Standard2

** Teachers know how children grow. **  The teacher understands how children with broad ranges of ability learn and provides instruction that supports their intellectual, social, and personal development. **Evidence 1:** Used Glogster (web 2.0 tool) with students to construct a poster to demonstrate understanding of themes that exist in a novel read in class. [] **Rationale 1:** After reading the book //Night//, a holocaust memoir, students scanned the text for words, phrases, and passages to construct a found poem that would communicate their understanding of the mood and themes of the text. The poem became a central artifact in a larger virtual poster, to which students added images and design elements to create an overall impact. This project enabled students of all abilities to construct a very attractive and meaningful response to a text that connected new ideas to previous knowledge, and demonstrate intellectual and emotional understanding of the text, all while developing skills in a new, digital medium. This assignment allowed students to tap into existing knowledge to create and demonstrate new understandings. I have found that lower-ability students often struggle with and shy away from artistic/visual assignments. Glogster allowed these students to create very attractive products that had visual impact. The memoir itself puts a personal face on the holocaust, and this links students’ “theoretical” understandings of the historical event with new, personal understandings. The Glogster assignment allowed students to create an original response to the text and the concepts and to communicate their new understandings in a highly engaging and motivational way. As a tool, Glogster allows a student to make their product as basic or complex as he/she is motivated to, and because of its ease and engaging nature, often inspires students to push beyond the product-level he/she may ordinarily create.  Because the products students can develop with Glogster are so visually appealing and because the tool itself is very simple to use, all levels of learners can be successful with this assignment, thus building self-confidence and competence. [[home|
 * Standard 2 **
 * KSD **
 * 2.K.1 The teacher understands how learning occurs -- how students construct knowledge, acquire skills, and develop habits of mind – and how to use instructional strategies that promote student learning for a wide range of student abilities. **
 * 2.S.2 The teacher stimulates student reflection on prior knowledge and links new ideas to already familiar ideas, making connections to students’ experiences, providing opportunities for active engagement, manipulation, and testing of ideas and material, and encouraging students to assume responsibility for shaping their learning tasks **
 * 2.D.1 The teacher appreciates individual variation at each developmental level and shows respect for the diverse talents of all learners, and is committed to help them develop self-confidence and competence **.

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