Standard 2-Understanding all Children in their Many Dimensions

Maria Sideri
EDU 448 Elementary Education Portfolio Development
Fall 2011
Wheelock College Standards for Educator Preparation Programs

Standard 2. Understanding all Children in their Many Dimensions

Educators should know their students as individuals and as learners, and be able to relate to them in a variety of ways. They should be familiar with the cultures, histories, and values of the communities and families they serve, and know the attributes of the individual children and families with whom they work. Educators should be aware of the range of special needs their children may have, and seek out information concerning the strengths of specific children as well as resources to address their developmental and learning needs. They should use their knowledge of variations in development, second language acquisition, and disabilities to support children’s physical, emotional, social, cognitive, linguistic, intellectual, and creative development. Educators should observe and listen to children as they work, learn, and play in a variety of settings to gain insights into what their students know, how they think, what they value, who they are, where they come from, and what motivates them. Their knowledge of children and families, language and culture, and community development should motivate educators to view children’s actions and responses through multiple lenses. The more they learn about their students, the better they can tailor their teaching to engage children in active learning and meet their specific needs.

2.1 Know students as individuals, as learners, and be able to relate to them in a variety of ways.
2.2 Be familiar with the cultures, histories, values, of families.
2.3 Know attributes of individual children/families with whom they work.
2.4 Aware of range of students’ special needs and seek out information concerning strengths/resources to address developmental and learning needs.
2.5 Use knowledge of second language acquisition, developmental variations, and disabilities to support physical, emotional, social, cognitive, linguistic, intellectual, and creative development.

I believe that one of the most important aspects of being a teacher is getting to know your students as individuals and being able to relate to them in a variety of different ways. Thinking back on my student teaching experience, the most memorable experiences I have had are centered on interactions I had with individual students and their families. Being aware of who the students are as individuals and being aware their many dimensions and special needs, enriched my lessons and made the classroom community more warm and friendly. Throughout my experiences at Wheelock College in general and through my experience as a student teacher, I believe that I definitely know what it means to understand all children in their many dimensions.

As a student teacher, I strived to know the students as individuals and as learners, and I attempted to relate to them in a variety of ways in order to build a relationship with them, and also to teach them effectively. One student in particular that I had the most experience with observing and getting to know as a individual and as a learner was my “focus child” that I worked with throughout the semester as a requirement for the course, EDU 445: Meeting the Diverse Learning Needs of School-Age Children. Throughout the entire semester, I observed my focus child and got to know her family very closely. Almost every day after school I would talk to my focus child’s mother and older sister to get to know them. These conversations were so meaningful to me that I attempted to make every child in my classroom my focus child. I began to give individual attention to every student and their families, in order to truly understand the student’s background, culture, interests, and learning style. By doing so, my experience as a student teacher became more meaningful, and the time I spent in the classroom was not only focused on teaching the students, but also focused on building strong relationships with children. The observations and reports that show my in depth understanding of my focus child as well as the other students in the classroom as shown in artifact 2.1.This artifact is Submission II of my focus child project that I completed in EDU 445

Throughout the semester of my student teaching experience, one child’s father was serving in the United States Navy. This was something I learned after months of interacting with this child, and it was something he was truly proud of. This child was very shy, and mostly all of the students in the classroom did not know that his father was in the Navy or that this child took so much interest in the United States Army and Navy. I asked this child if he ever wanted to share this information with the class. He instantly told me that he wanted to, and that he would tell me in the morning on the day of his “share day” if he wanted to talk about his dad. Many weeks went by and this child did not notify me that he wanted to share with the class about his father and their family’s affiliation with the Navy. Because of the close relationship that I built with this student, I knew that he truly wanted to share, but just needed more structure in the way he shared. Therefore, I suggested that if he was nervous to share entirely by himself, we could share together. That is why the day before Veteran’s Day during morning meeting, this child and I had a combined share. I introduced what it meant to be a veteran, and this child explained how he connected to this word through his father. I have never seen this child so excited and vocal about talking to the class, and he seemed proud of himself after he finished sharing. Later, we read a poem together about Veterans day. Because I knew this child’s interests, his family’s dynamic, and his desire to share with the class, this child experienced a great moment with his classmates during morning meeting. Many students made connections to this child or told their own examples of how their family was special. I believe this definitely shows my familiarity with the cultures, histories, and values of the students and their families which is a major part of standard two. The poem that we read together is shown through artifact 2.2.

