Home | Profile | Research | Courses | Student | Contact | Slideshows | Lessons
 

P.E.P.E. Strategies for Scoring Well on the Alabama Professional Education Personnel Evaluation Program Dr. Beth McCulloch Vinson The primary goal of the evaluation program is the improvement of teaching and learning. 1.0 PREPARATION FOR INSTRUCTION Technology - There are lesson plans, instructional resources, shareware, and media available on the Internet. Once you find a few good web sites, you won’t need to spend as much time flipping through books. The state courses of study are also on the Internet. 2.0 PRESENTATION OF ORGANIZED INSTRUCTION Advance and Graphic Organizers (Ausubel) - Use the overhead projector with web outlines copied onto the transparency. Fill in the information on the marker/chalkboard or complete it on the transparency itself. This helps your students see relationships among concepts and provides a visual for your discussion. In addition, students can participate in developing the web. Thinking Skills (Costa) - It is no longer acceptable to use the factory model of schooling. Contemporary high school graduates need to be able to think. Four thinking processes that should be promoted in your classroom include: problem solving - using basic thinking processes to resolve a known or defined difficulty; assemble facts about the difficulty and determine additional information needed; infer or suggest alternate solutions and test them for appropriateness; potentially reduce to simpler levels of explanation and eliminate discrepancies; provide solution checks for generalizable value; decision making - using basic thinking processes to choose a best response among several options; assemble information needed in a topic area; compare advantages and disadvantages of alternative approaches; determine what additional information is required; judge the most effective response and be able to justify it; critical thinking - using basic thinking processes to analyze arguments and generate insight into particular meanings and interpretations; develop cohesive, logical reasoning patterns and understand assumptions and biases underlying particular positions; attain a credible, concise, and convincing style of presentation, mode, or argument; and, creative thinking - using basic thinking proceses to invent novel, aesthetic, constructive ideas. Wait Time (Rowe) - This is defined as the duration of pause after a teacher utterance, and also, duration of the pause after a student utterance (about 3-5 seconds). The following benefits occur: increase in the length of student responses, increase in the number of unsolicited but appropriate student responses, decrease in the number of students failing to respond, increase in the incidence of student-to-student comparisons of data, increase in the number of responses from students rated by the teacher as relatively slow learners. increase in number of teacher questions, increase in cognitive level of teacher questions, higher occurrence of evaluative questions and less frequent use of chain questions, fewer leading questions by the teacher, and, fewer management questions. Suggestions for helping to add wait time: Count to ten after each question. Tape teaching for one lesson and listen carefully. Don’t ask a question and answer it yourself. Ask questions that you are really interested in hearing a student’s thoughts. Never ask questions to fill time. Use your own ideas instead of following the questions in the textbook word-for-word. Good examples of wait time use: Teachers should demonstrate wait time by stopping and thinking so that students will feel more comfortable displaying it. Teachers should not call on just the usual volunteers to voice their correct answers, and then assume the other students have learned from hearing the volunteers. Teachers should allow students to express their opinions, even if the answer is not always correct. The teacher should communicate to students clues about the kind of thinking necessary in putting together a response. 3.0 ASSESSMENT OF STUDENT PERFORMANCE Homework Policy - Homework is a cost-effective instructional technique. It can have positive effects on achievement and character development and can serve as a vital link between the school and family. The frequency and duration of mandatory assignments should be Grades 1-3 one to three assignments a week, each lasting no more than 15 minutes; Grades 4-6 two to four assignments a week, each lasting 15-45 minutes; Grades 7-9 three to five assignments a week, each lasting 45-75 minutes; Grades 10-12 four to five assignments a week, each lasting 75-120 minutes. Teachers should state: how the assignment is related to the topic of study, the purpose of the assignment, how the assignment might best be carried out, and what the student needs to do to demonstrate that the assignment has been completed. 4.0 CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT Positive Classroom Management 5.0 POSITIVE LEARNING CLIMATE Academic Learning Time Motivation Humor 6.0 COMMUNICATION Statement of Objective Questioning Skills 7.0 PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT AND LEADERSHIP Invitational Teaching and Learning Self-Regulated Learning 8.0 PERFORMANCE OF PROFESSIONAL RESPONSIBILITIES