Holly Gustafson SPED 496M 4-7-14 CEC Standard 1 Reflection

Standard 1: Learner Development and individual learning differences The first CEC standard states that Special Education teachers should understand individual learning differences for their students. The artifact that I have chosen to put in my portfolio is, an assignment that I had the students in my Computer Applications II class complete. The objective of this assignment was that, At the end of the class period, students should be able to create a lost animal poster on an animal of their choice. The students each received a copy of the written directions as well as an example of what their lost animal flyer should look like. I feel that this meets the first standard, because I am meeting different types of learning styles with how I set up this lesson. I helped auditory learners by saying the directions out loud. By passing out written directions I am helping visual learners. There were students in this class, that didnt have good reading skills. A couple of the students were reading at about a kindergarten level. I feel that by giving verbal and written directions as well as a concrete example that I have met each students individual differences. This assignment that I had my students complete in Computer Applications II class was not the first time I had multiple ways of giving directions. I feel that by having multiple ways of getting the directions to the students, that this creates an environment that the students can be more successful in. At the beginning of my student teaching when I first started planning and teaching in computer class, I would only give the directions to the students verbally. Personally, I am an auditory learner, I had to break myself of this. It took me about a week and a half to get things under control. Most of the students in my class didnt respond well to my verbal

directions. After I finally understood the cause of all of the confusion and chaos, I changed how I gave my initial directions. At first I was just handing out to each student a written copy of what I was teaching. Soon I learned that for a few students this wasnt helpful at all, because some of the students werent able to read. I then started handing out a visual of what was going to be done that day. This helped immensely. I was able to stop the chaos and confusion. Through this experience I learned that, I cant base things off of how I learn. Students arent the same as me and most need a variety of ways to interpret information that is given to them.