Look at the Big Picture

            I have only been the Center Principal of Nanjing Senior High School of Jiangsu Province (NSHSJP) for the past two months, but I have evaluated the current situation at school. I had some ideas about ways in which, through appropriate policies changes, we can grow the school in numbers and make the school a better experience while attending the school. Some of the policy changes need to be implemented to control the impact of COVID-19. My ideas do not reflect the current Chinese government policies towards foreign travel into China which have significantly impacted international programs like the one I currently manage to get qualified teachers. From looking at the survey, three issues should focus on future progress and growth in the school’s community.

            First, there are only two teachers on our campus who have been there for more than five years. Our school is situated near the third-tier cities of Wuxi and Changzhou. These cities are not as attractive for foreigners as Shanghai, Beijing, and Shenzhen, so getting teachers to stay can be challenging even during idea situations. During the current pandemic, it’s even harder to get qualified, experienced teachers, to visit knowing the consequences if you try to go home and return to China (which may take weeks or months). I am not surprised that teachers have not stayed for more than an average of two or three years because better jobs offers are given. Administrators need to realize the difficulties of keeping teachers and making their experience among the school’s community as pleasant as possible.

            Second, mental health and well-being mean more than everything nowadays. With foreign teachers being away from home and not seeing their families for some time, an administrator must be checking on their teachers’ mental and physical health. I have tried having dinners and going on day trips to keep teachers motivated during the pandemic. Our company has created a deal with our insurance provider to give free online sessions with psychologists and therapists. We all have access to mental health providers who can guide us through this difficult time. I always thank my staff for going well beyond what is asked of them. Still, after analyzing the survey data, I feel our company does not do a good job telling people that they are talented professional people and that they appreciate their service during these harsh times. Working as a foreign teacher means many sacrifices, and the survey suggests that more appreciation is needed. To maintain teachers on campus, the campus needs to provide opportunities for teachers to relax when necessary by giving more personal days but also show their appreciation by salary raises and bonuses to help with strict policies that make it challenging to leave China. Long term, this will allow experienced and qualified teachers to want to remain on campus and help with student academic success.

            Lastly, the curriculum needs an update. When I first began to look at the class schedule, I saw that we offer the same classes all three years as a member of NSHSJP. Each student takes economics, maths, physics, chemistry, and an English course. There is no variety at all in the curriculum. There are no fine arts, performing arts, or other humanities courses that are available for students who may not be strong in math and sciences. I asked the A-Level students (Grade 12) how they felt about the courses, and they all made similar comments. It’s boring. We need to inject some life into the school curriculum, or else students who feel as though their destiny lies with drawing or acting will choose other schools.

            My ancestor, Edward Blyden, thought that education “…should aim…not simply [for the provision of] information, but [for] the formation of the mind.” The school where I am the Center Principal focuses more on facts that create the students’ minds to be prepared for global citizenship. I want professional teachers who want to teach students to be people and to stay and build a community worth making. Without teachers who are content about their situations, we will never have students who look beyond their textbooks for answers.

For the survey, I used Survey Monkey and nine teachers responded to the survey. The teachers included people from Africa, Europe, America, and China. The questions I asked included:

1. What classes do you teach?
2. Rate how effectively you deliver your classroom instruction?
3. While teaching classes on Zoom, rate your experience.
4. When was the last time you had another person observe your classes?
5. Who would like to observe your classes?
6. How technical are you skills in Microsoft Office, etc?
7. Professionally, what do you need to grow?
8. How can the administration improve your growth?
9. How long have you been teaching at the school?

Teacher Evaluations. Really?!

When I started as the Academic Dean at St. Mary’s School in Shanghai, one of my first challenges was trying to evaluate teachers who I had become friends with over the past two years. It is not an easy task due to the nature of the relationship I had built as a member of a team of people who had the same goals in terms of teaching young students but had different approaches to what that meant. With the guidance of the teacher evaluation form that my company provided, I began the process of evaluating my friends as an administrator.

