Amy Mardis

EDUC/EDCE World Language Methods

Instructor: Thomasina White
September 13, 2016
Assignment #1

Teaching is brutally overwhelming. No one is more keenly aware of this fact than the
novice teacher. In my current experience as a novice teacher, the physical and socio-emotional
exhaustion of the job creates an almost tangible haze that often hinders my ability to see the
bigger picture. This haze distorts the realities of my responsibilities as an educator in a lowincome, urban school and transforms these daily responsibilities into an intimidating, herculean
feat. After reading the first three chapters of Danielsons Enhancing professional practice: A
framework for teaching (2007), I believe that her Framework for Teaching serves novice
teachers as a roadmap to student learning in two primary ways. First, the Framework for
Teaching (henceforth simply the framework) allows the novice teacher the ability to view their
profession from a birds eye perspective. This allows the novice teacher the necessary step of
locating their current position on the roadmap and, if necessary, of locating the most efficient
path back to the main road. Secondly, the common language that the framework provides serves
as a legend for the roadmap. Without this common language, a teachers comprehension and
utilization of the roadmap would be minimal.
A birds-eye view
As Danielson acknowledges, most novice teachers are concerned with day-to-day
survival (2007, p. 155). When this is the case, it is difficult for a novice teacher to know where
they stand, what their strengths are, and how they can improve. By providing a comprehensive
list of the tasks and skills that a teacher should master in order to most positively facilitate
student learning, the framework serves as a self-assessment tool for novice teachers. As

Danielson notes, novice teachers can utilize the framework to audit their own practice and to
identify areas in which they are in fact succeeding. Once they identify these areas, novice
teachers are able to see through the haze of the daily stressors and orient themselves accordingly
on the roadmap to professional success. When novice teachers utilize the framework as a selfreflection tool in this manner (p.762) they can see how each teaching task is interconnected while
proactively avoiding the overwhelming nature of the bigger picture.

The legend
The second manner in which the framework serves as roadmap to novice teachers is
through its role as a legend. The framework decodes the teaching profession and provides a
common language that is understood throughout the professional community. While new
teachers undoubtedly face a slew of new terminologies, acronyms, and theories unique to their
school district and their community when they enter the teaching profession, the framework
helps create a common language that enables the novice teacher to more seamlessly transition
into the larger professional community (Danielson, Chapter 2). Now equipped with this
common language of the profession, the novice teachers can be more confident in their
communication with peers, advisors, and mentors. Ultimately, by increasing the effectiveness of
their communication, new teachers will be more effective in enriching student learning.

Work Cited:
Danielson, C. (2007). Enhancing professional practice: A framework for teaching. ASCD. [Ereader version].