Standard One | Teaching Diverse Students
The competent teacher understands the diverse characteristics and abilities of each student and how individuals develop and learn within the context of their social, economic, cultural, linguistic, and academic experiences. The teacher uses these experiences to create instructional opportunities that maximize student learning.
Artifact | Minority Experience, Fall 2010
Knowledge Indicator: The competent teacher understands the spectrum of student diversity and assets that each student brings to learning across curriculum.
Please click here for my Minority Experience Report, showcasing my experience in 5 different situations where I felt like a minority.
Please click here for my Minority Experience Report, showcasing my experience in 5 different situations where I felt like a minority.
Reflection | Minority Experience, Fall 2010
This artifact is a set of 5 experiences that I attended over the course of fall semester in 2010. At each of these experiences I felt like a minority and thus experienced a set of diverse experiences different than what I usually deal with. My experiences included dancing salsa at Latin Night, attending a Japanese tea ceremony, watching drag night at a gay club, volunteering at a soup kitchen, and attending a religious ceremony at a local synagogue.
I chose this artifact for Standard One, Teaching Diverse Students, because it exhibits how I have reached out to understand diverse situations, thus improving my ability to understand the diversity of my students.
This artifact meets this standard because it provided me an opportunity to better understand the diverse characteristics and abilities that my students will bring to the classroom. With this knowledge, I am better prepared to create instructional opportunities that maximize student learning.
This artifact is an appropriate representation of this standard because the variety of experiences captures a diverse spectrum from where my students may come. My students will come from various backgrounds, and it is necessary to understand those backgrounds in order to successfully meet the demands of those students. By knowing more about how my students feel and where they are coming from, I will be better able to create lessons that both expand and challenge what they already know.
This artifact demonstrates my growth and development as a teacher because I overcame uncomfortable situations to be better able to address the needs of my students. Although attending these various events does not by any means make me an expert, it demonstrates my willingness to branch out in order to grow. As a teacher, I should develop the skills to relate to my students’ lives, and these 5 minority experiences are a helpful way to relate to the diversity of my students.
This artifact indicates my knowledge of student diversity and the assets they bring by showing how I have taken specific steps to better understand the large spectrum of my students and how to approach the diversity in my classroom.
I chose this artifact for Standard One, Teaching Diverse Students, because it exhibits how I have reached out to understand diverse situations, thus improving my ability to understand the diversity of my students.
This artifact meets this standard because it provided me an opportunity to better understand the diverse characteristics and abilities that my students will bring to the classroom. With this knowledge, I am better prepared to create instructional opportunities that maximize student learning.
This artifact is an appropriate representation of this standard because the variety of experiences captures a diverse spectrum from where my students may come. My students will come from various backgrounds, and it is necessary to understand those backgrounds in order to successfully meet the demands of those students. By knowing more about how my students feel and where they are coming from, I will be better able to create lessons that both expand and challenge what they already know.
This artifact demonstrates my growth and development as a teacher because I overcame uncomfortable situations to be better able to address the needs of my students. Although attending these various events does not by any means make me an expert, it demonstrates my willingness to branch out in order to grow. As a teacher, I should develop the skills to relate to my students’ lives, and these 5 minority experiences are a helpful way to relate to the diversity of my students.
This artifact indicates my knowledge of student diversity and the assets they bring by showing how I have taken specific steps to better understand the large spectrum of my students and how to approach the diversity in my classroom.
Artifact | Making Connection Across Different Texts
Performance Indicator: The competent teacher uses information about students’ individual experiences, families, cultures, and communities to create meaningful learning opportunities and enrich instruction for all students.
Please click here to see my lesson plan for a two day lesson in which my students read and dissected literature that engaged them in racial stereotypes.
Please click here to see my lesson plan for a two day lesson in which my students read and dissected literature that engaged them in racial stereotypes.
Reflection | Making Connection Across Different Texts
This artifact is a lesson plan for a two-day lesson that I taught while student teaching. In this lesson, I used various texts discussing issues of racism and required to read and write about them. I formulated this lesson off of the need for my students, who come from a largely middle-class, Caucasian, rural-area, to better understand and connect with minority experiences.
I chose this artifact for this standard because it highlights how I modified instruction based off of the needs of my students. Because my students come from such a homogenous population, I wanted to develop a better understanding of racism and how it still exists in various ways today.
This artifact meets this standard because I used the cultural and social experiences of my students to directly influence the learning environment. Since they had a homogenous educational experience, I brought in materials to support a learning environment that would help promote diversity.
This artifact is an appropriate representation of this standard because I understood the lack of diversity amongst my students and tried to build a sense of diversity in the classroom. I took their social and cultural similarities and tried to expand those so that they could maximize their learning while dealing with a unit on African-American minorities.
This artifact demonstrates my growth and development as a teacher because I adapted the learning strategies that I had encountered during my education and applied them to a different kind of situation. I learned a lot about how to engage students with texts that connect to their diverse culture, but in my student teaching the problem was that I was teaching to the very homogenous group of students. Therefore, I engaged the students into an African-American text by connecting it to issues of white privilege.
This artifact indicates my performance on the standard because I took my students’ information and used it to modify my lessons. Because they were a group of students very sheltered from diversity, I brought them diverse text while also connecting it directly to issues that they encounter as Caucasian students.
I chose this artifact for this standard because it highlights how I modified instruction based off of the needs of my students. Because my students come from such a homogenous population, I wanted to develop a better understanding of racism and how it still exists in various ways today.
This artifact meets this standard because I used the cultural and social experiences of my students to directly influence the learning environment. Since they had a homogenous educational experience, I brought in materials to support a learning environment that would help promote diversity.
This artifact is an appropriate representation of this standard because I understood the lack of diversity amongst my students and tried to build a sense of diversity in the classroom. I took their social and cultural similarities and tried to expand those so that they could maximize their learning while dealing with a unit on African-American minorities.
This artifact demonstrates my growth and development as a teacher because I adapted the learning strategies that I had encountered during my education and applied them to a different kind of situation. I learned a lot about how to engage students with texts that connect to their diverse culture, but in my student teaching the problem was that I was teaching to the very homogenous group of students. Therefore, I engaged the students into an African-American text by connecting it to issues of white privilege.
This artifact indicates my performance on the standard because I took my students’ information and used it to modify my lessons. Because they were a group of students very sheltered from diversity, I brought them diverse text while also connecting it directly to issues that they encounter as Caucasian students.