Standard #1
Learner Development
The teacher understands how learners grow and develop, recognizing that patterns of learning and development vary individually within and across the cognitive, linguistic, social, emotional, and physical areas, and designs and implements developmentally appropriate and challenging learning experiences.
What the Standard Means?
To successfully reach all learners, teachers must be aware of the stages of development and how each stage impacts the way a student learns. This knowledge is essential because it provides the basis for the teacher to design instruction that it is appropriate for each individual. Teachers must also be aware that each student has individual needs that accompany them as they walk into the classroom. For some students that need is a worksheet that contains more advanced or complex problems so that they are challenged by the content being taught, for other students it is a remediation of the worksheet so they can achieve success. Therefore, what one student needs to be successful may vary entirely from what another student needs, but either way, it is crucial that the teacher understands, recognizes, and accommodates each student's level of development.
Artifacts
What the Standard Means?
To successfully reach all learners, teachers must be aware of the stages of development and how each stage impacts the way a student learns. This knowledge is essential because it provides the basis for the teacher to design instruction that it is appropriate for each individual. Teachers must also be aware that each student has individual needs that accompany them as they walk into the classroom. For some students that need is a worksheet that contains more advanced or complex problems so that they are challenged by the content being taught, for other students it is a remediation of the worksheet so they can achieve success. Therefore, what one student needs to be successful may vary entirely from what another student needs, but either way, it is crucial that the teacher understands, recognizes, and accommodates each student's level of development.
Artifacts
Artifact 1:
Students engaged in books and technology to learn about Rosa Parks.
Artifact 2:
Click on the images above to see how I differentiated a vocabulary activity based on student's level of development.
Why the artifact was chosen and how it is an appropriate representation of the standard?
The first artifact portrays the students conducting research about Rosa Parks. It was their task to draw out facts and information about Rosa Park's life using various books and iPads. In order to differentiate the instruction in a way that each student was able to learn about Rosa Parks at his or her developmental level, I decided to provide the students with various modes of information. These modes included some books that contained mostly pictures, with a short paragraph, to explain Rosa's life and other books that contained higher-level reading. A website, Kids Britannica, was used because it contains a feature that reads the information on the page aloud to the students and presents valuable information through videos.
This artifact demonstrates my knowledge of substrandard 1(d), "The teacher understands the role of language and culture in learning and knows how to modify instruction to make language comprehensible and instruction relevant, accessible, and challenging." In this case, I was able to challenge the advanced readers with higher-level reading and was able to make the language accessible to my beginning readers with the read aloud feature of Kids Britannica, all while reaching the on-target readers with grade-level books.
My second artifact, the differentiated vocabulary activity, was designed and implemented because my students’ ability levels range from gifted and talented to below grade-level. Thus, the instruction that is appropriate for each student differs.
For the advanced students, those above grade-level, I wrote sentences with blanks and then required the students to find the correct vocabulary word that fit into the sentence. In addition, students were required to write two sentences using one of the vocabulary words. This activity challenged the students to not only know the definition of the word, but also apply that knowledge to a sentence.
The benchmark group, those at grade-level, also completed fill-in-the-blank sentences, but instead of completing all of the sentences, each student received three sentences to complete independently. This task was appropriate for these students because their automaticity of the meaning of the words was still developing, so finding the correct word to fit three sentences was an adequate challenge. After each student completed their sentences they shared them aloud with the whole group, which exposed the students to each vocabulary words and a corresponding sentence.
The strategic group, students slightly below grade-level, participated in a similar activity, but it was completed as a whole group to scaffold the process. In the first part of the activity, students used the vocabulary words they were most familiar with to complete fill-in-the-blank sentences. To help students acquire a deeper understanding of some of the other vocabulary words, students matched the vocabulary word to the corresponding picture. This component of the activity helped them gain a visual meaning of the words.
The intensive group, those below grade-level, was given sticky notes with the vocabulary words with the task of matching the word to the correct picture. This task was appropriate for these students because they were still striving to attain the basic meaning of the vocabulary words, and this activity allowed them to gain this understanding in a unique and developmentally appropriate way.
