The teacher uses understanding of individual differences and diverse cultures and communities to ensure inclusive learning environments that enable each learner to meet high standards.
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The teacher understands how learners grow and develop, recognizing that patterns of learning and development vary individually within and across the cognitive, linguistic, social, emotional, and physical areas, and designs and implements developmentally appropriate and challenging learning experiences.
Standard 2(a)- Learning Differences: Designs, adapts, and delivers instruction to address each student’s diverse learning strengths and needs and creates opportunities for students to demonstrate their learning in different ways.
Artifact From the Semester: In Class Midterm Essay: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1bJEP9hOG_yGVVVMztayrlZB5oms9z2up88hZ8_czwzU/edit?usp=sharing
Description:
For our midterm assignment, instead of having an exam, we had to write an in class essay. We were given a list of different students who had different learning differences. We had to chose two students and answer multiple of 7 different questions. The questions were not included in the linked artifact, so I will include them here: 1) How could you motivate/engage this student to be interested in your unit? 2) What changes to your instruction would you make to accommodate this student’s needs? 3) What changes to assessment would you make to accommodate this student’s needs? 4)What changes to the text would you make to accommodate this student’s needs? How will you make this student feel successful? How can you create/build a positive identity for this student as a reader and writer through this unit? How can you collaborate with others to support this student?
Demonstration of learning:
This assignment was all about knowing how to differentiate for individual students. Not all of our students learn the same way or at the same speed. It may require one student a certain set of tools and strategies to be able to be successful during a lesson while another student has to use a whole different set of tools and strategies. It’s important to be able to go through scenarios of possible student situations and be able to know how you would differentiate anything in your classroom to help them be successful.
Standard 4(g)- Content Knowledge: Uses supplementary resources and technologies effectively to ensure accessibility and relevance to all learners.
Artifact From the Semester: Content Area Book Resource Guide
https://docs.google.com/document/d/16khzRB1Z1uNghgMOL5AyUm4u5SaZ2xDMvvGhH1KmZBQ/edit?usp=sharing
Description:
The purpose of this assignment was to be able to pick a specific topic that is related to the content area you are going to teach, and create a resource guide that has a variety of different kinds of resources so that all learners have a chance to learn in the way they do best. We were required to have 4-6 different resources that ranged between 3-5 different categories. We also had to provide a brief description of the resource and the text readability.
Demonstration of learning:
We also had to do a reflection at the end of the assignment, so this is very similar to that. I found this assignment interesting because it helped me understand how different categories of resources can help different students with different learning needs understand different aspects of the same topic. Doing this type of resource guide would be helpful to me as a teacher when I am creating a unit or lesson, I could create separate resource guides for units and lessons to help keep my resources organized.
Writing Reflection:
Looking at the difference between my first draft and my final draft, there weren’t too many changes, but I really do like the changes that I decided to make. As I went day by day, I just kept going through the draft before and switching out words or phrases that I thought might sound better and in a different drafts I would do a different combination of words. In my second to last draft, I wanted to see how it would look and sound with punctuation. I usually write my poems with punctuation but this one I decided not to and I like it a lot better without it, except for in the last stanza. I think the punctuation in the last stanza gives it extra meaning. What helped guide me was the message of the poem, I was really trying my absolute hardest to choose words that might correspond with the message or make the message more prominent or even just sound better with the message that is being said. Some of the challenges I encountered was coming up with new words, I did have a little bit of help from a thesaurus (while being cautious to not over do it). I also struggled with trying to rebreak the lines. I think I just really like how I broke up the lines originally, I liked it so much that I didn’t want to change it at all. *Also I just realized now that in my handwritten version I misspelled Helianthus every time, but it’s correct in the typed version.*
Bookmaking Reflection:
I originally picked yellow paper just because it is my favorite color, but it also worked out really well because the poem is about sunflowers. This was helpful because I didn’t have to color in the leaves yellow since they already were, I just had to color the green stem and leaves and the brown pistil and the outline of the sun. Sunflowers are one of my favorite flowers they just really speak to me on a personal level and I feel like I can relate them a lot, which is why I chose to 1) write the poem about sunflowers and 2) decorate the book with sunflowers. The content definitely influenced me to break out my artistic side. When I was in my creative nonfiction writing class on Monday, we had Professor Miller from the art department come in and give us a presentation and description of a bunch of different artist books. It was really interesting to see what the authors did to the book. Many artists challenge the book form which is the most fun part and the part that inspired me the most. I was flowing with juicy ideas as soon as we left. I’ll be making two artist books this semester: one for that class and one for this one.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ekg-99l5ItYLzraJ49E_oNhTMWknKoes6C7VVPAz1aY/edit?usp=sharing
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Gq23x1n4381WQLdh4Yd_sRYhEfDFq5Km7yDEeZXIvfM/edit?usp=sharing
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1DbTJkNmiVvfiW-o_h2qgLnHaUF6AM7XVMIVEUuR7w-U/edit?usp=sharing
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1r-aAJm5keTATsjEFNbmZVFpTRmHSu1BVYIVvhdWgRLc/edit?usp=sharing
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1dC6REBoWR4nANnex4RKjcuZME6o6_brXBbiPQCUWPzI/edit?usp=sharing
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ex00ra6kEN-So3o7o-y4WmqqISmuAHc7speMTkhIQAU/edit?usp=sharing
Quotation:
“Two hundred fifty years of slavery. Ninety years of Jim Crow. Sixty years of separate but equal. Thirty-five years of racist housing policy. Until we reckon with our compounding moral debts, America will never be whole.”
