Alabama Administrative Code › Title 290 - ALABAMA STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION › Chapter 290-3-3 - TEACHER EDUCATION - PROFESSIONAL SERVICES › Section 290-3-3-.08 - Elementary Education (Grades K-6)

Current through Register Vol. 42, No. 9, June 28, 2024
(1)
Rationale.
This document
			 brings attention to those elements that are distinctive to the elementary
			 education program. These elements represent the essential elementary
			 curriculum, instructional knowledge and abilities, and professionalism for the
			 preparation of teacher candidates for Grades K-6. These standards build upon
			 the Alabama Core Teaching Standards.
(2)
Program Curriculum.
In
			 addition to meeting Rules
			 290-3-3-.03(6)(a)1. -4.,
			 290-3-3-.03(6)(e)1. and 2.(i) and (vii),
			 290-3-3-.04,
			 and
			 290-3-3-.05,
			 the elementary education curriculum shall require a teaching field of at least
			 30 semester hours with at least 18 semester hours of upper-division credit. For
			 candidates unconditionally admitted to a program December 15, 2020, and
			 thereafter, the program shall require no less than nine semester hours of
			 reading or literacy coursework, or both, based on the science of learning to
			 read, including multisensory strategies in foundational reading skills.
(a)
Development, Learning, and
			 Motivation.
Candidates know, understand, and use the major concepts,
			 principles, theories, and research related to development of children and young
			 adolescents to construct learning opportunities that support individual
			 students' development, acquisition of knowledge, and motivation.
(b)
Curriculum.
1.
Reading, writing, and oral
			 language.
Candidates demonstrate a high level of competence in the use
			 of English language arts to ensure student learning and achievement using
			 explicit instruction, facilitating active inquiry, providing opportunities for
			 collaboration, and promoting positive interactions. Candidates know,
			 understand, and use theories from reading, language, and child development to
			 teach reading, writing, speaking, viewing, listening, and thinking skills.
			 Candidates help students successfully apply their developing skills to many
			 different situations, materials, and ideas within and across all content areas
			 in order to provide relevant learning experiences for all students. Prior to
			 program completion, candidates demonstrate ability to:
(i) Use a variety of strategies (to include
			 explicit and systematic instruction, guided practice, error correction and
			 corrective feedback, and multisensory language instruction) to teach
			 foundational reading skills based on the science of learning to read, to
			 include oral language development, phonological awareness, phonics instruction,
			 writing, vocabulary, and comprehension, in accordance with the
Alabama
			 Course of Study: English Language Arts
.
(ii) Incorporate all the interrelated
			 components of English language arts into a cohesive learning
			 experience.
2.
Science.
Candidates know, understand, and use fundamental concepts
			 of physical, life, and Earth/space sciences, as well as engineering and
			 computer sciences. Candidates can design and implement age-appropriate inquiry
			 science lessons with the goal of achieving scientific literacy for all
			 students. According to the conceptual framework of the
2015 Alabama
			 Course of Study for K-12 Science
, "A scientifically literate person is
			 one who has a foundation in science knowledge, a technological understanding of
			 problem solving, and the ability to design scientific solutions." Prior to
			 program completion, candidates demonstrate ability to:
(i) Understand the current
Alabama
			 Science Course of Study: Science
and interpret three dimensional
			 (Scientific and Engineering Practices, Crosscutting Concepts, and Disciplinary
			 Core Ideas) expectations outlined by appropriate grade-level standards.
(ii) Create a collaborative,
			 student-centered classroom environment that provides opportunities for
			 scientific investigation, technology, and engineering design that allows
			 students to connect the classroom to the outside world.
(iii) Use diagnostic feedback from
			 appropriate ongoing formative assessment to modify teaching and learning
			 activities and summative assessments to determine student achievement at the
			 end of a unit of study.
(iv)
			 Provide differentiated instruction through intervention and acceleration based
			 on assessment results.
(v)
			 Determine appropriate instructional and learning targets used for the
			 development of lesson plans using a designated instructional model.
			 Instructional models may include, but are not limited to the 5E+IA
			 Instructional Model, as suggested and outlined in Alabama's 2015 College and
			 Career-Ready Science Standards, or the Biological Sciences Curriculum Study 5E
			 Instructional Model. The Five E+1A Instruction Model supports the use of
			 inquiry-based instruction and prepares prospective teachers to:
(I) Engage. Student interest is stimulated,
			 and connections are made to prior knowledge and between past and present
			 experiences. Student thinking is focused on learning outcomes as they become
			 mentally engaged in the practices, crosscutting concepts, and the core ideas of
			 the unit or lesson.
(II) Explore.
			 Students investigate initial ideas and solutions in a context within which they
			 can identify. Using investigation, research, discourse, text, and media,
			 students actively explore situations and build common experiences that serve as
			 a basis for developing an understanding of the concepts within
			 context.
