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Content Seminar Series
Content Seminar Series Overview and Requirements
At the heart of MPTP is Teaching for Results (TfR), a series of professional development seminars that focus on how to teach specific subject area/grade level content. These seminars, called Content Seminars, develop a teacher’s knowledge and ability to teach subject matter while extending the emphasis on student achievement that was established through the Teaching for Student Achievement framework in the BCTR pre-service training. The seminars were developed specifically to help Residents leverage existing content knowledge into powerful classroom practice that leads to student achievement.
The Content Seminars are based around Strategic Design for Student Achievement® (SDSA), a research-based curriculum, more widely known as “backwards design”. SDSA frames instructional planning as beginning with the end in mind; meaning a teacher must understand clearly what it looks like when students have demonstrated mastery of the standard BEFORE they begin “planning” instructional lessons. Many people think that teaching begins with lesson planning, but SDSA encourages teachers to engage in several steps before they ever begin to write a lesson plan - evaluating their state content standards, designing appropriate assessments that evaluate students’ mastery of content, and then constructing lessons that align with both the content standard and the assessment to ensure student success.
This research-based approach to content pedagogy integrates content knowledge with state and national standards. This dual approach—the art of teaching, coupled with subject-specific instructional strategies—is what makes Teaching for Results different from other new teacher support training programs.
Successful completion of MPTP’s Teaching for Results Content Seminar Series is required for Residents to be recommended for a Standard Professional Certificate I.
In order to pass the Content Seminar series, Residents must:
- Attend all sessions (no more than 3 absences are allowed)
- Successfully complete all assignments, including all components of the Content Seminar Project
These requirements stem from a desire to ensure that all Residents are well-prepared to enable their students to make significant gains academically. MPTP takes seriously its role in readying candidates for certification and will only recommend those who demonstrate a strong understanding of the process of Strategic Design given its link to documented student achievement.
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