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Hard to misunderstand with a straightforward name like that! The thing that sticks out to me in this one is twofold. One: the way in which you gain knowledge of students, and two: what you do with it. The standard cites several important sources for knowledge: direct listening and observation, communication with family, other teachers, counselors and administration and learning and personality surveys. There are several sources of knowledge about students, several of which I already take advantage of in my classroom. Students fill out a notecard on the first day of school with personality information. They take home a form for parents that gives me their email address and invites parents to visit the Spanish website. I am always listening to students and trying to pick up on things they talk about in natural conversation. This year I have plans to create a Spanish newsletter to email home to highlight student accomplishments and share info about important assignments and test dates. This will hopefully encourage even more parent communication and enhance my knowledge of students. The other hard part for me is part two – what do I do with what I learn? The standard says I use basic things like “knowledge of child and adolescent development…age levels; cognitive, physical, emotional social, and motor development; cultural and ethnic identity; gender; and learning profiles. To foster rich cognitive development at all levels, teachers plan learner-centered instruction that incorporates concrete and abstract levels of thought – recognizing, applying, analyzing, synthesizing, and evaluating.” This is such an excellent basis for planning in a student-centered way that I hope to use on a daily basis this year.
The second part of this standard deals more directly with what you do with the knowledge about your students – something I need to work on. It begins in a similar place – recognizing that students bring diverse skills, talents and abilities to the classroom, in addition to their personalities. That makes it my job to create meaningful and individual (as much as possible) learning experiences. It also talks more about the whole student – being concerned with “students self-confidence, aspirations, goals, and development of character.” That encompasses the struggle I’ve had for the last year – where does that fit in the classroom?!? I guess if I can show students that I am trying to learn about them and include them in a wonderful learning process, the goal is that they will see that I care about them as people and not just language-learners. This part of the standard also focuses more on family interaction. I feel like I have gotten much better at this as the years have gone by, but still have a long way to go. I think the newsletter and being a part of the student assistance team will help in all regards to this standard.
The third part deals directly with previous language experience. Some students have had a couple weeks, some have had a semester, some have grown up in native-speaking homes. being informed about these differences and playing to them in the classroom is essential for including all learners. It also talks about using language to help students be successful in a global society – something I don’t emphasize enough in my classroom.
Then there is sort of an odd addition onto the end about using assessment to shape my lessons. This does, indeed, deal with knowing the students, but I think it’s also thoroughly covered in the assessment standard, so I’ll save that part for later.
So here it is – Standard 1 in a nutshell:
- Employ a variety of methods to gain as much knowledge of my students as possible
- Use that knowledge and general understanding of student development to create student-centered learning experiences that encourage them to reach higher level thinking – recognize, apply, analyze, synthesize, evaluate
- Include parents in the learning process and seek to understand their influence on the student
- Recognize the diversity of students’ language ability and emphasize the importance of knowing the language/culture in a global society
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