ISLLC+Standard+1

==ISLLC Standard One: //An education leader promotes the success of every student by facilitating the development, articulation, implementation, and stewardship of a vision of learning that is shared and supported by all stakeholders.//== //ISLLC Standards//

//Name of Artifact: Staff Evaluation Plan Date: May 5, 2009 Course: EDU 704 – Evaluation and Supervision of Professional Staff

I have included my Staff Evaluation plan under ISLLC Standard one. I feel that this is the appropriate standard under which to file this artifact as the evaluation plan demonstrates my ability to create and implement plans to achieve goals, promote continuous and sustainable improvement, and monitor and evaluate plans. The supervision and evaluation process described in the artifact is designed for use within a school building. Instructional personnel will follow a three-year evaluation cycle that includes informal walk-through observations, formal observations, peer review, and the compilation of a professional portfolio. The system is designed to compliment a myriad of teaching and supervisory styles and is also intended to provide opportunities for professional development and foster meaningful discussions regarding best practices within the school building. //**Reflection:**// Throughout the course Supervision and Evaluation of Professional Staff (EDU 704), and by completing this assignment, I came to understand that the design of any staff evaluation process must ensure that students are receiving the best education possible. Most classroom teachers would agree that they want to provide their students with engaging instruction in a positive classroom setting. The artifact presented ensures that teachers are evaluated appropriately to measure student engagement and academic success. This artifact demonstrates my evolving aptitude to work collaboratively with other educators to develop and implement a school vision and promote organizational learning. Part of having a productive staff is keeping communication open and encouraging professionals to learn from one another; in order to facilitate this, peer assistance and review would be part of the evaluation process that I would implement. In the future, I hope to learn more about the practice of peer review in order to enhance the learning environment for educators and students.
 * Rationale:**//

//Name of Artifact: Action Research Project//
//Date: April 2010 Created for Course EDU 690 - Action Research//

//**Rationale:**// The title of the action research project presented is "Literacy Strategies to Enhance Student Understanding of Non-Fiction Science Texts in the Eighth Grade". This document presents a description of the project, my initial hypotheses, an analysis of the collected data, and the resulting action plan. I have included this project under ISLLC standard one as it demonstrates my ability to collect and use data to identify goals and promote continuous and sustainable improvement. //**Reflection:**// After five years of teaching, and each year identifying science literacy as the situation I wished to improve, I had become frustrated with not being able to help my students progress as I thought they should. I had watched students “read” silently and write furiously and then not be able to recall information from the text. It was not until I took the time to recognize the two causes for this that we were able to develop our literacy skills as a class. The first problem was that students have trouble, and are intimidated by, the structure and format of the text. The second problem is that students have difficulties summarizing the information in their own words and tend to copy the text verbatim. What I had witnessed in the past was not students reading to learn, but rather students reading to write and earn a passing grade. The positive impact that these interventions have had on my classroom has been amazing. Students no longer dread the book, but now look forward to the chance to gain new knowledge and discuss it with their peers. Rather then spending the time copying the text verbatim, they are taking the time to comprehend what is on the page and retain it for future use. Also, not only have science literacy skills improved, but the classroom environment has improved. This was a surprise; when I began this project I had not even considered the impact these strategies would have on my students’ enjoyment of the class. One eighth- grade student commented, “This is the first book I have ever read and liked”. It is comments such as this one that encourage me to continue the use of these interventions and continue research to further enhance the learning environment for my students. In the future I will continue to examine these strategies, as well as other meaningful interventions, through the use of the action research process.