Comment: This quote is actually the subtitle for the article. I was conflicted on choosing this as my quote specifically because it is the subtitle, but I like what the quote contains, so I figured why not. I picked this because I really liked the way that he had outlined the history of racism in America. It makes it more clear cut, emphasizing how horribly long we have been battling racism in America. I also agree with the statement. Until America can start recognizing the prejudice and racism that goes on everyday and has been going on everyday for years now, we will not see any progress. We need to acknowledge the past and what has happened in this country so that we can make a change in society and so that history doesn’t repeat itself. An example of how we could do this is by actually providing students the right materials in history classrooms. This means we should be explaining history, more specifically the history of racism and slavery in this country instead of sugar coating it or ignoring major parts of history. I had never knew what lynching was until I came to college. I have never been educated on the wars that had been going on in Iraq and Afghanistan in school. In the movie, “Freedom Writers,” which was based on a true story, Miss. Gruwell had a classroom full of minorities and not any of them knew what the Holocaust was.
Question: Why is there not more concern over the gaps and lack of correct education about history?
Quotation:
“Grace mentioned the glaring gap between Ansari’s comedy persona and the behavior she experienced in his apartment as a reason why she didn’t get out earlier. “I didn’t leave because I think I was stunned and shocked,” she said. ‘This was not what I expected. I’d seen some of his shows and read excerpts from his book and I was not expecting a bad night at all, much less a violating night and a painful one.’” -I Went on a Date with Aziz Ansari. It Turned Into the Worst Night of My Life
“They told us over and over again that if a man tried to push you into anything you didn’t want, even just a kiss, you told him flat out you weren’t doing it. If he kept going, you got away from him. You were always to have ‘mad money’ with you: cab fare in case he got ‘fresh’ and then refused to drive you home. They told you to slap him if you had to; they told you to get out of the car and start wailing if you had to. They told you to do whatever it took to stop him from using your body in any way you didn’t want, and under no circumstances to go down without a fight.” -The Humiliation of Aziz Ansari
Comment: I picked the first quote from the article about the interaction between Grace and Aziz. I picked this because I found it interesting and the statements and the claims being made had seemed too familiar to me. In today’s culture, it seems as though it is always the “good guys,” it’s always the ones that you don’t expect it from that sexually harass you and don’t understand what they did wrong, or maybe they do but they won’t admit it. This is what makes it tricky for women. The reason that women don’t always come forward about their stories is because of the people who say, “Him? No, he would never do such a thing. She’s just mad and is doing this in spite.” It’s those types of people that are the reason that a lot of women don’t share their stories or press charges against their assaulters because they fear nothing will even happen to him or people will think poorly of her instead of him. I chose the second quote because it really resonated with me. I am a fighter, I have always been a fighter. Thankfully, I have never been put in a situation where I actually needed to fight for my life or my body. But, my dad has been teaching me how to fight and protect myself since I was young. In high school, I had a lot of tough guy friends who I would wrestle with or fight with to practice my strength and they would also teach me how to fight and protect myself. They would always say something like, “Forget it, if anyone ever tries to kidnap or rape you, they’d give up because you don’t,” or something along those lines. I will kick and scratch and claw my way until I can break free, which has always been a strength of mine. This quote reminded me of my strengths. At the same time, I’m upset that a quote like this even needs to be said. I’m upset that women all around the world have to be told how to push men away, how to fight them, how to do whatever it takes to get them to stop… We should be telling men how to NOT RAPE OR SEXUALLY HARASS WOMEN. We should be educating men on consent and verbal/non-verbal cues. I just really wish this wasn’t a problem in society.
