INTASC STANDARD #1: LEARNER

DEVELOPMENT
The teacher understands how learners grow and
develop, recognizing that patterns of learning
and development vary individually within and
across the cognitive, linguistic, social,
emotional, and physical areas, and designs
and implements developmentally appropriate
and challenging learning experiences.

INTRODUCTION
Learner development must impact all areas of a classroom. From the design of the
physical classroom space, to learning activities, everything must be hinged on the
cognitive, social emotional, physical and linguistic needs of required age-group. In
a third grade classroom, scientists have noted that students are entering an age
of discovery and social depth. As a third grade teacher, I have utilized this
challenge to design learning experiences that target my learners in cognitively
appropriate ways. The evidence presented in this section mainly derives from a
Brain Targeted Unit Plan, which dives deeply into the aspects of my classroom
that are impacted by students cognitive needs physical environments, learning
experiences, and emotional climate most of all. By creating an environment that
takes student needs into account, I am able to develop voracious learners who
take pride in their classroom, relationships, and schoolwork.

SOCIAL-EMOTIONAL NEEDS OF THIRD GRADERS

Third Grade students are entering a unique stage of their life, where they are blessed and
challenged by a growing sense of energy and ambition. At this age, students typically
begin to socialize more readily within groups, are able to adjust to change, and begin to
be more willing to take risks (Anderson, 2011) . As an educator, this provides the
unique opportunity to structure the classroom environment to suit the enthusiasm and
social nature of third grade students. Within my classroom, students are consistently
grouped in small groups and are able to work with one another and assist each other in
the learning process. This typically occurs during small group lessons, activity centers,
or science-based inquiry lessons. Furthermore, I am able to introduce novel ideas,
structures, or projects into the classroom and can expect students to respond with
enthusiasm, joy and energy. Promoting the social-emotional needs of my students
encourages them to find joy in the classroom community, thereby encouraging them to
enjoy their school experience.
Anderson, M. (2011). What every 3rd grade teacher needs to know about running a
classroom. Center for Responsive Schools.

COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT OF THIRD GRADERS

The typical third grader will typically be overzealous regarding tasks, and may take on
more tasks than they can handle. Furthermore, their attention span has not yet
reached it peak, but engrossing activities may hold their attention particularly in
terms of logic, classification, and how things work (Anderson, 2011). Within the
classroom, the cognitive needs of third graders lends easily to a short-assignment
or activity center based learning culture, which I use readily within my classroom.
Students move from independent activity, broken into manageable parts over the
course of the week or day. Furthermore, students learn about subjects they find
interesting such as the life cycles of animals or cultures around the world. One
of the most critical aspects of cognitive development for third graders is the need
to build towards final projects, which is demonstrated in our learning cycle
through the breaking down of larger novels into short ideas, and building towards
final projects that culminate students knowledge.
Anderson, M. (2011). What every 3rd grade teacher needs to know about running a
classroom. Center for Responsive Schools.

BRAIN TARGETED TEACHING

Brain-Targeted teaching (BTT) is a method of instructional design that is compatible
with the brains natural learning systems (Hardiman, n.d.). Moving beyond
simplified unit planning, the brain-targeted methodology looks at the classroom
climate and environment as well as the learning targets in order to shape a
culture of learning that fully engrosses children, and aligns with research on
cognitive learning processes. Within my own classroom, I utilize the brain-targeted
teaching module to shape every facet of our classroom. Typically, I will shape
school-designed curricula to better suit the needs of the BTT method for
example, within the unit shown in my evidence, I morph the Common Core
Exemplar text Charlottes Web into a themed unit that attempts to target many of
the social-emotional needs of third grade learners within the first few months of
school particularly their need to work together in groups, and form social circles
by exploring the ideas of friendship and pushing students to make stronger
relationships with one another.
Hardiman, M. (n.d.) Brain-Targeted Teaching.

BRAIN TARGET UNIT:

FRIENDSHIP CHANGES LIVES
Name: Christie Ellis
Dates: August - September
Unit Topic: Friendship
Grade Level: Grade 3
Content Standard(s):
Reading and Writing:
3.W.2: Write informative/explanatory texts to examine a topic and convey
ideas and information clearly.
3.RL.1, 3.RL.6, 3.RL.3, 3.RL.4
3.RL.10: By the end of the year, read and comprehend informational texts.

BRAIN TARGET UNIT:

FRIENDSHIP CHANGES LIVES
Learning Unit Overview:
Students will read various pieces of literature that focus
on the role of friendship. Students will practice various
acts of friendship such as working as collaborative
groups, gift giving, realization of personal strengths and
others unique strengths.

