 Work sample a large hurdle Students seeking their teaching license must prove competence by crafting major plan
By Julie Poppen News Staff Writer
Fresh-faced Dani Broe never looks haggard, but during a recent teaching seminar with other University of Colorado students at a Brighton elementary school, the sparkle is gone. She doesn't speak up as much. She says she doesn't feel well. Later, she admits she stayed up all night working on a draft of her work sample. This is a new, state-mandated assessment for rookie teachers that involves creating an entire classroom unit, a complicated three-to five-week project that will measure her effectiveness and the progress of her students. She thought she was to present the work on this day, but that was a miscommunication. The 21-year-old's stress over the document shows its importance. If a teacher candidate fails to successfully complete a unit work sample, she or he will not get a Colorado teaching license. It's as simple as that. "We're trying not to scare the student with the work sample, but it satisfies a number of standards," says Linda Molner, who runs CU's teacher licensure program. The work sample is like a final thesis for teachers, and Broe's is due in late April. The work samples are only one essential for student evaluation. Rookie teachers must demonstrate an understanding of eight new standards, which are described in detail in 45 benchmarks for performance. To get a license, the teacher-to-be must be ranked "proficient" or "advanced" in each, from math to classroom management. As the school year winds down, CU senior Broe is struggling most with standard No. 5, the one that pertains to classroom and instructional management. Her 29 fifth-graders at Arapahoe Ridge Elementary School, where she's student teaching this semester, have become "squirrelly" with the onset of spring. One day after class, her frustration shows. As always during the week, she has been up since 5 a.m. "Twenty-nine (students) is insane," Broe says. "It's a madhouse. It's a circus in there every day." To combat the disruptiveness, Broe breaks up larger class groups and makes them sit in pairs -- one boy, one girl. She creates a three-strikes-and-you're-out policy, which ends with a time-out in a classroom across the hall. Broe is also struggling with the pacing of her lessons. She has noticed how easily time escapes. Standard 5 also deals with the "efficient use of time." "You really have to think on your feet," Broe says. "If they're really wiggling around in their seats, it's time to change topics." The young teacher is endlessly tested. During one lesson, the students are asked to compare and contrast soccer with football and state an argument about which is better. A tall blond student named Heidi asks why they can't use slang. "Why can't we say, 'Soccer is, like, totally phat?" Heidi says. Broe is struggling for an answer when Heidi's table mate, Tyler, blurts out, "Because it's not appropriate for Adams 12 (school district)." One day in February, she teaches the class about lawyer, patriot and orator Patrick Henry. Broe talks about how one colonial woman proposed that women make their own cloth to help sever economic ties with Britain. A boy shoots up his hand to say he has "a connection," meaning he has a personal story with a related theme. "I saw a T-shirt in the mall that said, 'I need a wife to do my laundry.' " Groans and laughs come from the class. Broe tries to gently deflect the comment. Another boy wants to know if the colonists were tortured. Talk turns to the Boston Tea Party. By the end of the lesson, drawn out by interruptions, it's clear some of the kids learned something while others did not. But there are moments that keep Broe's desire to teach alive. One day, she reads The Watsons Go to Birmingham -- 1963, a book about an African-American family traveling to the South during the civil rights struggle. The students sit on the floor in front of her. Some boys in the back talk and laugh. Broe glares. Then, like magic, the class slowly becomes mesmerized by the story and by Broe's animated voice. When she stops at the end of the chapter, the students beg her to continue. Here, she has found one of her strengths. "Knowledge of literacy" is state teacher standard No. 1.
In order to receive a teaching license, Broe will have to demonstrate her ability to help students learn. That happens in the work sample, which goes far beyond a simple lesson plan. The teacher-in-training must assess students' knowledge of the subject prior to the project. A similar assessment is given to the class after its conclusion. In this manner, the new teacher learns whether her teaching was effective. The student teacher is encouraged to alter her lesson plan and redo the unit if necessary. When complete, the work sample is a polished, bound document with more than 100 pages of charts, graphs and text. It includes an analysis of student demographics, Colorado Student Assessment Program (CSAP) results, connections to the state model content standards and demonstrations of the new state teacher standards. During one lunch break at Arapahoe Ridge in Westminster, Broe meets with veteran educator and CU supervisor, Marilyn McIntyre. McIntyre, a former assistant principal at Arapahoe Ridge, urges Broe to do the assessment of her students prior to developing her work sample. "Then you'll know where you need to go." McIntyre then asks Broe why schools teach the Declaration of Independence. "Because it's in the fifth-grade curriculum," Broe responds. Wrong answer. Under the new standards, teacher candidates must clearly demonstrate why things are taught. "That's not a good rationale," McIntyre says. "Our whole country is based on citizenship. You won't be a good citizen if you don't understand that."
Broe plans to do her work sample in math. But so far, CU's deadlines have not meshed well with her student teaching schedule in mentor teacher Marnie Danielski's classroom. Broe is struggling to do what is expected of her by CU, but that may require testing students on the material she teaches before her lesson is even complete. "I feel the work sample has some great ideas behind it, and I'm learning a lot from it, but realistically it is difficult to fit in," Broe says. From the state's perspective, however, the work samples are providing hoped-for results. "What we're seeing is candidates who are able to sit down and tell you how they've demonstrated each of these standards," Bill Ottey, an assistant education commissioner, says. The work sample isn't the only evaluation that causes students' blood pressure to rise. Education students must also take, and pass, the Professional Licensing Assessment for Colorado Educators, or PLACE. At most campuses, they must pass the test before they can student teach. Broe passed the PLACE on her first try in October. She also has a 4.0 GPA in her education courses thus far and is showing improvement as a teacher. Before she graduates, Broe must also complete a portfolio in which she demonstrates her grasp of three of the teacher standards. Later, she can use the portfolio in job interviews. She also is asked to keep a journal, reflecting on her classroom successes and failures. In between all this, Broe tries to find space for her personal life. She and boyfriend Matt Bondurant, 22, became engaged in February. A "rock" glitters on her finger. "All I want to do is plan a wedding," Broe says. "But I have no time for that right now." Contact Julie Poppen at (303) 892-5176 or poppenj@RockyMountainNews.com. |
Age: 22
