Today’s educational challenges are as varied as the solutions.  Can we meet the varying student needs in the classroom?  Will standardized testing completely rule the curriculum?  How do we know if we are doing enough?  Reflecting upon my classroom experiences and educational background, I believe the biggest issue facing schools today is meeting the needs of all students.  Students are a teacher’s main focus.  If all of our students are not learning, we are not successful teachers.  If teachers are unsuccessful, then schools will be unsuccessful.

            Effective teaching has long been about balancing the needs of students who have varying skill levels.  In a classroom, a teacher will educate and manage approximately twenty-five students.  All of these students do not come into your classroom at the same skill level.  There will always be the students that exceed expectations.  They are highly motivated to try their best and rarely struggle.  There are also students that will fall below grade level expectations.  The educational system may be failing them.  Generally, these students have lost some or all motivation.  Average students are generally right where they “should be”.  Grade level work is right on target for this group of students.  They struggle, but not so much that school is a daily frustration.     

            As a teacher, my goal is to meet the needs of every student.  Public education is the benchmark of a civilized society.  Economic production depends on a literate, knowledgeable workforce.  As described above, the “high” students need to be challenged.  The “average” students need to be pushed to expand and extend their learning.  The “low” students need to be brought up to grade level and pushed to their furthest potential.  Society depends on our students, regardless of skill level, to be the future of our economy.    

How can this issue be resolved?  At the school level, there are many ways that classroom instruction can be altered from traditional “whole group” instruction which does not always meet every student’s needs.  First, I will discuss how to incorporate multiple learning styles into instruction.  Next, differentiated instruction will be discussed and how to meet the needs of all learners: “high”, “average”, and “low”. 

As I have learned from a methods class professor, Shirley Spriegel, all lessons taught should strive to include all of the learning styles encompassing the acronym “VKAT”.  VKAT, standing for visual, kinesthetic, auditory, and tactile learning styles, has become a check point and goal for me while planning my daily lessons.  In one particular lesson, which focused on how blood flows through the heart, I worked with each learning style of “VKAT” quite successfully.  Students were first given direct and explicit instruction about blood flow through the heart.  A diagram was drawn on the board while instruction and new vocabulary was introduced.  After students had acquired new vocabulary and a basic understanding, we physically acted out the blood movement through the heart.  Most of the class was blood.  They wore necklaces that labeled their job.  Five other students were the left and right atria and ventricles of the heart and the lungs.  These students held signs to distinguish their role.  The “blood” moved throughout the make-shift student heart.  This movement activity allowed students to be involved in their learning and gave them an actual feeling of the blood.  During this process, I assessed student understanding of the concept and took note of students who may need extra support.  To complete the lesson, students made a paper model of the heart diagramming the blood flow.  Students were to manipulate red and blue yarn (representing blood) to show blood flow.  Students who I earlier assessed for needing extra support received additional guided instruction with me.