Standard2

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** Standard 2 ** The teacher understands how children with broad ranges of ability learn and provides instruction that supports their intellectual, social, and personal development.
 * Teachers know how children grow. **

Evidence 1: Latin America Project

Rationale 1: This project was developed for two 6th grade geography classes. One class was regular ed. and the other was an inclusion class with a broad range of abilities. My goal was to create a project that would challenge my gifted and talented students as well as meet the needs of my high functioning cognitively disabled students and low functioning learning-disabled students. The students researched a country in Latin America using CultureGrams and then created a newsletter using Microsoft Publisher to report what was learned. This entire project was technology based, and students spent approximately three weeks in the computer lab working on it. Special education students were given more time during their pullout reading and English classes.

Students at all levels were successful with this project, and the special education teacher said she would use it as a model to share with other regular educators who are wondering how to differentiate instruction. This project reinforced for me the need to create projects that have clear steps that are open-ended. By doing this, all of the students learned important research skills but were also able to report their information in their own style at their own level.

Students did very well with this project and very few accommodations were needed for the special education students. Some students used a program that read CultureGrams to them and others required more time with their special education teacher, but all students completed the project. Most of the students performed at a proficient or advanced level. KSD 2.K.1 The teacher understands how learning occurs -- how students construct knowledge, acquire skills, and develop habits of mind – and how to use instructional strategies that promote student learning for a wide range of student abilities. This project shows that I can plan for a wide range of student abilities and lead them to success. Students had to read, take and organize notes, and report information back in a different format. I know that students need to learn these research skills in a step-by-step fashion and repeat those steps many times in order to become successful researchers with proper habits. They need time to process what they are reading, and they need to be able to try a variety of ways of reporting what they have learned.  2.S.1 The teacher assesses individual and group performance in order to design instruction that meets learners’ current needs in each domain (cognitive, social, emotional, moral, and physical) and that leads to the next level of development.

As the students worked on this project, I sat down with each one as many times as I could to assess their performance. Students were able to work at their own pace the entire time, and I did not move students to the next step until they were ready. I was able to see how the entire group was performing and able to work with students individually to help them develop their research skills.  2.D.1 The teacher appreciates individual variation at each developmental level and shows respect for the diverse talents of all learners, and is committed to help them develop self-confidence and competence.

My goal every day is to help students develop self-confidence in their learning. Confidence leads to competence. This project allowed me to work individually with each student. While doing that, I was able to point out their strengths and help them to improve areas in which they were weak. One student totally amazed me. Most of her work had been poor all year long. This project completely motivated her, and her final project was fantastic. She told me that it was because she was interested in what we were doing. I told her that now I know what she can do and will expect it. Since then, she has been doing amazing work in all of her subjects.