Running Header: STANDARDS-BASED INSTRUCTION

Content Knowledge/Standards-Based Instruction

Rachel Chadwick
Regent University

In partial fulfillment of UED 496 Field Experience ePortfolio, Spring 2015

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Introduction
As a teacher, it is perhaps most important to plan with a specific end goal or
objective in mind that aligns with the appropriate Standards of Learning. Backwards
planning is not only a good way to think about lessons, but it is also a good way for
students to think about their own work. Starting with the end in mind allows students to
hold the answer to the essential question(s) throughout the lesson so that there is
continued focus on what is being learned. I believe that true learning starts to unfold
when students become fully immersed in what is being taught. Each lesson should
provide opportunities for authentic learning and engagement by allowing students to
explore for themselves the curriculum at hand.
Rationale
The artifacts included to demonstrate my commitment to standards-based
instruction are a lesson plan in alignment with the Virginia State Standards, as well as my
activity template used to facilitate student understanding of the objective. From the
standards, I first determined what students should know, understand, and be able to
demonstrate. I also considered related standards to create a complete interdisciplinary
plan. In my lesson, I knew that I needed for my students to master SOL 3.6i, which states
that the student will read to demonstrate comprehension of nonfiction texts; compare
and contrast the characteristics of biographies and autobiographies (VDOE). Therefore,
I created a lesson where students actively interact with nonfiction text and investigate
examples of autobiography and biography passages.
The first part of the lesson involved an interactive game to arrange students into
groups, followed by a hook to engage students prior knowledge about the subject area. I

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used what they already knew to frame my instruction, but still provided an objective at
the beginning to focus their learning on an essential question. Most of the lesson
revolved around the students exploring in collaborative groups, where they were each (as
a group) responsible for reading a nonfiction passage and determining if it was a
biography or autobiography and why. I used the last part of this lesson to have students
present their findings to the class, in order to see how their understanding aligned with
the state standards set in my objective. The reason I selected these artifacts is because it
highlights my ability to evaluate what students have learned from the reading lesson I
taught. From the activity that students participated in, they were able to interact with the
learning in a way that best displayed their abilities as a gifted cluster class, while also
showcasing an understanding of content knowledge.
Reflection
This lesson went very well with my students. I feel that their engagement was
maximized throughout the lesson because of the emphasis placed on one essential
question that kept their focus narrow and specific. As I plan, I am always very careful in
assessing whether students have mastered the entire standard. Included in this lesson
were multiple opportunities to assess students understanding on the various parts of the
standard: understanding the difference between an autobiography and biography, and
reading and examining narrative text to determine its genre by identifying the
characteristics. Students discuss in pairs what they know about each, are given a passage
to read as a group, and then have to apply what was learned by differentiating between
the characteristics of both autobiography and biography. They record their observations

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on the task cards, complete a genre card at the end, as well as present their findings to the
class, which I used as an assessment to guide future plans.
By using these procedures and planning my lesson with the end goal in mind, I
believe that what I teach is in alignment with state standards and the information that
students need to learn. In my mind, one of the most important things for teachers to
remember is that students do not carry with them the knowledge that they need by sitting
and listening to hours of teaching everyday. Although direct instruction can be
beneficial, children are explorers, and learn best by observing the world around them,
even through something as simple as a nonfiction reading passage. It is imperative that
students receive the opportunity to construct their own understanding of what is being
taught.
From what I have learned at Regent, this primarily comes through being
immersed in the subject matter, and having lessons that are framed around a specific
objective in student learning. When planning with an end goal in mind, understanding
requires an iterative mix of well-designed experiences, reflections on those experiences,
and targeted instruction in light of experiences and goals (Wiggins & McTighe, 2005, p.
208). For every lesson, the core of students learning resides in their interaction with the
standards itself that in turn enables them to eventually demonstrate this understanding.

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Resources
Wiggins, Grant, & McTighe, Jay. (2005). Understanding by Design. Alexandria, VA:
Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.