Running head: DEVELOPMENTALLY-APPROPRIATE INSTRUCTION 1

Developmentally-Appropriate Instruction

Jaclyn Cordero

Regent University

In partial fulfillment of UED 495 Field Experience ePortfolio, Spring 2018

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Introduction

When teaching, it is vital to differentiate instruction based on student development. While

it is expected for students in 1st grade to know the alphabet already and to be able to spell CVC

words, it is not always the norm. Teachers must be prepared to differentiate their instruction to

tailor to the needs of the various developmental differences among their students. Some factors

that contribute to differences in students’ language abilities (verbal, nonverbal, and written)

include emotional factors, social factors (lack of interaction with parents or peers), and

socioeconomic status. Students whose language development is affected by social factors may not

have parents who read to them or may have had limited social encounters growing up. Students in

low socioeconomic backgrounds may have less resources than their counterparts and may come

from families in which parents did not graduate high school (Bergin & Bergin, 2015, pp. 511-515).

While keeping in mind the various factors that can contribute to the wide array of abilities

in a group of students the same age, teachers can use the following guidelines to help all of their

students develop better language ability: First, teachers an be responsive to children’s talk, also

known as elaboration. This means that if a child says “pencil,” the teacher can elaborate by asking,

“Do you need a pencil?” Second, teachers can “…encourage children to use Standard English,

while respecting their heritage language or dialect” (Bergin & Bergin, 2015, p. 518). One way to

do this is to have classroom discussions and ask questions that require more than a yes or no answer

and to require students to write in complete sentences. Third, teachers can use uncommon words

as they teach to broaden student vocabulary. Fourth, teachers should read to students and

encourage them to read to themselves. This fourth guideline is probably the most important- the

more students read, the more they improve in both reading comprehension and writing skills. As

teachers use uncommon words or as students encounter unknown words, teachers can also
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explicitly teach vocabulary to students by either modeling language and explaining what words

mean, helping students memorize vocabulary, or giving them different mnemonic strategies to

help them memorize new words (Bergin & Bergin, 2015, pp. 518-19).

Rationale for Selected Artifacts

For Practicum I, I was placed in a 2nd grade class at Fairfield Elementary. The 2nd grade

class was a gifted-cluster class consisting of nine girls and ten boys. Six students were identified

as gifted. One of those gifted students used hearing aids. I chose artifacts from this practicum

experience, because this particular class was both developmentally and culturally diverse. Out of

the nineteen students, eight students were Caucasian, four students were African American, two

students were Asian, two students were Hispanic, and three students were two or more ethnicities.

For my first artifact, I picked a guided reading lesson plan titled, “Giraffes in a Jiffy,” that

I did with two groups of students (ten students in total). Group A, the lowest group, included four

students, and Group B, the highest group, consisted of six students. I was excited to teach this

lesson to the students, because I was able to share about my experience going on a safari in Uganda.

I even got to show the students photographs of giraffes and other animals discussed in the text that

I took with my own camera while I was on a safari. One important note regarding this lesson plan

is that I explicitly discussed various vocabulary words (the bolded words) in the text with the

students as we previewed the text to ensure their understanding as they read.

This lesson was based on grade-level concepts. I based the lesson on SOLs 2.9 and 2.10,

which involve student comprehension of nonfiction texts (SOL 2.9) and student comprehension of

reference materials (SOL 2.10). My main focus for the lesson was for students to grasp the main

idea of the text and for students to use understand and utilize reference materials (or text features)

such as the table of contents, pictures, captions, charts, and the glossary. In order to make the
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lesson more appropriate for the differing levels of students, I had Group A read the text at

Benchmark 14 (Lexile 430) and Group B read the text at Benchmark 34 (Lexile 710).

My second artifact is a picture of me guiding a particular Asian girl as she read. I worked

with students of various backgrounds. I noticed that she was particularly shy compared to the rest

of her group. In order to encourage participation, however, I had each student, including her, share

what they already knew about giraffes and one thing they hoped or thought they would learn from

the text. At the very end, each student from both groups shared what he or she learned after reading

and discussing the text together.

My third artifact is side-by-side comparison picture of the differences between Group A

and Group C’s K-W-L charts. Group A’s chart is on the left and Group C’s chart is on the right.

