AC Exercises 1 & 2

Despite my grand plan to work on Exercise 1 for the AC test this week, with going back to work and everything that goes along with being a mom of 3 and a wife, it never happened. I at least got some prep materials printed out but that was it. Oops.

So this weekend I am focusing on Exercise 1 and then hopefully this week I can work on Exercise 2. 

Exercise 1 focuses on Reading Comprehension. Since the Literacy certificate spans early and middle childhood children from age 3 to 12, the questions can (and should) cover a huge range of possibilities in terms of the age and grade level. Exercise 1 presents a scenario and teacher-student dialogue. The level 4 rubric consists of 4 questions:

1. Provide one STRENGTH and one WEAKNESS in the student's comprehension (based on the sample answers provided in the dialogue)

2. Cite specific examples from the student's response in support of the STRENGTH and WEAKNESS

3. Provide one developmentally appropriate teaching strategy to support the student's comprehension (based upon your response in steps 1-2)

4. Rationalize your teaching strategy with research or theory

Personally I think the last one will be the hardest because I do not have tons of research/theory memorized. However, if you assume that each of those questions is worth a point, as long as you do well on questions 1-3, you would earn a passing score on this exercise. 

I am practicing with several sample prompts that I found on the Yahoo! group for the Early/Middle Childhood Literacy certificate. Additionally, a fabulous NBCT Patrick has a site where you can practice the prompts as well. I especially love that he has a blank template so you can practice more than one prompt if it is available. BONUS. And it includes a timer -- essential for helping ensure that you can fully answer the entire prompt in the 30 minutes you get.

Exercise 2 focuses on Oral Language Acquisition Skills for Learners of English as a New Language. Considering that my master's degree is in ESL, I am the least worried about this one. I will still review the documents available of course and practice answering some prompts but I feel good about my knowledge of ESL so hopefully that will serve me well. In this exercise, you read a transcript an then provide evidence of the following:

1. An accurate identification of one STRENGTH and two WEAKNESSES in the student's oral language development

2. tightly connect examples of the strength and weaknesses from the transcript

3. Provide an in-depth description of two developmentally appropriate teaching strategies, other than teacher correction, connected to the identified strength or weakness in the language development

4. Provide an appropriate rationale for the strategies selected.

I will probably practice both of them throughout this week as I can since I am a little behind in the schedule I set for myself. However, I did provide myself a week of cushion so I will be alright. I'm more nervous about finding the time to practice since this is always a crazy-busy time of year at school as we wind things up and prep the students for the next grade.