The teacher understands how students differ in their approaches to learning and creates instructional opportunities that are adapted to diverse learners.
Artifact: Historical Fiction Book Leveling
Date: Fall 2009
Rationale: During my student teaching semester, my cooperating teacher launched a reading unit on the historical fiction genre. To assist in adapting instruction for individual needs, I “leveled” (Fountas & Pinnell) all the historical fiction books in her classroom library, as well as those provided by the school librarian and matched them up with students. For those students who are reading below grade level, I sought out books to match their needs as well. This demonstrates my ability to adapt reading instruction to meet the needs of all students. I am including in my portfolio the log of leveled historical fiction books.
Rationale: During my long-term guest teaching term in the 5th grade, I led a book club for girls during lunchtime. Students brought their lunches and we read books together and discussed strategies for improving comprehension. As a club, we worked on the “7 Keys for Comprehension” as outlined by Zimmerman and Hutchins. The girls that participated in this book club were students that struggled in reading comprehension and fluency. This demonstrates my ability to create instructional opportunities to meet the needs of all learners. It is my intent to create a learning community in which individual differences are respected. This event provided girls struggling in reading an opportunity to connect with others who are also struggling and to participate in a positive learning opportunity.
Artifact: Claws, Coats and Camouflage: How Animals Adapt to their World - A lesson plan for 5th graders - Multiple Intelligence Chart
Date: November 2008
Rationale: This lesson plan provided activities on animal adaptations differentiated to meet the needs of students with multiple intelligences: visual-spatial, bodily-kinesthetic, musical, interpersonal, intrapersonal, verbal-linguistic, logical-mathematical, and naturalistic. I am including this artifact as evidence of my ability to create instructional opportunities that are adapted to diverse learners.
Rationale: In the winter and spring of 2009, I was provided the distinct opportunity to lead a GED math workshop for an outstanding group of young men and women from the Young Detroit Builders. Each cycle of students meet twice a week for 4 weeks to learn math. I taught this class in a computer lab and created a web-based class that centered on the needs of each group of students. On the first session, the students took a GED pre-assessment and then I based the rest of the sessions on the needs of the students. Every day after the lesson of the day, students work online on areas they needed the most practice in. The students’ progress during this short amount of time was remarkable, far exceeding my goals for this program. For the first cycle of students, 20% of the students passed the practice test on day one and 100% of the students passed the same test at the end of the workshop! The second cycle of students also had success with only 40% passing the test initially and 80% passing the test at the end. I am included this in my portfolio as evidence of my ability to create instructional opportunities to meet the needs of a diverse group of learners.
