Educators understand and apply knowledge of student growth and development.
Learning how to assess growth and knowledge while continuing to help students grow and develop was something that I wanted to focus on for this practicum. I wanted to make sure that how I was teaching and assessing was not just a one type fits all but individualized per student.
Student growth and development is all dependent on the students level, and to apply student growth, my plan was to start at where they were and scaffold the learning to that the students would be able to develop their skills and knowledge and continue to apply it each lesson.
In my final practicum, I taught a novel study from start to finish. I started off with introducing the novel with 2 supporting books where the class and I completed a summary, thin questions and one thick question. From there students slowly progressed to working and completing summaries, thin questions and thick questions by themselves. Over the course of the 6 weeks and 8 chapters in the book students became independent in their work and even progressed in their writing. They would write a minimum of 5 sentences and knew that if they wrote 8 or more detailed sentences and made personal connection, they would be reaching the exceeding expectations standards. By the end of the novel all students were able to demonstrate some level of learning progression and development.
By informing the students of the expectations and teaching them how to scaffold their learning, the students at all levels were able to progress their comprehension and writing skills over the course of the novel. The final work submitted showed the progression that all students made over the course of 8 weeks and it was easy to see what students progressed significantly and what students would need more support. By monitoring student growth and progression, as a teacher it is then easier to make those adjustments in students work or find multiple ways to support their learning.