1. Teaching Diverse Students

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. The teacher uses these experiences to create instructional opportunities that maximize student learning.

The Dot lesson was inspired by the book The Dot children's book. This book is a 2003 picture book written and illustrated by Peter H. Reynolds about a girl named Vashti who discovers her artistic talent. It is published by Candlewick Press. In this lesson I wanted the students to reflect on their challenges and set goals for themselves for things that they think that they cannot succeed in. During the reading, I would stop and ask questions that went along with the book. In this lesson I wanted to get to know the students more since this lesson was in the beginning of my phase in period. When we were finished reading the students returned to their seats and reflected on what they would like to accomplish this year in their personal life and in their school life. I offered the time for students to share if they would like to, some students felt confident enough to share what their goals were which was extremely special. By sharing their goals I felt more connected with the students and I felt like I was strengthening the the rapport that I had already built with the students.

This lesson related to the ITPS teaching standard 1.1L) which states the competent teacher, "uses information about students’ individual experiences, families, cultures, and communities to create meaningful learning opportunities and enrich instruction for all students." The Dot lesson was an SEL lesson that was intended to have the students reflect on their lives, such as their different experiences, family life and cultural lives as well as communities. By reflecting on the different aspects of their lives the students were able to set goals and dig deeper into their person lives and their feelings as well as their high selves.

I learned from this lesson that when students can personally connect to lessons, they can also make connects and reflect on their inner selves and discover new things about themselves. This lesson also taught me how to build a student teacher rapport with the class because I am helping them in their personal and school life. This lesson showed the students that I want the best for them and that I want to students to take control of their behaviors and actions in order to succeed in life and in school.

In class the students were learning about the different parts of speech with a focus on adjectives. The IPTS standard 1.1J) states, that "differentiates strategies, materials, pace, levels of complexity, and language to introduce concepts and principles so that they are meaningful to students at varying levels of development and to students with diverse learning needs." This standard inspired me to create a fun and inter active lesson for the students. I planned a lesson that taught the students about adjectives while using mystery boxes with different items in each of them. The students had to feel around in the boxes and write on a sticky note an adjective to describe the item. The items in the three boxes were a stuffed animal, a broken up rice crispy treat, and a Harry Potter wand. This activity used a strategy that got the students involved by having them interact with different materials to use their schema on adjectives. The adjective lesson allowed me to use different materials, change the pace of the class and change the level of complexity by adding mystery items that the students had to describe.

From this lesson I learned that it is important to include a variety of different teaching methods. During the lesson I started out with a fun activity that hooked the students to the lesson. Once the lesson was complete we reviewed the definition of an adjective and how they are used in sentences. After our review and interactive part of the lesson, the students tool a quiz to assess their knowledge on adjectives. This lesson was inclusive to all students because I provided an opportunity to all students to participate in the opening adjective activity and, I also provided accommodations for some students on the quiz. The students with accommodations were given a shorter quiz and they were also allowed to use an information box that listed the definition of an adjective on their quiz. This quiz was on Seesaw which is an online platform that students use for homework, quizzes, quick checks, as well as to communicate to students and parents. In conclusion I learned to involve all students in a lesson with having them feel left out.