Bailey Winter

Yearlong Plan

Reflective Commentary

Spring, 2017

4a. Demonstrate that they analyze student learning, development and growth and apply

what they learn to improve their practiceand the teacher adapts teaching skills to meet

student needs from student data.

Throughout my Yearlong Plan, I will be conducting summative and formative

assessments. Some of my formative assessments are the Write your own Landay activity in

Unit 3, tickets out the door, and the Color, Symbol, Image activity from Unit 6. I will collect

these activities and reflect on my students development. Ill be looking for how well they

addressed the learning target for that particular day, as well as how they are developing as

readers, writers, and thinkers. The goal for these formative assessments is to gauge students

proficiency and adapt my lessons based on their needs. For example, if students are having

trouble focusing their Color, Symbol, Image activity because they cannot distinguish a symbol

from an image, I would use that data to adapt a mini-lesson on symbols vs. images. The

summative assessments will inform my teaching practice because patterns of error in students

work is directly correlated to insufficient teaching of that particular skill. It is not students fault

if I did not teach them my expectations and how to meet those expectations through their work.
4b. Teachers link professional growth to their professional goalsand the teacher

evaluates, acquires, and implements new strategies to improve instructional practices.

In our Professional Learning Communities this semester, we read a lot of intriguing

articles that influenced my Yearlong Plan. One of the articles was an NCTE article is titled,

Keeping the Mic On: Emboldening Voices Through Discussion-Based Inquiry by Jacquelynn

Malloy, Angela Rogers, and Susan Cridland-Hughes. In the article, the authors discuss how

teachers can embolden students voices by encouraging discussion-based inquiry in our

classrooms. In each of my units, I have made it a point to include plenty of discussions.

Furthermore, I have set up my research unit (unit 2) in order for students to do the learning

through inquiry and discussion. Since I process my thinking through writing, I plan on having a

journal at my desk at all times in order to reflect on my lessons and make notes about how to

improve and be more innovative.

4c. Are able to respond to a complex, dynamic environmentand the teacher supports

struggling and/or advanced students.

For my fourth unit, students will be reading Shakespeare and tracking relationships and

character dynamics. In anticipation of the variety of reading levels my students will have, I have

prepared lessons that will help a variety of readers comprehend the text. I have included

strategies from the book, When Kids Cant Read by Kylene Beers in order to scaffold the

learning and make sure students of all reading abilities can read and understand this complex

Shakespeare text. One of these activities is called Somebody Wanted But So, and it helps

students visualize each characters desires and motives, while also considering conflicts in the

story.
 Collaboration and dedication to innovation are the two things that shaped my Yearlong

Plan. In addition to listening to the excellent ideas of my peers, I also learned from the National

Council of Teachers of English articles, which helped me create units that are innovative and

engaging.