Based on the information on the charts, it is apparent that Group C had more prior knowledge

about giraffes than Group A. Furthermore, Group C was more articulate and specific when they

shared what they had learned. This was to be expected due to the differing reading comprehension

levels. For example, after skimming the text, Group A wanted to know why male giraffes fight

over female giraffes. Group C, however, wanted to know (in their words) how the males fight to

be the dominant one. Members of Group A said they learned that giraffes live in Africa (they did

not previously know this). Group C already knew that giraffes live in Africa and had me add that

to the “K” column on the chart. When Group C discussed what they had learned, they were more

specific and said, “Giraffes live in the savanna”.

My fourth and final artifact is a picture of the “What I Learned About Giraffes” worksheet

example. I modeled how to do this with Group A and showed it to Group C. Since these students

are only in second grade, they still need activities modeled for them to ensure they understand

what to do. I told students that they were not allowed to copy word for word what I had written
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and I turned my example over once students knew what to do. However, one boy from Group C

really wanted to copy my picture of a giraffe.

Reflection on Theory and Practice

When I taught this guided reading lesson to the first group, I had one student read and the

other students follow along. I realized later that this was not very effective. Even within the groups,

students read at different paces and some students got frustrated or felt held back when they had

to read along with the group. I had misunderstood what guided reading is. My cooperating teacher

explained it to me and I changed it up in the second group so all students read at their own pace

and I listened to particular students as they read. Then we discussed the text.

If I could go back in time and reteach this lesson, I would have prepared myself better. I

wish I would have read the book by Fountas and Pinnell titled Guided Reading: Good First

Teaching for All Children before I planned my lesson. This book provides a great overview of

what guided reading is. If I had previewed this text before jumping in to my lesson planning, any

confusion I had had would have been cleared away. Fountas and Pinnell (1996) initially describe

guided reading as an opportunity for children to “…develop as individual readers while

participating in a socially supported activity” (p. 1).

The following guidelines for guided reading involve the teacher working with a small

group of students who are at the same or similar reading levels. The teacher will introduce the

story or text and assist children’s reading in ways that help to develop independent reading

strategies. I did this when I previewed the text with the students and had them point out the various

text features and discuss unknown vocabulary. An important note is that each child reads the whole

text independently and silently. Another important note is that students are grouped and regrouped
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as the teacher sees fit based on ongoing observations and assessments (Fountas & Pinnell, 1996,

p. 4). Guided reading is an excellent way to teach students at a level that is appropriate for them.

It is helpful to understand that some students are at grade-level with their reading, but they

may struggle with writing. Most of the time, however, students who are strong readers are also

good writers, because reading and writing go hand-in-hand. Based on my observations of the

second graders throughout my first Practicum experience, it seems that most students were at the

within word pattern spelling stage in which they could read and spell many words correctly due to

their “…automatic knowledge of letter sounds and short-vowel patterns” (Bear, Invernizzi, et al.,

2016, p. 13). Some students, such as those in Group C, were probably at the end of that stage, as

they had already grasped homophones and had little to no trouble reading the text. Students in

Group A seemed to be at the beginning of the same stage, as it was near the end of the school year

that I began working with them.

There has been so much research done on instructing students at different levels of

development. Teachers do a disservice to their students when they teach them all the same way.

Every student is an individual child who deserves to be given the best education possible. If we,

the current and future teachers of the world, want our students to succeed, we need to show them

that they matter by tailoring instruction to fit their needs. When I think of the different strengths

and weaknesses of students, my mind immediately goes to Psalm 139:14, in which the Psalmist

praises God for being “fearfully and wonderfully made” (ESV). Every student has something to

contribute because each and every one of them is fearfully and wonderfully made. When I think

of my role as a teacher, I think of James 3:1, which states, “Not many of you should become

teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness”

(ESV). In other words, teachers will be judged with greater strictness when it comes to what they
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say to their students. I also think this can be extended to how teachers teach their students. If I as

a teacher do not put care and thought into what I am teaching my students and how I can best serve

them, then I am not being a good teacher.

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References

Bear, D. R., Invernizzi, M., Templeton, S., & Johnston, F. (2016). Words their way: word study

for phonics, vocabulary, and spelling instruction (6th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ:

Pearson.

Bergin, C. C., & Bergin, D. A. (2015). Child and adolescent development in your classroom

(2nd ed.). Stamford, CT: Cengage Learning.

Fountas, I. C., & Pinnell, G. S. (1996). Guided reading: good first teaching for all children.

Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.