CredentialYear Portfolio

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Credential-Year Portfolio

• Megan Sheridan
• 2007 - 2008

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California Standards for the Teaching Profession

• Standard 1 Engaging supporting all students in
  learning

• Standard 4 Planning instruction designing
  learning experiences for all students

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Standard 1.1Teachers build on students prior
knowledge, life experience, and interests to
achieve learning goals for all students.
Back to Standards Index

• Annabel Lee A lesson on Theme
• Hip-Hop as Poetry

As an instructor I have consistently been aware
of the need and power of connecting students
interest and personal experience to my
curriculum. Prior to my student teaching
experience I reflected on my own education and
the majority of memorable and authentic learning
experiences occurred when my instructor made
clear connections between content and my personal
life. My teaching style has therefore included a
focus on building the bridge between my students
life outside of the classroom to the curriculum.
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Back to Standard 1.1
Artifact 1- Annabel Lee LessonTeachers build on
students prior knowledge, life experience, and
interests to achieve learning goals for all
students.

• Annabel Lee Preview Process

I chose my introduction or preview for a lesson
from my unit on theme because I feel that it
exhibits my initial approach to connecting
students interests to daily curriculum. I taught
the lesson to my seventh grade class at Sam
Brannon Middle School in the fall. Everyday
students would complete the preview in order to
prepare for the daily lesson. I would format each
preview to attempt to create personal connections
for my students. During this particular lesson
students were very interested in discussing their
responses to the preview. Although the lesson
proved to be highly engaging, upon reflection I
felt that the personal connection was weak and
superficial at best. The learning goal of the
exercise was to have students further their
understanding of theme through examining a high
interest text such as a song. The students easily
identified examples of repetition in popular
songs, but failed to make a solid and authentic
connection to theme.
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Back to Standard 1.1
Artifact 2- Hip-Hop as Poetry LessonTeachers
build on students prior knowledge, life
experience, and interests to achieve learning
goals for all students.

• Hip Hop as Poetry Day One Lesson
• Hip Hop as Poetry Day Two Lesson

I selected two lesson plans as my next artifact
in the hopes of displaying my growth in this
particular area. During my two Hip Hop as
Poetry lessons I spent a significant amount of
time attempting to create a strong and meaningful
connection between my students music interests
and Shakespeares writing style. Rather than just
opening my lesson with a high interest activity,
I spent two days focusing on making clear
connections between poetry in hip hop and the
poetry of Shakespeare. My aim was to breakdown my
students negative preconceived notions of
Shakespeare while at the same time solidifying
their understanding of the elements of poetry. I
believe this was time well spent. Students were
not only highly engaged in both lessons, they
walked away with a clear understanding of poetic
devices and they made meaningful connections
between Shakespeares language and the lyrics
from some of their favorite hip hop songs.
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Standard 1.5 Promoting self-directed,
reflective learning for all students.
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• Daily Journals
• SSR Worksheets

According to numerous education theories,
self-reflection and autonomy are key to creating
critical thinkers. Therefore, I incorporate many
opportunities for students to become independent,
self-directed learners. Whether it is a simple
writing prompt, as evident in my daily journals
or as advanced as an independent multi-step
project. I expect students to take ownership of
their learning experience in my classroom.
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Back to Standard 1.5
Artifact 1 Daily Journals Promoting
self-directed, reflective learning for all
students.

• Daily Journals

Everyday in my Early Advanced English Language
Development class students come into class, pick
up their folders, and respond to a daily journal
prompt that is displayed either on the screen.
This classroom routine displays my students
ability to self-direct their behavior and their
participation in class. Students daily journals
are graded periodically based solely on effort.
The daily journals serve many purposes, one of
which is to provide students with the opportunity
to reflect on their own learning. Students not
only take the time to reflect on how and what
they learned, but also given the opportunity to
then discuss their responses with their peers in
a safe environment. In addition, students are
working daily on their writing skills a difficult
skill for English language learners to master.
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Back to Standard 1.5
Artifact 2- SSR Worksheets Promoting
self-directed, reflective learning for all
students.

• SSR Worksheets

As a result of low achievement in meeting an
outside reading requirement and as a part of my
inquiry project this year, I decided to implement
a self-directed set of worksheets to support SSR
(silent sustained reading) in my Freshman English
class. Pervious to the implementation students
would spend three days a week reading for fifteen
to thirty minutes and after the reading session
the class would transition to the daily lesson.
This isolated reading experience failed to give
students two crucial learning opportunities 1.
to be aware of their progress in meeting their
goal and 2. to provide time to reflect on their
reading. The reading rate worksheet focused
students by giving them the responsibility of
tracking their own progress. The book log
provided a means for reflecting on their books
after each reading interval. Finally, the book
list allowed students to visually see how many
books they had read over the course of the
semester.
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Standard 4.5 Teachers modify and adjust
instructional plans to adjust for student needs.
Back to Standards Index

• Graphic Organizers
• Parts of Speech Poems

Throughout my student teaching experience I found
myself in a constant cycle of planning and
adjusting. The process of organizing the
curriculum in a logical and engaging manner was
further complicated by adjusting my pacing and
scaffolds to accommodate the needs of all my
students. The context of a class is perhaps the
most important factor in planning. I discovered
very quickly that even the clearest and most
simplistic of lessons will be unsuccessful if
students are not prepared with the proper tools
in their toolbox. I believe this will be a
constant challenge throughout my career, but
after this year I feel more equipped to tackle
any situation that presents itself to me.
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Back to Standard 4.5
Artifact 1 Graphic OrganizerTeachers modify
and adjust instructional plans to adjust for
student needs.

