Harmony Turner
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.
What resonates most with me, for InTASC standard 1, is an over-arching commitment to the learner's strengths and areas of need, wherein the teacher commits him/herself to understanding critical aspects of meaningful, well-supported, and flexible learning. That is, this standard aims to ensure that teachers look to their students' individual and collective experiences from a whole child perspective, and always are willing to adjust in order to promote developmentally relevant learning. This helps my understanding of Standard 1, in general, by allowing me to see the broader scope of what it means to be responsible for, and respectful of, learner development. The teacher must not only acknowledge various skill sets pertinent to achieving certain academic, social, and emotional goals, but be willing to venture outside of the classroom and seek guidance and support from others equally invested in every learner's success.
Overview of Standard
Artifact #1
Photo: Snowmen
This artifact is a photo taken during circle reading time. The photo captures images I drew spontaneously as an effort to both challenge and support my students' thinking about and understanding of compare/contrast. This artifact demonstrates how I respect learners' differing strengths and needs by showcasing how appropriate visual representations can coincide with student responses.
In Kindergarten, many students are still learning to read. Therefore, I chose to represent students' ideas as drawings instead of words: the two snowmen holding hands stood for the fact that both stories we read were about snowmen; both stories also had children and snow; one story included a mom character, while the other had a dad character. All students' ideas could be equally represented and all students could accurately interpret one another's thoughts by utilizing this visual reference. Furthermore, this photograph acts as documented evidence that I will use as gained insight to my students' prior knowledge of compare/contrast, as well as their developing abilities to communicate big ideas, especially as I continue to develop ELA lessons and assessments that will support multiple learning levels.
Artifact #2
Photo: Journal Assignment
Descriptor: 1(h): The teacher respects learners’ differing strengths and needs and is committed to using this information to further each learner’s development.
Descriptor: 1(i) The teacher is committed to using learners’ strengths as a basis for growth, and their misconceptions as opportunities for learning.
This artifact is a photograph taken of a student's journal assignment, wherein all students were tasked with exploring opinion writing, after having completed a Venn Diagram project as a whole class. I chose this artifact to support the above descriptor, because I utilized the fact that my students had developed a strong foundation, over the school year, in journal writing procedures, and are familiar enough with the steps to producing original work. As I see it, this exemplifies my commitment to fostering and nurturing students' skill sets, while also leaving room for continued improvement, fine-tuning, and growth.
Opinion writing was something that I had the misconception of thinking, would be easily understood by Kindergarteners. However, their misconceptions (as revealed in this student's journal sample) brought my own misconception into light. Thus, both my students and I were given an opportunity to learn; future assignments will break down the components of opinion writing and grant students time and practice to understand and apply this concept.
