A2. Uses principles of learning and development, and understanding of learners and learner diversity during planning, instruction, and assessment.

It is a reality that in any given learning environment, teachers are bound to have students who work at all different levels of academic rigor. Learner diversity is something to be celebrated in a classroom, as there are many things we can learn from each other and learn through helping each other. When planning for instruction, arguably the most important aspect to keep in mind is the needs of your students. Effective educators ask themselves, “how can I differentiate this content to challenge the needs of every student on every academic level in my classroom? How can I make sure each student is taking away the most they can from my learning environment?” A thorough teacher assesses their students to determine which students will need differing supports through the academic year, and plans their lessons accordingly.

I account for learner diversity in my classroom by the recognition of students who are in need of additional academic supports. Additional academic supports can go in either direction; in my classroom, there are students who need support to reach learning targets that are foundational to the skills being built in second grade, and there are students who desire and need to be challenged beyond second grade learning targets to continue growing academically.

In my classroom, I have one student whose reading and writing skills are at a kindergarten level. Using my understanding of his ability to plan assignments for him that will support academic growth, I have been able to adapt all of the lessons I teach to suit his ability to participate and express understanding. When giving written assignments to this student, I am able to pre-write some of the content for him and leave blank spaces/lines where he would need to fill in words that would complete the sentence. This student still engages with the same material as the whole class, and in a way that does not hinder his ability to participate alongside everyone else.

When giving math assessments to this student (whose particular strong suit is mathematics), I was able to deliver the test to him verbally one on one and assist him in writing his answers. If he could not write the answer to a question, he was able to give me the answer verbally and I could record it. This allowed for this student to showcase the large gains being made in his mathematics skill and for me as his instructor to understand that he was comprehending the concepts.

 

 

On the other hand, I am able to challenge students who need a greater academic challenge in my classroom and allow them to progress with skills beyond what is being assessed in a benchmark. For example, one student who excels in nearly every subject is consistently looking to be challenged with more problems, specifically in math. In this photo, I designed a problem for this student that targeted a skill that my class had not yet mastered. This student was able to make use of the academic time and challenge his thinking with a harder problem, as he had finished the independent work the rest of the class was still working on.