Why Do We Need To Understand Student Growth And Development

It is essential for teachers to understand student growth and development. Teachers need to understand how their own students grow. Teachers also need to understand what adaptations their students need. This is very important for all students, but especially for their students who are gifted or have special needs. In order for any teacher to do this, they must understand the growth of their students. IEP's are a great example of why teachers need to understand the growth of their students. It is the teachers responsibility to understand and express how the student grows and develops inside of the classroom. This can include how the child acts as well as their intellectual growth. Another example of why a teacher needs to understand all students is for parent teacher conferences. If the teacher does not know how the student grows in his or her classroom, then there is no benefit in holding parent teacher conferences.

Explain which classes or experiences have contributed to your understanding of this standard.
There are many classes that have helped me understand this standard very well.
My professors make it a point to understand how I grow and develop in their classes. If I seem to be struggling, normally my professors will talk to me and make sure everything is okay. This shows me that they care about how I am growing and developing not only academically, but also spiritually and in life. Assessments are another way that my professors have checked for my growth. This includes, but is not limited to, tests, projects, and presentations. I have also been able to experience a students growth and development in my Developmental Reading course. I have been paired with a student at Wilson Elementary School and have had the opportunity to teach her lessons related to reading once a week. Throughout the entire process I have definitely seen her grow and develop in her
reading.

Choose four to five of your best or favorite artifacts and explain how they demonstrate your knowledge or mastery of this standard.

The lesson plan that I have provided definitely shows my understanding of this standard. In this lesson my student really seemed to improve with using context clues. This carried on into her lessons afterward, which really showed me her growth. Although my observation paper was not specifically in an educational setting, it still shows my knowledge of the content area. By observing a child for 3 hours you tend to understand them a lot more than before. I believe that this prepared me to observe my future students to really see how they grow and develop throughout the year. My research paper about Common Core really helped me grow as a writer. It was possibly one of the best papers I have written in my opinion. Finally, the review of the scholarly article was a great representation of assessing students in the classroom. It is important to understand that you can not assess every student the same way.