Resources for Teacher Professional Development
VIDEOt CASE STUDIES
Carolyn Stoughton (kindergarten student teacher in spring 2020) reflects on her emergent understanding of translanguaging. She acknowledges the evolution of her understanding during student teaching and uses two classroom videos as examples of her previous and current understanding.
Carolyn Stoughton (kindergarten student teacher in spring 2020) shares how she grew in her understanding of developing students’ engagement and excitement in a worm investigation and how important it is to develop this skill as a teacher. She shares two video samples that demonstrate one of her students, Marcus, and his excitement as he investigates and compares the sizes of the worms.
WRITTEN CASE STUDIES
Uncertainty is first word that comes to mind when a global pandemic hits. How does a school respond as the community learns in real time that school will be closed for at least two weeks with no ability to prepare for the unexpected?
What is the best way to use a KLEWS chart with emergent bilingual students in the classroom to analyze student data? This case examines an authentic classroom experience where a teacher has some important realizations about the ways he encourages students to use their first language but realizes he didn’t exemplify the rule himself.
How does a teacher include or not include an emergent bilingual student who returns to class from pull-out ESL instruction as the rest of the class are already immersed in the hands-on science lesson?
How should teachers handle the vocabulary dilemma? Should vocabulary be front-loaded or should students be provided with opportunities to explore science phenomena and share their own descriptions of what is happening? This case examines how one teacher handles this dilemma.
During the initial observation portion of a science investigation, the teacher facilitates "notice and wonder" with the students. While the students are sharing, they consistently focus on something that was not a part of the teacher's original plan. How does a teach move forward with the unplanned interest of students?
Providing feedback to student teachers can be a delicate endeavor. This is a case of how one student teacher processes feedback regarding her science content storyline. How do you level the playing field for students in order to access student funds of knowledge to accurately pre-asses what students already know about a topic.
When is writing officially writing? How should a teacher handle the writing of emergent writers in a kindergarten classroom? This is the case of a teacher explaining her expectations for emergent writing to her student teacher who has a different perspective regarding the way to interpret emergin literacy.
How do you help a student, who is only comfortable talking with the teacher, branch out and talk with others? What is the best way to support him so that he is able to interact with peers and other adults and also actively engage with what is happening with the small group discussion?
The leveraging of bilingual assets is an important aspect of drawing upon student funds of knowledge when teaching a lesson. In addition, providing opportunity for students to use all of their linguistic resources is a key to translanguaging. This is a case of a student teacher reflecting on the ways in which bilingual assests can be a helpful instructional tool.