InTASC Reflection
The Learner Development Standard is the standard in which teachers have an intimate understanding of and respect for the wildly varied, highly individual developments of students. Such developmental paths are not limited to the pure acquisition of content in any given class, but rather extend to include how the students develop socially, cognitively, linguistically, emotionally, and physically.
For example, some students may be farther along in their physical maturation, perhaps a male student is very tall and growing stubble, yet his social development may be a bit behind. This student has to deal with the incongruence of these two developmental stages in different categories: he is seen as almost a man but maybe cannot approach new people well. Our classrooms will be filled with these seemingly minor incongruences. Some may ask well aren't those students just there to learn? Any observant teacher will notice that their students are not just there to learn, they are there to live and coexist with one another. They spend most of their waking hours in a school, in these classrooms. Their developmental trajectories require a plethora of categories, all of which manifest in the classroom. This requires teachers to be prepared and cognisant of the aforementioned incongruences in development, particularly how they manifest in the learning of the students.
In a Spanish classroom, and most likely any foreign language classroom, I am of the belief that learner development takes a special turn in comparison to every other classroom. Coming in, these students may have preconceived notions of their own identities: what they are good at in other classrooms, habits of behaviour and interaction in other classrooms, etc. When they enter into a Spanish class, they are confronted by an inherently level playing field. If nobody has had serious previous exposure to the target language then I think this holds true to any foreign language classroom. If some students aren't used to speaking as much and raising their hands, they will be made to repeat things out loud on a daily basis. If they are used to being able to finish all of their worksheets early in other classes, they won’t be able to, at least at first, because the words are in a language that they are not familiar with. I would address this every once in a while in a very direct and philosophical manner. I would take the time ever so often to explain to them that what they're accomplishing is different from other things that they have had to accomplish in the past and that's ok. At the very least for the first few weeks of a target language class, the students individual social developments will be less apparent since everyone is made to speak and their individual linguistic developments in their native language may come to serve not a single use. Cognitive developments are, I would say, almost always apparent as they perhaps provide the foundation for the ability to understand new content when exposed to it. But I would still say that a language classroom will disrupt the seemingly fomented patterns of learning growth, even if just as a hiccup. Students come into a classroom hearing Spanish music and seeing Spanish words and sentences all around the room and on the warm up board. It is something that they are not used to because it is in a language that is not their own.
This learner development standard forces teachers to acknowledge the manifestation of the highly varied combinations of congruences that each of these students has in their own classroom. It gives the teacher a means of understanding behaviour and then later using that understanding to adapt their lesson to fit the individual needs of the students. This not only will help each student reach their full potential in each classroom but they will feel good doing it.
For example, some students may be farther along in their physical maturation, perhaps a male student is very tall and growing stubble, yet his social development may be a bit behind. This student has to deal with the incongruence of these two developmental stages in different categories: he is seen as almost a man but maybe cannot approach new people well. Our classrooms will be filled with these seemingly minor incongruences. Some may ask well aren't those students just there to learn? Any observant teacher will notice that their students are not just there to learn, they are there to live and coexist with one another. They spend most of their waking hours in a school, in these classrooms. Their developmental trajectories require a plethora of categories, all of which manifest in the classroom. This requires teachers to be prepared and cognisant of the aforementioned incongruences in development, particularly how they manifest in the learning of the students.
In a Spanish classroom, and most likely any foreign language classroom, I am of the belief that learner development takes a special turn in comparison to every other classroom. Coming in, these students may have preconceived notions of their own identities: what they are good at in other classrooms, habits of behaviour and interaction in other classrooms, etc. When they enter into a Spanish class, they are confronted by an inherently level playing field. If nobody has had serious previous exposure to the target language then I think this holds true to any foreign language classroom. If some students aren't used to speaking as much and raising their hands, they will be made to repeat things out loud on a daily basis. If they are used to being able to finish all of their worksheets early in other classes, they won’t be able to, at least at first, because the words are in a language that they are not familiar with. I would address this every once in a while in a very direct and philosophical manner. I would take the time ever so often to explain to them that what they're accomplishing is different from other things that they have had to accomplish in the past and that's ok. At the very least for the first few weeks of a target language class, the students individual social developments will be less apparent since everyone is made to speak and their individual linguistic developments in their native language may come to serve not a single use. Cognitive developments are, I would say, almost always apparent as they perhaps provide the foundation for the ability to understand new content when exposed to it. But I would still say that a language classroom will disrupt the seemingly fomented patterns of learning growth, even if just as a hiccup. Students come into a classroom hearing Spanish music and seeing Spanish words and sentences all around the room and on the warm up board. It is something that they are not used to because it is in a language that is not their own.
This learner development standard forces teachers to acknowledge the manifestation of the highly varied combinations of congruences that each of these students has in their own classroom. It gives the teacher a means of understanding behaviour and then later using that understanding to adapt their lesson to fit the individual needs of the students. This not only will help each student reach their full potential in each classroom but they will feel good doing it.
Artifact: Child Study
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