Standard 2. Understanding All Children in Their Many Dimensions.

Educators should know their students as individuals and as learners and be able to relate to
them in a variety of ways. They should be familiar with the cultures, histories, and values of the
communities and families they serve, and know the attributes of the individual children and
families with whom they work. Educators should be aware of the range of special needs their
children may have and seek out information concerning the strengths of specific children as
well as resources to address their developmental and learning needs. They should use their
knowledge of variations in development, second language acquisition, and disabilities to
support children’s physical, emotional, social, cognitive, linguistic, intellectual, and creative
development. Educators should observe and listen to children as they work, learn, and play in a
variety of settings to gain insights into what their students know, how they think, what they
value, who they are, where they come from, and what motivates them. Their knowledge of
children and families, language and culture, and community development should motivate
educators to view children’s actions and responses through multiple lenses. The more they
learn about their students, the better they can tailor their teaching to engage children in active
learning and meet their specific needs.

Students in today’s day and age have so many dimensions to who they are that as their teachers

we have to be able to know the ins and outs of our students. Now as teachers it is extremely hard to

know everything about our students, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try. The best thing we can do

as teachers is understand the development of a student at that age and make notes about any unusual

behaviors that a student might have. From there we can work to understand what is going on in the

student’s life.

At Wheelock we first learned all about development of children in Human Growth and

Development. In this class we learned all about all the areas of development a student goes

through from birth until they are elderly. One thing that stuck out in particular to me that

relates to the idea of understanding every element of a student is Bronfenbrenner, who created

the Ecological Systems Theory. He created the theory to explain how the inherent qualities of a

child and his environment interact to influence how he will grow and develop. The model

organizes contexts of development into five levels of external influence. The levels are

categorized from the most intimate level to the broadest. The five levels are microsystem,

mesosystem, exosystem, macrosystem, and chronosystem. The microsystem is the smallest and
most immediate environment in which the child lives. As such, the microsystem comprises the

daily home, school or daycare, peer group or community environment of the child.

The mesosystem encompasses the interaction of the different microsystems which the

developing child finds himself in. It is a system of microsystems and involves the relationship

between home and school, between peer group and family, or between family and church.

The exosystem pertains to the relationship that may exist between two or more settings. One

of which may not contain the developing child but affects him indirectly nonetheless. Other

people and places which the child may not directly interact with but may still have an effect on

the child, comprise the exosystem. Such places and people may include the parents’

workplaces, the larger neighborhood, and extended family members. The macrosystem is the

largest and most distant collection of people and places to the child that still exercises

significant influence on the child. It is composed of the child’s cultural patterns and values,

specifically the child’s dominant beliefs and ideas, as well as political and economic

systems. The chronosystem adds the useful dimension of time, which demonstrates the

influence of both change and constancy in the child’s environment. The chronosystem may thus

include a change in family structure, address, parent’s employment status, in addition to

immense society changes such as economic cycles and wars. (Lightfoot, Cole, & Cole, 2013).

With so many factors that can affect a child’s development no wonder as their teachers we

cannot always figure out what is going on. But since school and teachers is a part of the

microsystem and mesosystem levels we have to work towards working with the other elements

to do what is best for the student.

 I mentioned before that a helpful way for teachers to understand what is going on with

a student is to understand what developmental levels they should be at for that age. A helpful

book that has helped me understand quickly what developmental level my students should be

at is, Yardsticks: Children in the Classroom Ages 4-14 by Chip Wood. In this book Wood breaks

down each age into their growth patterns, how they interact in the classroom, and what they

would typically be learning in curriculum. I found this book to be most helpful especially

working on focus child projects. Yardsticks allowed me to zone in on the child’s specific age

across development areas and look at where there should be developmentally and compare it

where the student was. This book is one from my classes that I’m glad I was able to hold on to.

(Wood, C., & Crain, W. 2007)

Artifact 1: Human Growth and Development Focus Child Paper

This artifact is from my first semester of Human Growth and Development where I

worked with a focus child named Sophia. The purpose of this artifact was to observe and

analyze behavioral events in order to construct an understanding of a child’s psychosocial

(emotional and social) development. For this artifact I had to observe Sophia on two separate

occasions. From these observations I was able to learn about how Sophia doesn’t show a lot of

emotions and that she is able to self-regulate when interacting with others. I believe this

artifact best represents this standard because while I was able to focus on Sophia emotional

and social developments I was able to see just a few of her dimensions.

Artifact 2: Human Growth and Development Interviews

This artifact is also from my first semester of Human Growth and Development. Unlike

the previous one I interviewed three family members and asked them what they thought about
bullying. I first interviewed my younger cousin who was about 10 at the time, another cousin

who was 16 and my mom who was 42. What is important about these interviews is that the

three interviewees were at three different stages in life and because of this they have different

thoughts and opinions about the subject. I believe this artifact represents this standard because

it allows us to see the dimensions of not only school age children but also adults in their

community and how they that affect the students.

Artifact 3: Meeting Diverse Learning Needs Focus Child Packet

This artifact is from my Meeting Diverse Learning Needs class. In this class we learned all

about working with students with learning disabilities. This focus child packet was our

culminating project for this class because we had to work all semester with a student in our full-

time practicum classroom. I decided to focus on James who has very severe dyslexia. I wanted

to pick a student in an area I was not very familiar with and I had not worked with a student

who has dyslexia before. In this packet we had to observe the students in different

developmental areas as well as modify lessons and activities to better serve the students

learning. This artifact represents this standard because not only did it allow me to see many of

dimensions, but I also had to create method to improve resources to help James learn to the

best of his abilities.

Students have many dimensions and as their teachers it our job to educate them to the

best of their abilities. This requires us as teachers to do work to fully understand our students in

and outside of the classroom. Especially in the classroom we have to modify our methods, so

they best serve the student’s learning.

 References:

Lightfoot, C., Cole, M., & Cole, S. (2013). The Development of Children. (7th edition). New York,

NY: Worth.

Wood, C., & Crain, W. (2007). Yardsticks: Children in the classroom, ages 4-14: A Resource for

Parents and Teachers. Turners Falls, MA: Northeast Foundation for Children.