator going into the field. To be able to create an environment where students are motivated

to do their own learning, it is imperative that teachers constantly assess their practices in order to

refocus learning in a way that is democratic towards all students (Mason, 2017).

The first piece of evidence that shows that I have met this standard is a collection of

disability fact sheets (artifact CEC 6.1) that I developed for my Special Education course on

Disability Education and Public Policy. These fact sheets include information about each IDEA
disability that I can reference when developing instruction for students with disabilities. These

fact sheets contain information about characteristics, key interventions and approaches, and

online resources to learn more information about the disability. These fact sheets are not

exhaustive, but they are something I can continue to add to as I begin to teach. They will be a

primary resource as continue to develop my professional learning.

The second artifact that shows that I have met this standard is a research paper (artifact

CEC 6.2) that I wrote for my class on Disability Education and Public Policy. At the time, I did

not know a lot about Emotional and Behavioral Disorders, so I began to do research on the topic

in order to learn how certain instructional strategies worked for students within this category.

This paper allowed me to take a topic that I knew, such as self-monitoring skills, and analyze it

using a special education lens in order to better understand how that strategy can be effective for

certain students with disabilities. This research will be a resource to use when I have my own

caseload of students if integrating self-monitoring strategies into my instruction.

The third artifact that I have to show that I have met this standard is a research proposal

and presentation that I developed for my class on Democracy and Education (artifact CEC 6.3).

For this project, I worked collaboratively with two other students to analyze current standardized

testing practices on a state, country, and world-wide level. We analyzed these current practices to

determine the level of impact that racial bias, socio-economic status, and disability had on

student success during these tests. This research helped me to be more analytical of the strategies

that I should use to assess my students fairly.

References

Archer, A. L., & Hughes, C. A. (2010). Explicit instruction: Effective and efficient teaching.

New York, NY: The Guilford Press. A&H

Mason, L.E. (2017). The significance of Dewey’s Democracy and Education for 21st-century

education. Education and Culture, 33(1), 41-57.

Initial Preparation Standard 7: Collaboration
Beginning special education professionals collaborate with families, other educators, related
service providers, individuals with exceptionalities, and personnel from community agencies in
culturally responsive ways to address the needs of individuals with exceptionalities across a
range of learning experiences.

Collaboration within special education requires a lot of communication between the

special educator and many other service providers within the school. It is very important to

collaborate effectively in order to support and meet the needs of the students. In order to do so,

teachers must consider all of the factors that are influencing their students (family, community,

and school) in order to include other members in the collaborative process to help students

succeed (Knackendoffel, Dettmer, & Thurston, 2017). As a future special educator, I believe that

school-family connections are essential to determine what works best for students.

When collaborating, it is also important to consider what other team members have to

say. There are many different specialists within the school that work with students and they will

know different strategies that work well in different disciplines. Collaboration provides an

opportunity for these team members to come together with the same goal of helping the students

do their best. Collaboration helps problem solve, improve lessons, and helps people make more

effective instructional decisions (Lawson, 2004). It requires everyone to have the same goal, and

that is to support the needs of their students.

The first piece of evidence that I have that shows that I have met this standard is a mock

IEP meeting and Plan (artifact CEC 7.1) that I collaborated on for my special education

practicum course. This project required us to work as a group to listen to each team member’s

notes on a particular student and develop an initial IEP. It required a lot of patience, questions,

and support from the others members within the group. We worked together to write our sections
of the IEP and share our concerns and accommodations that were important for our “student’s”

success.

The second artifact that I have that shows I have met this standard is a website (artifact

CEC 7.2) that I collaborated on with four other students for my class on Assistive Technology

(AT). We created an entire website to discuss the importance of AT in regards to students with

Autism Spectrum Disorder. There was definitely a learning curve to doing this because some of

us did not have any practice creating on the web, so we had to rely on each other’s strengths to

balance the work fairly between all of us. Each member of the group brought their own creativity

to the group that was welcomed and encouraged by all. The project really showed me that

working together on new projects can be successful if everyone has respect for each other and is

working towards the same goal.

The third piece of evidence that I have met this standard is a family engagement strategy

(artifact CEC 7.3) that I developed based on one of DESE’s Massachusetts Family, School, and

Community Partnership Fundamentals. The goal of this strategy was to create a plan for how I

would communicate effectively with families when I have my first job in a school. For this

strategy, I developed a practice goal and action steps for how I was going to maintain multiple

communication paths and continue to facilitate connections among families and students. I will

be able to use this strategy to create a strong connection between school and families in order to

collaborate and communicate effectively throughout the school year.

References

Knackendoffel, A., Dettmer, P., & Thurston, L.P. (2017). Collaboration, Consultation, and

Teamwork for Students with Special Needs. New York, NY: Pearson.
Lawson, H. (2004). The logic of collaboration in education and the human services. Journal of

Interprofessional Care, 18(3), 225-237.