​Alaina M. Perez
Secondary Education Professional
Amateur Rambler
Teaching Portfolio:
In this section of my portfolio, I will provide artifacts for each of the 5 Dimensions of Teaching and Learning. These artifacts are from my first year teaching in the Poudre School District, my first year teaching middle school, and my second year as a public educator.
The 5D+ Teacher Evaluation Rubric is based on the 5 Dimensions of Teaching and Learningâ„¢ (5Dâ„¢) instructional framework, which is derived from an extensive study of research on the core elements that constitute quality instruction. These core elements have been incorporated into the 5D framework and 5D+ rubric as five dimensions - Purpose, Student Engagement, Curriculum & Pedagogy, Assessment for Student Learning, and Classroom Environment & Culture-which are divided into 13 sub-dimensions. The 5D+ Evaluation Rubric also includes Professional Collaboration and Communication, which is based on activities and relationships that teachers engage in outside of classroom instruction. (Taken from Poudre School District)

Note: the below portion of the portfolio mostly reflects my pre-licensure classroom experience in Walled Lake, Michigan for the 2012-2013 school year.
The standards below are taken from Michigan State University's English Department Program. For each standard I have provided a few artifacts as evidence of my ability to adhere to MSU's expectations. I've also written an abstract explaining exactly how these artifacts show my abilities as an educator.
Standard One: Knows and Teaches English as a Subject Matter
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Teaching vocabulary was a priority for my 11th graders not only to help them access our given curriculum (British Literature), but also to aid in their success on the ACT and MME exams. My strategy for vocabulary is to give students as much exposure to the words as often as possible, to give them images/sound associations, and also to challenge students to use these words in authentic and meaningful ways. A typical vocabulary lesson took place over fifteen minutes with students taking notes while I would present their vocabulary words for the week via a Google presentation projected with an Epson projector. Click here and here for link to typical vocabulary lessons used during my internship.

My lessons on Epics, Ballads, and Frame-Stories illustrate my ability to teach different forms and functions of writing and story-telling. I also used these lessons to give my students the appropriate language and strategies to make Beowulf, The Ballad of Robin Hood and the Three Squires, and The Canterbury Tales more accessible. You can see my lessons on the features of the epic here, the introduction to Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales, and the frame story as a literary device here, and the history of ballads and Robin Hood here.
Dimension One: Purpose
P1 - Standards: Connection to standards, broader purpose and transferable skill
In order to ensure my lessons and assessments were always connected to the Common Core State Standards and the Colorado State Standards, I used the Springboard curriculum with fidelity for my 6th and 8th grade classes.
Also, because my school is an International Baccalaureate (IB) World School, I modified my formative and summative assessments to fit the IB Language and Literature Criterion: Analyzing, Organizing, Producing Text, and Using Language.
Dimension Two: Student Engagement
SE3 - Engagement Strategies: High Cognitive Demand
Engaging students in critical thinking and high-level processes is one of my favorite parts of teaching. Seeing students stretch their minds beyond what they think is comprehensible or possible is a goal of mine when planning lessons and designing formative/summative assessments. A major project my 6th graders were charged with this year was the Night at the Museum project. This cross-curricular assessment asks students to choose a significant person to research and ultimately embody in an evening event for the whole school community. Students learned how to perform research, how to create a bibliography, and memorized and performed a monologue written from their chosen person's point of view. See the video to the left for the final products.
Dimension Three: Curriculum & Pedagogy
CP5 - Teaching Approaches and/or Strategies: Differentiated Instruction
I like to differentiate by using strategic groupings in the classroom. Students are on a Classcraft team, sit in groups, and sometimes complete summative assessments in groups.
I also like to provide choice as often as possible for my students. I believe that giving students options helps them be self-reflective, take ownership of their learning, and increases engagement in the learning task.
Please see the documents linked here and here for examples of differentiated instruction.
Dimension Four: Assessment for Student Learning
A4 - Assessment: Collection Systems for Formative Assessment Data
This year, our school rolled out a new grading system aligned to the International Baccalaureate's MYP Criterion. The four criterion for Language and Literature courses in the IB Middle Year's Program (MYP) are: Analyzing, Organizing, Producing Text and Using Language.
In our system, every assignment is aligned to one of the four criterion listed above and scored using a task-specific rubric. Students may score 0-8. The idea is to gather evidence of each student's achievement level in each of the four criterion. Then, the teacher calculates each student's Current Level score out of 8 for that Criterion based on trends seen in the evidence (scored assignments) provided. If a student does not turn in the assignments, then the teacher marks their Current Level as "insufficient evidence" as if to say, "I cannot give this student a score because they haven't shown enough evidence of the skills related to this criterion."
Please see the task-specific rubric linked here for a clearer picture.
Dimension Five: Classroom Environment and Culture
CEC5 - Classroom Routines & Rituals: Managing Student Behavior
Students nowadays are gaming masters! More and more research is being released about the benefits of gamifiying classrooms and curriculum. In order to teach my students teamwork and create ownership and accountability for their behaviors in the classroom, I use Classcraft. My students have responded brilliantly to the game and we play it every day! I have seen improved classroom conduct and a growing sense of responsibility for one's own actions. When students misbehave in class, they lose points in classcraft and when they do well they receive points.
Please see the video to the left for a brief introduction to Classcraft.
Standard Two: Works with Students as Individuals
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This standard expresses one of my primary motivations for becoming an educator. My students this year have taught me more about myself and being a teacher than I ever could have imagined. It has always been important to me that my students know I care about who they are as individuals outside of my class as well as inside. To the right are examples of Daily Writing prompts and a Multiple Intelligences Survey I used to find out more about my students' individual learning styles.

