Reflective Analysis of Portfolio Artifact

Rationale/Reflection
NAEYC Standard:

STANDARD 5. USI NG CONTENT KNOWLEDGE TO BUI LD MEANI NGFUL CURRI CULUM
Candidates prepared in early childhood degree programs use their knowledge of academic disciplines to design,
implement, and evaluate experiences that promote positive development and learning for each and every young
child. Candidates understand the importance of developmental domains and academic (or content) disciplines in
early childhood curriculum. They know the essential concepts, inquiry tools, and structure of content areas,
including academic subjects, and can identify resources to deepen their understanding. Candidates use their own
knowledge and other resources to design, implement, and evaluate meaningful, challenging curriculum that
promotes comprehensive developmental and learning outcomes for every young child. (NAEYC, 2010)

Brief Description of Evidence:
During the summer semester of 2013 during my ECED 235-Early Childhood Preschool Practicum
course, I worked individually to create and implement a lesson plan to a class during my field experience and
then reflect on my teaching through a videotape analysis and self-reflection. The lesson plan was created
through meaningful and challenging curriculum which helped build upon skills needed for letter identification
and pre-reading skills. The children who I taught the lesson plan to used cutting, gluing and letter recognition
skills to cut out letters from different magazines which then would be glued on to their particular letter. A final
product of this activity proved learning outcomes of identifying letters and creating their own self alphabet.
Throughout this field experience my artifact was focused on creating a project based lesson which resulted in
the completion of the alphabet over a period of time.
Analysis of What I Learned:
Through completion of this implemented lesson plan I can now say I understand the importance of
creating objectives and using assessments to check and see if those objectives were met. I now know the key to
promoting a positive learning experiences with resources we may use every day. Through this artifact I have
learned how to integrate letter identification, fine motor skills, and social interaction into one single lesson. I
can now say I understand the importance of confidentiality and the need for privacy of videotaping and creating
a self-assessment of the lesson being taught.
How This Artifact Demonstrates my Competence on the NAEYC Standard:
This project is just one of many projects in which I was able to plan, implement, and evaluate a
developmentally appropriate learning experience for the class I was spending my practicum hours with.
Through spending time interacting, creating objectives and a meaningful and challenging lesson I can say I am
competent in working in the field with a preschool class which can use inquiry tools and supportive evidence to
show they have mastered the objectives of each of my lessons.