Educators understand and apply knowledge of student growth and development.
I believe that teachers must have an understanding of where students are coming from, and where they are heading in order to implement effective classroom management, instruction, and social and emotional support.
Some of the ways that I have met this standard during my practicum experiences include planning for review and scaffolding lessons to meet the learning needs of my students. Across three different practicums I had the opportunity to explore the role of an English teacher in grades 8, 9, 10, and 12. Knowing how to adapt the Humanities curriculum for different learning levels and age groups is
An example of a topic that I taught to two different age groups is persuasive writing and appeals. During my 490 practicum, I presented my New Media 10 class with a unit relating to Digital Citizenship and Media. During this unit, my students achieved an introductory understanding of Aristotle’s three rhetorical appeals, and applied this to a project on media advertisements. The students were responsible for finding either a magazine ad, or digital ad to analyze.
In comparison, during my 391 practicum I worked with four classes of Grade 12 English, and also taught students how to identify rhetoric through media advertising. However, the project I assigned my Grade 12 students was more complex because it focused on a specific social issue that affected their school. These students were working on creating an anti-vaping/e-cigarette advertising campaign. The students were responsible for choose either pathos, ethos, or logos to appeal to a specific audience.
The introduction to rhetoric in Grade 10 gave the learners the opportunity to practice identifying how appeals are used in advertising, and gave them a basic understanding of their purpose. Whereas my Grade 12 learners had the chance to review and relearn the role of advertising appeals, and have a chance to put them into practice by creating their own advertisements.