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

This is Teaching and Learning Context for my Senior Practicum. This outlines my ability to recognize the different demographics in the class I am with. This helps me to best accommodate and serve my class based on their specific needs. This helped me figure out what was going on in my classroom and fully understanding how to go about handling each of the students. By being able to recognize this information. it will help me to plan for my future students and best accommodating each class every new year. The whole purpose of being a teacher is to understand your students needs and best accommodate to them.

Artifact 1b-2

This is a Case Study from my Language Arts Class. I worked on this with my group and we were able to study a lot about our student and her abilities. We assessed her assessments and made a way to help her improve or recognize that she could move on to the next steps. These assessments were given one at a time, then assessed after before she could move on to the next one. She needed more one on one time with the teacher to fully understand certain concepts. It was interesting to find the differences in each assessment and to see where she struggled. It seemed to help me recognize my student and how I can best analyze her data. It taught me that I can do that with my future students to best help them and figure out what is needed to help them improve.