Written June 2011

Portfolio Writing: Professional Development

Write a paper in which you discuss your activities during the school year which enhanced your content knowledge, teaching skill, or pedagogical knowledge. These may include, but are not limited to, staff development sessions, workshops, and district-wide grading assessments. Also, discuss your plans for future faculty development.


This year I participated in a broad range of activities that increased my knowledge of English and Language Arts and my pedagogical knowledge and skills.

I participated in two formal trainings this year. In the first training, I was taught how to use Zangle, the online program used to calculate and communicate grades in the Anchorage School District. With the goal of creating a grading system that is less punitive and more standards-based, I sought out discussions with three other teachers about how to create a standards-based system and went to a couple meetings held by two of the more determined teachers. In the end, I created a grading scale that corresponded, percentage-wise, with my rubric scores. Though I still have the problem whereby students scores are averaged (rather than determined to be proficient when held up to the standards), this use of the program was more in fitting with my teaching philosophy. Later on in the year, upon consulting with my mentor teachers, I increased the cutoff for a grade of “D”, as my grading skill perhaps allowed for slacking rather than “the possibility of redemption” that I had imagined.

The other training I participated in was for an online artificial intelligence writing program called MYAccess! Use of the program is mandated in the 9th grade language arts plan for the Anchorage School District. This artificial-intelligence writing program with built-in prompts for various writing styles, subject areas, and novels. These built-in prompts have been assigned to thousands of students and graded by hundreds of teachers. The program uses the information from these earlier students to give students rubric-based feedback in the 5 traits of writing, as well as a holistic score. It also provides example essays, individualized feedback, and tools, such as spellchecker and a thesaurus, to help students improve their writing. At school, students access the program from netbooks purchased for that purpose or in the computer labs. However, they can also access their accounts from home.

When I went to the day-long training in using the program at ASD headquarters, I was somewhat skeptical of the program’s claims of using artificial intelligence to give differentiated feedback to students. However, after using it with my 9th graders, I soon branched out into using it with my 10th grade students as well; though the program certainly has its shortcomings, I like the program and my students, for the most part, do too; Over the course of the year, I assigned 8 writing assignments using MYAccess!  Click here to read more about my experience using MYAccess! and the pros and the cons of the program. Next year, I hope to attend additional MyAccess! trainings so I can learn how to better use the program as an assessment tool.

Throughout the year, I engaged in a number of professional practices that enhanced my knowledge of English content and pedagogy. Sharing curriculum and teaching ideas with my two very diverse mentor teacher as well as with several other members of the West High English Department.

Although each of my mentor teachers gave me a class to teach independently, I had daily conversations with each of them about what was going well in the classroom and what could be improved. Both provided me with access to their file drawers full of assignments. In some cases, I adapted their assignments, and in other cases, I wrote new curriculum, drawing from online resources or on the advice of other teachers from West High School. Often, they put my new lessons away in their file drawers for future use.

It was very beneficial to my development to have two mentor teachers, both very effective, but with very different styles. Ardy Robertson, the mentor teacher for my English 9 class, has a very distinct classroom management style; though she is strict and insists the students remain in their seats, she is known to be one of the “coolest” teachers in the school, as she has a very sassy sense of humor, and is laid back about some other classroom behaviors. Work in her classroom consists of mostly individual work that is completed in the same day. By contrast, my other mentor teacher, Tricia Johnson, is much more laid back in her classroom management, permitting side conversations in some cases, and is not strict in demeanor. Her lesson plans involve much more group work, and contain collaborative projects that often take a few class periods to complete.  What both of my mentor teachers had in common is a passion for teaching and a desire for me to develop effective lesson plans and teaching habits, in my own unique style. By drawing on the advice and lesson plans of each, I have a much better idea of the range of possibilities in English lesson plans, which of these I favor as a teacher, and which I think work best for particular groups of students.

Though I consorted and collaborated most often with official mentor teachers, I had many other non-official mentors in the West High English department. I adapted materials from Rachel Kittoe in creating my Mock Trial Project, and used one of her daily lessons as inspiration for my Teacher Work Sample. Bethann Brogan, the department head, shared many resources with me for my To Kill A Mockingbird Unit. I also consulted with Barb Clark to develop a protocol and recording worksheet for independent reading. In turn, I have shared the lesson plans and activities that I developed for Elie Weisel’s Night and Sandra Cisneros’ the House on Mango Street with other teachers at West High, who requested the lessons after hearing about my success with them!

Finally, I have gained most of my knowledge of literature through the reading I do for pleasure, often reading a book or two per week and avidly researching the authors’ backgrounds to find out the historical and thematic connections between their novels and their lives. I do not consider it "work", yet it has contributed greatly to my professional development. When I do not have another book in mind, I search the English 9 and English 10 ASD curriculum guides for books that I have not yet read, so that my pleasure reading can also serve as professional development.

In addition to attending further MYAccess! trainings, I would also like to attend Smartboard trainings and learn how to adapt my curriculum and the standards to best use the Smartboard as a learning tool. I saw a number of teachers using the Smartboard in their classrooms in very innovative ways, but, unfortunately, many teachers do not even know how to play movies on them yet.  Still other teachers appear to use them in ways that do not contribute to student learning. I am an avid consumer of technology and would eager volunteer for any trainings available.

Another goal for next year in terms of developing my content-area knowledge and pedagogy is to either to learn or to develop a more systematic approach for teaching and assessing good writing. Towards this end, I ordered Ruth Culham’s “6 + 1 Traits of Writing”, a bible for English teachers. This book lays out the 6 traits most standards-based curriculum uses to judge successful writing. Though the book does not include worksheets or rubrics, it does provide a solid conceptual underpinning to the 6 traits, an area which I need to develop.

With a better understanding of these traits, I hope to create three-week-long lessons in each trait for next year, focusing on developing each set of skills and learning about each of the 6 portions of the rubric, until students are familiar in all of the traits. At the start of the year, I will have students set goals in each of the traits. I will also set my own goals for my students – one per trait per student. By looking at my individualized rubrics for each student, I will be able to efficiently provide consistent, personalized feedback and instruction, which will hopefully allow my students to better develop their individual writing skills and individual writing style. Developing the handouts and protocols will be very time-intensive, but the results will be worth it.