Reflective Statement for PTS 3 Brittany Granquist

Artifact: The Individual Child Assignment

PTS 3. All teachers should give constructive instruction and feedback to students in both
written and oral contexts while being aware of diverse learners’ needs. Teachers should
effectively provide a variety of instructional strategies, constructive feedback, criticism,
and improvement strategies.

1. Write a paragraph explaining your knowledge and understanding of the

standard-put the

standard in your own words.

I think that this standard wants me to recognize the importance of finding different ways to

maintain awareness of the vast array of student needs and how to best provide instruction and

feedback that results in a quality education for all students, specifically with regard to reading,

writing, speaking, and listening. This standard indicates that as an educator, I need to

consistently evaluate my diverse learners’ needs, content materials and assessment in order to

develop and implement integrated and diverse instructional approaches, culturally appropriate

communication strategies, effective classroom discussions, and opportunities for students to

practice literacy so to best meet their unique academic, cultural, and linguistic needs and help

them become successful and literate.

2. Explain how the artifact you chose demonstrates your understanding and
application of the

standard.

The artifact I chose to represent my understanding and application of this standard is a long-term

project I completed for Curriculum and Instruction 475: Teaching Elementary Reading and
Language Arts. The project involved selecting a student from my placement that was an English

Language Leaner, a dialect speaker, special education, or high poverty. After selecting the

student, the project outlined steps for gathering information from multiple sources to determine

the goals and next instructional steps for the student: observation and accompanying summary of

the classroom literacy environment, cooperating teacher interview regarding her/his goals for the

student, interview with student, collection of reading, writing, phonics, listening, etc. materials,

analysis of materials, creation of two goals for the student and accompanying lesson plans for

meeting those goals. In collecting the information about my individual student – who is both low

poverty and receives special education services – analyzing the information and determining

improvement strategies, I was able to apply several aspects of this standard, including the

following: “the competent teacher analyzes content material to determine appropriate strategies

and techniques to create successful learning through reading, writing, speaking, and listening.” In

addition, I was given the opportunity to construct lesson plans that helped me gain a better

understanding of “diverse instructional strategies and assessments that include an appropriate

balance of lecture, discussion, activity, and written and oral work.”

3. A If the artifact has been used in your practice, reflect on how your
teaching will change in

the future to further meet the standard.

B. If the artifact has not been used in your practice, i.e., a class
assignment, reflect upon how

your teaching will be impacted by the assignment.

My teaching will change in the future to further meet this standard by taking what I used in my

practice from this class assignment, and applying it to each and every student I teach. In addition
to evaluating individual learners and setting goals that best fit their needs and skills, I will have

to utilize lessons, instructional strategies, whole group, small group, and individual learning tasks

to gain knowledge about my students as learners and individuals and help them understand

where thy stand as readers, writers, speakers and listeners. I will use what I know from this

assignment to create instruction that utilizes various media sources to enhance instruction and

increase meaningful learning experiences that best achieve the goals I have set for students. My

teaching will revolve around the prospect of continuous, meaningful assessment and analysis so

that I can modify my instruction, approaches, goals, etc. to best meet the ever changing needs of

emergent readers and writers and ensure literary success.

4. Conclude with a paragraph discussing how you are more prepared to

Teach and Learn in a

Diverse Society as a result of satisfactorily meeting the standard.

This assignment and its actual application in the classroom has prepared me to teach and learn in

a diverse society, as I was working with a child that both received special education Title I

services and received free and reduced lunch. Due to his economic and academic situations, he is

one of the lowest performing readers in the class. This assignment helped me to realize that each

child, regardless of their reading level or performance group in class, needs their own set of

specific goals set forth by the teacher after careful observation, assessment and experience

working with that individual child. Since emergent readers’ skills are so vastly different in the

early grades, as they come to school with such different experiences and skills, it is crucial to

consider reading, writing, listening and speaking instruction as it best applies to each individual

learner’s unique learning needs, background situations, home lives, and cultural identities.