The competent teacher plans and designs instruction based on content area knowledge, diverse student characteristics, student performance data, curriculum goals, and the community context. The teacher plans for ongoing student growth and achievement.
Emotional & Behavioral Presentation & Handout
The presentation and handout demonstrate understanding of students that may have emotional disorders or behavioral outbursts. This identifies various disorders and provides strategies that assist the student and the overall classroom. A Social Emotional Standard that I have used in lesson plans, 2C.5a. Evaluate the application of communication & social skills in daily interactions with peers, teachers & families, notes the importance of applying these strategies to prevent less classroom distractions and of communicating any issues with others. Teachers, students and parents need to work together as a team and be collaborative in their efforts to support the student in question.
I understand these emotional and behavioral issues as I have worked with children as a parent and Scout volunteer where these tendencies are present. In some circumstances, I had to work with other adults to provide guidance to them on handling a situation. I feel equipped to address these issues when they arise and know how to work with the student so these situations are less frequent. According to the standard, "the teacher plans for ongoing student growth and achievement" and the tools presented within the artifact allow for student growth when using the tools effectively. The more tools and information a teacher in any capacity has in their toolbox only benefits the student and learning environment. The differentiation provided inherently helps challenged students but also the neurotypical student because the material is presented in various ways to connect with the student.
This artifact was developed in my AEDU 216 Introduction to Exceptional Children in order to understand the different tools and ways educators can provide varied learning to students. This helps me as an educator because students are demonstrating more diverse learning challenges. By understanding the challenges, we can reach the students and make stronger connections to show we value their unique characteristics. The students feel more welcome within the classroom; therefore, they are more eager to learn and retain the information being taught to them. Knowing this information also makes me a stronger parent, as I have two children that need differentiated instruction.
This artifact represents only the jury note packet for the Introduction to Business Mock Trial within the Business Law unit. The students that have the jury member role will complete this packet during the two day mock trial. This provides them an opportunity to reflect on the case during their jury deliberations. The expectation is that students would write down various points they deemed important to deliver a verdict.
This artifact was mainly developed for students to write down their notes. This really forces the student into only one way to reflect on the case. This standard notes "The competent teacher plans and designs instruction based on content area knowledge, diverse student characteristics..." In a particular class, a student had hurt their wrist which was put into a splint on their writing hand. The student was not to write as the movement needed to be restricted so there was no further damage to the wrist. As such, we received notification from the school nurse that we had to provide alternative means for the student when student writing was involved. Since this student was a member of a jury, we could not have them use another student juror's notes. The student wouldn't be able to type fast enough to take notes in an online document nor would they be able to use a headset for talk to type tools. That would be distracting to the other jurors and court members. To provide the alternative, we had taken a video of the two day mock trial and shared the video link with the student. The student could watch this video on their own time, pausing it or fast forwarding it to particular parts so they could take notes their own way at home. This could include typing notes with the other hand or using the talk to type function. We allowed use of a Google document to take notes pertaining to the case and submit that for completion of the assignment. The differentiation method was discussed ahead of time with the student to determine if this was the best idea to which the student agreed. This provided for a differentiated delivery of the assignment while still allowing the student to participate and achieve the goal.
This differentiation method provided difficult due to the circumstances of the mock trial activity. My collaborating teacher and I had to research different ways the student could take notes and not draw attention during the activity. We collaborated the next day after receiving an email from the school nurse about the student's situation with writing activities. We found any oral delivery of note taking was not going to work well because it would be distracting to the class. We thought about just a voice recording but realized body language may be an important aspect to witness during a mock trial case. In the end we decided upon the video of the mock trial and the student agreed that it would be the best method because they could stop and start it to take notes. The student would not feel any pressure to keep things moving at a certain pace and they were in the privacy of their own home. In the end the student was very thankful for the alternative method and succeeded with their assignment just like the rest of the jury members.