Smith 75 Hour Clinical Portfolio

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  2. Culturally Responsive Teaching
  3. Standard 1: Curriculum and Planning
  4. Standard 2: The Learner and the Learning Environment
  5. Standard 3: Teaching
Home > Standard 2: The Learner and the Learning Environment

Standard 2: The Learner and the Learning Environment

Standard II

The teacher demonstrates knowledge of the underlying principles of how students develop and learn and creates an environment that supports the learning of all students. The teacher sets high expectations based on a conceptual understanding of what is developmentally appropriate for all students. The teacher establishes a learner-centered culture that allows all students to be successful while respecting their differences in learning styles, as well as socio-economic, cultural and developmental characteristics (West Virginia Professional Teaching Standards).
Relevant Description:
 
WV NextGen Standards:
SS.9.G.4 explain how migration of people and movement of goods and ideas can enrich cultures, but also create tensions.
 
SS.9.H.CL4.4 identify and evaluate the individual, political, religious and economic roles in medieval society.
 
National Standards:
Standard II: Time, Continuity and Change
 
We began this lesson with a review game of one of the Asian civilizations the students had been working on; the Mongols. I started by creating a StudyStack using the information the students had come across in their pre-assessment homework. I split the class into small groups (actually numbers depended on the number of student in attendance). Instead of allowing the students to chose their own groups, I organized them myself. When choosing the groups, I made sure to include an appropriate number of struggling and high functioning students in each group. I spoke to the class about the "rules" of the StudyStack" game, which included waiting to be called on before answering, being sure they had an answer ready if they raised their hand and being respectful of the other groups. I also informed them that the group who answered the most questions correctly, received a 10 point extra credit certificate. Next, I put the StudyStack on the board and read the questions to the class. The students used their homework and textbooks to answer the questions as a group. As the questions were asked, I explained each answer and elaborated on the facts and key terms. For example, one of the questions was, "Who spent 17 traveling China as Kubli Khan's special representative?" to which a student answered correctly as Marco Polo. Instead of just giving that group the point and moving on, I explained some of his duties, where he was from and how we came to have the game Marco Polo. We continued this until all questions were asked. Following this assignment, I answered any questions the students had and collected their homework from the night before.

 Reflective Analysis:

The StudyStack activity that I did with my ninth grade class was a great example of respecting diversity in the learning environment by grouping the students in a way that would ensure maximum student learning during the activity. When the I knew that this activity would work best as a group activity but through previous collaborative experience in the classroom I knew that allowing the students to chose their own group was not the best idea. Of the
22 students in 3rd block (the class I focused on for analysis) 11 of them have an IEP, or individualized education plan, with a range of severity. I placed a balance amount of high functioning children with struggling students and I did so without breaking any school/state confidentiality rules. This was successful because it gave each group a fair chance at winning. Had I placed all the high functioning students on one team, the other students would be at a disadvantage when it came to the review game. The more obvious success of this activity and grouping is that while not every group won, each group did put forth an effort and in turn reviewed the information.
Plans for Improvement
When I repeat this lesson in the future there are is definitely a way to improve it. While choosing the groups was a good way to approach the review game, the game itself need more structure in order for the groups to be as successful as possible. For example, there were a couple of cases where it was not clear who had raised their hand first and therefore, tension toward the game leader (me) began to build within the groups. I could have alieviated this by developing organizational tools, that foster the smooth processes needed for effective cooperation and group work. Since, Ipads have been to every student in the classroom I was teaching in I could have accomplished this with an app called Academic Competition Buzzer Moderator. As a way to eliminate human error, we could use this and make the activity run much smoother.
Author: Ashley Smith
Last modified: 5/9/2013 1:16 PM (EST)