This artifact correlates with 1(b), "The teacher creates developmentally appropriate instruction that takes into account individual learners' strengths, interests, and needs and that enables each learner to advance and accelerate his/her learning." Through creating this differentiated vocabulary lesson, I acknowledged my students' uniqueness and used that foundation to advance their understanding of the vocabulary words.
How the artifact represents growth and development as a teacher.
The success that each group was able to achieve due to the differentiation of the Rosa Park's research project and the vocabulary activity allowed me to see the value in creating individual learning experiences based on the students' level of development. My gifted students were able to advance in their understanding through enrichment, while my below-level students were able to advance in their understanding through remediation. Both advancements were appropriate for my students' level of development. Therefore, even though creating these types of learning experiences take a significant amount of time, the growth students achieve through them is unmatched. Thus, as a teacher I must be consciously aware and dedicated to student’s learning differences so that students are able to achieve success in my classroom, at a level that is appropriate for their needs.
The first artifact portrays the students conducting research about Rosa Parks. It was their task to draw out facts and information about Rosa Park's life using various books and iPads. In order to differentiate the instruction in a way that each student was able to learn about Rosa Parks at his or her developmental level, I decided to provide the students with various modes of information. These modes included some books that contained mostly pictures, with a short paragraph, to explain Rosa's life and other books that contained higher-level reading. A website, Kids Britannica, was used because it contains a feature that reads the information on the page aloud to the students and presents valuable information through videos.
This artifact demonstrates my knowledge of substrandard 1(d), "The teacher understands the role of language and culture in learning and knows how to modify instruction to make language comprehensible and instruction relevant, accessible, and challenging." In this case, I was able to challenge the advanced readers with higher-level reading and was able to make the language accessible to my beginning readers with the read aloud feature of Kids Britannica, all while reaching the on-target readers with grade-level books.
My second artifact, the differentiated vocabulary activity, was designed and implemented because my students’ ability levels range from gifted and talented to below grade-level. Thus, the instruction that is appropriate for each student differs.
For the advanced students, those above grade-level, I wrote sentences with blanks and then required the students to find the correct vocabulary word that fit into the sentence. In addition, students were required to write two sentences using one of the vocabulary words. This activity challenged the students to not only know the definition of the word, but also apply that knowledge to a sentence.
The benchmark group, those at grade-level, also completed fill-in-the-blank sentences, but instead of completing all of the sentences, each student received three sentences to complete independently. This task was appropriate for these students because their automaticity of the meaning of the words was still developing, so finding the correct word to fit three sentences was an adequate challenge. After each student completed their sentences they shared them aloud with the whole group, which exposed the students to each vocabulary words and a corresponding sentence.
The strategic group, students slightly below grade-level, participated in a similar activity, but it was completed as a whole group to scaffold the process. In the first part of the activity, students used the vocabulary words they were most familiar with to complete fill-in-the-blank sentences. To help students acquire a deeper understanding of some of the other vocabulary words, students matched the vocabulary word to the corresponding picture. This component of the activity helped them gain a visual meaning of the words.
The intensive group, those below grade-level, was given sticky notes with the vocabulary words with the task of matching the word to the correct picture. This task was appropriate for these students because they were still striving to attain the basic meaning of the vocabulary words, and this activity allowed them to gain this understanding in a unique and developmentally appropriate way.
This artifact correlates with 1(b), "The teacher creates developmentally appropriate instruction that takes into account individual learners' strengths, interests, and needs and that enables each learner to advance and accelerate his/her learning." Through creating this differentiated vocabulary lesson, I acknowledged my students' uniqueness and used that foundation to advance their understanding of the vocabulary words.
How the artifact represents growth and development as a teacher.
The success that each group was able to achieve due to the differentiation of the Rosa Park's research project and the vocabulary activity allowed me to see the value in creating individual learning experiences based on the students' level of development. My gifted students were able to advance in their understanding through enrichment, while my below-level students were able to advance in their understanding through remediation. Both advancements were appropriate for my students' level of development. Therefore, even though creating these types of learning experiences take a significant amount of time, the growth students achieve through them is unmatched. Thus, as a teacher I must be consciously aware and dedicated to student’s learning differences so that students are able to achieve success in my classroom, at a level that is appropriate for their needs.