Corinna Sech

February 20, 2018

SCED 499

Professor Gjoni

InTASC 2 Reflection

The second Interstate New Teachers Assessment and Support Consortium (InTASC)

standard focuses on learning differences. The standard is, “the teacher uses understanding of

individual differences and diverse cultures and communities to ensure inclusive learning

environments that enable each learner to meet high standards.”1 This standard reinforces a

teacher’s obligation to his or her students. As a teacher, I need to build a relationship with my

students and learn about their differences to ensure each student succeeds. I need to be aware that

each student is different and learns differently (e.g. – visual, aural, verbal, and physical

learners). This also reminds me of the Universal Design for Learning (UDL) because UDL

requires me to stimulate interest and motivation for learning, present information and content in

different ways, and differentiate the ways students can demonstrate what they know. This is

important because regardless if I am differentiating instruction for ELLs, gifted students, special

needs students, etc. I need to also differentiate the activities and assessments to ensure they

learned the content.

Differentiation is essential and should always be applied to instruction. For example,

primary sources are important for understanding social studies content but can also be very

1
Council of Chief State School Officers. (2011, April). Interstate Teacher Assessment and
Support Consortium (InTASC) Model Core Teaching Standards: A Resource for State Dialogue.
Washington, DC: Author.
difficult to read. If I were to assign a packet of three primary sources and had students write a

short analysis on each source and I had a student who struggled reading quickly, I would be more

concerned that the student was writing a thoughtful analysis and getting the information instead

of reading the entire packet. Another example could be that I have an aural learner in my

classroom who needed music to focus. During activities that student could listen to music on his

or her headphones in order to focus.

This standard is important because I need to meet the needs of all my students for them to

succeed. A teacher should respect learners as individuals with differing personal and family

backgrounds and various skills, abilities, perspectives, talents, and interests. By doing this, I will

ensure my students feel valued and that each one of their needs are important in my classroom. If

their needs are being met, students will want to learn because they feel they are being cared for.