Emma Veteto

Gjoni
SCED 499
November 4, 2018
InTASC 8 Review
InTasc standard 8 states, “The teacher understands and uses a variety of instructional

strategies to encourage learners to develop deep understanding of content areas and their

connections, and to build skills to apply knowledge in meaningful ways”. Essentially, this

standard emphasizes the importance of diversifying instructional strategies in order to build and

apply knowledge that challenges students to use their understanding in multiple ways. Students,

through the appropriate use of this standard, should develop deeper understandings of content

areas and their functionality in multiple facets. When an instructor applies standard 8 effectively,

they showcase the varying ways in which information can be processed. By differing the manner

in which students complete an assignment, or parts of an assignment, students are more engaged

in the material.

In my content area, ELA, differing instructional strategies is a major part of incorporating

literacy as a universal idea as opposed to one that exists only in the classroom. When students

shift their thinking from one way of completing a lesson to another, they are forced to

metacognitively consider the importance of the material and its functionality in a multitude of

aspects. For example, in an ELA classroom, students who are working on a narrative writing

assignment may spend one day drawing what their characters look like, another day, students

may complete a writing assignment that dictates the plan for the narrative’s plot.

This standard is important, as English lessons are often static, or, without change. By

providing students with the opportunity to think about their thinking, the importance of ELA is
solidified, and their understanding of its relevance is established. When students are given the

opportunity to write, read and discuss concepts in a variety of ways, they come to understand that

methods of thinking can be changed to best fit the material being represented.