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 achievements.
Every student can learn, however, some students need extra help or need to have a different worksheet because they cannot learn the same way as others. Nonetheless, does that mean they are incapable of achievement within a classroom? No, every student has their strengths and gifts to show off to the world, and I want to make sure every student can feel comfortable completing an assessment they are capable of doing.
At the end of our unit on Manifest Destiny, the students had to write a letter to someone back home because they were going to travel West in the new territories. Down below on the left side, there is an artifact written by a student who completed the greeting, the two paragraphs, the closing, and five vocabulary words. Next to the artifact, there is a modified letter written by a student who completed the greeting, one paragraph, the closing, and three vocabulary words. This demonstrates indicator 3P, which states, "Works with others to adapt and modify instruction to meet individual student needs." My students who had IEPs or 504 plans were given the assignment on the right to help benefit them by showing how they are capable of writing this letter. They did the same amount of questions and the same goal, however, these students were given the assessment they were capable of achieving.
When I first assigned the letter to students, they were having trouble with trying to obtain five vocabulary words to put it. After reflecting, I changed their requirements of only adding three vocabulary words in their letters because I wanted them to focus on explaining why they were traveling out West. This demonstrates indicator 3D, which states, "Understands when and how to adjust plans based on outcome data, as well as student needs, goals, and responses." Changing their assessment gave the students a better opportunity to achieve the objective for the assignment to write about how traveling out West in these new territories was hard and exhausting. Having the students write fewer vocabulary words was better for them to focus on the overall purpose of the assignment.
Westward Letter Summative Assessment 2024.pdfGreeting, 7 questions to answer in two paragraphs, closing, and five vocabulary words needed to be used.
Westward Letter Summative Assessment Modified 2024.pdfGreeting, 7 questions to answer in one paragraph, closing, and three vocabulary words needed to be used.
Students whose first language is Spanish could be overwhelming for them as they sit in a classroom with students and a teacher talking to them in English. Even though they are given resources such as an iPad to translate their materials and have their Chromebooks in Spanish. It could be a tricky environment for them to navigate, and being a teacher who does not know Spanish could be an equal challenge for me to help.
This allowed me to connect with the students more by having a translator ask them how I could be a better teacher by helping them learn the content. They expressed to me how sometimes having different devices within the classroom is hard for them, and rather just have their Google Documents already translated for them. The artifact down below is a translated version of the Google Documents hung up in my classroom. They were working on stations around the room, and working on reading about different reformers. This demonstrates indicator 3C, which states, "Understands cultural, linguistic, cognitive, physical, and social and emotional differences, and considers the needs of each student when planning instruction." I took the time to translate the Google Documents I had created and turn them into a Spanish version too. I hung the Spanish version up right next to the English version because they could still travel in their groups while answering the questions.
Also, when I asked the students about how I could help them, I made sure to add how I expected the same amount of effort and work out of them as everyone else. I want them to be held accountable just as my other students about turning in their homework and paying attention in class. This demonstrates indicator 3H, which states, "Establishes high expectations for each student’s learning and behavior." My expectations for them will be the same as everyone else because they are capable of producing the same work effort. They can use their devices to their advantage to translate assignments into English will benefit them too.