Knowing students and their individual characteristics was a major theme in the book, Starting from Scratch: One Classroom Builds its Own Curriculum (1996) by Steven Levy. In this book, Levy suggests that teachers must find the genius in every child in order to satisfy each student’s needs. He explains that, “We need to look for the best, expect the best, find something in each child that we can truly treasure” (Levy, 1996, p. 7). I believe that I have searched and found each student’s individual genius. One example of this is shown through a particular student whose genius I found to be poetry. Every journal entry, story, or share, was about her poetry. She was incredibly talented at writing poetry, and I had a huge interest in knowing where her love for poetry came from. After having many conversations and discussions about poetry with this student, I learned that she learned how to write poetry from her grandmother, and that she teachers her and her twin sister poetry lessons all throughout the summer. I wanted to let this student know that I was aware of her genius, so after every journal entry that she wrote about poems, I would write back to her in her writing journal and comment and compliment her poetry. This is shown through artifact 2.3.

Being aware of students’ special needs is incredibly important to me. Howard Gardner’s (1983) theory of multiple intelligences is something that comes to mind when I think about the diversity of learners in a classroom and their varieties of learning styles. Gardner suggests that through his intelligences, “… the theory validates educators' everyday experience: students think and learn in many different ways. It also provides educators with a conceptual framework for organizing and reflecting on curriculum, assessment and pedagogical practices. In turn, this reflection has led many educators to develop new approaches that might better meet the needs of the range of learners in their classrooms” (p. 1). Therefore, each student needs to be taught a specific way that might relate to his or her intelligence and therefore, leads to success and progress. Before student teaching, I was not completely aware of the range of learners that would be in the classroom. After the first few weeks, the range in learning was completely clear to me, and I wanted to do anything to meet each individual’s special learning need. One student in particular that I personally addressed was a first grade boy. He seemed to have a problem with communicating orally, and constantly paused in conversation and sometimes just would not speak while talking to another student or teacher. He has not been diagnosed with a disability, and is not on an IEP, but his behavior particularly stood out to me as not very typical. Therefore, I discussed this with my supervising practitioner, and she agreed that he needs to be discussed among other professionals that could provide some support. Through my recommendation and my supervising practitioner’s, this student is meeting with the school’s social worker twice a week, and is now being provided with “social scripts” that help him to converse with students and teachers. These scripts help him practice phrases and ideas of what to say while talking to others. This has incredibly improved this student’s success in the classroom, because now when he knows the answer to something, he verbally explains that he knows the right answer to a teacher, and if he doesn’t know, instead of being silent, he will say he does not know. I believe my work with this student in collaboration with my supervising practitioner’s and the school’s social worker addresses component 2.4 of this standard.

Lastly, understanding that some students, and in my case, most students, are bilingual and multilingual is something that is incredibly important to know as a teacher. In my student teaching classroom, eight of the students spoke another language besides English at home. Therefore, I knew that I needed to be able to adapt lesson plans in order to meet the needs of these English Language Learners. I thought the best way to approach this would be to interview the school’s Sheltered English Immersion teacher. On my own initiative, I conducted the interview and learned many new things about Sheltered English Immersion, one being that these English language learners use their own curriculum called Avenues. This interview I conducted with Emily is shown through artifact 2.5.
Overall, I feel as though I have comprehensively met standard two. I know how important it is as a teacher to understand all children in their many dimensions.


References

Gardner, Howard (1983; 1993) Frames of Mind: The theory of multiple intelligences, New York Basic Books. http://www. http://www.infed.org/thinkers/gardner.htm


Levy, S. (1996). Starting from scratch: one classroom builds its own curriculum. NHA Division of Reed Elsevier Inc.