1b: Demonstrating Knowledge

of Students

Teachers don’t teach content in the abstract; they teach it to students. In order to ensure student learning, therefore, teachers must know not only their content and its related pedagogy but also the students to whom they wish to teach that content. In ensuring student learning, teachers must appreciate what recent research in cognitive psychology has confirmed, namely, that students learn through active intellectual engagement with content. While there are patterns in cognitive, social, and emotional developmental stages typical of different age groups, students learn in their individual ways and may have gaps or misconceptions that the teacher needs to uncover in order to plan appropriate learning activities. In addition, students have lives beyond school—lives that include athletic and musical pursuits, activities in their neighborhoods, and family and cultural traditions. Students whose first language is not English, as well as students with other special needs, must be considered when a teacher is planning lessons and identifying resources to ensure that all students will be able to learn.

Danielson, C. 2013

Artifact 1b-1

Differentiation.pdf

Differentiation

One of the very first things that I do when I plan a lesson, is start with my students in mind. I try to plan for students that have special needs, students whose first language is not English, or students who I know are struggling in class right now. All students deserve my attention, but the students I mentioned previously need some extra care and attention because they deserve to be successful in class as well. Differentiation is extremely important to me because it allows me to develop lessons that all of my students can participate in fully (with the necessary support put in place). In this artifact, I demonstrate what a differentiated lesson plan I create looks like. I think through all of my students who may need extra support and help in the lesson (not just those who have special needs or are EL students, but anyone I think will need extra support) and I design alternative activities that they can choose, extra support, or modifications that they may need. I believe that every student can be successful in my classroom if they have the right support and aid when needed. Identifying the necessary resources or support that students may need during the lesson planning process allows you to be mindful of students and their needs.

Artifact 1b-2

Collaboration Notes.pdf

Collaboration Notes

These collaboration notes are from my time in the Elementary Literacy Practicum. During this practicum, I had a partner to teach with on the days I was in the classroom and we had one partner who taught the same group of students on our off days. We were also teaching students different literacy methods across multiple grade levels. This could have potentially led to a lot of confusion and misunderstanding. However, through our collaboration logs we were able to use this to our advantage and get to know our students better than if we had not collaborated with our partner. As a group, we were able to discuss what we had learned about our students, what we had been able to implement successfully as far as differentiation and behavior plans had gone, and we were able to collaborate on what we were struggling with. Additionally, because the students we were teaching were in different grade levels, we all had to work together to ensure that what we were teaching each of the students was cognitively appropriate based on their age and background knowledge.

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