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

knowledgeable of how to find and use resources to enhance the learning process for all students.

Not only do using extra resources to improve instruction make the material more engaging, but it

also typically helps students create connections between the curriculum and real world

experiences. For example, news stories could be used as part of a social studies curriculum to

create a connection between history and the present-day. By using extra information to support

the instruction, students are also usually encouraged to use higher-level thinking skills to create

and understand the connections between the extra information and the traditional curriculum.

Thus, this is another important instructional aspect that this standard wants me to recognize.

For this standard, I chose to use a fact sheet on modern-day slavery as the artifact to

demonstrate my understanding and application of the standard. This fact sheet was found through

an American anti-slavery group, iAbolish, and provides a range of facts and examples of how

slavery did not end with Abraham Lincoln in 1863, but still continues today all over the world.

This fact sheet was used in practice to provide students with additional information on slavery if

their class finished the planned instruction early. Not only is slavery an important topic for

students to critically analyze with higher-order thinking skills, but resources such as this fact

sheet help students to create a connection between slavery in the past and slavery in the present-

day. Therefore, this artifact clearly demonstrates “how to access, evaluate, and use information

to improve teaching and learning.” Although I have used this artifact in practice, my teaching

will change in the future to further meet this standard by encouraging students to use their

higher-level thinking more to “use information to solve problems and make decisions.” By

providing students with an opportunity to make decisions about a modern-day problem, such as
slavery, more responsibility is placed in their hands regarding their education as well as real- life

situations.

After demonstrating the importance behind developing information literacy skills, 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, it is important to use information literacy skills

to access and use information to build off of students’ cultural backgrounds. This will help each

individual student form a personal connection with the instructional material, while also

introducing other students to different cultures. ‘Diverse’ can also be interpreted as an

academically diverse environment. By satisfactorily meeting this standard, I have demonstrated

how to use extra resources to enhance the instruction for students who are below-grade-level, on-

grade-level, and above-grade-level. During instructional planning time, it is therefore necessary

to consider the variety of student learning needs and how to enhance the instruction for each

individual student. 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.