An artifact that I have completed that is representative of meeting the ACEI standard is my reader response essay. The paper includes my choice of five compelling points I determined from reading the text entitled,Access to Academics for ALL Students: Critical Approaches to Inclusive Curriculum, Instruction, and Policy, written by Paula Kluth, Diana M. Straut, and Douglas P. Biklen. In addition, the essay includes text-to-field and text-to-future connections.

The five compelling points that I included in my essay are:

Chapter 1: Access to Academics for All Students

Section 1: Through a Critical Frame: Ways of Thinking about Access

Section 1.5: Nothing Can Be Understood Apart From Interpretation      

Section 2: School Culture: Creating a Setting for Academic Access

Section 2.1: Develop Democratic Values

Chapter 4: Seeing All Students as Literate

Section 2: Broadening our Vision of Students’ Literacy

Section 2.2: Using Multiple Texts

Chapter 9: In the Pool, On the Stage, and at the concert: Access to Academics Beyond Classroom Walls

Section 2: Why Do Students Get Excluded?

Chapter 10: Access, Academics, and Action

Section 1: A Call to Action

Section 1.1: Investigate Assumptions

In completing this assignment, I discovered the ways that diverse learning styles must be considered in order to fully engage students in the academic and social curriculum. In addition, I have developed a full understanding about the importance of knowing my students, including their background. Conducting a classroom using democratic values will enhance the engagement of all students in the class community, making each student feel equally worthwhile. It is important to continue student participation outside of the classroom through extracurricular activities. It is my role as a teacher to educate and promote activities that would appeal to each of my students, so that all students have access to academics beyond the classroom.

I have used ideas from the text in comparison to my field placement in a first-grade class. I was able to investigate the points I felt were compelling in relation to my host classroom. In addition, I adapted these ideas to determine how I would incorporate and address each issue into my future teaching.

My learning applies to the standard in the following ways:
 

• Creating a classroom that exhibits democratic values, allowing each student to feel significant in the class community.
• The ways in which students learn, as well as the use of multiple texts and materials to ensure their learning
• How to motivate students to stay involved with the school community through participation in extracurricular activities

In working with my host students, I have found the points from the text to be crucial aspects in student development, student learning, and student motivation.
 

Please take some time to view my attached Access to Academics for All Students essay.