DRAFT: This module has unpublished changes.

Reflective Essay: Analytical Ability

 

            The third standard of Medgar Evers College Education Department is Analytical Ability. The department under this standard expects a teacher in training to effectively and comprehensively deconstruct texts to uncover hidden meanings, to make connections, to draw inferences and to develop multiple perspectives toward various ideas. The department’s expectation is relevant since as a teacher trainee it is important that I acquire cultural literacy. The department also expects me to have reflective practitioner. As a teacher candidate I must acquire cultural literacy.   

            As evidence for the Analytical Ability unit standard I am submitting an entry long and reflective essay on the CUNY Proficiency Exam Task II assignment. It was completed in the fall 2010 in one of my education foundation courses: Introduction to the World Learner EDUC 102 – WID1. It was an individual assignment; however we were able to work in groups to complete the assignment. The task of the assignment was to identify the claims made in the reading selection and determine how relevant data in the graphs support, partially support, and/or contradict claims in the text. My evidence speaks to item: 3.2 of the Analytical Ability unit standard which requires that I, constructs and articulates new ways of looking at and responding to accepted ideas and paradigms.

            I was asked to identify from the reading selection, “The Education Gender Gap” and examine the data. In a line graph and bar graph and determine how relevant data in each graph support and/or contradict claims in the reading. The purpose of the assignment was to challenge my analytical skills, prepare me for the CUNY Proficiency Exam, which requires a student to sit and pass the CPE once he/she has reached 45-60 credits. The CPE is a criterion for graduation.

            I began this assignment with complete frustration; I did not see the point in doing this assignment if you are going to do it on the actual CUNY Proficiency Exam. Although this was a required assignment for our educational portfolio, this worked as great practice for the actual exam. This assignment test you how well you can read and collect data in order to prove if the given claim is indeed true. Which make you use your analytical skills to really think and make accurate decisions with the given information provided to you. However the class is not over as yet, the grade I believe I will receive is a competent grade. I found this assignment beneficial for me as a teacher candidate who has to take three New York State Teacher’s Certificate Examinations. This assignment prepared me to use my analytical ability to sharpen me on problem solving.

            As an aspiring teacher I will encourage myself to use more of my analytical ability about processing data from charts or graphs. I will give my students the time to also use their analytical ability to the best of their power to learn how to read data from a reading passage and prove whether the claim is supported or not. Depending on the range of the age groups I will give the students the data that is relevant and easy to understand for their age group that is current in their schooling within New York City.

DRAFT: This module has unpublished changes.