Question: Shouldn’t we be spending more time educating men on how to control themselves, how to not rape or sexually harass anyone, what is consent and what is not, and how to pick up verbal/non-verbal cues, instead of educating women on how to fight and prevent men from sexually harassing or abusing us?
Post Class Reflection:
My spoken contributions today (bullets, fragments, keywords) | Helping Hands Today (up to 3) – Name & Briefly Describe Contribution to Class (bullets, fragments, keywords) |
| ~Grace was shocked that he turned out to be so violating, which is where her hesitation to leave came from ~she didn’t explicitly say no, but she verbally said no in other ways and she used body language and other non-verbal cues to say no ~we should be educating men more on this subject and how/what to do instead of women ~men can be victims of sexual assault, not as often or talked about as women ~communication is key | ~Anna: society’s culture, when you’re not looking for something you don’t see it, large percentage of communication is through body language ~Maddy: you can change your mind whenever ~Haley: you don’t have to justify yourself if you say no |
Today’s class discussion altered my thoughts about today’s text(s) in the following ways (link to your QCQ and/or to other ideas):
| I really enjoyed today’s class discussion. I first began contributing by sharing my quote and explaining that Grace didn’t expect this situation to happen from him because he comes off as such a good guy… because of this she was just so shocked that she didn’t comprehend completely that this was happening, which is why she hesitated to leave early. Anna brought up the fact that when you’re not looking for something specifically, you don’t see it… this and the idea that some men could be very uneducated on the subject explains why Aziz could not have understood what he was doing was wrong because he wasn’t picking up what Grace was saying. I somewhat agree with this, I think Aziz could partially have not known what he was doing but at the same time Grace was being pretty clear about it. I don’t know that one is tough. I had gone in to say that communication is key in these situations. If you don’t want to do something like that, but you don’t want to be rude and just end the night, you just need to be as clear as possible, be blunt about it while trying not to be rude. If he then continues to do what he is doing, that is when I would start to be rude and just leave. Going off of this, Anna had brought up that a large percentage of communication is through body language, so it’s important to make sure you’re giving off the right body language vibe as well. But at the same time, the fact that body language is a huge percentage of communication is a great reason to make sure you’re being explicitly clear verbally, so that you know for sure they are getting the right message. My most important comment today, I think, was what I had talked about in my QCQ about how today’s society is all about educating women about what to wear/what not to wear, what to do in certain situations, how to protect yourself from predators, but I think we should be spending more time educating men on consent and body language and most importantly what sexual harassment and assault is specifically, because I feel like this would help stop a lot of it from happening in the first place. |
Quotation:
“‘But at the time—did you regret it at the time?’
‘At the time? Do you mean in the heat of the act? Of course not. In the heat of the act there are no doubts.’” pg 145
“‘Hatred… When it comes to men and sex, David, nothing surprises me anymore. Maybe, for men, hating the women makes sex more exciting. You are a man, you ought to know. When you have sex with someone strange—when you trap her, hold her down, get her under you, put all you weight on her—isn’t it a bit like killing? Pushing the knife in; exiting afterwards, leaving the body behind covered in blood— doesn’t it feel like murder, like getting away with murder?’” pg 155
Comment: Context for the first quote: Bev asked David about his situation before with Melanie. They are discussing it. I flagged this quote because I saw problems with it, this was also pretty much the first time he had discussed it with a stranger. When he says he didn’t regret it even in the moment because he had no doubts… I specifically remember his doubts. He had done it more than once. He had asked himself if what he was doing was okay, if it was right or wrong. He doubted the passion that he felt, because he knew that Melanie lacked desire, but she still gave consent which makes it “not quite rape” but “undesired nonetheless.” It bothers me that he can’t admit that he had doubts even in the heat of the act.
Context for the second quote: Lucy and David are driving back to the farm after going to the police to see if he could get his car. They are going back and forth arguing about the rape. Lucy tells him that he can’t understand it and David continues to explain that he understands all too well. Then Lucy goes on talking about the 3 men and people like them and how they all “do rape.” Then she explains what they do and why they do it and how they feel while they do it, which is the quote. I flagged this because it was really powerful to me. Hard to read yes, but I couldn’t take my eyes away. She is describing rapists and what they do and why like it. I also think part of her uses the murder analogy because she may feel like they have killed a piece of her. She changes a bit after the rape which is what leads me to think this. It was just such a powerful section, I couldn’t not flag it.