When evaluating teachers, I know that the time I spend in the class observing the teacher is only a small window to what happens in the classroom. I am in the room for fifty minutes trying to figure out if the instructor has the ability to teach all of his/her classes so that the students in the room are getting the proper instruction to be academically successful. What I began to tell myself as an evaluator is to look around to see if the students are actually learning. There are questions that I have in order to evaluate a teacher effectively.

1. What is the teaching trying to make the student learn?
2. How do we know that the students are actually learning the material?
3. What do we do when a student does not understand the material?

As I evaluate teachers, this is what I am trying to determine. I go to particular classes in which I think students are having the most difficult to get a better idea of the instruction being taught. Once I have looked at grades, individual student performance, the teacher’s lessons plans and observation of the classroom, I began to write down my comments about the teacher and their performance in the classroom.

The evaluation that my company created for the evaluation appears to be very standard. I never really questioned the evaluation because it was the first one that I ever had to do as an administrator. The topics evaluated include:

• PLANNING AND PRESENTING ORGANIZED INSTRUCTION
• CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT
• MOTIVATION
• ASSESSMENT
• HUMAN RELATIONS AND COMMUNICATION
• PROFESSIONAL RESPONSIBILITIES

Click the link below to see the actual evaluation form

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1KjvMGLyKEKFTxUkaM4nG2Zbf8-fQ-WbgGzPR6QCWh1U/edit?usp=sharing

The evaluation gives an overall window about the teacher’s performance in and out of the classroom. There are three options to choose to show the teacher’s performance, good, satisfactory and needs improvement. This is where I had a problem when trying to give a valid assessment of the teacher’s performance. I felt that there was something missing. Also, I had a new instructor who was having some major teaching problems, so I began to look for other ways to measure teaching performance to help new teachers with improving their classroom performance.

Through the Internet and talking to other administrators, I believed that I found a new way to better evaluate new and returning teachers in order to give a better assessment of the performance. I created a rubric to give a better window unto the teacher’s ability. The topics, which were covered on the new assessment, included:

• Planning & Preparation
• Instruction
• Classroom Environment
• Professionalism

Click the link below to see the actual evaluation form

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1fTugAzwJvYGABRIKxvIj37GynEX5ruicg9wjWelvEZw/edit?usp=sharing

 What was different about this new evaluation that there were points given instead of making a check next to good, satisfactory or needs improvement. I thought that a numerical value gave teachers a better idea of their performance in the classroom.

When it comes to education, I feel as though the students are our focal point as educators. If the students are not learning, then I feel as though we as instructors are not doing our jobs. I feel as though every classroom teacher should know his or her lessons plans. I know at times when a teacher spends a lot of time on a lesson, they don’t always go according to plan. What I look for as an administrator is a teacher’s ability to shift gears when things are not going according to plan. If a teacher is struggling with a lesson, I want to see if he/she continues to go with the planned lesson or if he is able to shift gears midway thru and try something different. If I see that from a teacher at my school, then I know that the instructor “get it,” and I will make sure that he/she will continue to improve at my school.

 

 

 

 

Pre-Assessment for Differentiation in an AP class

One of the issues I face at my school is trying to teach AP US history to students whose first language is Chinese and who have never been in a US history class before. With time restraints for the AP exams, at first, I thought to take a period to focus on pre-assessment would be a waste of time because many students in the classroom have not experience taking an American history class. However, before I began to cover my lesson on the Second Great Awakening and the rise of reforms in the US, I began to ask a couple of questions about the time period, which I always do before a new chapter is presented, but this time I incorporated Kahoot into my lesson plans. I was skeptical due to the technical difficulties that I have at my school due to poor internet/Wi-Fi capabilities, but after adjusting for those problems, I began to give a pre-assessment for the new history topic.