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BRAIN TARGET #1
ESTABLISHING THE EMOTIONAL CLIMATE FOR
LEARNING
Students will be emotionally connected to learning about the unit in the
following ways:
Morning Meeting: Allowing students to build relationships during sharing
and greeting in morning meeting.
Positive Note Sharing: Students write each other compliments, which are
randomly drawn and read to the class once a day.
Morning Pledge: Students recite a morning pledge based on the habits of
mind.
Behavior-Specific Praise and Class Dojo Reward System: Positive-based
behavior system that encourages strong classroom community

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BRAIN TARGET #1
ESTABLISHING THE EMOTIONAL CLIMATE FOR
LEARNING
R AT I O N A L E
Third grade students require a plethora of activities that will promote strong relationship
building. In this time of their lives, third graders are willing to embark in complicated
tasks, and are driven by social feedback (Anderson, 2011). Our classroom promotes
this by encouraging students to be kind to one another, and see the rewards from their
kindness play out. Students are encouraged to celebrate one another, whether it by
through highest earner in Class Dojo or sending anonymous compliments.. Daily
activities such as Morning Meeting have shown improved emotional stability for
students. Furthermore, students are praised based on their positive behaviors
specifically, and are rewarded for acting in classroom-aiding ways. Finally, our class
pledge refocuses students every morning to commit themselves to showcasing habits
of mind throughout our daily tasks.
Anderson, M. (2011) What every 3rd grade teacher needs to know about setting up and
running a classroom. Center for Responsive Schools.

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BRAIN TARGET #1
ESTABLISHING THE EMOTIONAL CLIMATE FOR
LEARNING
STUDENT-LED MEETINGS

MORNING MEETING

A daily meeting provides students

with the opportunities to learn,
share, and grow together through
collaborative games and
communication activities. This is
one of the greatest sources of joy
in our classroom, with students
feeling great ownership and love
for our meetings. Both through
the evidence in pictures shown
here, which show the studentleader performing her task of
conducting morning meeting, as
well as the video attached,
morning meeting is critical in
developing students social
emotional needs.

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BRAIN TARGET #1:

ESTABLISHING THE EMOTIONAL CLIMATE FOR
LEARNING
CLASS PLEDGE

R AT I O N A L E

The class pledge is read aloud at the

beginning of every day by the
pledge leader. This pledge is
based off of the habits of mind.
Throughout the day, I am able to
reference the classroom pledge
in order to promote students
positive choice making.
Furthermore, a shared pledge
creates a stronger classroom
culture as it promotes an Us vs.
Them mentality, thereby serving
as a strong bond that holds or
classroom together. This
technique is important as it
promotes social groupings.

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BRAIN TARGET #1:

ESTABLISHING THE EMOTIONAL CLIMATE FOR
LEARNING
R AT I O N A L E

COMPLIMENT SHARING

Third-grade students require positive

feedback from both adults and
peers. In order promote positive
interactions, I have made a daily
routine of stopping class for
short brain breaks that include
stretching, and compliment
sharing. Students are able to add
compliments to the jar at any
point, and are encouraged to
keep anonymity. Students have
reported that this is one of the
most joyful aspects of their day.
This technique is particularly
impactful as it promotes social
cohesion.

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BRAIN TARGET #1:

ESTABLISHING THE EMOTIONAL CLIMATE FOR
LEARNING
BEHAVIOR-SPECIFIC
R AT I O N A L E

PRAISE

Behavior management must

occur on a positive basis,
promoting love for each child
and love for our classroom
culture. Students receive
behavior-specific praise,
thereby showing them the
rewards of making positive
choices. This practice
ensures that students are
able to differentiate between
pro-social activities and
negative choices.

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BRAIN TARGET #1
ESTABLISHING THE EMOTIONAL CLIMATE FOR LEARNING
R AT I O N A L E
Dojo Points are dispersed with a strong
focus on positive behaviors. This photo
shows the entire spread of Dojo Points
given over a month long period, with a
clear focus on on-task, helpful
behaviors. This method of behavior
tracking encourages pro-social
behaviors, and provides students with
extrinsic motivation for said behaviors.

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BRAIN TARGET #2
CREATING THE PHYSICAL LEARNING
ENVIRONMENT
The physical climate of our classroom will allow students to build friendships in the following
manner:

Students are grouped consistently throughout the day and allowed time to speak to
partners/tables throughout the unit.

Students are pushed to interact with peers throughout the week through flexibly changing
groups.