(III) Explain. Students
			 are provided the opportunity to collaborate, communicate, and construct meaning
			 from their experiences based on an analysis of the exploration. This phase
			 emphasizes the importance of students developing evidence-based explanations
			 founded upon their observations and experiences obtained through
			 investigations. Teachers clarify understanding through definitions, labels, and
			 explanations for abilities, concepts, practices, and skills.
(IV) Elaborate. Students reflect upon,
			 expand, and apply conceptual understanding of scientific concepts to new and
			 unfamiliar situations in order to cultivate a broader and deeper understanding
			 of concepts through new experiences within new contexts and
			 situations.
(V) Evaluate. Students
			 are assessed on understanding of scientific concepts. Assessment provides
			 opportunities for teachers to evaluate understanding of concepts and practices
			 identified in the standards. This phase helps teachers know if students are
			 learning in order for appropriate next steps to occur.
(VI) Intervene or
A
ccelerate. When some students do not learn the first
			 time, intervention strategies may be implemented to further explain and
			 elaborate upon concepts to a greater extent in order to clarify understanding.
			 Students who have demonstrated proficiency may be able to enrich or accelerate
			 learning through more challenging, engaging, and exploratory
			 experiences.
3.
Mathematics.
Based on the
State Course of Study: Mathematics
, candidates know,
			 understand, and use the major concepts, procedures, and practices that define
			 counting and cardinality, number and operations with base 10 and fractions,
			 algebraic thinking, measurement and data, and geometry. In doing so, they
			 consistently engage in problem solving, reason abstractly and quantitatively,
			 construct viable arguments, model with mathematics, use appropriate tools
			 strategically, attend to precision, make use of structures, and express
			 regularity in repeated reasoning. Prior to program completion candidates
			 demonstrate ability to:
(i) Make sense of
			 problems, justify solutions with supporting evidence, use mathematical tools,
			 make conjectures and connections, and provide student feedback that builds
			 conceptual understanding and procedural fluency.
(ii) Explain students' strategies while
			 connecting and generalizing ideas, anticipating responses and misconceptions,
			 applying reason, and representing and articulating relationships between
			 mathematical concepts.
(iii) Find,
			 adapt, or create rigorous tasks with various entry levels and exit points for
			 engaging all students in real-life problematic situations that orchestrate
			 mathematical discourse and productive struggles for students.
4. Social studies. Candidates are
			 knowledgeable about the Alabama Course of Study: Social Studies, C3 Framework,
			 concepts, facts, tools, disciplinary structures of inquiry, and disciplinary
			 forms of representation in civics, economics, geography, history, and the
			 social/behavioral sciences. Prior to program completion, candidates demonstrate
			 ability to:
(i) Demonstrate an understanding
			 of how the disciplines--civics, economics, geography, and history, and the
			 social/behavioral sciences--create knowledge through disciplinary inquiry to
			 inform action in civic life.
(ii)
			 Plan learning sequences that leverage social studies knowledge and literacies,
			 technology, and theory and research to support the civic competence of
			 learners.
(iii) Understand and be
			 fluent in the methods of those disciplines and the ways conclusions of inquiry
			 are communicated through disciplinary forms of representation.
(iv) Design and implement instruction and a
			 range of authentic assessments, informed by data literacy and learner
			 self-assessment, that measure learners' mastery of disciplinary knowledge,
			 inquiry, and forms of representation for civic competence and demonstrate
			 alignment with state required content standards.
(v) Plan and implement relevant and
			 responsive pedagogy, create collaborative and interdisciplinary learning
			 environments, and prepare learners to be informed advocates for an inclusive
			 and equitable society.
(vi) Use
			 theory and research to continually improve their social studies knowledge,
			 inquiry skills, and civic dispositions, and adapt practice to meet the needs of
			 each learner.
(vii) Explore,
			 interrogate, and reflect upon their own cultural frames to attend to issues of
			 equity, diversity, access, power, human rights, and social justice within their
			 schools and/or communities.
5.
The arts.
Candidates have a
			 thorough knowledge of the 2017
Alabama Course of Study for K-12 Arts
			 Education
, including the four artistic processes - creating,
			 responding, connecting, and either performing (dance, music, theatre) or
			 producing (media arts) or presenting (visual arts) -- and the eleven anchor
			 standards shared across the arts. According to the conceptual framework of the
			 2017
Alabama Course of Study for K-12 Arts Education
, "Arts
			 literacy is the goal of arts education in Alabama. Arts literacy consists of
			 the knowledge, understanding, and skills required to participate authentically
			 in the arts." Prior to program completion, candidates demonstrate ability to:
(i) Use the
2017 Alabama Course of
			 Study: Arts Education to
design and implement age-appropriate inquiry
			 arts lessons and projects with the goal of achieving artistic literacy for all
			 students.