My AP US history class is my favorite class because it allows me to teach what I love to talk about to Chinese students who appear to be fascinated by American history and culture. It allows me to better prepare my students not only for collegiate academics but also to help them understand more about the US before actually going there. Most of the students are able to do the pre-assessment online. There were a total of twelve students who could take the pre-assessment due to some tech issues. Even though half the class was not able to participate, people began to play the game by writing their answers down on a separate piece of paper. Once the game was over, I was allowed to get an excel spreadsheet to analyze what key concepts I will need to cover to help my students do well during classroom discussions. This was a great tool for the students to understand what they know, what they “kinda” know, what they had no idea about. For the teacher, Kahoot is a great tool to help with modifying the lesson plans to focus on areas that need more discussion. The purpose of the assessment was supposed to be:

1. Five students who answered most, including the most difficult, of the pre-assessment questions correctly
2. Twelve students who have some knowledge about the topic as shown in their score, but need to develop higher order thinking skills
3. Five students who appear to have limited knowledge about the topic

Due to tech difficulties, I had to modify the assessment to be:

1. Two students who answered most, including the most difficult, of the pre-assessment questions correctly
2. Eight students who have some knowledge about the topic as shown in their score, but need to develop higher order thinking skills
3. Two students who appear to have limited knowledge about the topic

 

Once I was able to analyze the date, I spent the next two days going over the areas of weakness. The topics and questions I covered in class include:

• What did deism deny?
• What did the Maine Law of 1851 do?
• Where did feminists meet to discuss women’s rights in 1848?
• After what war did the genre of romanticism arrive in America?
• What document was changed to include Women?
• What society was created and led by William Ladd in 1828?
• What did Unitarianism believe?

 

Many students were able to answer the American literature questions due to their English teacher focusing on American literature this year for the Junior/Senior class in preparation for AP English exam. Questions based on religion, utopian societies and reform ideas (Women’s Rights, Abolitionism, and Prison Reform) needed further support.

Two days before the chapter test, I had students who did not do well on the pre-assessment be assigned to students who did well into groups in order to review for the test. I used Kahoot again to see how well students would do after classroom discussions and review with their peers and the results were great overall. It is much easier for my students to have a conversation in Chinese with their fellow classmates to go over vocabulary words that are unfamiliar.

For further details about Pre-Assessment Differentiation please go to the link:

https://prezi.com/view/ZqEmkcGfuENYa4nZblKu/

 

High-Stakes Tests

I have been an educator in China for more than three years. I work at a Chinese private international school in which all students who attend are Chinese nationals. Every time I have a parent approach me to talk about their children or if a potential family comes to visit my school to talk about the education we provide, the majority of questions and comments circle around the idea of how many AP courses do we offer. This is an amazing question to be asked by Chinese families who children at times don’t have the verbal English skills to do well in an AP class. However, Chinese families are under the expression that if their children do not take AP and honors class, then they will not get into the best schools in the US. The pressure to succeed at all costs has led many Chinese families to force their children to strive for educational excellence at the expense of logic and reasoning about their children’s ability to perform in an AP classroom setting. Where did this drive to take complicated and difficult testing come from for Chinese families? Look no further than the history of Chinese education and the exam system.

For Chinese student from an early age, their goal is to pass exams. They are trained to pass tests. Classes in Chinese school are built and designed to help students pass the test. Even though there appear to be some progressive educators in China who are trying to move away from teaching to the test, there are many administrators who are under pressure to show results. I was at an educational seminar in Beijing two years ago with teachers who wanted to teach like Western teachers. They wanted to bring a Western educational approach in the classroom but were afraid to take the proper steps necessary because their principals wanted to see results. The problem for progressive educators is that “high are such situations where admissions, promotions, placements or graduations are dependent on the test.” How can you tell a family that we are trying to teach progressive ideas in the classroom, which provoke creativity and imagination when families are more worried about creating successful children to help the family in their later years? Competition in China for the top schools has made families feel even greater pressure to achieve.

