InTASC Standard 1: Learner Development
“The teacher understands how learners grow and develop, recognizing that patterns of learning and development vary individually within and across the cognitive, linguistic, social, emotional, and physical areas, and designs and implements developmentally appropriate and challenging learning experiences.”
Each student is unique and won’t learn or grow on the same timeline. Therefore, teachers should regularly assess their students and prepare appropriate lessons that meet their students where they are in their ability level. Presenting challenging material that is within their zone of proximal development is essential to promote a sense of accomplishment and facilitate development for young people. During my time at Hollins University, I have had various opportunities to consider learner development when planning for instruction.
Three artifacts that I have included here, in order to highlight learner development, are: a lesson plan that differentiates instruction for students with special needs, the results of a 3-minute reading assessment I conducted with an eighth grade student, and an activity that provides students with online reading materials at their specific reading level.
DIFFERENTIATED LESSON PLANS: When crafting lesson plans, I approach the planning process with a specific mindset: Make sure each student has the opportunity to be successful. The adage that we have to meet students where they are is foremost in my mind. I want each student to have a challenging learning experience that doesn’t veer into a frustrating one, or excludes that student from being able to participate. There are various ways to differentiate instruction and accommodate students with disabilities, students who are English Learners, and students who prefer different learning modalities. Included here is an example of a tenth grade lesson plan, which is part of a two-week unit about media. This lesson plan was crafted to offer various activities that incorporate different learning modalities, such as intrapersonal, interpersonal, visual, linguistic, kinesthetic, spatial, and mathematical. By offering opportunities to learn in various ways, I’m increasing the likelihood that my students will interact with the material in ways which are comfortable and natural for them.
READING ASSESSMENT: In 2021, I had the opportunity to conduct a 3-minute reading assessment with an eighth grader. My tutee read a specific passage out loud for one minute while I monitored their accuracy, pacing, and expression. We then briefly discussed the passage to measure comprehension and the extent to which the student interacted with the text. Finally, I scored the student’s word count. Understanding how to quickly assess a student’s reading fluency and decoding skills is an essential skill for an English teacher. Doing so allows the teacher to pair students with appropriate texts that are at their reading level. This effort helps students avoid feeling frustrated as they read and builds their confidence. For example, instead of having every student read the same text for a research assignment, I would use recent reading assessment results to match my students to appropriate text sets for their reading level.
READING AT LEXILE LEVEL: I am student teaching seventh graders at Northside Middle School during spring 2022. Each Monday is Newsela Day. Students use the Newsela platform to read news articles that are leveled based on five different lexile ranges. Students choose an article of interest to them, select their lexile range, read the article, and take a short comprehension quiz. This quiz and a graphic organizer that the students fill out as they read the article (see example below) help monitor reading progress and growth. The benefit of Newsela is that students are able to consume text that is written at various reading levels to accommodate a wide range of abilities.
Below is an example of the graphic organizer that Mrs. McCarthy uses with her students to measure their reading comprehension and progress:
