Getting Ready: Practical Preparation for Your First Term in APPLE

Starting something new is both exciting and a little daunting. Whether you are a paraprofessional already serving in a WELS school, a long-time classroom aide finally pursuing your teaching license, or someone answering a call you did not expect, the first term of APPLE marks the beginning of something meaningful. A little preparation goes a long way toward making that beginning confident.

Before You Begin Coursework

APPLE learners rely on technology to successfully complete their coursework. Here is what to have in place before your first day:

• Activate your MLC Campus Gmail account and Google Workspace. Your MLC email is your official channel for program communications. Check it regularly.
• Have a reliable computer or laptop. A tablet or smartphone may work for reading, but you will need a full computer for completing coursework and submitting assignments.
• Set up a microphone and camera. Several APPLE courses include required synchronous class meetings and videoconferences. Being able to participate fully from day one keeps you connected to your faculty and cohort.

Meet Your Faculty Mentor

One of the first things you will notice about APPLE is that you are not navigating it alone. Your faculty mentor is introduced in your acceptance letter and will likely be in contact with you before your first term even begins. Your mentor is your primary academic relationship in the program. Your faculty mentor is the person who responds to your reflective journals in orientation, monitors your progress throughout your course of study, and walks alongside you when life gets complicated. Do not wait for a problem to arise before reaching out. The most successful APPLE learners are those who stay in regular contact with their mentor, especially when challenges — academic, professional, or personal — begin to affect their studies.

Complete Your Orientation

APPLE learners have access to a self-paced orientation in D2L Brightspace two weeks before the term begins. We encourage you to complete it before your first course activities begin. The orientation is built around MLC’s mission and values, with particular attention to our shared identity as Christians serving in public ministry. It also introduces the tools and features of Brightspace in a low-stakes environment, so that by the time you engage in graded coursework, the platform feels familiar. The orientation remains open throughout the program as a central hub for announcements and program information, so make sure you favorite the course.

Understand the Pacing Guide

Every APPLE course includes a pacing guide, and this is one of the most important tools in your academic toolkit. The Theology courses have a weekly schedule to follow. All other courses allow for flexible pacing; learners can choose to complete a course in five, seven, or fifteen weeks. All paces require the same activities and are outlined on the course pacing guides. Learners who consult their pacing guides regularly and treat them as roadmaps consistently complete their courses on time. Those who set it aside early in the term often find themselves working harder to catch up later. If you fall behind, your faculty mentor is there to help you think through how to get back on track, but learners who use their pacing guides often find their own footing and are back on pace before their next monthly mentor meeting.

Make Your Study Time a Priority

The single most consistent difference between learners who thrive in their first term and those who struggle is time management. APPLE is designed for busy adults, but it still requires a genuine commitment of time and attention. The most successful learners treat their study time the way they treat any other important commitment. They schedule it, protect it, and show up for it. Some learners find it helpful to share their study schedule with their families, making it a visible and shared priority in the household. That kind of intentionality sends a powerful message — to yourself, to your family, and to the students you will one day serve — about the value of this calling.

You are ready for this. And on the days when it feels otherwise, your faculty mentor, your cohort, and the whole MLC community are here to remind you why you started this program. God called, and you answered, Here am I! (Isaiah 6:8).

“Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters.”

— Colossians 3:23 (NIV)

What does it mean to truly assess student learning? That question has guided this series from the beginning, and the answer, it turns out, is more expansive than a single test score or assignment grade can capture.

Across four posts, we have explored the domains that shape how MLC thinks about learning and assessment in a competency-based education model. Each domain reflects a distinct but interconnected dimension of what it means to be prepared to serve as a called worker in WELS public ministry.

Knowledge reflects what a learner knows. It is the information, mental procedures, and psychomotor procedures that form the foundation of competent practice (Marzano & Kendall, 2007). Without knowledge, there is nothing to build on.

Skills reflect what a learner can do. Skills include the mental and physical application of knowledge in authentic contexts. Skills ask not just whether a learner has encountered an idea, but whether they can think and act with it.

Attitudes reflect what a learner values and believes. Attitudes are the inward dispositions that Anderson and Krathwohl (2001) describe as developing along a continuum of internalization. For our called workers, attitudes toward faith, vocation, and the students in their care are not incidental to their preparation. They are central to it.

Behaviors reflect how a learner lives out those values in the world. Learners behave consistently and authentically in accordance with our shared faith in all of their thoughts, words, and deeds. Behaviors are the visible expression of everything that knowledge, skills, and attitudes have formed in a learner over time.