 

What has happened in China over the past twenty years is an increase in enrollment in Chinese public schools. About 99% of children in China attend public schools. The adult illiteracy rate has dropped to below four percent. With so many more people in Chinese public school, the demand to be the best student with the top scores on the Chinese exams or the gaokao has made it more challenging for families to get into the top schools. The reason why my school exists is that Chinese families were looking for a solution to the overcrowded of Chinese public schools, the need to find better alternatives to the Chinese university system and a cheaper solution than sending their children to the US for education before going to college.

 

“Chinese themselves are far less impressed by their school system. Almost every time I try to interview a Chinese about the system here, I hear grousing rather than praise. Many Chinese complain scathingly that their system kills independent thought and creativity, and they envy the American system for nurturing self-reliance — and for trying to make learning exciting and not just a chore.” (Kirkpatrick)

 

My school exists because we bring the US education system to China for Chinese families to explore other avenues than staying in China. The families that I work for like the idea of Western education, but their mindset are still focused on the Chinese educational system and the examinations. I am trying to educate families of my school in order to see that we are not a test center driven for higher TOEFL, AP, SAT or ACT scores. We are a school that is trying to bring the best out of your students in order to be prepared for US universities and colleges.

So when asked about what motivates our teachers to teach, my school does not pressure teacher to teach to the test. We don’t need to because we are a school that is not as prestigious as the international school in Shanghai but we are not as “bad” as the Chinese public schools. We are right in the middle of the two educational situations. We provide AP classes for are top students but we do have to modify the curriculum in order to give our Chinese students a chance to succeed. If I were to teach my AP class like I was taught in the states, many of my students would be failing. My staff understands what needs to be done to help every student succeed. We do not have to report what AP scores the student receives. There are no bonuses given to teachers who help students get high marks on their tests. When looking at the Chinese public schools and the international schools in Shanghai, there is a lot of pressure on teachers and staff to get their students to receive high marks on their exams. Our students put pressure on themselves to achieve academic success, but the staff at my school is not pressured at all from the administration to teach to the test. Chinese families put pressure on themselves to make their children achieve success.

 

For my school, offering AP classes is a selling ploy. It gets families into the door to take a look at what we are doing at my school. We don’t pressure the student to take AP’s, we encourage them to take them. We advise them that it prepares them for college life. We use AP classes as a tool to help our students understand the pressure they will face in a college classroom. It’s a win-win for me because families want to see AP classes offered and we as educators want to see our student pushed to their limits, but without making students take the AP exams who feel as though they would not do well. Our goals as a school is what you see below.

Resources

Kirkpatrick, R., & Zang, Y. (2014). Correction: The negative influences of exam-oriented education on Chinese high school students: backwash from classroom to child. Language Testing in Asia, 4(1), 2. doi:10.1186/2229-0443-4-2

 

Diversity in the Classroom

It is very important to have students share their own views and they share their own stories. We, as educators need to provide a safe place for students to share what is on their minds. It is also important that students have opportunities to learn from one another’s varied experiences and perspectives. To create this learning environment, teachers need to skillfully draw on student experiences to enrich the curriculum.

How can I as a teacher show they I care about where they come from? Its a bit harder when all of my students are from China, but I think they are still ways to show that I value my students and what they can bring to the classroom discussion.

One way that I show that I care about him or her as people is that I try to learn their Chinese name even though my pronunciation of every student’s name may be completely wrong. I am the Academic Dean on campus and so I get to know more about the students and their families from conversations during meetings with parents. As the history teacher, I can spend time building curriculum around personal narratives or incorporating identity-based responses into the study of texts. I want to be a member of the community but due to a language barrier it is tough to do so. I still try to help out as much as I can and I want students to know that I am an active participant in their country.