• Graphic Organizers

I was presented with an interesting challenge at
my junior high placement my first period class
was formed ten weeks into the quarter. Suddenly,
I had a class of thirty seventh graders from a
variety of levels and backgrounds. The students
had come from four different teachers and
therefore had a variety of prior knowledge of the
seventh grade curriculum. Throughout the my
quarter at Sam Brannon I worked to adjust my
resident teachers GATE lessons to fit the needs
of my regular first period. I found that
students needed scaffolding for the major
concepts and I found the most effective means of
scaffolding was to implement the use of
interactive worksheets. I used the worksheets as
a model, a means of independent practice, a group
interaction tool, and as an informal assessment.
The character analysis worksheet was used as a
scaffolding tool throughout a unit on character.
Students used the visual symbols to gain an
understanding of the elements of
characterization. By the end of the lesson,
students were able to extract evidence to support
each of the elements of character from a specific
text. The User Friendly worksheet served to
support students understanding of how to make
inferences based on specific evidence from a
text. The It Just Keeps Going worksheet aided
students in their understanding of
cause-and-effect.
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Back to Standard 4.5
Artifact 2 Parts of Speech PoemsTeachers
modify and adjust instructional plans according
to student engagement and achievement.

• Diagnostic Assessment

After many months of experience, I was able to be
a bit more proactive in my approach to planning
according to my students needs. In my Early
Advanced English Language Development class at
Florin High School, I developed my last unit
based on my students achievement on a diagnostic
assessment I developed. I knew that I wanted my
final unit to be highly engaging and focused on
writing and I had a found several poems that I
felt would accomplish both goals. My only
challenge was they heavily relied on a solid
understanding of the parts of speech. I was
unsure of my students prior knowledge of the
parts of speech, so I created this assessment in
order to inform my planning and instruction. The
results of the assessment lead me to spend a
significant amount of time reviewing and
re-teaching the eight parts of speech.
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Standard 4.3 Developing sequencing
instructional activities materials for student
learning.
Back to Standards Index

• Short Story Unit
• A Wrinkle in Time Unit

One of my strengths as a teacher is my sense of
organization. I therefore am surprised that after
much reflection, I feel that my sense of
sequencing or organization of my units was one of
my areas of growth this year. I feel that I have
always had a clear sense of where I want to take
students throughout a unit, but I feel that I
have improved my ability in sequencing the
activities and assignments that will lead
students to the end result. In the beginning of
my long term placement at Florin High School, I
feel that my initial short story unit lacked
several key elements, but I feel that I greatly
improved my sequencing with my Wrinkle unit in
my ELD class.
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Back to Standard 4.3
Artifact 1 Short Story UnitDeveloping
sequencing instructional activities materials
for student learning.

• Unit Overview

My first unit with my Freshman English class was
a short story unit. The unit consisted of several
fiction and non-fiction texts that were centered
around the literary icon Edgar Allen Poe. For the
culminating activity of this unit, I asked
students to rewrite either a fairy tale or
childrens book from a different point of view.
Upon reflection, I have concluded that I could
have incorporated additional activities to better
prepare the students for rewriting a short story
through the use of worksheets and informal
writing assignments. I also feel that the unit
would have been stronger had I incorporated a
greater variety of texts including fairy tales
and childrens books. Overall, students
successfully met the requirements of the unit,
but I feel that the learning experience could
have been more meaningful had I developed and
sequenced the activities and materials for the
unit differently.
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Back to Standard 4.3
Artifact 2 A Wrinkle in Time UnitDeveloping
sequencing instructional activities materials
for student learning.

• Chapter Questions

The unit I developed around the novel A Wrinkle
in Time exhibits my growth in this area of
teaching. I spent a great deal of time thinking
about the learning journey I wanted to create for
my students. The first strength of this unit and
an overall improvement in my unit planning was
the implementation of unit folders. Prior to the
introduction of the unit I developed and planned
all of the activities and materials for the
entire unit. This greatly improved students
understanding and tracking of the development
of the unit, allowed me as the instructor to stay
focused, and provided an opportunity for the
class to look back on previously discussed
chapters ideas and concepts. In addition to the
organization of the unit, I also worked to
incorporate activities that allowed students to
work independently and in groups, use and
encourage multiple learning styles, and provided
a clear path to the culminating assessment.