Question: Is this a glimpse at how Melanie had felt? (second quote)
Post Class Reflection:
My spoken contributions today (bullets, fragments, keywords) | Helping Hands Today (up to 3) – Name & Briefly Describe Contribution to Class (bullets, fragments, keywords) |
| ~Lucy’s perspective sheds light on Melanie’s perspective ~women as minor characters is a statement from Lucy to her dad & a statement from the author | ~Anna: internal vs external ~Haley: black vs whute hatred ~Maeve: conversations will go differently because David wasn’t present as a father |
Today’s class discussion altered my thoughts about today’s text(s) in the following ways (link to your QCQ and/or to other ideas):
| Today’s class discussion went really well. Anna first started us off by sharing her quote which was the same quote I had (second quote). It was interesting to hear what Anna had to say about it. I had mentioned that I had the same quote but I had looked at it in light of Melanie. The way the Lucy was describing this sex and the way that she was feeling made me think of Melanie and how she had felt after she had met David. David had basically raped Melanie even though that’s not exactly how it was described. We never get to hear exactly how Melanie is feeling. So to hear the other side of the rape story from a woman’s point of view lead me to believe that this could be a version of Melanie was feeling or what she may have been thinking. Haley had mentioned that the reason the rapists had hated Lucy so much was because of the hatred between blacks and whites. I believe this could be true, I also believe that David was suggesting some racism when he mentioned “ancestry.” It could be meant in another direction but I picked up just a hint of racism when I read that. When Maeve brought up how conversations between Lucy and David, especially their conversation about the rape and pregnancy, are going to go differently because David wasn’t always present as a father. Fathers who are not their for a lot of your life are going to act/react differently, especially in a conversation like this, and I completely agree. I believe David ould be holding back on Lucy a little bit 1) because she’s a grown up and on her own now and 2) he wasn’t there for all of her life. |
Quotation:
“He does not like women who make no effort to be attractive. It is a resistance he has had to Lucy’s friends before. Nothing to be proud of: a prejudice that has settled in his mind, settled down. His mind has become a refuge for old thoughts, idle, indigent, with nowhere else to go. He ought to chase them out, sweep the premises clean. But he does not care to do so, or he does not care enough.” pg 70
Comment: Context: This was from page 70. Lucy and David are at the market because it’s market day. Lucy introduces him to Bev, the lady who runs the animal refuge. David describes Bev as, “a dumpy, bustling little woman with black freckles, close-cropped, wiry hair, and no neck.” Then he goes on to say the quote I chose. I chose this quote because it really pissed me off. David is so shallow. Not liking women for being hard-working and not caring about what they look like is so stupid and childish. David really pisses me off. You learn it a million times in books, songs, stories, movies, etc… DON’T JUDGE A BOOK BY IT’S COVER!!! Women simply should not HAVE to dress to impress males, we have bigger and more important things to worry about than what we are wearing or what we look like or what a man will think about that. Men like David are literally the reason that feminists exist, because he is shallow and has little-to-no respect for women. I am confused on the part about Lucy’s friends. Is he saying that he had resistance to seduce Lucy’s friends because of the way that they looked? I am glad that he does at least acknowledge his prejudices, but he does NOTHING about them. He just lets them sit in his mind and continues to practice these prejudices because he doesn’t care enough to get rid of them, even though now would be the perfect time to do so.
Question: Why is David so stubborn about going to counselling? Recognizing your prejudice is one thing, but isn’t doing something about it, like going to counselling, supposed to help you “chase them out”? Is counselling a reliable source of help?
