The Annotated Unit: A Description of a Systematic Approach to Documenting Candidate Effectiveness in Student Teaching

Source: Action in Teacher Education, v. 30 no. 3, (Fall 2008) p. 74-87.

The standards of the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education require that teacher education programs document teacher candidates' effectiveness across different domains. Most challenging for the authors' program is the directive to document the impact that candidates have on preK-12 student learning. To gather information on the effects that the candidates have on preK-12 student learning, the authors require each candidate to gather and analyze data collected during the creation, implementation, and evaluation of an annotated unit plan. This has opened up new avenues for the faculty, candidates, and professionals in the schools to use when talking about planning, leading, assessing, and reflecting on instruction and student learning. A project that was originally embraced as a way to gather numbers to report to the accrediting body has become a centerpiece of the authors' teacher education programs. In sharing this experience, the authors are hopeful that other institutions will integrate these ideas into their programs and continue the authors' collaborative efforts to prepare tomorrow's teachers.