Teachers need to connect with students and Teaching Tolerance has a great plan to help teachers who are trying to be anti-biased. Through looking at the ideas of Identity, Diversity and Action, teachers can create a better environment for all students who feel their experiences are unwelcome, judged, or stereotyped. Once again, this might be a challenge for teachers who are teaching abroad, but at least it shows the students that you care enough to have the conversation. Everyone in the class needs to hear the stories and voices of everyone.[1]

 

[1] https://www.tolerance.org/magazine/publications/critical-practices-for-antibias-education/classroom-culture

Differentiated Instruction

English Language Learners

I teach students from families whose primary language is not English. China began to incorporate English into their public schools about thirty years ago. I am beginning to see that students have more English in their households by the parents who come to visit the school campus for Parent-Teacher conferences. The younger the student, the more English their parents know because they were born into a school system that encouraged English language or their family had the means to pay for private school education in English or get more tutoring lessons in the English language. My school, St. Mary’s School – Shanghai believes that the students learn best when they have the ability to learn English while getting help in their local language. We use a standard American curriculum for instruction. Foreign teachers who are not ESL teacher have to begin to differentiate instruction for all Chinese students. The amount and depth of the modifications will be based on the student’s level of understanding or usage of English, previous learning, and cognitive ability. In order for the Chinese students to succeed at my school, they need to have meaningful interactions with others, which is primarily interactions with their peers and teachers. The problem is that many of the peer interactions are from Chinese students who do not speak English when they are not in an academic setting. This requires teachers to spend more time making sure that they practice their English skills outside of the classroom. How do we help students who struggle with the English language in the classroom?

Modifications (Formative Assessment)

In order to help instructors and students understand their abilities, formative assessments can be used. A teacher can observe the students and keep track of their performance. Also, the focus of the class should be on the subject and not the English language. A student portfolio allows for the student to naturally grow and learn the language with less pressure. It allows for the instructor to see if their students understand the material. A Pass/Fail grade is another way in which there is less stress on the students to perform. If the students are able to comprehend and show that they understand the basic points of the subject, then the grade can reflect that they have passed the required skills in order to move forward. I know that the English language can be a challenge so I give my student extended time to get their work done. I hope that as they build their skills, less extended time will be required. With more time, students can show their best effort without having pressure to finish. The last formative assessment that can be used is mapping. This is a great tool to help new English learners with writing their rough drafts or helping them understand abstract concepts.

Modification (Disability)

 Sadly, the Chinese culture does not understand or recognize learning disabilities. The word or phrase I like to use in regards to learning disabilities is “more support.” I assess all my students based on their ability to understand and speak English so I treat their English proficiency like I would a student with processing issues. For Chinese students with varying degree of English proficiency, there are several strategies to help those students achieve academic success.

Level One: Preproduction Stage

This level the students need to have more nonverbal demonstrations, support with abstract concepts and building vocabulary in order to understand the English language.

Level Two: Early Production

This level an instructor still needs to build vocabulary. Also, the students will need help with categorizing information. Even though these strategies could be used with formative assessment, to help students who are still struggling with the language, there is still a need to help assess students with nonverbal methods and also using Yes/No to see whether the students have comprehended the material.

Level Three: Speech Emergence

At this level, the teacher can be to use the high-level language course like in a Honors/AP course. An instructor wants to focus on building their literacy to handle more challenging prose and also continue to build upon vocabulary. The assessment can be done in English. I will admit that my school does not have any assessments in English because we promote ourselves as an English-speaking institution. This allows us to help families understand that English is the main language of speech and if your children can not understand the English language, they need to repeat a year or find another school.

Level Four: Fluency

This is the hardest level and many of our students do not reach this level once they make it to their senior year, but they have acquired the skills to help guide them into a two or four-year university. The instructor focuses should be on content, not English. There should be less support from the instructor and limited modification of the work. This happens in the Honors/AP classes where the material has to be in English for test preparation.

