Washington State Essential Academic Learning Requirements (EALR)Self AssessmentFall MIT2008Goals: - Teacher candidates will become familiar with state identified important skills and knowledge all students should have. - Teacher candidates will develop an action plan for how to learn the content not already known but need to understand, and name how they doknow those things that are already known.- Teacher candidates will identify the relationships among content areas for curriculum integration and thoughtful teaching - Teacher candidates will identify key aspects of school learning to prepare students for citizenship.- Teacher candidates will begin to develop familiarity with issues of bias andfairness associated with the GLEs.(Standard 5.1: Teacher candidates design/adapt developmentally appropriate instruction that is informed by GLE’s, curriculum standards)Tasks:As part of your portfolio to be submitted for advancement to candidacy, you need to closely examine the EALRs in four ways. I. Self-assessment and planning for professional development: - Download the word version of the EALRs for each of the following content areas: art, math, reading, science, writing, social studies, communication, & health and fitness from the handouts link on our website. If you are endorsed for elementary education, download the links that refer to “benchmarks 1 and 2.” If you are endorsed for middle or secondary education, download the links for “benchmarks 2 and 3.”- Create a bookmark on your internet browser for the following OSPI sitethat contains the updated and more detailed Grade Level Expectations(GLEs): http://www.k12.wa.us/CurriculumInstruct/EALR_GLE.aspx. You can check understanding of each of the components the EALRs by looking at the corresponding GLEs more specifically. - Each week, using the version of the EALRs you downloaded from our program website, you need to assess yourself in one of those content/skill areas. (Order is as stated above, and written in the syllabus.) Use the spaces on the forms next to each item to type responses to assignment questions. We will review your work at the beginning of each Friday seminar and collect it in your portfolio at theend of the quarter. (Note in week 9 the final EALR assessments are due on Tuesday). Assess what you know and what you need to learnThis pertains to all elementary teachers in all subject areas and to secondary teachers when it is your area of endorsement. - Examine the GLE and component. Learn what they expect students to know and be able to do. (This can be very vague at times, so discuss ideas with your colleagues.) - For each component, write whether or not you have the knowledge necessary to teach students. - For those things you are prepared to teach, state where you developedyour knowledge. This does not have to be from a college course, however, you do need to be specific about what/who has informed and challenged your knowledge. There’s a difference between saying you have knowledge about nutrition because you practice healthy eating habits and saying you read about nutrition, took classes or learned from a nutritionist. Likewise there is a difference between knowing how to read yourself, and being able to teach the mechanics of reading to students. Make sure you are clear about the knowledge/skill you simply use versus that which you have actively worked to inform. One where you actively worked to develop a more comprehensive understanding of the area. It’s the latter that can countas knowledge necessary to teach students.- For those things that you have yet to learn, describe how you plan to learn it. It is important that you be honest with yourself in your self-evaluation. A large amount of skills and knowledge is required of teachers, particularly elementary teachers. By developing a learning plan, over the first few years of teaching you will become more competent in your weaker content areas.II. Identify key relationships among content areasThis pertains to all secondary teachers when examining EALRs outside their areas of endorsement. Examine the component and EALR outside your areas of endorsement. - What connections do you notice between them and your area of endorsement?- Where do students apply knowledge gained in your content area? - Where do they learn content that gets applied in your area? - What other ways might you connect what they are learning in other content areas within your classroom?Purpose for this work: It is important that teachers learn the connections among subject areas for two key reasons. One, you may be asking students to do something in one subject area that assumes they haveknowledge from another subject area. For example, a social studies teacher may ask students to use the scale on a map to determine the approximate area of a land mass. However, they may not know the complexity of the mathematics involved, the degree to which students understand proportional reasoning or the concept of area, and how students know how to approximate area of odd-shaped land masses. By becoming knowledgeable of other content, you can better predict what students are learning in other classes as well as what is reasonable for you to assume. The second key reason for understanding what students are learning in other content areas is to help you make connections among subject areas. If a reading teacher is working on non-fiction reading, they might draw on appropriate grade-level science content to develop an understanding of non-fiction reading.III. Learning for citizenshipThis pertains to everyone in all areas of endorsement and content areas.As a tertiary examination to the EALRS, we would like you to also note when you encounter things that are important for students to know and be able to do in order to become an active citizen in a pluralistic and democratic society. IV. Bias and Fairness reviewReading, math, and science GLEs have been reviewed by a Bias and Fairness review committee. Their reports are published on the following website: http://www.k12.wa.us/CurriculumInstruct/resources.aspx For at least one of the three areas listed above, spend 1 hour examining the report that most interests or puzzles you. Write a couple of paragraphsabout what insights you get from the Bias and Fairness report, and includeit in your portfolio. Your analyses of the EALRs will be shared briefly at the beginning of each seminar. It should also be included in your Advancement