Skillful Practitioner Baseline Reflection

Andrea Edbauer
November 4, 2014

I would consider being a skillful practitioner a strength of mine. I am continuously assessing and
reflecting on my teaching approaches, and adjusting my instruction based on the needs of my
students. I also spend a significant amount of time reading professional texts and researching
best practices, so that I know the strategies used in my classroom are going to be beneficial to
my students. One example of this is the research I did on spelling and word work this past
summer. My district does not have a spelling curriculum. Many teachers send a list home on
Monday for students to practice, and test them on the words on Friday. I was using a program
in which students were participating in word sorts throughout the week. I was not seeing the
results I was hoping for, and students were not applying their learning to their writing. After
reading many articles on best practices in spelling instruction, I developed my own approach to
spelling, where students are practicing spelling patterns based on their needs. Assessment is
based on their application of the patterns that have been practiced, rather than a weekly test.

In addition to researching and implementing best practices in literacy instruction, I also try to
create a positive learning environment in which students are actively engaged and
self-motivated. I do so by offering choice throughout the day, and allowing students to work in
small groups or pairs, which many young children enjoy. I plan engaging mini-lessons
throughout my literacy block.

One way in which I would like to grow as a skillful practitioner is by individualizing my literacy
instruction. With class sizes increasing, and the needs of children becoming even more diverse,
there is an increased need to individualize reading instruction. In the ideal classroom, my
students would be working individually, and in small groups, on skills that are specific to their
individual learning needs. I currently do this to some extent, but I would like to take it to the
next level by turning more control over to my students.

April 28, 2019

I have not had very many opportunities to apply new skills and knowledge of literacy instruction
in a classroom setting, since I am not currently teaching. However, I did apply new knowledge
from Literacy 720 to my one-on-one tutoring sessions. I established a structure and routine for
our sessions, based on the text for the class: ​The Next Step Forward in Reading Intervention.
This framework was new to me, and I found it very helpful in organizing my intervention
sessions. I made adjustments to the routine throughout the semester to fit the needs of the
student that I was working with.