Support For National Board Candidates

 

Debunking the Myths about National Board Certification

National Standards

Education World-- lists of national standards for mathematics, language arts, science, and social studies. Also links to the national professional groups responsible for creating the standards.

Portfolio Entries

Book: Best Practice: New Standards for Teaching and Learning in America's Schools by Steven Zemelman. Identifying the teaching methods that help students learn, explaining how to implement them in the classroom, and showing what exemplary instruction really looks like.


Book: Yardsticks: Children in the Classroom by Chip Wood. For each age, this book includes: narrative description of developmental traits; charts summarizing physical, social, language, and cognitive growth patterns; suggestions for curricular areas: reading, writing, mathematics, and thematic units; favorite books for different ages.

Opening Classroom Doors. These videos of teaching practice feature National Board Certified Teachers from the Digital Edge project in minimally edited video from their classrooms. Each video segment and its accompanying text and commentary provide a peek into the classrooms of these accomplished teachers. These are not examples of portfolio lessons, but they do show accomplished teachers in action, teaching, questioning, explaining, modeling, collaborating and demonstrating their art at the highest level of proficiency. There also lots of written examples of reflection, and "Candidate Support" questions at the end of each exhibit to help candidates strengthen their analytic and reflective writing.

Assessment Center

National Board Assessment Center Simulation --This site assists candidates in becoming familiar with a timed written test presented in a three pane format. The sample prompts were written by NBCTs using the scoring rubrics and actual classroom examples.

Reading Assessment

Strategies for Correcting Student Errors

Book: Miscue Analysis Made Easy: Building on Student Strengths by Sandra Wilde. Beginning with a series of lively, interactive exercises Miscue Analysis Made Easy leads us through the thinking processes and linguistic systems that readers use to build their understanding of text. Through a careful review of these systems, we then learn to assess what readers can do. An easy-to-use, step-by-step diagnostic procedure, including a thoughtful retelling guide, helps us to identify and then maximize the student's specific strengths. Wilde also offers ideas on how to help students develop the self-monitoring strategies they need to keep track of their own meaning-making process as they read.

Writing

NAEP Writing Achievement Levels-- The achievement levels descriptions are statements of what students should know and be able to do at each level. Sample items provide illustrations of student knowledge and skills required within each level of achievement.

Scaffolding Young Writers: Chapter 1--Describes characteristics and traits of the emergent, early, and transitional writer.

Science and Inquiry

Book: Science as Inquiry by Jack Hassard. Turn students on to science with fresh ideas and approaches from a master science teacher. Active, problem-oriented learning opportunities encourage students to experience the inquiry process and excitement of science. Activities are project-based, web-assisted, and include active assessment strategies.

Book: Book: Everything You need to Know about American History Homework by Anne Zeman. A quick refresher to 4th through 6th grade curriculum topics.

Inquiry: Thoughts, Views, and Strategies for the K-5 Classroom --A 117 page book you can read online (or print as a pdf) Designed as a resource for teachers and administrators who are interested in investigating inquiry-based science education, this book is rather a short introduction to the philosophy and practical applications behind science inquiry learning in the K-5 classroom. This publication brings together the thoughts and skills of many experts in the field. It focuses on the real experiences of teachers and teacher educators.

Learning Science Through Inquiry--Inquiry-based teaching, central to the National Science Education Standards and the Benchmarks for Science Literacy, should not be an isolated occurrence, but a comprehensive and ongoing approach. However, many teachers hesitate to teach science through inquiry because they did not learn this way themselves, when they were students or during their preparation to become teachers. This workshop shows inquiry teaching and learning in action, with real teachers and students in real classrooms. Whether you have already experimented with inquiry teaching and want to enhance your practice, or are new to the approach and want to know how to make it work, this workshop will help you understand the process and how it benefits students, and give you strategies to use in your classroom.

What is Science Inquiry?

Teacher Tools to Facilitate Science Learning --Information about science knowledge, pedagogy, inquiry, instructional models, and assessment.

Science Concepts Directory-- The Big Ideas are listed under "Unifying Concepts." Also has concepts for all science topics.

Science Misconceptions --broken down by science topics

Children's Misconceptions about Science

The Essential Science for Teachers courses are designed to help K–6 teachers gain an understanding of some of the bedrock science concepts they need to teach today’s standards-based curricula. The series of courses will include Life Science, Earth and Space Science, and Physical Science. Real-world examples, demonstrations, animations, still graphics, and interviews with scientists compose content segments that are intertwined with in-depth interviews with children that uncover their ideas about the topic at hand. Each program also features an elementary school teacher and his or her students exploring the topic using exemplary science curricula.

Math

Book: Error Patterns in Computation: Using Error Patterns to Improve Instruction by Robert B. Ashlock. This text teaches students how to uncover the "wrong" patterns behind the computational errors children make. Through its unique approach, and the generous use of actual students' samples, future teachers not only read about error patterns, they actually encounter them...and learn to correct them. They learn to identify typical error patterns; receive feedback on their diagnosis; and gain an understanding of why a child might have adopted an incorrect procedure.

Book: Teaching Children Who Struggle with Mathematics: A Systematic Approach to Analysis and Correction by Helene J. Sherman. Provides a closer look at the problems students exhibit through the examples of the student's work and then gives the preservice teacher clues as to how to help the student.

Misconceptions in Mathematics --problems and examples for many, many math topics, showing a wrong answer that the student may obtain, why they obtained that wrong answer, and ways to explain the correct process to the student.

Integrating the Arts

Book Art Matters: Strategies, Ideas, and Activities to Strengthen Learning Across the Curriculum by Eileen S. Prince. These inventive and effective methods use the visual arts to inspire creative writing and drama; explore math, music, science, and history; and cultivate critical thinking skills. Art instructors will learn strategies for incorporating other areas of study into the art classroom.

Book: Lively Learning: Using the Arts to Teach K-8 Curriculum by Linda Crawford. Practical suggestions for bringing the arts into the daily life of the classroom. Helps teachers gain comfort with five art forms drawing, music, movement, theater, and poetry writing and integrate those art forms into reading, writing, social studies, science, and math.

The Arts in Every Classroom: A Workshop for Elementary School Teacher--This video workshop provides new ideas about working with the arts for K-5 classroom and arts specialist teachers. The eight one-hour video programs show workshop leaders from the Southeast Center for Education in the Arts working with Learner Teams — teachers, principals, and arts specialists — from three elementary schools.

Connecting With the Arts: A Workshop for Middle Grades Teachers --The video workshop shows middle school teachers why and how to integrate the arts (dance, music, theatre, and visual art) with other subjects (language arts, social studies, science, and math). Extensive classroom examples present teachers working together to create rich integrated learning experiences for their students. The eight programs guide viewers in discussing key elements of arts integration, enabling them to begin integrating the arts more effectively in their own schools. Participants define what arts integration means, plan collaborations with colleagues, clarify student roles in the artistic process, work on designing instruction that helps students explore connecting concepts and big ideas, and examine assessments to determine what students are learning.

Social Studies

Book: Everything You need to Know about American History Homework by Anne Zeman. A quick refresher to 4th through 6th grade curriculum topics. Everything from accounts of the first Americans to the 21st Century.

Social Studies in Action --This video workshop provides a methodology framework for teaching social studies, with a focus on creating effective citizens. The eight video programs feature K-5 teachers exploring social studies themes, theories of learning, teaching strategies, and ways to connect social studies to the world beyond the classroom. Led by social studies educator Mary A. McFarland, the onscreen participants reflect on fundamental issues in teaching and learning social studies through discussions, debates, and activities that can be adapted to a K-5 curriculum.