Standard #2: Teacher as Learner

“The student teacher demonstrates an awareness of, and concern for, the people in his/her classroom.  Focusing on learners as full human beings with a rich history, unique characteristics, substantive achievements, talents, skills and interests, the student teacher does his/her best to observe, document and learn about those students.  S/he works hard to “understand their understanding.”

Learning about my students and their individual skills was a crucial goal of mine and something that my mentor teacher helped me to focus on immensely. Making these types of observations and assessments a priority, when there is so much more going on in the classroom, proved difficult, but it soon became clear that knowing the areas that students struggle in will then help guide instruction moving forward and tailor the lessons to the class’ needs.

Two specific ways that I formally learned about my students’ learning was by issuing both a  writing assessment before the final essay assignment, and a reading assessment before assigning a long book to engage in. These formal assessments revealed both just how much diversity existed in my classroom in regards to learning styles, but also helped to focus my instruction onto the specific needs of the class. By using the data gleaned from these assignments, I was able to see both my classroom holistically, and narrow in on individual students.

From less formal assessments, such as observations of my students in my own and other classes, I was able to recognize the great variance in comprehension and interests within the grade. With this in mind, I sought to tailor my assignments and expectations as much as I could, by providing different question options for a final research paper, a decision among art-forms for a presentation, as well as the the ability to create their own extra credit assignment that incorporates the content from class. By providing my students with these choices, they can not only feel more comfortable in my classroom, but they can also help to improve their learning on an individual level, doing what they know best.

For some individual students, their needs were greater than simply being behind on grade-level or struggling to understand a concept, and I was able to work closely with our ELL and special-needs coordinator to address those concerns and needs. Learning how to meet all of these students accommodations within a larger classroom is something that I seek to improve upon, and I will do so primarily by speaking with the educators and experts around me to see the strategies they use to address each student’s learning concerns.