Comfortable classroom spaces include stuffed animals for student enjoyment.

Students are responsible for the maintenance of the classroom through class jobs.

Students are rewarded for strong friendship-building behavior through Class Dojo rewards.

Classroom brain breaks will allow students to play together.

Clutter-free, clean environment

Scented Spaces (Airwick plugged into wall, scent changes with the season).

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BRAIN TARGET #2
CREATING THE PHYSICAL LEARNING
ENVIRONMENT
R AT I O N A L E :
Our classrooms physical learning environment promotes the ideal that students must
develop both as independent and cooperative learners. Students are encouraged
to work together during classroom discussions and assessments, but must be
able to complete work independently as well. The process of creating a groupcentered classroom is immensely important in the social-emotional development
of third graders, as they strive for social interaction and feedback both from peers
and adults. Additionally, students are surrounded by a text-rich environment, with
a collaborative word wall and anchor charts that support students rapid
vocabulary acquisition. Furthermore, students are encouraged to apply to
classroom jobs through a job application, which they will keep for 6 weeks and
are rewarded via Dojo points. Students are incentivized to take care of their
classroom, learn responsibility for their surroundings, and come to enjoy the act
of completing their daily tasks.

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BRAIN TARGET #2
CREATING THE PHYSICAL LEARNING
ENVIRONMENT
TABLE GROUPINGS

FLEXIBLE GROUPING

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BRAIN TARGET #2
CREATING THE PHYSICAL LEARNING
ENVIRONMENT
COMFORTABLE LEARNING SPACES

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BRAIN TARGET #2
CREATING THE PHYSICAL LEARNING
ENVIRONMENT
CLASSROOM JOBS

R AT I O N A L E

Classroom jobs are an extremely

important part of culture
building. Students are assigned
jobs after they complete a job
application, and may be tasked
with any job from plant waterer,
pledge leader, or line leader.
These jobs allow students to take
ownership of their classroom
environment, and take pride in
the wellbeing of shared spaces.
Furthermore, students are
rewarded for their job through
our classroom economy, which
provides a practical lesson about
hard work in the real world.

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BRAIN TARGET #3
DESIGNING THE LEARNING EXPERIENCE
R AT I O N A L E
The purpose of a unit matrix is to
more deeply analyze the purpose
of a unit theme, guiding questions
and plan how the unit will look in
the classroom. This can be paired
with the brain-targeted plan well,
as it allows the teacher to analyze
their assessment planning and
culminating activities. As a portion
of the learning experience design,
it is essential in fleshing out the
units roadmap.

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BRAIN TARGET #3
DESIGNING THE LEARNING EXPERIENCE
Aspects of
Friendship

Stories of
Friendship

Building
Classroom
Relationships

Helping Others
Gift-giving
Understanding mistakes by
others
Strengths and Weaknesses
Complimenting Others

Amos and Boris and Charlottes

Web
What themes are in books about
friendship?
How do we describe characters
who share strong friendships?

How do friends help each other?

How can I be a strong friend?
Creating projects together,
collaborating in groups
Morning meeting group
activities
Class Dojo Classwide Goals

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BRAIN TARGET #3
DESIGNING THE LEARNING EXPERIENCE
R AT I O N A L E
The learning experience is designed so that students are deeply invested in our core
theme, friendship, from the beginning of class to the end. Brain-Targeted teaching
asks to design units around themes that will enrich students cognitive
development, and a beginning-of-year third graders must develop their
blossoming social needs by creating cohesive friendships with each other. At the
beginning of each lesson, students engage in a journal prompt that relates to the
unit, such as describing a close friend or time they were kind to another person.
Then, students dive deeply into the exemplar text (Charlottes Web). For the
majority of the lesson time, students engage in small group activity centers and
lessons and are challenged to develop relationships with their group mates by
collaborating on various tasks and activities. At the end of the lesson, students
take a short brain break and debrief before finishing a standards-based exit
ticket. The classroom structure is routine, to support students cognitive needs,
but supports their requirement to complete short but engrossing, novel tasks.

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BRAIN TARGET #3
DESIGNING THE LEARNING EXPERIENCE
Learning Goals:
1. Students will routinely write personal narratives around the theme of
friendship.
This learning goal will reflect the students personal understanding to the role of
friendship in their lives. Students will write short personal narratives in journals in order
to grow their writing ability and stamina. W 3.3, W 3.4, W 3.5. St
At the beginning of the school year, most students have
limited experience with daily writing activities. Journal
activities provide students with an opportunity to
practice writing routinely, increase writing stamina, and
practice spelling patterns. This unit occurs within the
first four weeks of school.
At the bottom of this short sample, the boxed in piece is
a comment by another student. After writing, students
swap notebooks and are asked to add a short
comment. This practice promotes social engagement
and peer collaboration as a daily routine.

