3. Educators understand that children learn differently.
The educator understands how pupils differ in their approaches to learning and the barriers that impede learning and can adapt instruction to meet the diverse needs of pupils, including those with disabilities and exceptionalities.
Wisconsin Educator Standards for Teachers
InTASC MODEL STANDARDS
Standard #2: Learning Differences
The teacher uses understanding of individual differences and diverse cultures and communities to ensure inclusive learning environments that enable each learner to meet high standards.
Standard #3 is closely tied with Standard #2 in addressing my ability to recognize the difference in how students learn. My coursework in curriculum and methods and my student teaching experience have given me the knowledge and strategies to help the wide variety of students I will be teaching. My ESL classes and student teaching address development stages in learning English as a second language, but many of these strategies can be used for other students, such as students in special education or extended reading. I have learned the value of knowing frameworks like Understanding by Design, Universal Design, differentiation, and scaffolds. Below you will find specific lessons or lesson segments which demonstrate those frameworks to accommodate various abilities of student learning, and you will find a variety of assessments which accommodate different learners to show their skills and knowledge.
Artifact 1: ESL Lesson Scaffolds (Attached Below)
This artifact is an assignment from my Language Acquisition in Content Areas course, which was part of my ESL course sequence at Edgewood College. The assignment was to design language and literacy supports and scaffolds for a lesson or unit. The scaffolds includes are for a American Civil War unit for a middle school class (7th or 8th grade), which demonstrate my knowledge and attention to language acquisition and how students learn and build language and literacy skills.
Artifact 2: Intro to Imperialism Instruction Materials (Attached Below)
This artifact is from my student teaching experience where I taught a mini introduction unit to imperialism (artifact 3). This document includes the key instructional materials for the unit, which includes graphic organizers for vocabulary and for a primary source analysis stations activity. The vocabulary organizer demonstrates my ability to connect to student background knowledge or culture by providing students a chance to include examples, analogies, and visuals to help them understand and remember the vocabulary. The graphic organizer for the primary source stations activity breaks down the primary source analysis into concrete sections, which helps ELLs, students in special education, and students who struggle with reading and writing.
Artifact 3: Intro to Imperialism Unit (Attached Below)
These are the lessons plans for the Intro to Imperialism Unit from my student teaching experience. The instructional materials for these lessons are also attached (artifact 2). These lesson plans incorporate various strategies for engagement, including station activities and interactive online discussions, which allows students to work with peers and use their background knowledge and skills to help them demonstrate their knowledge and skills for this unit.
Artifact 4: WWI Propaganda Pear Deck Lesson (Attached Below)
This is a lesson plan from my student teaching experience which uses technology as a tool to aid instruction and class collaboration. In the lesson students answer questions about propaganda posters from WWI on Pear Deck, which is an interactive discussion tool where students can share answers with the class anonymously while I can see who posted which response on my laptop screen. Students can share their thoughts without fear, and at the same time I can gauge student progress with language and understanding.