The teacher understands the central concepts, tools of inquiry, and structures of the discipline(s) he or she teaches and creates learning experiences that make these aspects of the discipline accessible and meaningful for learners.
EDU 387 – 10/20/2021: The artifact I am connecting to this standard was referred to as a mentor text project. In EDU 387, we spent some time generating a collection of mentor texts which are any text that might be used as an example of good writing. This text is then used with a growing writer for inspiration for them to learn to further develop their own writing skills. The understanding behind choosing mentor texts is that a writer can learn something valuable from seeing examples of other level writers. In our class, these pieces of writing were picked in mind to help guide possible writing workshops for elementary or middle school students. The mentor texts were further divided between genres in order to theoretically support writers in each genre. Each one was broken down and analyzed. Each was given a summary, a discussion of its connection to a certain genre, and an example of how to effectively use it in a classroom. By breaking down the content and writing themes in these books, we were demonstrating our knowledge of the central concepts being considered. Instead of directly teaching the students about writing traits and skills to work on, we could use these texts to create more meaningful learning experiences for the students. By finding examples for several genres, we were creating a wider range of content for students to learn about. Some students may not be interested in the content of any of these books. In that case, I might look to find another mentor text that is more related to a meaningful topic to the learner. When students find a text they are interested in, they will be encouraged to engage with the texts to analyze them and ask questions, eventually mastering the learning content.
