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

When looking over the time that I have been teaching at Roosevelt in Amy Unmacht’s
classroom I have been able to observer and show InTASC Standard 1. Part of this standard is
centered around adjusting to student’s needs. I have been able observe this happening as well
as to demonstrate it myself as I taught my lessons. An example of how I have demonstrated this
standard could be seen in the lesson I last taught for my observation. I had incorporated many
opportunities for myself to ask the students how they felt about the material by using a thumbs
up system. I also gave myself time to walk around assess student work as they were completing
example problems on their white boards. This gave me an opportunity to see how the students
were doing with the material. I was able to see that the students were struggling with the topic
so I changed the lesson plans to allow for students to have more modeling and practice on the
new topic with me rather than sending them off to attempt their homework unsuccessfully.
There also have been many opportunities where I was able to see that the students were
understanding the concept quicker than I had planned. In those moments I changed the
instruction to a faster pace so that the students would be challenged and engaged during
instruction. These are just examples of how I have been able to change whole group
instruction, however, I have also had the opportunity to adjust the way I give instruction with
individual students as well. For example, I was able to learn how to adapt for the students that I
work with that have IEP’s or 504 Plans. I learned quickly that one of the students in my class
would often become very upset and lose focus when they saw that there was homework on the
board. The student would start to physically grab and pull at their face and then tuck into a ball
and start muttering under their breath. When looking at how I could help calm the student I
decided to take some action. With this student I would pull them aside prior to class and inform
them of the homework for that night and provide some positive encouragement. Know this
information prior really helped the student to stay calm during the lesson. This shows how I
used the patterns of behavior to help vary the instruction that I gave a student.