Conclusion

I think that the most important step in helping my Chinese students in meaningful interactions. The Chinese educational system is primarily about rote drills and language rule memorization. The focus of my school is to help Chinese students express themselves by creating a comfortable environment for learning in the classroom. Once students gain confidence in their English abilities, then instructors can be challenged students toward higher levels of cognitive complexity with providing Honors/AP courses. I hope to have students are our perform American students.

Enjoy

Source

Nordlund, Marcie. Differentiated Instruction: Meeting the Educational Needs of all Students in your Classroom. ScareCrow Press. Oxford. 2003.

 

Formative and Summative Assessments

Formative and Summative Assessments

I have created a unit for the AP US history class on the Article of Confederation and the US Constitution. I want my students, from high school in their junior and senior years to be able to distinguish between the two documents.

The goal of the lesson is to help my Chinese students understand the importance of both documents. Each document helps the students understand the purpose of the American government and how the founding fathers thought the government should be organized after the end of the American Revolution. For the AP exam the students need to be able to use the skills developed during the school year with the help of the English department to use the higher level functions of Bloom Taxonomy which include analysis, compare and contrast and design. My students will have to be able to use higher level thinking in order to do well on the AP Exam. To recall information will not suffice for the test. They will have to make educated and calculated decisions with limited time.

During the chapter ten unit, there will be a couple of activities in order to help with assessing the understanding of the concepts related to the early formation of the American government.  The students will need to focus on the Article of Confederation and the US Constitution. I have created a packet to help with comprehension. Because of time restraints and the lack of background knowledge of US history, I spend more time focusing on building student’s content knowledge through discussions and readings. Activities, at times, take a backseat to readings. If I believe that the content is too challenging we need to take a break and use a formative activity to help with building comprehension.

My objectives are below:

1. Identifying the weaknesses of the government established by the Articles of Confederation.
2. Describing the historical development of the Constitution of the United States.
3. Describing the major accomplishments of the first five presidents of the United States.
4. Demonstrates understanding of the first political parties in the US and their platform on the issues of the time period
5. Analyzes key events, which would lead to the Jeffersonian Era.

 

Formative Assessment:

I didn’t realize that I was already using formative assessments in the class before reading the pdf on the topic. I have asked the students on several occasions to use concepts webs, a longer version of the 3-Minute Pause and KWL to help students understand what they know and what they do not know. The concepts webs help the students get a better idea of how events and people are involved in US history. I like the students creating their own maps which I believe helps with retaining information. I use a 5-minute pause to get my Chinese students more time to reflect and think about certain complex historical concepts. The KWL is to help show the students what they know and what they do not know in regards to US history.

Summative Assessment:

I use a combination of recalling vocabulary words, multiple choice, and short answer questions. All three used during summative assessments in order to prepare the students for the actual AP exam. Below is the rubric I use to evaluate the short answer questions.

 

	Unacceptable 1Pt	Needs Improvement 2Pt	Satisfactory 3Pt	Meets Expectations 4Pt	Exceptional 5Pt
Content	Did not answer	Answer are partial done	Answers are not comprehensive	Answer are accurate and correct	Answers are accurate and well supported
Organization	Did not answer	Organization impacts comprehension	Inadequate organization	Organization is mostly clear	Organization is done well
Writing Convention (Spelling, Grammar)	Did not answer	More than five errors	Display three to five errors	Displays one to three errors	No errors

 

Reflection on Standards

Reflection

Unpacking a Standard:

 To unpack or not to unpack, that is the question. I unpack a standard seemed like an extra step for a teacher to do which requires more time out of our busy schedules. When unpacking is done effectively, appears to save more time and energy than previously thought. I feel that when I began to unpack a standard it allowed me to have more focus and attention to the goals I have in the class. So my standard was the challenges that founding father are going to face the new nation. The students will need to discuss and identify that they understand the challenges that the American politicians had with setting up the new government. I was trying to figure our a way to help my Chinese students understand the democratic process, the ideas of the American government like the three branches and the Articles of Confederation and the US Constitution. These are not easy concepts for anyone to comprehend. Using the unpacking method, I began to organize my thoughts and ideas in order to help my students understand these very complex concepts and ideas. I really won’t know how much they truly know until an assessment or the AP exam but it’s a start in the right direction.