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BRAIN TARGET #3
DESIGNING THE LEARNING EXPERIENCE
JOURNAL EXAMPLE: WHEN
HAVE YOU HELPED A
FRIEND?

JOURNAL EXAMPLE: HOW

HAS FRIENDSHIP CHANGED
WILBUR?

This bottom portion is an example

of a beginner-level peer comment.

The journal requirements ask that students write at least three sentences, with each
sentence relating to the prompt. Students are not graded on writing quality until further in
the year. Students are graded on their ideas and reflections. As the year continues,
students become more experienced at writing routinely and their stamina increases.
Furthermore, students are encouraged to add dialogue, illustrations, and color to their 28
ideas.

BRAIN TARGET #3
DESIGNING THE LEARNING EXPERIENCE
2. Students will read and
demonstrate
comprehension skills of
different literary texts
related to friendship.
This learning goal will allow
students to practice Reading
Literature standards RL.1,
RL. 3, RL. 5, RL.6. Students
must be able to comprehend
complicated Grade 3 texts by
the end of the year.

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BRAIN TARGET #3
DESIGNING THE LEARNING EXPERIENCE
Comprehension Task: Why did Amos and Boris become such good and loyal
friends?

This child showed good comprehension of the theme of Amos and Boris. They
were able to cite information from the text that supports why the characters
became friends. This writing indicates the student has a fair writing
background, but needs support developing their writing structure.

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BRAIN TARGET #3
DESIGNING THE LEARNING EXPERIENCE
3. Students will participate in small group and whole class
discussions and collaborative activities.
Students will be able to work with each other to accomplish various center based
learning activities, whether through comprehending texts or the creation of
written works. Students will regularly participate in turn and talk and think/pair/
share.

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BRAIN TARGET #3
DESIGNING THE LEARNING EXPERIENCE
4. Students will know the definitions of new words and be able to explain
how they are used in context. Students will learn through auditory cues
and kinesthetic movement.
Students will discover the meanings of new words through discussion verbally and kinesthetic
movements. They will play vocabulary charades, utilize the Frayer model, Who has, I have, Inside/
Outside circles, and Quiz/Quiz/Trade to review and will warm up with movement and vocal
recitations. These practices promote the learning of vocabulary words through multiple modalities.

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BRAIN TARGET #3
DESIGNING THE LEARNING EXPERIENCE
Introductory Big Picture Activity/Assessment of Prior
Knowledge
Assess Collaborative Working Skills:
Students began their introduction of the unit by participating in a
cooperative learning activity that required them to construct an alternative
version of Cinderella using the ideas of various people in their group.
Students were challenged to work with new partners and after the big
picture activity, students discussed the merits of working together and the
need for friendship.

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BRAIN TARGET #6
EVALUATING LEARNING
Peer Feedback: Students will receive peer feedback during journaling, written work,
and vocabulary games.
Rubrics:
- Students will have a rubric attached to their journals and center work.
- Students will also be asked to evaluate their productiveness at the end of guided
reading groups.
- Students will receive a rubric for their personal narrative and will write based on
this rubric.
- Students will receive a rubric based on their ability to collaborate in groups.
Formative:
- 1/2/3 Check for Understandings during guided reading lessons.
Creativity-based choice board assessment

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BRAIN TARGET #6
EVALUATING LEARNING
RUBRIC-BASED GRADING

R AT I O N A L E
Students are given rubrics with most
assignments they are given. We
look over the rubric in class and
students are expected to be able
to self-report how well they
completed their assignment.
Routine use of grading and the
4x4 rubric model allow students
to become familiar with the
grading method and be able to
better understand their own
performance and motivate
students to build on their own
abilities.

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BRAIN TARGET #6
EVALUATING LEARNING
RATIONALE
Assessment is a
crucial component
of the classroom
learning cycle, and
must loop closely
with the theme of
the unit. The
assessment design
from this unit
encourages
students to think
both about the
standards-based
targets as well as
the learning theme.

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CONCLUSION
The Brain Target plan showcased here clearly
demonstrates the care and consideration placed in
unit planning and classroom design, and how this can
positively influence the learner development of an
average third grade student. From the group-based
classroom structure, to a beginning of the year unit
that promotes social interactions, students are diving
deeply into lessons and activities that are creating
moral and ethical individuals who care deeply about
their school work, classroom, and classmates.

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