1.Teaching Diverse Students

This assignment is an analysis of the contextual factors that made up the school where I did my pre-student teaching. This required me to look at the demographics of the school based on their Illinois School Report Card, as well as what I noticed about the school environment and the surrounding community.

Through this assignment, I have shown that I understand "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 assets that each student brings to learning across the curriculum" (1A). This assignment made me look very closely at the make-up of the school I was in, and made me notice aspects that I might not have otherwise.

This artifact is important to me because it shows the importance of recognizing diversity in the classroom. A school's report card can give a lot of insight, but it is also important to take notice of the school environment, and how it can impact student learning. When I taught lessons during this placement, I took a lot of the information included in this paper into account.

This is a paper I wrote for a course specifically dealing with literacy across different disciplines. In it, I summarized two current articles regarding the topic, and then discussed how I might use some of the strategies in the classroom.

Through this assignment, I have shown that I understand "how each student constructs knowledge, acquires skills, and develops effective and efficient critical thinking and problem-solving capabilities" (1B). This assignment gave me a better understanding of strategies to assist students are learning English as a second language that I can apply in the classroom. 

This artifact is important to my portfolio because is shows the importance of how learning can impact teaching strategies. Before this assignment, I knew very little about instructing students who are learning English as a second language. It prepared me with strategies I can use, and gave me more insight into how my students backgrounds can impact their learning.