Standard+3

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**Standard 3** ** Teachers understand that children learn differently. **

The teacher understands how pupils differ in their approaches to learning and the barriers that impede learning and can adapt instruction to meet the diverse needs of pupils, including those with disabilities and exceptionalities.

**__Evidence 1: All About Me__**



Rationale 1: To recognize the wide range of qualities within my students, I created this lesson plan to stimulate self-reflection. It incorporates the visual/spatial multiple intelligence by requiring the student to organize their ideas in an attractive presentation that will be clear and easy to interpret. Their ability to present their poster in a spatially attractive way using technology is part of the evaluation. Students of all levels were given the opportunity to create their self-reflection using whatever technology Web 2.0 tool they were interested in exploring. This lesson is a great "ice-breaker" to introduce the students to each other and to give me a snapshot of each student's personality and how they view themselves. I find it helpful to take the students' own perception of themselves and combine it with my personal observations in an effort to know the student at a more personal level.

I used this assignment as a segue into the next unit, which is the introduction to Web 2.0 Cool Tools for Schools. I assigned the students the task of writing an autobiography and selecting which technology tool they would like to use to present it to the class. In the future, however, I will team up with the Language Arts teachers to do this project so that the writing part is complete before we start on the presentation part.


 * __KSD__**


 * 3.K.2** The teacher understands and can provide adaptations for areas of exceptionality in learning—including learning disabilities, visual and perceptual difficulties, and special physical or mental challenges.

Students with special needs find Wordle to be a powerful tool of communication and creativity. Basically they simply need to come up with five words they would use to describe themselves. The aide or teacher would input these words into Wordle and create a page for the student to view, exploring the different colors and formats. The students have control over what their finished product will look like, and the sense of accomplishment and the power of creating their own individual self-reflection empowers the student beyond just the words.


 * 3.S.8** The teacher creates a learning community in which individual differences are respected.

Every student is capable of creating a Wordle, whether by themselves or with the help of others. I ask the higher-learners to assist the special needs students in the execution of the Wordle to give both the student and the helper the experience of teamwork as well as to reinforce the belief that everyone has creativity within them and there are tools available to help them express themselves.


 * 3.D.3** The teacher respects students as individuals with differing personal and family backgrounds and various skills, talents, and interests.

By self-reflecting, a student has the opportunity to define themselves independent of their backgrounds or outside circumstances. It's important that the student look at themselves apart from outside influences to appreciate the goodness that is in each and every one of them.