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DRAFT: This module has unpublished changes.

Standard Two of the Brown Practice-Based Standards reflects the importance of understanding the student as a learner. As a teacher, it is important for me to get to know my students both inside the classroom and beyond its walls.  Throughout my three placements this year, I have endeavored to find opportunities to learn about my students as whole, developing individuals. By offering students frequent opportunities to share and reflect, I have gained valuable information about my students’ background, culture, and life experiences. I have also taken careful notice of how my students think, learn, and plan their work. My collection of observations has taken the form of questioning students verbally, reviewing student work, or making anecdotal notes about students. My undergraduate background is in human development and I feel that I can always come back to my understanding of child development and recalling what the student can do as a basis for understanding their performance in the classroom. When collecting these observations, I am careful to keep truthful observations that are grounded in reality and take note of any potential bias in my records. As Standard Two explains, a teacher should always be referring back to the student and to concrete, observable data in order to understand that student as a learner.

 

In our summer session, I began to get to know my students through community building activities like our All About Me Flowers. This activity helped me to learn more about what my students value as learner and as humans. I also began exploring systems for taking anecdotal notes so that I can record my observations of students' behavior and learning styles. By the end of our three week session, I had learned a great deal about my students and about the note-taking strategies that might be helpful in my future classrooms.

 

This year, I have realized that it is important to understand the life experiences a student deems relevant because these experiences might provide me with ideas for incorporating a student’s background and prior knowledge into classroom content (Howard, 2010, p.80). The Descriptive Review of a Child process allowed me to do exactly that during my fall semester. I worked closely with one particular student in my class, getting to know her learning styles, interests, disposition, and other relevant information. This particular student seemed to be unsure of herself, and I came to wonder how I could support her independent and confident development. This question was especially close to my heart as this student often called on me for support during my practicum. It was important for me to get to know her and find some ways to help her help herself when I was no longer in my fall placement. I know that when my student is able to successfully explain herself, a small victory like that may help her to continue feeling confident in her responses and her delivery in the future (Lemov, 2015, p. 188). After compiling a set of observations about this student, I presented my findings to a Critical Friends Group (CFG) and had the opportunity to hear my group members discuss some ways that I can use this student’s strengths and interests to help boost her confidence as a thinker and a learner. After my CFG, I returned to my fall placement with a wealth of ideas for using my student’s interest in the visual and performing arts to help her organize her thoughts and feel confident explaining herself.

 

I also had the chance to create some seating charts for my classes this fall and this spring, which helped me to truly examine my students’ learning styles. Creating these seating charts sounded simple, but it was no easy task. While creating these groups in both of my placements, my mentor teacher and I had lengthy conversations about what combinations of students might best encourage academic learning and social development. Tomlinson and McTighe (2006) suggest that we can achieve feasible differentiation in class by finding patterns of instruction that work for groups of students (Tomlinson & McTighe, 2006, p.20). I kept this principle in mind as I created seating charts and attempted to create both like and unlike groups of students that might benefit from similar types of small-group instruction, or from working together with their tablemates.The needs and goals of these groups varied from month to month based on the things my mentor and I had noticed. For example, we paired a less-confident learner with a friendly peer who had more confidence in himself, or placed certain students closer to the SmartBoard to help them maintain focus. Creating these seating charts helped me to get to know my  students as learners and to figure out what grouping or differentiation strategies would work best for them.

 

I also taught Reading and Writing in an inclusion classroom environment this spring. These classes had many different learners with individual needs. By connecting with the third grade special educator and getting to know my students, I was able to offer students additional support that was in line with my students’ learning styles. One of the most important ways that I differentiated my instruction in these settings was through modeling using a document camera. Depending on the lesson and on the needs of my students, I varied my modeling through multiple degrees of gradual-release guided practice. These instances allowed me to quickly assess students’ understanding as we completed a model assignment together, or to consider further individualized support that might be needed during independent work time. During independent time, I used verbal models such as sentence stems and repeating ideas back to students to support development of students’ own ideas. Employing a variety of models helped me to consider what sorts of instruction worked best for each of my students. I finished the semester with a solid understanding of the learners in my classroom and innumerable ideas for offering them support.

DRAFT: This module has unpublished changes.