An example that highlights my ever-present desire to create a classroom community is my Personal Narratives assignment. During our Gender Unit, my students had been reading pieces that emphasized how much parents and guardians affect who we become as men and women. In an attempt to further my students understanding of this idea, I had them write their own personal narratives focusing on one person who has had a profound impact on the person they are today. In addition to the emphasis on self-exploration and personal development, this assignment also was a space for them to practice their story-telling abilities with a special focus on incorporating descriptive details and dialogue. I knew that my students would be apprehensive about writing about life events that were so personal. In an effort to model a final product and to share my understanding of their hesitations, I read them my own personal narrative about my mother. That day marked a turning point in my relationship with most of my students as they saw me as more of a human being with stories like theirs and less of an authority figure. Click here to see the Personal Narrative assignment description.

Another artifact of my ability to adhere to this standard is my case study of one student in particular. For my TE 803 course, we had to pinpoint one student who we were struggling with for any reason. I chose "Maggie", a student who I had a close relationship with, but who was not turning in her work and would often have outbursts of misbehavior in my class. Click the links to see my case study proposal, analysis, and action plan.
Standard Three: Assesses Student Learning
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Understanding the value of a data-driven classroom was a key lesson I learned during my internship year.

In the first semester of the school year, my focus class was incredibly challenging. My students truly put me to the test by arriving late several times a week, refusing to do any work, and starting fights in the classroom. Thankfully, as the months of my internship went by, my classroom management skills grew immensely. The graph to the right illustrates how the number of tardies and discipline referrals in my focus class went down as my internship progressed. Due to support from my administrators, mentor teacher, special services instructors, and parents, the culture in my classroom became more conducive to learning.

You learned in Standard One about my strategies for vocabulary instruction. My hopeful thinking was that these multi-media presentations would keep students engaged. However, I learned over the weeks that no matter how engaging your materials may be, students eventually will get sick of the same format. Because my students were less engaged during my presentations, I let them study and prepare for their vocabulary quizzes on their own time. Their grades went down almost immediately. I showed them how the average quiz grades had dropped after I stopped teaching the vocabulary to them, and they begged me to begin doing so again. As I predicted, their grades went back up. After a few weeks of their grades being back to normal (high-achieving students doing well and low-achieving students doing okay), I used my data again to change my assessment format to challenge those that had plateaued on the higher end of the grading scale and to try a new assessment for the ones who were still not excelling. Using their quiz grade data enabled me to differentiate my instruction to best help them learn their vocabulary. To the right, you can see how the average quiz grades while I did my vocabulary instruction and the quiz grades after I stopped went from 78%-65%.

