Section V: Reflective Monitoring and Evaluation

Artifact 2: Collegial Team Presentation to Paraprofessionals

TESOL Domain & Standard:

- Domain 5 Professionalism. Candidates demonstrate knowledge of the history of ESL
teaching. Candidates keep current with new instructional techniques, research results,
advances in the ESL field, and public policy issues. Candidates use such issues to reflect
upon and improve their instructional practices. Candidates provide support and advocate
for ESOL students and their families and work collaboratively to improve the learning
environment.
o Standard 5.c. Professional Development and Collaboration. Candidates
collaborate with and are prepared to serve as a resource to all staff, including
paraprofessionals, to improve learning for all ESOL students.

This artifact was made for a course project for EDCI 740, so there were multiple
discussions on how the artifact should look like and what it should include. The goal of this
presentation is that it would be used as a professional development resource for
paraprofessionals that work in our schools and classrooms with our CLD students (especially for
those paraprofessionals who are not normally working one-on-one with our CLD students) since
many of our paraprofessionals do not attend district and school professional development days.
When we were putting together this presentation, we all began to refer back to our original
assumptions and beliefs we held about CLD students and English Language Instruction to put us
in the mindset of what many of our paraprofessionals would be in when they viewed the
presentation. I brought up my original assumption that being in a rural Kansas school with little
ethnic and racial diversity meant that there were no CLD students in our school. Another group
member brought up their original assumption that students needed to be fully immersed in their
L2 to properly acquire it, and that their L1s should not be used in classroom instruction. A third
group member added their assumption that ESL/ELL programs in schools were for Spanish-
speaking students only. Finally, the fourth group member discussed their assumption that a CLD
students family/cultural background did not affect that students performance in the classroom.
As we discussed our original assumptions, we could critically reflect on why we all held these
assumptions (they were due to our own socialization/upbringing), and we discussed how our
coursework has challenged these assumptions and made us realize that these assumptions were
not valid. As we created this presentation, we took our assumptions and replaced them with
the knowledge weve gained from our coursework to create a professional development
presentation that would explain how educators can create meaningful and effective lessons and
assessments that can be modified to fit the academic and linguistic needs of CLD students.
Furthermore, this artifact aligns with what I wrote in section 5 of my Portfolio Platform.
Throughout section 5 I discuss how educators should continue to attend professional
development sessions to improve their ESL/ELL knowledge, and I discussed how educators
should collaborate with colleagues to create lessons and assessments that fit the linguistic and
academic needs of CLD students based on their individual biographies. This artifact required the

Section 5 Artifact 2 Caption 1

collaboration between colleagues to create the final product, and it required a group discussion
about best practices for CLD students to determine what should be used in the presentation.
Also, the artifact was created to be a professional development tool, so that way other educators
and paraprofessionals could learn how to be effective educators for CLD students. Finally, this
artifact as a professional development tool can also serve as a stepping stone for further
research into effectively educating CLD students and promoting second language acquisition in
the classroom, which is another discussion piece in Section 5 of my Portfolio Platform.

CREDE Standards for Effective Pedagogy

After reviewing my artifact, I think that it closely aligns with the Joint Productive Activity
aspect of the CREDE Standards for Effective Pedagogy. I would rate myself as integrating on
the Standards Performance Continuum for multiple reasons. This artifact requires the use of
personal background knowledge in combination with peers knowledge to complete the
presentation. The artifact also shows how teachers can use all 4 dimensions of student
biography cards to create lessons that provide students with ample interaction opportunities
and create lesson modifications based on student needs. This artifact was created with
colleagues, and the basic structure of the project design can be used to create collaborative
projects for students to complete in a classroom setting.
This artifact can be used in my future work with CLD students in several ways. First, this
artifact is the result of colleague collaboration, so in the future, I could collaborate with
colleagues to create meaningful lessons and assessments for my CLD students. Collaboration
would also keep me up to date on ESL/ELL teaching practices and techniques for promoting
second language acquisition for my CLD students. Second, the basic structure behind the artifact
collaborating with peers to create a final product can be adopted into multiple lesson
activities. Since the structure of the artifact is easily adoptable and can be easily modified, it is an
artifact that can be used in my future work with CLD students. Finally, this artifact can be used in
my future work with CLD students because it was created as a professional development
resource for paraprofessionals. Therefore, I could use this artifact to help educate my colleagues
on how to develop lessons and assessments that are meaningful and effective for future CLD
students.

Section 5 Artifact 2 Caption 2