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Teacher Artifact: Life History: Research Literature Method Draft 1: Draft 2: Collaborative
Students created How did each Question & Review: Chart: Students conducted Students revised and Teacher Impact
visuals represent- person become Rationale: Students dove Students their research put edited their first draft Presentation:
ing their teaching a teacher? Curiosities into peer designed their their findings into for the eyes of the Critical friends
practice. Students told transformed into reviewed articles plan of action words. Critical friends Yoga-Loving, worked together
their stories purpose. What to see what oth- with new gave important Mindful-Educating, to create a final
here. made each stu- ers have done pedagogies feedback to help make Dr. Azevedo. product of their
dent dig deep to for their topic. to use in the the rough draft of the professional
create a research You could say it classroom! research paper not so development.
topic? was...LIT. rough. Page 1
Current events and vocabulary continued a couple students blurted out, “Why do you wear
the hijab?” and “Why every day?” Sponga could
that reading stories, or events, related to each tell they were excited but needed them to give
other help decrease the vocabulary load on their classmate the chance to speak. When she
students. Their findings showed that English did, she happily answered each question and gave
Language Learners primarily needed to look a personal insight as to what the hijab meant to
up definitions while reading the first article her. After class, the young lady rushed to Mor-
but their understanding of unfamiliar words ris and said, “Mrs. Morris, Mrs. Morris, did you
was reinforced as they continued reading ar- hear me? Did you hear what I said?” She was
ticles related to one another. This concept grinning from ear to ear and later thanked Spon-
could be applied to any person identifying ga for the opportunity to share with her peers.
an unknown word and learning its meaning: There was one moment during the self-study
including secondary social studies students. research that showed their authenticity of their
As Sponga began differentiating the mentioned thinking. At one point Sponga asked her stu-
articles, she kept three things in mind: her stu- dents, “Why would I have you do this activity?”
dents, the relevance of the words, and the amount Pictured: R. Sponga leading a vocab activity. Courtesy of: K. Morris
She posed the question on a whim too see if
of times students would see the identified words students could connect why she had them read
over the course of the unit. She deliberated over One student announced, “the Florida Shooting?”
current events. Four out of the 25 present that
which vocabulary words were most significant Sponga clarified that was an example of a current
day made the connection between using current
towards her study, which somehow became a event but needed someone to tell her what current
events to practice and enrich vocabulary. One
logomachy with herself. The targeted words events are. One student piped up that they are events
student identified how the purpose of the activity
used for pre- and post-assessment included taking place in the world right now. Sponga then
was to relate past events to today! Since students
revelation, Islam, hajj, Ramadan, Five Pillars, con- continued to ask questions about where students
had never done this before, Sponga was amazed!
vert, Muslim, Qur’an, and prophet. However, she see current events. “Snap Chat! Twitter! The News!”
Especially since students within the lower ac-
also used other class related vocabulary within the Yet, Sponga kept pushing. She was waiting for some- ademic learning tier made real world connec-
articles such as Allah, monotheistic, Imam, alms, one to say, “Newspapers!” When someone finally tions. This displayed that students these students
and Eid. These were also the terms that could be did, another student incredulously asked, “People were capable of reaching higher order think-
inserted into the adapted current event articles. still read those?” Morris had walked in at that exact ing – they just needed an opportunity to do so.
Though Sponga was not expecting to in- moment. Sponga smiled and said, “You’re about to!” In the end, Sponga reflected over the process
clude a classroom discussion related to the Since the article focused on Muslim women wearing of her self-study as a eucatastrophe. This self-
currentevents, two occurred within one class hijabs, it was easy for students to make a real-world study brought to light how vocabulary develop-
period. There was a moment when Sponga connection. One bright, outgoing student wore a hijab ment is an integral part of Sponga’s pedagogy.
and her mentor teacher, Kelly Morris, realized every day to class. Prior to the class reading the article, Sponga hopes to one day continue using current
they only had enough copies of the first arti- Sponga asked the student if she wouldn’t mind events so her students may develop a strong
cle for half class.As Morris absquatulated the answering questions if her peers had any for vocabulary to discuss global affairs and grow into
room to make more, Sponga asked students, her. The student, though nervous, agreed. conscientious citizens ready to influence change.
