1. Teaching Diverse Learners

The competent teacher understands the diverse characteristics and abilities of each student and how individuals develop and learn within the context of their social, economic, cultural, linguistic, and academic experiences.

Special Populations Lesson Plan

In my methods class, I got the opportunity to develop a modified lesson plan for students who suffered from abuse and neglect. It was a literacy lesson for 8th graders. Throughout the lesson plan, I added in times when accommodations or modifications would benefit a student who suffers academically due to neglect or abuse.

Throughout creating this lesson plan, I was able to connect it to standard 1, "understand the diverse characteristics and abilities of each student and how individuals develop and learn", because I got the chance to think of ways I can individualize a lesson plan to fit the needs and abilities of a specific student. It also allowed me to think about how I could modify and accommodate this lesson for other students with different disabilities.

Creating this lesson as well as taking part in the Methods for Special Educators class gave me the chance to consider different teaching strategies I can utilize for a variety of students. Especially in the field of special education, this skill will be vital.

Student Teaching Lesson Plans

For my first student teaching placement, I worked in a 6th-8th grade life skills classroom. I got to differentiate and accommodate lessons daily. This lesson I created was a social studies lesson where we used News2U. For the lesson I included planned supports and modifications I would include throughout the lesson.

This lesson plan shows my understanding of standard 1, "the diverse characteristics and abilities of each student and how individuals develop and learn", because while this lesson was originally created for regular education students, I took the time to modify them for my students with disabilities. Each of my students had a different disability so I had modify for each student as individuals. This lesson also gave me the opportunity to consider different methods to use in different subjects to be able to make the lessons as beneficial as possible for my students.

I created this lessons during my first student teaching placement which taught me so much about working with a diverse population of students and teaching to meet their needs.