Standard2

Standard 2 Teachers know how children grow. The teacher understands how children with broad ranges of ability learn and provides instruction that supports their intellectual, social, and personal development.

Evidence 1: Action Research Paper – Differentiated Instruction Rationale 1: My action research paper was focused on using differentiated instruction. The question that I was seeking to answer was “Does differentiated instruction increase student growth and success in the classroom?” Not all students learn at the same rate or from the same style; therefore, I developed a digital storybook project for computer five students that offered differentiated instruction to the students to meet the many learning styles and rates. For the project, the students were assigned to write a story and put the story to animation using Microsoft Photoshop. One class was assigned to write about a specific topic and the other class was not given a topic to focus on. Throughout the lesson I used one group as a control group only teaching through presentation and application. The second class was taught through a variety of methods to meet their learning ranges and needs. After the completion of the unit I was able to look at the student’s projects, rubric grades, self evaluations, and reflections on their learning process to find out their feelings on how the unit was taught and how it affected their grades. At the end of the unit I was very interested to see that the students who received differentiated instruction had slightly higher grades than the students who were regulated. Even though the results from the research were not entirely convincing, I feel that the students who received the differentiated instruction gained a greater understanding and enjoyment from the unit than the students who where regulated. After the completion of the research project I have integrated much more differentiated instruction into my curriculum to meet the needs of all my students.

KSD

2. K.1 The teacher understands how learning occurs -- how students construct knowledge, acquire skills, and develop habits of mind – and how to use instructional strategies that promote student learning for a wide range of student abilities.

From the action research and other educational courses I understand that students construct knowledge and acquire skills from a variety of methods and at a variety of rates. The action research paper helped me to better learn my students learning styles and preferences and learn different methods to meet those needs. I try to on a regular basis receive feedback or reflection from my students on projects to make sure I am meeting their needs for learning.

2. S.2 The teacher stimulates student reflection on prior knowledge and links new ideas to already familiar ideas, making connections to students’ experiences, providing opportunities for active engagement, manipulation, and testing of ideas and material, and encouraging students to assume responsibility for shaping their learning tasks.

The digital storybook unit that was used to conduct the research had the students complete a pre and post skills evaluation to help the students see what previous skills they had learned and what skills they felt they needed to still work on. After both evaluations were completed the student’s typed individual reflections on what they had learned, mastered, and still needed help on. The students also were able to reflect on the teaching methods used and how it affected their learning. By having the students complete self evaluations they were able to look at all the skills that were taught and the objectives that were expected. They were also able to assume self responsibility for the learning that took place during the unit.

2. D.2 The teacher is disposed to use students’ strengths as a basis for growth, and their errors as an opportunity for learning.

At the end of the research I was able to see the areas my students excelled in and the areas they still needed to work on. From that information I was able to partner the students up with someone who was strong in an area the other needed to work on. The students would then complete a small group task working on a specific area to help teach each other the skills. ​ Home Standard1 / Standard2 / Standard3 / Standard4 / Standard5 Standard6 / Standard7 / Standard8 / Standard9 / Standard10