These four domains are not a hierarchy, and they are not independent of one another. Knowledge informs skill. Skill reinforces attitude. Attitude shapes behavior. And behavior, modeled faithfully in the classroom, becomes the living curriculum that students carry with them long after they have forgotten the content of any particular lesson.

Competency-based education is well-suited to assess all four domains because it asks not just what learners know, but who they are becoming as Christian educators. That is the question that animates our program and the question we hope every learner carries with them into their calling.

References

Anderson, L. W., & Krathwohl, D. R. (Eds.). (2001). A taxonomy for learning, teaching, and assessing: A revision of Bloom’s taxonomy of educational objectives. Longman.

Marzano, R. J., & Kendall, J. S. (2007). The new taxonomy of educational objectives (2nd ed.). Corwin Press.

attitude

1. a relatively enduring and general evaluation of an object, person, group, issue, or concept on a dimension ranging from negative to positive. Attitudes provide summary evaluations of target objects and are often assumed to be derived from specific beliefs, emotions, and past behaviors associated with those objects.

American Psychological Association

Attitudes are perhaps the most personal dimension of learning. Where knowledge reflects what a learner knows, and skills reflect what a learner can do, attitudes reflect what a learner values and believes. Attitudes are not simply opinions or preferences; they are relatively stable dispositions that shape how a learner engages with content, with others, and with their vocation.

When we think about attitudes in a competency-based education model, the definition expands and deepens. Anderson and Krathwohl (2001) describe the affective dimension of learning as a continuum of internalization. In other words, attitude reflects the process by which a learner moves from simply receiving and responding to new ideas toward genuinely valuing them. An attitude, in this sense, is not merely held; it is developed over time through study, reflection, and experience. For those preparing to serve in our WELS public ministry, this developmental dimension is particularly significant. Attitudes toward faith, vocation, and the learners in their care are not incidental to their preparation. Indeed, they are central to it. Competency-based education is well-suited to address attitudes precisely because it creates space to assess not just what learners know and can do, but who they are becoming as Christian educators.

Student Outcomes Focusing on Attitudes

Each course in our program has a range of outcomes that assess knowledge, skills, attitudes, and behaviors. The following two statements are examples of attitudes-focused outcomes:

The learner will express comfort in knowing how God uses suffering for the good of his people.

The learner will reflect on attitudes toward education, students, parents, management, and discipline.

Note that each of these outcomes focuses not on the professor’s attitudes, but instead encourages the learner to consider their attitudes. It is important that our outcomes are centered on the learner, because the program is designed to evaluate and record learners’ achievements, not the faculty who teach the courses.

Assessment Strategies

There is no one-size-fits-all approach to assessment. There are, indeed, many ways to engage learners with assessments of their attitudes. Our instructional designer and subject-matter expert work together to craft reflective, authentic assessments for attitude outcomes that encourage learners to connect course materials, their identities as Christian educators, and the real or imagined classrooms where they serve.

For example, the outcome that asks learners to reflect on attitudes toward education, students, parents, management, and discipline is evaluated, in part, through the development of a classroom environment plan. Learners are asked to create a document and include the following items.

My Class

Plan with your preferred age group in mind. Write a description of the school, classroom, and students. You can base your schedule, grade level, daily subjects, and student population on a classroom experience you have had as a student or as a pre-service teacher (EFE, clinical, student teaching).

The culture I want to set is…

Choose three values you want emphasized in your classroom (Hard work, patience, joy, inclusion, etc.). Include a concise definition that you will use to teach each attitude to your students, and explain why these attitudes or values are important for you and your students.

This culture will be seen in the following activities in my room…

Beneath your value definition, list three practices or activities that you will use to teach and reinforce each of your key attitudes.

Value One – Definition and rationale

Practice 1
Practice 2
Practice 3

Value Two – Definition and rationale

Practice 1
Practice 2
Practice 3

Value Three – Definition and rationale

Practice 1
Practice 2
Practice 3

I chose my room and seating arrangement because…

Include a drawing or digital depiction of your room arrangement, including seating, direction of the room (where is the focal point of direct instruction?), and other furniture.

Write a rationale explaining why you chose this setup (plan seating for 18-24 students).

Community and Connections

Describe three activities or practices you will use early in the school year (within the first month of school) to build a classroom community and support students to learn about each other and build trust.