(ii) Create an
			 individual and/or collaborative, student-centered classroom environment that
			 provides opportunities for risk-free creative exploration and investigation to
			 conceive and develop artistic ideas and work.
(iii) Demonstrate how the arts may be used to
			 provide authentic alternative assessments (such as portfolios, rubrics, artist
			 statements, etc.) both within the arts and in other subjects.
(iv) Use at least one of the arts disciplines
			 to support learning and assessments in other subjects by providing authentic
			 arts integrated lessons that allow students through imagination, investigation,
			 construction and reflection to connect the classroom to the outside world
			 through creative production.
6.
Health education.
Based on
			 the
State Course of Study: Health Education
, candidates know,
			 understand, and use the major concepts in the subject matter of health
			 education to create opportunities for student development and practice of
			 skills that contribute to good health. Prior to program completion, health
			 literate candidates demonstrate ability to:
(i) Assess needs to determine priorities for
			 school health education.
(ii) Plan
			 effective comprehensive school health education curricula and
			 programs.
(iii) Use multiple
			 instructional strategies that reflect effective pedagogy, and health education
			 theories and models that facilitate learning for all students.
(iv) Assess student learning by developing
			 assessment plans and analyze assessment results to guide future
			 instruction.
7.
Physical education.
Based on the
State Course of Study:
			 Physical Education,
candidates know, understand, and use human
			 movement and physical activity as central elements to foster active, healthy
			 lifestyles and enhanced quality of life for elementary students. Prior to
			 program completion, candidates demonstrate ability to:
(i) Understand the relationship and
			 contributions of the physical education program within the elementary school
			 curriculum and process.
(ii)
			 Demonstrate academic knowledge and methods to plan and provide integrated and
			 developmentally appropriate learning experiences for elementary students in
			 accordance with local, state and/or national standards for elementary physical
			 education.
(iii) Understand the
			 emotional, social, and health-related needs of elementary students.
(iv) Demonstrate knowledge of the importance
			 of physical activity within the elementary school program as it relates to the
			 impact on classroom and academic performance.
(v) Identify the basic movement patterns
			 (locomotor, manipulative, stability, and perceptual motor) and
			 principles.
(vi) Demonstrate
			 knowledge of current local, state, and national trends, programs and
			 initiatives including but not limited to Comprehensive School Physical Activity
			 Program (CSPAP) as part of the Whole School, Whole Community, Whole Child
			 (WSWC) model, and the Alabama Champions for Healthy Active Schools.
8.
Special education.
Prior to program completion, candidates shall demonstrate the ability to use
			 knowledge acquired and abilities demonstrated in the survey of special
			 education course and discipline-specific methods courses to effectively
			 collaborate with special education teachers to adapt curriculum and activities
			 to accommodate the unique needs of special education students, including gifted
			 students, in regular class environments and to help plan support activities to
			 be provided by special education teachers.
(c)
Instruction.
Candidates
			 demonstrate the ability to teach according to the Alabama College and Career
			 Ready Standards for K-6.
1.
Integrating and applying knowledge for instruction
.
			 Candidates plan and implement instruction based on knowledge of students,
			 learning theory, connections across the curriculum, curricular goals, and
			 community.
2.
Adaptation to students from diverse populations
.
			 Candidates understand how elementary students differ in their development and
			 approaches to learning and create instructional opportunities that are adapted
			 to students from diverse populations.
3.
Development of critical
			 thinking and problem solving
. Candidates understand and use a
			 variety of teaching strategies that encourage elementary students' development
			 of critical thinking and problem solving.
4.
Active engagement in
			 learning
. Candidates use their knowledge and understanding of
			 individual and group motivation and behavior among students at the K-6 level to
			 foster active engagement in learning, self-motivation, and positive social
			 interaction and to create supportive learning environments.
5.
Communication to foster
			 collaboration
. Candidates use their knowledge and understanding of
			 effective verbal, nonverbal, and media communication techniques to foster
			 active inquiry, collaboration, and supportive interaction in the elementary
			 classroom.
(d)
Assessment for Instruction.
Candidates know, understand, and use
			 formal and informal assessment strategies to plan, evaluate, and strengthen
			 instruction that will promote continuous intellectual, social, emotional, and
			 physical development of each elementary student.
(e)
Professionalism.
1.
Professional growth,
			 reflection, and evaluation
. Candidates are aware of and reflect on
			 their practice in light of research on teaching, professional ethics, and
			 resources available for professional learning; they continually evaluate the
			 effects of their professional decisions and actions on students, families, and
			 other professionals in the learning community and actively seek out
			 opportunities to grow professionally.
2.
Collaboration with families,
			 colleagues, and community agencies
. Candidates know the importance
			 of establishing and maintaining a positive collaborative relationship with
			 families, school colleagues, and agencies in the larger community to promote
			 the intellectual, social, emotional, physical growth, and well-being of
			 children.