“Can someone tell me what a current event is?” As the class reached the end of the article,
“P
rules and sentence stems to respond to ques-
arguments until one student known for dominating
tions revolving around a concept from their unit. lease take out your laptop. We are tak-
conversations, used her sweeping role to declare, “I
Students, depending on the role they received, ing our test on E-cart,” said Catherine Ahn, a
know we disagreed about certain things, but I think
were encouraged to use the stems to respond to chemistry teacher at a school in Northern Vir-
we all agreed that although we may not be able to get
the question in a matter of three minutes. Stu- ginia. One by one, students take out their laptop.
rid of guns completely. Certain types of guns should
dent chuckled at the comical names, such as, “It’s taking forever,” groans one student. “Why
be banned and that students deserve to be protect-
the needler. This role required students to play can’t we just take it on paper?” said another stu-
ed.”At this point, students began to pack up and
devil’s advocate. Or the sweeper, which asked dent. “Because we don’t want to kill thousands of
slowly head out of the door as the bell rang. Sheikh
students to summarize the discussion before trees just for one Chemistry class,” Ahn replied.
remained seated long after she said good bye to the
moving on to the next question. Overall, students Since many are becoming more aware of the en-
class. Scribbling down notes in pink notebook, trying
stated that while they enjoyed being able to try vironment, it’s true that people use technology to
new roles, they found the language of the stems save paper. There are many reasons behind using
unnatural and difficult to use in conversation. technology in classroom. It seems that using tech-
This led to the silent journal activity. Stu- nology or “integrating” technology into classroom
dents were paired up and given a side to respond is very “in” these days. Due to this trend, more
to the question, “Is America ready for gun con- and more teachers are incorporating technology
trol?” Students had several minutes to use notes into their classroom - especially for assessments.
to write their responses and rebuttals. A pleth-
ora of ideas sprung about from the linguistics
of the second amendment, the current events,
or the historical research. Students had finally
become confident enough to pull information
they were learning in written form. It was time Pictured: H. Sheikh’s journal of her reflections. Courtesy of: H. Sheikh
to conduct the class dialogue on gun control.
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Paper versus computer test continued
The use of technology for assessments provides better input for stu-
dents’ learning. Online tests are easily created and accessable. The best TEACHER ARTIFACTS
part is teachers get the results quickly and can determine which test ques-
tions were most missed. However, does incorporating technology into
assessments make the lives of the students better? Studies have shown
that there was no difference in performance when students took the as-
sessments on paper or computer. However, there is one thing that edu-
cators are neglecting. Are they considering the opinions of the students?
Currently, all state standardize tests are on completed on a computer.
Students are required to take common assessments for Math, Science, So-
cial Studies, and English. Many teachers, especially in science and math,
encourage students to use scratch paper or write the process out when solv-
ing problems. Although scratch paper is given during the standardize tests,
to students, taking tests on computers totally different than a paper test.
When students grow accustomed to taking the test on paper, a computer- Top left: Humera Sheikh described how her
ized test becomes strenuous. Ahn asked students whether they preferred classes came to love this object. For her, it represent the
paper-based or computer-based tests; 58.5 % of her students select pa- expansion of knowledge. The idea of using the small
picture to enlarge the bigger one began her thinking
per-based tests and 64.7% said that they had a higher grade when they took on what she wanted to research at the start of term.
test on paper. If students feel they are doing well and feel more comfortable
on paper-based tests, isn’t this the next goal for the current and future teach- Bottom Left: Catherine Ahn selected an image of a smart
ers? How can we integrate more technology into our classroom in order for to depict how much technology is used on a day to day
basis. This gave her a foundation for her research question.
students to feel more comfortable using the technology? What can we do
to prepare students for technology based state standardized assessments? Top Right: Rebecca Sponga explained how the concept
In the future, there will be another generation totally different of time has always fasinated her. For her, time is a tool
than today’s. How can we as teachers prepare for the children who that she cannot function without. It led her to think
about the way the past is always in our present and future.
were raised taking computerized tests? This challenge will contin-
ue to be a mountaing for current and future educators to climb.
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