Exemplifying the TESS Domains
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TESS DOMAIN 1
Growth - Domain 1: Preparations, Planning, Procedures
Throughout my time in the M.A.T. program, I have spent countless hours preparing for instructional lessons and creating fun procedures for my students. My mentors have shared valuable feedback that has guided and improved my efforts. I have uploaded several examples from my lesson plan to illustrate this domain and demonstrate my growth.
The Inverted Pyramid journalism lesson posted here is one example of how I have efficiently planned a week’s worth of content that I taught to my Journalism 1 class at Springdale High School. As I planned, I realized how detailed and organized a teacher must be in order to create effective lesson plans. As shown, I included several forms of media, writing prompts, articles, and assignments for students to complete and utilize as they grow in their understanding of journalistic writing through this lesson.
TESS Domain 2
Growth - Domain Two: Organizing Physical Space
During my time at Woodland Junior High School, I engaged with students in an English Language Arts classroom that was decorated and organized according to safety and accessibility. The classroom operated like a well-oiled machine, inviting students to participate in fun and exciting activities that gave students the opportunity for better engagement due to the physical area being designed for higher learning and communication for all students.
The room that is pictured above shows the Woodland Jr. High School classroom that I had the opportunity to teach within. The room had a cozy and peaceful atmosphere, floor-length bookcases lining the walls that encourage a love of reading, many open windows that reflected the outside world during the day, and twinkle lights gleaming in the background. After speaking with my mentor-teacher, I found he decided to organize his room this way in order to facilitate an organized and positive atmosphere for students as well as a peaceful learning environment for them to inhabit.
In the future, I would like to set up my own classroom to reflect this aspect and create a shared space that acts as a safe and culturally responsive environment for all students, no matter the circumstance. I would include texts and books that I carefully picked out to represent all experiences and perspectives for each of my students and have an open seating floor plan for my classroom. In order to create a good feeling and flow between my students and myself, I would include small couches and high-top tables for students to choose where they would like to sit and interact freely. By actively engaging with my students in an open-space floor concept, I hope to create a positive and encouraging atmosphere in my future classroom.
TESS Domain 3
Growth – Domain 3: Engaging Students in Learning Through Instruction
Engaging students in learning and instruction is the focus for this domain. As educators, we design and create lessons, activities, and assignments for our students to communicate with each other and grow in their understanding and knowledge of ELA skills. One activity that my students at Woodland Junior High School completed that embodies this domain was the “Body Biography” assignment as pictured above. After students finished reading their unit novel Fahrenheit 451, they were told to design a body on a piece of construction paper that symbolized a character from the book and describe that character by providing cited quotes along with their assertion about who that person was within the novel and their impact to the story. This assignment was conveyed to students as a summative assessment for this unit and allowed them to evaluate what they learned from the novel in a fun, interactive, and creative way. By engaging and communicating with my students on this collaborative assignment, they were able to assess what they learned from this unit so that I could evaluate their skills in a non-traditional twist.
TESS Domain 4
Growth: Domain 4 – Professional Responsibility & Community
During my internship placement at Woodland Junior High School, I had the opportunity to work collaboratively in a professional learning community (PLC) with fellow eighth-grade English Language Arts teachers. The community of teachers that I worked with were helpful in supporting each other in lesson planning and design as well as fostering a professional work environment amongst each other. As I would sit in on these meetings with my mentor-teacher, I was able to see a different side to teaching than I had at my previous placement. The more PLC meetings I attended, the more I was finally able to thoroughly understand the other responsibilities that teachers have in the classroom. Through the PLC meetings, I was able to branch out from just my mentor-teacher and access the resources and knowledge from other ELA teachers at Woodland in order to design my lessons and facilitate learning in the classroom with my students. I have come to understand what a valuable resource a PLC is for support and collaboration with fellow educators.
Charlotte Danielson's Framework For Teaching:
