Workshop Materials

Rationale:  In several contexts in your future, you will need to articulate your beliefs about teaching and learning to different audiences:  the screening committee, your student teaching application, your cooperating teaching as well as future principals and other administrators.  The more that you can practice honing those ideas and providing specific details, the more prepared you will be for those moments.  As your course syllabus states, there are many ways to be an effective teaching of the ELA.  This semester we have experimented with a kind of reading/writing and technology workshop for you to see the strengths and limitations of this instructional practice and have hands on experience in case you choose to implement some form of it in your future.  This portion of the portfolio invites you to imagine your future classroom and your future students.  It asks you to make some decisions about how you would incorporate a pedagogically sound workshop into your classroom.  And, it requires you to propose that to an administrator in the form of a request for permission.

In order to meet the target goals for the workshop materials, you should

• implement a curriculum plan that include methods and strategies for applying technology to maximize student learning
• draw on published materials in the field to justify your pedagogical choices
• create an inclusive and supportive learning environment in which all students can engage in learning    
• align curriculum goals and teaching strategies with the organization of classroom         environments and learning experiences to promote whole-class, small-group, and individual work        
• engage students in critical analysis of different literacy practices.
• demonstrate awareness of the materials required to successfully implement a workshop in a classroom.
• persuade an administrator that your proposal is pedagogically sound and will lead to successful educational outcomes