Standard1

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** Standard 1 ** The teacher understands the central concepts, tools of inquiry, and structures of the disciplines she or he teaches and can create learning experiences that make these aspects of subject matter meaningful for pupils
 * Teachers know the subjects they are teaching. **

Evidence1: Paragraph Writing—Blogger Style Rationale 1: This plan was developed for a sixth grade English class, and the purpose was to review paragraph structure. Students answered the question, “What is the best book you’ve ever read and why?” Students created an outline and wrote a rough draft that was typed and edited using Microsoft Word. During the next part of the lesson, I lead a class discussion about Internet etiquette and safety and then introduced students to our class blog. Students cut and pasted their paragraphs into the comment area of the blog. The goal was that the students would write more carefully because they had a broader audience than just the teacher. Students self-assed their work and assessed the work of two or three others. This led to a discussion of the experience of blogging and great literature.

As one of the first assignments I completed for my masters work and as a person who rarely used technology beyond word processing, I think this lesson helped me to see the power behind technology in education. I took something mundane and boring, paragraphing, and made it motivating for the students through blogging. This was when my attitude began to change, and I decided to develop more lessons that included technology.

KSD:

1.K.1 The teacher understands the major concepts, assumptions, debates, processes of inquiry, and ways of knowing that are central to the discipline(s) s/he teaches.

Paragraphing is a skill central to writing development. In order to write anything else, students must be able to write clear, concise paragraphs. By having the students post their paragraphs on a blog, they are writing for a wider audience and are motivated to write correctly. This will aide them in their writing in other subject areas.

1.S.5 The teacher develops and uses curricula that encourage students to see, question, and interpret ideas from diverse perspectives.

This activity allowed students to write their own opinions about their favorite books and to share with the other students in the class. It was interesting to see the different types of literature that students enjoy, and students were able to gather ideas for their own reading from their classmates.  1.D.3 The teacher has enthusiasm for the discipline(s) s/he teaches and sees connections to everyday life. Sharing literature is important and being able to explain your opinion is critical in education. Whether students are sharing a favorite book or explaining their opinion of global warming, they need to do that in a clear, concise way. Blogging is a fun way to learn the paragraphing skill and the questions that can be posed are endless.