Educators value the success of all students. Educators care for students and act in their best interests.
During the course of the 2020 semester and practicum, a huge point of discussion and learning for me was that of student assessment and the shift towards student choice. The notion of allowing students to best present their learning and personal strengths through assignments that give students choice is very positive. Giving students the opportunities to have autonomy over their learning provides them the chance to get the most out of their time at school. In relation to this, having choice in their presentations of their learning, students are able to develop their strengths, feel supported, and encourages motivation in learning outcomes.
The outlook on education as providing the student a vehicle to explore their own world in relation to their selves provides, in my opinion, the most beneficial advancement toward successful learning. I have come to truly believe that there is no one superior way to teach any given subject. I hold this theory true in that not one learner is the same as another. Learning itself is unique to each individual and education should reflect this.
During my Ed. 490 practicum I had the opportunity to create and teach a mini unit on poetry. Over the course of three informative lessons, I introduced my students to poem styles of Acrostic, Haiku, and Shape/Concrete. I chose to teach about the stylistic forms of Acrostic and Haiku as this reflected the formulas that some poems act to follow. However, to finish off these connected lessons I chose to introduce the class to Shape Poems as these are formed using very little formatting. The objective is simply to choose a shape and or object, write a poem composed of short phrases about this chosen shape, draw this shape, and then write your poem around it. This lesson allowed for the students to use their imaginations and be driven by their own passions. I truly wanted this lesson to support all my learners and give them autonomy of their learning. The final products of their poems were beautiful and I could not be more proud in their efforts and their individual successes.
