Standard 1 - Teaching Diverse Students

This is my statement explaining my commitment to diversity and inclusion in the classroom.  I demonstrate an understanding of the spectrum of student diversity by acknowledging and valuing the multifaceted identities and backgrounds of students.  It goes beyond recognizing traditional markers such as race, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, special education, giftedness, English language proficiency, sexual orientation, gender and gender identity.  This commitment encompasses an appreciation for the assets and unique contributions that each student brings to the learning environment across various facets of the curriculum.  Utilizing these 5 factors: Recognition of multiple identities, valuing different perspectives, creating inclusive learning environments, leveraging strengths and assets, and equity and access to opportunities, I aim to create a learning environment that embraces diversity, promotes equity, and values the richness of various perspectives and experiences.

This statement illustrates my understanding of student diversity and how to incorporate various student strengths and abilities to best support their educational experience. (1A) "understands the spectrum of student diversity (e.g., race and ethnicity, socioeconomic status, special education, gifted, English language learners (ELL), sexual orientation, gender, gender identity) and the assets that each student brings to learning across the curriculum"

This is a writing workshop I implemented in my student teaching focusing on developing a claim and utilizing evidence to properly support your claim.  By utilizing a crime scene scenario and allowing the students to become investigators, students were to develop their own claim (who they believe committed the crime), utilized evidence to demonstrate support for their claim (the evidence they found in the crime scene), and tied their evidence to their claim by using reasoning and rationales that strengthened their argument.  This lesson tied directly to the students' previous writing assessments in their unit exams and sought to develop their writing abilities across many curriculums.  Student development in their writing skills was then measured utilizing their next unit essay exam, as well as their final semester essay.  

This lesson focuses on utilizing prior knowledge and building on essential skills to develop this knowledge into new concepts within student writing. (1I) "stimulates prior knowledge and links new ideas to already familiar ideas and experiences."