In my opinion, I think this standard wants me to recognize the importance behind

incorporating a variety of instructional strategies into each lesson addressing students’ diverse

learning needs. During instructional planning, it is essential for teachers to consider individual

students and information about their home communities and cultures. By adapting instruction to

appeal to students’ individual backgrounds, they can generally establish stronger personal

connections to the material, helping them to remember the information better. Additionally, this

standard also wants me to understand how to provide particular students with specific

modifications to benefit their language acquisition and retention rate, such as English Language

Learners or students with disabilities.

For this standard, I chose to use a PowerPoint presentation analyzing the accuracy of

Francis Scott Key’s Star-Spangled Banner as the artifact to demonstrate my understanding and

application of the standard. I have used this artifact in practice during student teaching this

semester. This artifact clearly demonstrates my understanding about “differences in approaches

to learning and performance, including different learning styles, multiple intelligences, and

performance modes.” In the PowerPoint presentation, a variety of primary sources, including

audio clips, video, and visual aids, were included to appeal to students’ different learning

preferences. On top of these various learning modes, the students’ knowledge was assessed

through two different performance modes – informally through a whole-class discussion as well

as formally by writing an exit slip. For ELL students and students with disabilities, their thoughts

can be evaluated through either method, orally or written. Furthermore, this presentation

demonstrates my understanding of “the process of second language acquisition and strategies to

support the learning of students whose first language is not English.” This is evident through the

specific PowerPoint slide defining difficult vocabulary in the Star-Spangled Banner. However,
my teaching will change in the future to further meet this standard by always considering

students’ backgrounds and learning needs. For example, some of the ELL students did not know

what the Star-Spangled Banner was prior to this lesson, effecting their participation in the warm-

up at the beginning of class. Therefore, I will remember to consider each individual students’

needs during every part of instructional planning.

After demonstrating the importance behind creating instructional opportunities that are

adapted to diverse learners, I feel more prepared to teach and learn in a diverse society. ‘Diverse’

can be defined in multiple ways. For one, it can be interpreted as an ethnically and racially

diverse environment. With an ethnically and racially diverse student population in the classroom,

it is necessary to consider students’ family background as well as their first language during

instructional planning to help adapt lessons to best fit their needs. ‘Diverse’ can also be

interpreted as an academically diverse environment. By satisfactorily meeting this standard, I

have demonstrated the importance in using a wide variety of instructional strategies to appeal to

students’ diverse learning styles and performance preferences. This will prepare me as a

prospective teacher to provide the best education for a diverse group of students. I look forward

to using this knowledge in my future and am confident that my future experiences will further

build upon these understandings as well.