Standard 2: Diverse Learners

The practitioner understands how students differ in their approaches to learning and creates instructional opportunities that are equitable and are adaptable to diverse learners.


September 25^th- Wednesday 
Today the classes were 30 minutes long. For today’s lesson we gave them a reading on The Mighty Atom, an excerpt from Bill Bryson's, A Short History of Nearly Everything. The reading was about 11 pages and most students completed it in class. The students were asked to take notes on 5 scientists: Dalton, Thomson, Rutherford, Bohr and Schrodinger. These names were written on the board. I told the students it would probably be easier if you took notes while reading the excerpt because you won’t have time to go back through the reading today. Some students were flustered because they weren’t able to focus and they felt timed. I had a few students request to take the article home and I said that there were not enough copies. I had one student ask about the vocabulary. Another student was not paying attention and was on his phone so I came over to Maurice and asked, “are you tweeting your notes?” He laughed and I asked, “what’s your hashtag?” He looked at his reading and made up a creative hashtag and we laughed about it. Then I said, “I’m flattered you would tweet your notes but I need to read them too so write them down please.” He nodded his head and put his phone away, I didn’t see it out the rest of the hour. Then 4th hour I had a student, Gage, who refused to do the reading because he thought it was lame and he claimed that he couldn’t read. I told him that it was a very interesting reading and I wouldn’t assign it if I didn’t think it was helpful. He said he couldn’t read, then I asked him how he was reading phone in class. He said it was easier to read his phone than the reading in front of him. I asked him to try to read the passage and I walked away. I saw that he wasn’t getting anywhere he was just looking around up at the ceiling. So I came back and asked how he was doing. He said he couldn’t read the passage, then he asked could I just read about these people on the internet using my phone? I said if he did that then he would be changing the source and how that would affect his notes. He said that it was too hard for him to focus on the passage in front of him and it would be easier to read off of his phone. So I made a deal with him that he could use his phone but I needed to see notes about each scientist before the period was over. He said okay and went to work. He had all of the notes I had asked him for by the end of the period and I could see him working during class. It didn’t look like he was on any social media. I couldn’t understand if he really needed a different source or he was just too tired to read the passage. In this case i comprimised with him because I had the option to keep arguing with him, allow him to do nothing and stare at the ceiling for the rest of the hour, or try to get him to take notes with such accomodations. I decided on the latter because he still was involvled during class time. 

September 27^th- Friday 
Today in Chemistry  I started the day with saying we are going to have some fun and learn some exciting things. I had a student ask enthusiastically, “are we doing a lab???” I said, “not today, but we are doing an experiment and taking notes on the atomic structure of the atom. I was pleased that this student associated “fun and exciting” with labs because those are my favorite lessons to plan! The students were actually intrigued by this lesson, probably because of the anticipatory set yesterday and the day before. A Lot of their reading correlated with the power point and then at the end of the lesson we talked about isotopes and ions. During the lesson we discussed J.J. Thomson and the cathode ray tube. Ms. Brown was able to find a cathode ray tube so we could show the experiment to the class. This moment made everyone get out of their seats and was exciting. At first I explained the experiment using the powerpoint so the students understood what was happening then I showed them the actual cathode ray tube and they could see it for themselves. A Lot of students were excited and that helped with explaining the rest of the lesson.  During 4th hour, after the lesson, we have announcements and I had 3 students come up to talk to me and ask questions about the lesson. We showed a clip in class “The Space Between” and it seemed to blow a lot of the students minds. That was the idea though, it talked about the real-size of an atom and the components of an atom. One of the professors explained that it may look like I’m sitting in this chair but I’m actually hovering in it because the electrons of the chair and I are repelling each other. Gage asked me questions, “how could you be hovering in your seat due to electrons repelling themselves, but defy gravity?” Then he took an expo marker and started to draw on the board. “If I draw on this board, am I really drawing on this board? Shouldn’t the atoms be falling down?” I was so excited that he was so involved and enthusiastic. We broke his question down into one main question, the atom vs. gravity.  We talked about the forces holding the atom together and how it is indivisible. Then we talked about how gravity is a weak force compared to the strong force of the atom. That made him nod and he agreed. I was so happy that Gage had asked a question like that. It means that he was involved and now I know what captures his attention.  He is “one of the boys” in my 4th hour class that you observed Thursday. He sits in the back row and causes some trouble with his attitude toward learning. If the lesson isn’t engaging he’s not motivated to help himself. For example, Wednesday he gave me rough time with the reading.