Activity 1
Activity 2
Activity 3

The Classroom Environment Plan does not ask learners to share what they know about different approaches to classroom management. Nor does it ask learners to apply those classroom management strategies to specific case studies or scenarios. Instead, learners are encouraged and supported in establishing how different classroom management approaches align with their attitudes as Christian educators to create a plan they could use in their own classroom.

knowledge

1. the state of being familiar with something or aware of its existence, usually resulting from experience or study.
2. the range of one’s understanding or information. In some contexts the words knowledge and memory are used synonymously.

American Psychological Association

Knowledge is likely what many people think of when they consider what happens in a classroom. Teachers share knowledge with learners. Learners demonstrate the knowledge they have acquired. Moreover, Bloom’s Taxonomy, a framework for the levels of understanding, places knowledge as foundational to understanding (Harvard, n.d.). Learners must be able to recall and understand information before they can apply, analyze, evaluate, and create that knowledge.

When we think about knowledge in a competency-based education model, the definition expands beyond what a learner knows. Marzano and Kendall (2007) describe three distinct domains of knowledge. The first is information. Information is declarative knowledge, such as facts, vocabulary, principles, and generalizations. The second is mental procedures. Mental procedures reflect cognitive skills and processes a learner executes in the mind, such as applying a mathematical algorithm, using a writing strategy, or analyzing an argument. The third is psychomotor procedures. Psychomotor procedures are skills that require physical execution, such as performing a lab technique, operating equipment, or demonstrating a physical skill in a vocational or athletic context. Competency-based education is particularly well-suited to address all three, because it asks not just what a learner knows, but how well they can think with that knowledge and what they can physically do with the knowledge they have.

Student Outcomes Focusing on Knowledge

Each course in our program has a range of outcomes that assess knowledge, skills, attitudes, and behaviors. The following two statements are examples of knowledge-focused outcomes:

The learner will explain how God’s faithfulness in the past helps modern-day believers be faithful to him.

The learner will understand how to achieve a health-enhancing level of fitness.

Note that each of these outcomes focuses not on what the professor does, but on what the learner knows. It is important that our outcomes are centered on the learner, because the program is designed to evaluate and record learners’ achievements, not the faculty who teach the courses.

Assessment Strategies

There is no one-size-fits-all approach to assessment. One might assume that knowledge-focused outcomes are assessed with objective tests, but that only captures the information or declarative knowledge a learner has acquired. Rather than rely on objective exams to assess learning, the instructional designers and subject matter experts work to incorporate authentic assessments into the course whenever possible.

For example, the outcome that asks learners to explain how God’s faithfulness in the past helps modern-day believers be faithful to him is not evidenced by an objective exam. Instead, learners demonstrate their knowledge by writing a two-page paper that addresses three questions:

• Explain one concrete example of God’s faithfulness to his people from each book: Joshua, Judges, and Ruth.
• In a paragraph, describe why God is faithful to his people.
• In a paragraph or two, explain how God’s faithfulness in the past helps modern-day believers, like your students, be faithful to him.

The connection between Scriptural references and application to the students who are cared for in our elementary schools moves from abstract knowledge of faith to applied knowledge as a Christian educator.

While Key Assessments is not an acronym, it is an important concept to understand the academic programming at MLC.

The elementary education program includes 19 credits of field experiences and 37 credits of professional education. Together, these courses provide a solid foundation in the pedagogy, content, and applied practice of teaching in an elementary classroom.

A key assessment is an assignment or activity that all learners in the program need to complete. The Minnesota Professional Education Licensing and Standards Board (PELSB) has established that a program must include three key assessments. These key assessments are “used to both monitor candidates’ attainment of standards and to evaluate and inform continuous improvement” (Minnesota Professional Educator Licensing and Standards Board, 2022, p. 17). MLC has elected to place the key assessments across several courses that are typically completed in the final year of study.

It is important that our APPLE learners complete the same key assessments as their on-campus peers. While the modalities of instruction may differ, the expectations do not. A learner who completes their studies through APPLE graduates from MLC with the same degree in elementary education as the traditional on-campus student. By using the same key assessments for both our on-campus and our online programming, MLC can ensure that all of our teacher candidates are equally prepared to serve in our elementary schools. We can also use the results from the key assessments to reflect on how best to refine our course offerings to address any gaps in our curriculum.

Minnesota Professional Educator Licensing and Standards Board. (2022). Obtaining and maintaining program approval (Chapter 4). In Teacher preparation manual. https://mn.gov/pelsb/providers/teacherpreparationmanual/index.jsp