Artifact Two

REFLECTION/RATIONALE FRAMEWORK: Program Value #2 Integration of Knowledge and Practice

Artifact: Classroom Posters

Context	This artifact is important because it represents the visual aids that help all learners. Having a diverse class with 12 ELL students, one student designated with an intensive behaviour category, two students were on IEPs, and two were of Aboriginal status.  Since there were so many different levels and abilities in my classroom it was important to have strategies in place to help support all of these diverse learners. After attending a Pro-D Day session on Visual Supports for Learners I decided to take this seriously in my own classroom to target students of all abilities.
Detailed Observations	Right of the bat you can tell that my classroom is diverse. After teaching the students you begin to realize just how diverse the students really are. Some students can work individually and focus directly on the task at hand after having only verbal instructions. Many students needed the instructions written out and demonstrated as well. It was hard for many of the students to understand a task if there was no visual piece. Students often worked better when they had a visual point of reference to help them work. This freed me up, as the teacher, to give more direct instruction to the students that were really struggling, even after having oral and visual support.
Linking Theory with Practice	From both my ELL and Specials Needs courses at UFV I learned that visuals are very helpful to many different learners. This idea was also highlighted during the Visual Supports Pro-D day. Students that have the visual support are often able to understand and remember things better. Also, for ELL students it is really important for them to get the correct vocabulary for the different content areas. By having posters available around the room for students to access they could look at the posters while they were working to check their spelling and to remind themselves of the main ideas and key points of the units that we were working on. Students did not have to feel pressure to memorize everything but had freedom to access the posters as a support when it was needed.
Interpreting Causes and Effects	There were many useful outcomes to this classroom activity. First of all students were able to access the posters all the time, so when students were sitting on the carpet waiting for the next activity, they could read the posters. The posters also helped the students that had difficulty formulating their own ideas to participate in class discussions. I would ask the students a question and hands would go up. Some students would glance at the poster to double check their answers after their hand went up, while others would look at the poster first to help them find an answer. This led to more classroom participation from the students that did not normally feel comfortable participating. Slowly students would feel more confident in the material and would not even need the support at all anymore.
Self Assessment and Professional Planning	This artifact represents a solid understanding of the knowledge, dispositions and performances of the Teacher Education Program Value #2. It shows how something as simple as creating a poster can help, not only the struggling students, but all students. The posters were something that my TM did and it took me a little while to implement them into my own teaching during immersion. Once I did take the time to put the posters up I realized just how valuable they really were for the students. In the future I would not delay on putting up content focused posters so that students could get used to seeing vocabulary and ideas right away. Just seeing how useful they were to the students was something that convinced me that this will be something used in my classrooms to come.

Artifact One

REFLECTION/RATIONALE FRAMEWORK: Program Value #5 Social Justice

Artifact: Tradition Tree

Context	This artifact was collected after doing a lesson on culture and traditions. This project was done near the beginning of full immersion in my grade 2/3 class. I had students take home a worksheet to discuss with their parents about some traditions that they celebrate in their family. It was important for the assignment that students discussed with their families and that the family was involved in explaining why it is a tradition that is celebrated and how it was important to the family, and to the individual student.
Detailed Observations	My practicum class is very diverse, with many different cultures. I also learned from different conversations with teachers in the school that there was sometimes a cultural barrier between some of the different cultures, and misunderstanding did sometimes arise. Through this activity it was great to see the variety of traditions that were celebrated in the different families. Students were also excited and interested to learn about traditions that are not present in their own families, but that were important to students from other, or even the same, cultures. It served as a bridge between some of the different cultures and to see how similarities and differences help to make us all unique.
Linking Theory with Practice	From my Social Justice course at UFV I learned that identity is a huge piece of a students success in school. Students that are proud of their identity are often more involved in the classroom environment. Students that feel confident and secure often feel that they can share in class discussions and participate in the various classroom activities. It is very important to provide a classroom environment that promotes inclusivity and individuality to promote the academic achievement for all students. This exercise was important for my students to be able to see how their differences and similarities make them unique and interesting. It led students to dig a little bit deeper into their own identity and it also led them to learn something a little deeper about their fellow classmates, which helped to foster our inclusive classroom setting.
Interpreting Causes and Effects	There were many useful outcomes to this classroom activity. First of all students had the opportunity to understand traditions and why they are important. Secondly, they learned more about their own culture and about the cultures of others. Lastly students also had the opportunity to discuss differences and similarities in traditions with other students and then wrote a journal entry as a response. Students were encouraged to find at least one similarity and one difference in their families. This created an environment of respect between students and a deeper understanding of the importance of culture and tradition.
Self Assessment and Professional Planning	This artifact represents a solid understanding knowledge, dispositions and performances of the Teacher Education Program Value #5. I learned how many students are uncertain or unaware of some of the things that make them an individual. At this level many students look at their own family or culture as the norm and as students from different cultures as the other. This project was very important from a Social Justice standpoint because students were able to step outside of that mindset and to see, on a very basic level, how cultural diversity is interesting and exciting. It opened students up to learn something from their classmates and it also gave me the opportunity to learn about my students. It is definitely something that I would do again in my future classrooms.