Near the beginning of my internship year, I wanted to survey my students on what they knew about literacy and what they considered their strengths and areas for improvement in English Language Arts. Click here to see a summary of my literacy inquiry results and reflection.
Standards 4 & 5 - Organizes Space, Time, and Interaction
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One of the many advantages of a comfortable classroom environment is that your students can fully feel the benefits of dialogic instruction. I believe that even if some students feel they learn best in ways other than discussion and collaboration that these are skills they will need in higher education and the workplace. Discussion also helps students come to realizations on their own and with each other rather than from direct instruction from the teacher. Over the course of the internship, I tried several discussion formats ranging from Socratic Seminars to Fishbowls to Small-Group Chats. I finally found a format that works brilliantly. It does not have a formal name, but it resembles something of a mixture between a Socratic Seminar and a Fishbowl. Click here to view my lesson plan for this discussion method for more specific information on its implementation and adherence to the Common Core Standards. Click here to see the discussion questions students were responsible for preparing to speak about during this discussion. We used these discussions as formative assessments.
I was lucky enough to have a classroom fitted with some wonderful technology like a laptop, epson projector, and speakers that helped me model the rhetorical uses of technology for my students everyday in order to appeal to a broader body of learning styles. For evidence of this, please check my presentations in Standard One.
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One responsibility I take seriously as an educator is ensuring that my students are equipped with the skills they need to take advantage of the ever-expanding world of technology at their fingertips. For their final summative assessment for the Gender Unit, students were presented with several options or mediums in which they could express their understanding of the concepts and ideas covered over the unit. I assisted students in writing and recording rap songs and podcasts using laptops, microphones, and audio editing technology. I helped some students create Google Presentations incorporating audio and visual elements. I also helped students record videos using cameras on their phones, video editing software, and social media platforms to help them share their work. Click the links to see examples of my students' work with Google Presentation, Podcasts, and Videos (to the right).
Standards 6 & 7 - Engages with the Community Outside the Classroom​
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I firmly believe that a strong parent-teacher alliance can be one of the greatest tools for student success. On the first day of school, I distributed our course syllabus, an introduction letter about myself, and a parent "homework" assignment. For five extra credit points for their child, I invited parents to "In 1,000,000,000 words or less, please tell me about your child." I asked them to tell me anything they thought was relevant for me to know to be able to better instruct their child. The response to this assignment was incredible. I received close to 100 parent letters detailing the unique characteristics and learning styles of their children. This was an incredible resource for me because from the first week of school I had established a report with the parents that the students were aware of. I truly believe that this homework assignment opened the lines of communication between myself and the parents of my students and enabled us to work together for the success of their children. Click here to see my introductory letter, and here to see the parent homework assignment.

In order to provide extra support for my students, I stayed after school every day. Specifically, on Tuesdays and Thursdays I tutored in our Media Center from 3-5 PM. During these tutoring sessions I would work closely with individual students on their writing, projects, or anything else we were focusing on at that time. Sometimes students would come by just to hang out and talk with me. I really valued this time to work one on one with my students and get to know them better.
Standard 8 - Engages with Profession of Teaching as a Reflective Learner
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​If I could choose one characteristic from the IB Learner Profile that best describes me, it would be Reflective. I spend a ridiculous amount of time reflecting on my practice and my students. I was fortunate enough to have a wonderful relationship with my mentor teacher that enabled me to have open and frank conversations about my progress as an educator. We would spend at least an hour after school every day reflecting and planning together. I learned so much from her and her guidance has helped me develop confidence and sureness in my chosen career path.
I also make sure to include a space for reflection on all my lesson plans, so that I can make improvements and changes.

Over the course of the internship, I attended numerous professional development and staff meetings where I collaborated with other educators in the district to discover new teaching strategies and discuss the profession. I was fortunate enough to be placed at a school where the administration tried to model these new techniques and philosophies at every PD session. Having the opportunity to work closely with teachers in other subject areas was incredibly valuable for me and helped me develop several inter-disciplinary lessons.

The Calvin and Hobbes comic to the right is a perfect illustration of how I want students' experiences in my classroom not to be!