Jennifer Stanley

09/29/15
SCED 499
Dr. Edgar
InTASC Standard 1: Learner Development
Students in the secondary school setting, especially during their middle school years, are
at increasingly different levels of development. As adolescents, they are still in the process of
developing socially, emotionally, physically, and cognitively. In order to address the disparities
caused by the varying stages of development, I must ensure that all of my students needs are
addressed in the classroom. At this time, some students may be more cognitively advanced
than their peers; they might have a better understanding of abstract thinking or particular
concepts due to an increased repertoire of background knowledge and facilitated connections. In
order to combat these differences, I could highlight my individual students strengths and utilize
their misconceptions as opportunities for learning. Rather than making learning frustrating or
difficult, I must appropriately challenge my students. For example, I could gauge where my
students are in relation to the concrete-operational and formal stages of reasoning through
writing assignments or discussions. For those students in the concrete-operational stage, I could
ask them to explore the logical succession of events which lead to particular results in the plot of
a given novel. As for those students in the formal operational stage, higher-level questions could
be asked of them, such as connecting multiple themes within a novel or explaining the
importance of a given symbol or literary devices. There might also be differences in the social
and emotional progress of students. In order to tackle these issues, I would enforce a comfortable
learning environment and promote students participation in classroom activities. Therefore, I
would not shut down any ideas in class discussions, would allow students to actively engage in
making classroom rules or guidelines, and would encourage students to support one others

ideas in both small-group activities and large-scale debates. In order to promote effective debates,
I would provide students with the opportunity to interact with one another in a respectful way,
following certain guidelines. I could also focus on having students to connect with characters in a
novel emotionally, so that they can better understand the perspective of the character in a novel
and their purpose. Additionally, checking with students family members, guardians, and my own
colleagues within the school to ensure that the student is doing well emotionally is a huge
responsibility that I will have. After all, their emotional development and stability greatly affects
their performance in my course and it is my duty to ensure the well-being of the whole child.
Lastly, my students will be encountering physical changes as well. They will be going through
puberty and may have difficulties adapted to their new bodies. As such, I will try my best not to
put my students on the spot for certain answers if they do not feel comfortable about their
appearance. Furthermore, for those students who require more active learning in order to test out
their developing limbs, I will provide students with opportunities to get up and move around the
classroom. As an engagement activity, for example, I could ask students a Would You Rather
question or have them complete Four Corners exercises in order to test background knowledge
about a given topic prior to reading a particular assignment. This standard is exceptionally
important to my ability to teach all of my students I must understand what my students are
experiencing and how they are developing prior to contemplating what I should be teaching them
and how I might be able to adapt the material to fit their respective needs. In order to best teach
my students, therefore, I need to collaborate with other individuals, differentiate curriculum, and
attempt to make my classroom a welcoming environment for all kinds of learners.