 Understanding Standards:

For the past ten years, I have tried to develop an American history curriculum that reflects the standards that the state or country thinks it the most important component of the history curriculum. I have worked in private schools my entire teaching career, so there was not a need to use a state’s standards in order to develop a curriculum that follows some sort of guideline. However, when I began to develop my own curriculum I realized the importance of having standards in order to help me understand what I needed to focus on with developing lesson plans. When I became the Director of Curriculum two years ago, I really had to focus on proper standards in order to relate information to my superiors and fellow colleagues about what should we be teaching in order to help all of our Chinese students be prepared for the vigor of collegiate education. To have standards helps all teachers across different campus in China to understand what needs to be taught in the classroom. The application of lessons can vary from teacher to teacher, but it is very important that all teachers understand what needs to be taught in the classroom in order to be universal in the concepts that are needed for our students to completely understand American history.

Insight:

By unpacking the standard I was able to develop lesson plans to address the concerns that I had about my students knowing the material. I created a preliminary lesson plan in order to help myself develop a course of action to take in order to help my students achieve academic success. Going through this process has helped me create a better approach to the skills I need to help my students grasp the concepts.

Example:

 

Concept	Skill	Task
Article of Confederation	Students will identify key problems with the Articles of Confederation.	Each group of students will get the handouts “Article Cards” and “Quotation Cards”. Each of the handouts needs to be cut out along the dotted lines. Students should place all article cards out on their desk. Half of the group can do the even numbered cards and half of the group can do the odd numbered cards. One by one, the students read each historical situation and put it in the article he/she believes it best matches. Do this activity until all quotes have been sorted.
US Constitution	Students will understand the basic structure of the Constitution. Students will understand the roles and functions of the three branches of government. Students will understand the roles and functions of the three branches of government.	Distribute a copy of the Separation of Powers and Checks and Balances graphic. Have students study it and answer the questions. Review the answers and questions with the class.
Bill of Rights	Students will understand the rights, liberties, and responsibilities of U.S. citizens. Students will understand how the U.S. Constitution is a living document.	Students will then participate in the Rights and Responsibilities group activity. Directions are provided below.

 

AP US History and Standards

Introduction:

I will be teaching AP US History to high school students in their junior or senior year.

Standard:

The standard that I am using to help with developing my lesson plan will be the DC Public School district.

The standard will be the student will demonstrate knowledge of the challenges faced by the new nation.

Why:

I chose this standard to focus on because it where my history class currently is being presented in the classroom. Also, because I believe that it is important for my Chinese students to understand the concepts presented in the standard in order to be better AP US History students and better prepared for the AP exam in May.

Proficiencies:

1. “From 1781 to 1789 the Articles of Confederation provided the United States with an effective government.” Using the documents and your knowledge of the period, evaluate this statement.
2. Be able to analyze the contributions of TWO of the following in helping establish a stable government after the adoption of the Constitution. John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, George Washington.
3. Evaluate the accuracy of the label ‘Era of Good Feelings” considering the emergence of nationalism and sectionalism. Use the documents and your knowledge of the period 1815-1825 to construct your answer.

Assessments:

The three assessments I would use it based on the background knowledge of the students in the classroom. I try to make up assessment based on the abilities of the students, but also that reflect the AP exam. One assessment is purely based on recalling the concepts through a vocabulary test. The second assessment is using multiple-choice questions with varying degrees of difficulty. Some of the multiple-choice questions can be recalling information; others can be analyzing a map or charts. Also, I have questions based on a historical reading and to make the appropriate guess based on prior knowledge and the reading. The questions are based on a question that might appear on the AP exam. The last type of assessment would be short-answer responses or an essay response in which the students have learned to use a simple acronym, TEA (topic, evidence and analyze). I learned this when taking an AP workshop last year. It helps my students understand how to answer the questions effectively with limited time for them to complete the task at hand.

