Assessment Methods

Portfolio Development»Guidelines by Curriculum

ECI432/532: Developing Instructional Strategies PreK-6

The objective of ECI 432/532 is to enable candidates to explore, develop and use instructional strategies, materials, technologies, and activities to promote children's development of attitudes, behaviors and concepts in language arts in grades PreK-6 in support of ACEI national instructional standards and the Virginia Standards of Learning.Candidates requesting experiential learning credit for these courses need to clearly illustrate the following competencies:

1. Identify the major trends and issues related to teaching language arts in contemporary elementary schools
2. Design language arts instructional plans which reflect students' developmental characteristics, their special needs and their cultural, linguistic, gender, socioeconomic and individual differences
3. Use a variety of teaching strategies, instructional strategies, and assessment techniques which are developmentally appropriate for elementary language arts
4. Plan/manage instruction which integrates the language arts (reading, listening, speaking, writing, viewing and visually representing) across the curriculum
5. Use research findings to plan and manage effective instructional environments in the language arts classrooms
6. Acquire an evolving philosophy of elementary level language arts teaching
7. Demonstrate an enlightened understanding of how children learn language and develop toward language maturity
8. Cope with elementary level classroom/time management issues and concerns
9. Develop a commitment to helping children learn and appreciate language arts
10. Develop a commitment to continuing professional growth

Portfolio Components

1. Mastery of current course competencies: Write a short (2-3 pages) paper describing how you meet the competencies outlined in the course (see above) in your classroom.
2. Portfolio of student assignments illustrating language arts instructional strategies: Submit (electronic format, hard copy, or combination of both) examples of assignments completed by your students that illustrate meaningful use of language arts (listening, speaking, reading, writing, viewing and visually representing) in your curriculum. Specifically, examples of meaningful, active learning displayed through projects and other assignments will be examined. It is assumed that if the candidate has not had classroom experience, they will not be able to test out of this required course.Examples can include (but are not limited to):videotapes of classroom teaching, descriptions/photographs of classroom teaching, bibliographies of books used to teach language arts, examples of student work, student journals, formal and informal assessments, etc.Candidates can also submit lesson plans, thematic/literature focus units, and other instructional materials (with documentation) actually utilized in the classroom setting.
3. Resume: An expanded resume describing years of related experience and setting is required. This resume can exceed, and should exceed, one page.
4. Letter of recommendation: A letter of recommendation from candidate's current employer or supervisor is expected. This letter needs to have testimony that verifies candidate's experience with teaching language arts in the classroom.

Note: It is expected that the portfolio will be organized in a professional manner using at least one (1) binder with a clear cover and dividers.

Please contact Dr. Gail Singleton Taylor at gstaylor@odu.edu should any questions arise