The Learner Development standard requires teachers to understand how learners develop and how to make developmentally appropriate instruction that meets each individual student’s needs. The standard is important because understanding learner development allows educators to create appropriate and differentiated learning experiences for their students based on each student’s needs and abilities. This standard is reflected in my use of use of data-informed, developmentally appropriate activities, scaffolding, and performance-based assessments.
My understanding of my students’ cognitive and linguistic needs is demonstrated in the activities I created for individual students based upon their Developmental Spelling Analysis (DSA) scores. Using their DSA scores, I determined which spelling features that they were each “using but confusing,” which allowed me to design activities within their Zone of Proximal Development and that improved their understanding of the features that they were confusing.
My understanding of my students’ cognitive and linguistic needs is further demonstrated in my design and use of developmentally appropriate data-driven activities. One of the activities I developed based on the DSA scores was a word study lesson for a student at the Syllable Juncture stage. I designed and implemented various word sorts that analyzed VCe (e-drop) words. These activities were implemented because they allowed the student to analyze vowel pattern and sound, work towards automaticity, and connect the words being studied to how they are used in text. Additionally, the lesson included authentic reading and writing activities as well a base word sort by vowel pattern, which allowed me to assess her background knowledge at the beginning of the lesson.
My understanding of my students’ cognitive, social, and emotional needs is also demonstrated in the videos I made during virtual instruction. The first few weeks of closure were difficult for my students. Not being able to go to school was hard for them to fathom, and many of them were afraid of the virus itself. In an effort to boost morale, provide some ideas for them to use at home, and maintain some sense of normalcy, my supervising teacher and I created a series of videos for our students. Our efforts to connect with students during the closures were recognized by Understood.org, an organization that seeks to provide resources to families, young adults, and educators dealing with learning difficulties.
While we removed our YouTube channel for student internet safety reasons, I uploaded some of them to an unlisted, private playlist on my personal YouTube account so I could display them on my ePortfolio.