Learning Experiences/Activities:

1. I have learned that games are a great way to motivate my students to actually want to learn the material. I have played jeopardy as a means to see whether or not the students have been able to grasp the concepts effectively. Students tend to work a bit harder when they know they can get extra points for a test or quiz.

2. Another activity that I like to use in order to see how well my students have been able to comprehend the material has been debating. This is the first time in America where you see political parties so I like to break the room up into two camps, the Federalist and Democratic-Republic Party and have the two teams debate about what is good for the country. With the help of the Broadway Show, Hamilton, students are more interested in the time period between Jefferson and Hamilton so it’s nice to see my students go after each other politically.

3. The last activity I like to do is to deconstruct a primary source with the help of the English teacher who is also working on American literature and documents based on American history. The English teacher and I will work together to develop a collaborative curriculum to help the students understand the connection between how you use the learning skills taught in both classes so that they can be applied to all courses in high school and beyond.

The Good, the Bad, … the Reinforcements

 

I can remember my first year teaching and try to get everyone to like me by being the cool teacher in the class. I wanted to let my students know that I will be there for them if they are having any academic or social issues. All of my students were young people with disabilities and I had no idea what I was getting myself into when I began my first lesson, but that first year was a learning experience. It was a very tough first year, but with the help of veteran teachers, I was able to figure out exactly what it meant to be a disciplined teacher who wanted their students to do their best through proper procedures that encouraged discipline and respect among the staff and students.

 

When thinking about when to give positive reinforcement to students, there are two approaches to avoid; giving too much and giving too little. There has to be a grey area in which teachers need to operate in order to give enough encouragement to get to the students to be motivated to want to do better. I try to give positive reinforcement at the beginning of the semester, and then depending on the class give more or less to the students and the environment of the class. You can tell when some students need more encouragement than others. There are some students you can congratulate and you get the simple nod. Then, there are other students when you give them praise, its like it is Christmas morning and you just received the toy you wanted from Santa Claus.

 

The way that I give positive reinforcement is through the tone of my voice and the proximity to the student I am about to give a remark or make a comment about their performance in the class. I was never the one who liked it when a teacher publicly acknowledge what I did in the class, but I think it’s important to once in awhile give thanks publicly to students who have done something extraordinary for their community. There are times, which I use sparingly, that I will buy dessert or some form of reward or treat for the students in order to show more appreciation for what the class has done as a whole.

Of course, the opposite side of positive reinforcement is negative reinforcement. I try to give negative reinforcement privately and away from the student population, but there are times in which the entire class or school needs to be redirected in their behavior. There are times in which a person needs to be told publicly about their behavior and how their actions have impacted the community. When the student body knows about an issue that has arisen, it is hard to keep the situation quiet so I feel the need as the academic dean to address the issue publicly so that everyone knows why the rules and procedure and the consequences of breaking such rules.

Minor infractions of the rules I try to ignore unless I think that the frequency of the violation is so great that it needs to be addressed. Major infractions have to be addressed immediately like bullying and cheating. I feel as though the student body deserves a quick resolution to large issues on campus and publicly everyone needs to be aware of why decisions are made. When the behavior has not changed after addressing the issue and not being to modify one’s behavior after a punishment, then its necessary to take the necessary measures to the remove the student from school or to provide professional help in order to help the student see that their behavior will not be tolerated on campus. In the past two years, I have had several students who after repeated offenses to the rules were not asked to come back to school the following year.

Below is the flow chart about positive/negative reinforcement.

You can copy the link below if the print is too small.

https://www.lucidchart.com/invitations/accept/ad116d0d-4e98-467b-8178-e09450f4a8a5