Emily Weigand

Professor Suk

EDUC 230-02 Education Field Experience

Fall 2021

Rationale Statement- Standard #2

Standard #2 Learning Differences

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 (New

Jersey Professional Standards for Teachers Alignment with InTASC, 2014, p. 2).

Artifact: Lesson Plan 1

Date of Completion: November 1, 2021

Course completed in: EDUC 230-02 Education Field Experience

Rationale Statement:

The artifact I am using for this rationale statement is lesson plan 1, in which I created a lesson

that can be used in a kindergarten classroom setting. This lesson is focused around diagonal

lines, more specifically identifying them, how to draw them, and then applying them to the

formation of letters such as “V” and “M”. This artifact relates to standard 2.i.1 “the teacher

designs, adapts, and delivers instructions to address each student’s diverse learning strengths and

needs and creates opportunities for students to demonstrate their learning in different ways”

(New Jersey Professional Standards for Teachers Alignment with InTASC, 2014, p. 2). In the

lesson plan, there are planned modifications built into the lesson for certain cases where an
individual student is struggling with a task. When creating this lesson, it was recognized that

there are different types of learners. For more visual learners, they can follow along as the lines

and letters are being drawn on the board for everyone to see. For students that require a more

hands-on approach, there will be worksheets in which they can trace the diagonal lines

themselves as well as popsicle sticks and placemats to create the letters one line at a time.

When creating this lesson plan, I found that the most difficult part for me was making sure that I

was catering to different types of learners. I used my notes that I took during my field experience

hours to reflect on what methods seemed to work best for the teacher I was observing. I noticed

that the students seemed to focus better when the class was split into two groups, and the head

teacher taught the lesson and then the assistant teacher helped the students apply what they just

learned to something else. I decided to first have the class come together as a whole to introduce

diagonal lines, then break up into two groups to further explore the lesson. When in the

classroom for my field experience hours, I noticed that having the groups sit on the carpet for

one half of the lesson and then relocate to a table for the other half helped redirect their focus and

made the transition much smoother than the class sitting for the whole duration. I applied this

method to my lesson, having one group on the carpet and the other at a table, and then having

them switch.

This artifact can be beneficial to my teacher self in the future because I can either use this exact

lesson plan, or modify it to fit the grade level that I am teaching. Even if I decide not to utilize

this lesson plan when I am an educator, I can always reflect back on it to see what methods I

included to deliver material to the class, and the overall structure of the lesson.

References:
New Jersey Professional Standards for Teachers for Teachers alignment with InTASC. (2014,

May 5). The Official Web Site for The State of New Jersey. Retrieved October 4, 2021, from

https://www.state.nj.us/education/profdev/requirements/standards/docs/ProfStandardsforTeacher

sAlignmentwithInTASC.pdf