Post Class Reflection:
My spoken contributions today (bullets, fragments, keywords) | Helping Hands Today (up to 3) – Name & Briefly Describe Contribution to Class (bullets, fragments, keywords) |
| ~quote from pg 70 ~women shouldn’t have to dress to impress men ~connections between Lucy’s friends and David ? ~he recognizes his prejudices and second guesses himself when he is doing something wrong, but he does NOTHING about it/them | ~Maddy: recognizing that you’ve done something wrong but not doing anything about counteracts each other, this does not change what happens to the victim ~Cripps: gender & race ~Anna: actions speak louder than words |
Today’s class discussion altered my thoughts about today’s text(s) in the following ways (link to your QCQ and/or to other ideas):
| Today’s class discussion strengthened my thoughts about the reading for today. I discovered through this class discussion that my classmates had similar thoughts as I did. Haley was discussing her quote when she tied in another quote from the story which was the quote that I had used for my QCQ. I shared the quote and explained how aggravated I am with David. He pisses me off. He is very shallow and expects women to share themselves with him if they are beautiful, but only if they put in effort to be attractive. It angers me so much. Women are not obligated to share their beauty with anyone that they don’t want to. We also don’t have to dress any certain way to impress anyone, we can dress however we please and we shouldn’t have to worry about people like David who put us down for being who we are instead of getting all dolled up, just so men can observe us and fawn over us. David also really aggravates me because he specifically recognizes that what he is doing is wrong and he clarifies his own prejudices, but then refuses to act on it and do anything about it. He is not going to grow or make anything better if he continues to know that what he is doing is wrong but refusing to do anything about it and just continuing to do what he is doing. Like Anna said, actions speak louder than words. He can say a million times that he knows what he has done was wrong, but it’s a completely different thing if he actually stops doing it. He is a hypocrite and a creep and I really don’t like him. *mic drop* |
Quotation:
“‘But in my experience poetry speaks to you either at first sight or not at all. A flash of revelation and a flash of response. Like lightning. Like falling in love…’ Do the young still fall in love, or is that mechanism obsolete by now, unnecessary, quaint, like steam locomotion? He is out of touch, out of date. Falling in love could have fallen out of fashion and come back again half a dozen times, for all he knows.” pg 12
Comment: Context: He had just met Melanie and they were together in his apartment for the first time. They were discussing the types of material that he teaches in the class, she is explaining what she likes/doesn’t. She expresses that she thinks Wordsworth will grow on her by the end of the semester and he replies with that. I picked this quote because I liked the way that it was written, it grasped my attention. But, it also got me thinking about how dating and falling in love works in today’s society and how it has changed throughout history. “Dating” today is nothing like it used to be. Dating used to be exclusive and people who actually go out on dates to get to know each other and if you liked each other, you would go out again and eventually “go steady.” Today, usually people only go out on dates if they are already in a relationship. People get to know each other through social media platforms such as snapchat, instagram, and dating platforms like tinder. Falling in love today seems a lot harder than it used to be because not everybody is serious about being in a relationship, so it’s harder to decipher who is dating for love and who is dating just for sexual pleasure. I think that David could find love again, but not if he keeps practicing and doing things like prostitution and searching after young girls and students.
Question: Can counseling actually help David change his ways so that he can fall in love again and be happy?
Post Class Reflection:
My spoken contributions today (bullets, fragments, keywords) | Helping Hands Today (up to 3) – Name & Briefly Describe Contribution to Class (bullets, fragments, keywords) |
| ~Melanie’s perspective ~David’s perspective is creepy ~David second guesses himself, but doesn’t stop ~Melanie could be confused, conflicted, scared | ~Cripps: you don’t have to say no to say no ~Haley: perpetrator’s perspective is new |
Today’s class discussion altered my thoughts about today’s text(s) in the following ways (link to your QCQ and/or to other ideas):
| Today’s class discussion helped my thoughts grow. While reading, I felt disgusted and distrubed and it was nice to know that my fellow classmates felt the same way and it was nice to be able to hear their thoughts and reflect off their thinking. I brought up the point about Melanie’s perspective because I was interested in it, even while I was reading. I was wondering what she was thinking and how she felt. Haley brought up the point about how seeing things from the perpetrator’s perspective is new, but it is pretty creepy. It is also complicated because Melanie seems to come off as conflicted or unsure if she wants to do all this stuff with David or not. Melanie comes off as confused, conflicted, and maybe even scared to say no to him. Professor Cripps brought up the point between saying yes or no in these types of situations and how you don’t have to actually say no to be saying no. I feel like not saying yes or no, should be a no regardless. If I say yes, that is consent, but I still have the right to change my mind. If I said no, it’s no. Period. If I’m conflicted and I’m not saying yes or no, it’s a no until you hear a yes. I brought up the point about how David second guesses himself and his actions as he is doing them, but he doesn’t stop. Yes, he has that doubt in the back of his mind, but it not strong enough to get him to realize that what he is doing is wrong and he should stop, which makes him even creepier. |
