Academic Programs - Social Studies Education
S3ITE: Professional Portfolio Assignment
Rationale
In this age of teacher accountability, it is becoming increasingly important for teachers to document their expertise and professionalism. Portfolios are one means to achieve the following aims: (1) to document the quality of students’ teacher preparation and (2) to support applications for professional employment. This assignment has you actively involved in the development of a comprehensive, outcome-based and proficiency-oriented portfolio that will accomplish the above aims. Constructing a portfolio encourages systematic reflection on your developing competence as a teacher by challenging you to capture critical, representative teaching and learning experiences. These then serve as the basis for more sophisticated thinking on the complexities of learning, teaching, and learning to teach. Completed during the student teaching semester, the portfolio becomes an important tool to facilitate reflection about your philosophy of teaching and your actual practice in school contexts. This process should help you develop the knowledge, skills, and dispositions necessary to become an effective social studies teacher.
Requirements
Each Electronic Portfolio should contain the following:
-
Introduction to the portfolio, and opening narrative addressing your rationale for teaching social studies.
-
Current Resume
-
Six Professional Standard Sections—One for each professional standard. Begin each with a 1-3 page synthesis statement that describes the current state of your development with regard to that particular standard. Each section should contain evidence of your teaching and learning accomplishments in terms of each standard.
-
Each piece of work or evidence should contain a caption or annotation that indicates how this piece connects to your learning, and to professional standards.
The electronic portfolio is more than just an electronic scrapbook or multimedia presentation. Its contents are a presentation of your identity as an effective social studies teacher capable of translating pedagogical and content knowledge into meaningful social studies instructional practice. Each entry in the portfolio should reflect your principled rationale for teaching social studies, as well as your ability to meet high professional standards.
Professional Standards
The following standards are the expectations Program faculty hold as learning outcomes for pre-service teachers in Social Studies Education. These standards are useful as a tool for focusing attention on the broad range of learning outcomes the Program has adopted, and help to create a common language used throughout the Program. This table also serves as the basis for key evaluation instruments used during the student teaching semester—the Student Teaching Mid-Term and Final Evaluations and the Electronic Portfolio Evaluation.
Social Studies Education Preservice Framework for Accomplished Teaching
aka SURGE!
Five of these standards represent Program “core themes.” These core themes are indicated by a double asterisk (**).
PRESERVICE SOCIAL STUDIES TEACHERS…
-
Content and Curriculum
-
demonstrate understanding of foundations, aims, and practices of social studies education and their relationship to democracy
-
demonstrate knowledge of content and modes of inquiry that are central to the subjects they teach
-
help students to make interdisciplinary connections
-
interpret and create curriculum that reflects state, local, and national content standards
-
-
Knowledge of Students and their Learning
-
demonstrate that all students can learn at high levels by providing supportive and challenging learning experiences for all students
-
demonstrate understanding of how students learn
-
respect and are responsive to students as whole people
-
design instruction that adapts to students’ development, learning styles, and areas of exceptionality
-
-
Learning Environments
-
** use knowledge of social, linguistic, and cultural diversity to create an equitable and culturally responsive classroom
-
create democratic learning communities characterized by collaboration, mutual support, and shared decision-making
-
** organize classroom experiences to promote active student engagement in the pursuit of worthwhile learning
-
manage classrooms effectively to promote student learning and safety
-
draw on parent, school, district, and community resources to foster students’ learning and well-being
-
-
Assessment
-
employ different types of assessments based on knowledge of their characteristics, uses, and limitations to promote student growth
-
use pre-assessment data to develop and support appropriate student learning goals
-
implement assessments that match instructional goals
-
involve students in self-assessment to help them develop awareness of their strengths and needs as learners
-
develop and use valid, equitable grading procedures
-
-
Planning and Instruction
-
** articulate clear and defensible rationales for curricular and instructional decision-making
-
develop and implement short and long term instructional plans that progress coherently towards learning goals
-
vary their instructional roles (e.g., instructor, facilitator, audience), instructional strategies and materials to support active student engagement in worthwhile learning for all students
-
adjust instruction appropriately according to student response
-
-
Professionalism
-
** systematically reflect on their own practice to improve teaching and learning
-
** engage in collaborative inquiry
-
advocate for teaching and learning that support equity and high expectations for all students
-
examine and further their knowledge of the history, ethics, social conditions, and practices of social studies and schooling more broadly
-
adhere to appropriate professional expectations, codes of conduct, and laws related to rights and responsibilities of students, educators, and families in support of student learning
-
