The Interstate Teacher Assessment and Support Consortium (InTASC) Standard 1: Learner Development

The teacher understands how learners grow and develop, recognizing that patterns of learning and development vary individually within and across the cognitive, linguistic, social, emotional, physical areas, and designs and implements developmentally appropriate and challenging experiences.

The artifact that best encapsulates InTASC Standard 1 is my Live Lesson

Rationale

The InTASC standards that best exemplify the included artifact are:

1(b) The teacher creates developmentally appropriate instruction that takes into account individual learners’ strengths, interests, and needs and that enables each learner to advance and accelerate his/ her learning.

1(d) The teacher understands how learning occurs--how learners construct knowledge, acquire skills, and develop disciplined thinking processes--and knows how to use instructional strategies that promote student learning.

1(e) The teacher understands that each learner’s cognitive, linguistic, social, emotional, and physical development influences learning and knows how to make instructional decisions that build on learners’ strengths and needs.

1(f) The teacher identifies readiness for learning, and understands how development in any one area may affect performance in others.

1(g) The teacher understands the role of language and culture in learning and knows how to modify instruction to make language comprehensible and instruction relevant, accessible, and challenging.

1(h) The teacher respects learners’ differing strengths and needs and is committed to using this information to further each learner’s development.

A description of the artifact, when it was created, the purpose and process of its creation:

The included artifact was created as an assignment for Subject Methods and Assessment: an essential class in the Education Development and Training program at University of Maryland University College. I created this artifact in order to provide a group of students I had been tutoring with a means to practice annotating a text. I felt that annotating would be the perfect skill to review, as it is applicable to any student of any age group or grade. I chose to utilize YouTube for this tutoring session so that students could revisit the lesson later in the current school year, or school years to come. Annotating and reading to understand are basic skills that students often forget, so I wanted to provide a resource that is timeless.

How does this artifact demonstrate achievement of Standard 1: Learner Development?

Part of what Standard 1: Learner Development asks of teachers is that the teacher understand how learners construct knowledge, acquire skills, and develop disciplined thinking processes. It also asks that teachers know how to use instructional strategies that promote student learning. My Live Lesson demonstrates the necessary steps to help students effectively construct knowledge by providing students with an explanation of the process featured in the lesson, a model, and a means in which students can check their work. This lesson is also easily accessible, so students can view the lesson as many times as they need. This artifact is also developmentally appropriate and takes into account individual learners’ strengths and needs. My Live Lesson is developmentally appropriate for most high school students that struggle with reading a text, and takes into account learners' strengths and needs since students can complete the tutoring lesson at their own pace.

How has my understanding of the standard been affected by the creation of this artifact?

Through the creation of this artifact, my understanding of Standard 1: Learner Development has made me more aware of how I should be paying attention to the differing strengths and needs of students. I also have a better idea of how to use this information to further each learner’s development. I spent a great deal of time trying to figure out the best way to help all of my students get a better idea of how to annotate a text. I chose to use a YouTube video so that students could pause the video if they needed the lesson to move slower. Students could also let the video play through if they did not need as much time. I also provided students with a packet of notes to help them while they were completing the tutoring session, which was essentially the same PowerPoint I used in the video. This made it easier for some students to look back to double check information they may have missed. Before giving students the their note packets, I highlighted certain parts of note packets for certain students that needed a small amount of extra direction. Though the students that completed the tutoring session were of all different levels of reading comprehension and grade, they were all able to finish the lesson at their own pace and were able to apply that information to their assigned novels for English.

What are my strengths related to this standard? What do I need to improve on?

I believe I did a great job providing students with examples to help them understand the concepts I was teaching. I also felt that I picked a good sample text for students to practice annotations. The sample text provided students with opportunities to use all the annotation methods I covered in my lesson. I wanted my lesson to give students a sense of independence, and I feel my lesson allowed and encouraged students to work at their own pace. Looking back on my lesson, I feel as though I should have had larger groups of students completing the lesson at the same time. This way, students would have more examples of different annotations. I mostly had two to three students completing the lesson at a time. After watching my lesson multiple times, I started to notice areas in which I could have spoken more clearly. I also think I could improve this lesson by eliminating some of the pauses that were a result of me trying to go slow enough for students to follow along. Next time, I will spend more time editing my video lessons.

Overall, I think students mostly enjoyed the lesson. They liked that they could move through the lesson at their own pace and that they could visit the lesson again if they needed the notes or needed to review the instruction. They also liked that the lesson could be completed on their own, as they did not feel especially rushed. I feel that a lesson of this nature could be useful in the future, as it could be used as a sponge activity or a homework assignment. Viewing the completed assignment associated with this lesson can allow a teacher to assess how familiar students are view annotating a text. As I’ve stated before, my favorite part of this lesson is that students can review the material whenever they want. They can use the video to refer the annotation key or to view examples. This will benefit students greatly in the future.

Artifacts

Live Lesson:

Tutoring Supplement for High School Students, Grades 9-12

Annotating/ Active Reading Guide: