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LEARNING AND DEVELOPMENT

Learning & Development

By Kathy Smith

Master’s Portfolio ED698

Dr. Elizabeth Hartley, Ph.D.

June 6, 2022
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Standard #1.2: Learner Development

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.

Framing Statement

“Every child has an inner timetable for growth- a pattern unique to him… Growth is not

steady, forward upward progression. It is instead a switchback trail; three steps forward, two

back, one around the bushes, and a few simply standing, before another forward leap” – Dorothy

Corkville Briggs (1975). This quote can be related to a child’s development. There are many

different paths leading to the same place. I will work with many students throughout my career,

and a critical factor in learning how to teach each one best will be based heavily on the

relationships I build with them.

Appendix A is an artifact of my teaching which shows different developmental stages in

writing for two students of the same age and addresses their needs and abilities. By engaging in

this lesson with them, I learned that to connect best with my students, it is up to me to figure out

what they are struggling with and how to help them succeed. Many things add to children’s

motivation in learning to write, such as their interest, attitude, and engagement (Strickland,

Ganske & Monroe 2002). It is a driving force in my teaching. This project gave me more

background knowledge and understanding that every child moves along the learning continuum

differently. It demonstrates my ability to work closely with each student building a relationship

that teaches us about each other and impacts the learning process positively. Student 1 was an
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older 6yr old in first grade. She was still working on her phonemic awareness, struggled with

organizing her thoughts, and struggled with writing. I was able to help formulate her ideas more

clearly, adding the typing portion so that she could focus more on her spelling than her

handwriting, and overall gave her encouragement and confidence in her writing ability. Her

most significant success was being excited to share her work with her family. Student 2 had a

very early exposure to books and reading from home and was ready to roll. Her attention to

detail in her writing and her drawings was something I could focus on with her and encourage

her even more. This led her to return to me later after finishing our project to show me more

books she had written. During the work with these two students, I spent time with them 1:1,

which gave me a good understanding that students of the same age are not all at the same

developmental stages. As Marilee Sprenger (2013) states, “there will never be two children in

your classroom who learn in exactly the same way” (p. 25). I adjusted the project to their

abilities based on their skills and interest levels to help continue their growth in writing.

Critical parts of teaching are understanding how children develop and building

relationships with them individually. As Tomlinson (2001) states, “Kids of the same age aren’t

all alike when it comes to learning, any more than they are alike in terms of size, hobbies,

personality, or likes and dislikes” (p.1). By better understanding individually their cognitive,

linguistic, social, emotional, and physical developmental stages, I can better accommodate their

needs as a learner. During this time with these two students, I was able to spend one-on-one time

with them to discuss their stories, their reading and writing experiences so far, and their interests,

which helped me design the lessons we had for their individual needs. Building these

relationships helps me effectively adapt our lessons to address their learning needs. “There is a

good deal of evidence that learning is enhanced when teachers pay attention to the knowledge
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and beliefs that learners bring to a learning task, use this knowledge as a starting point for new

instruction, and monitor students’ changing conceptions as instruction proceeds” (Wells, 1999).

Learners develop and grow according to a variety of factors. It is essential to consider their social

surroundings, previous experiences, current abilities, and interests, to name a few essential

considerations. Approaching individual student needs according to the stage they are in

academically and discovering their interests and experiences guides my instruction.

Going into my education in teaching, I may have agreed that student learning happens for

students simultaneously based on their age and classroom setting, but I have come to realize that

they don’t. Student learning progress depends on many aspects of these children’s lives. As

stated in this previous work, Appendix A, written for my literacy class, reading and literacy

instruction should be based on each student’s abilities, strengths, background knowledge,

interests, and social surroundings. Student 1 had less exposure to reading and writing, less family

support, and very different environmental factors, including outside activities and family

dynamics. Reading and writing were not a priority at home for this student before coming into

school and still were not once she started attending school. What she was learning was from

school, which is essential, but with added support and encouragement in these areas from home,

I believe she would have developed more skills than she had. These differences resulted in a

lack of confidence in her writing, which became a more significant focus of my instruction.

Student 2 had many environmental influences from home before attending school, such as being

read to, having access to books, and being encouraged to challenge herself in her reading and

writing activities. Student B had no shortage of confidence in this area due to the amount of

exposure, family support, and more favorable environmental factors in her life. This made it

possible to move more quickly, and she could easily produce more advanced stories.
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As cited by Mcleod in Social-Cultural Theory– (2020), “Children acquire ways of

thinking and behaving that comes from a community’s culture and cooperative experience with

adults or more experienced peers” Vygotsky (1896-1934 np). As demonstrated by this artifact,

my teaching accommodates my students’ developmental levels and social as well as emotional

learning needs.

Extensive research evidence now confirms that SEL skills can be taught and measured,

that they promote positive development and reduce problem behaviors, and that they

improve students' academic performance, citizenship, and health-related behaviors

(Schonert-Reichl, 2017, p. 138).

My teaching artifact for this paper corresponds with the writing of Kendra Cherry (2020), in

which she states, “In Vygotsky's view, learning is an inherently social process. Through

interacting with others, learning becomes integrated into an individual's understanding of the

world” (pg.1).

As Cherry (2020) discusses, “Jean Piaget's theory of cognitive development suggests that,

as kids interact with the world around them, they continually add new knowledge, build upon

existing knowledge, and adapt previously held ideas to accommodate new information” (p.1).

This writing experience taught me that students develop at different rates based on

several factors, which include their environment, previous experiences, current abilities, and

interests, to name a few. I could better adapt the lessons based on their needs and interests by

getting to know my students individually for this project. The idea of a reading interview

presented by Constance Weaver (2009) has stuck in my mind since taking my first literacy class

and is something I do with my students informally with reading and writing. I am constantly

considering these things for my students in order to adjust my teaching to fit their needs
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academically. By understanding that my learners move through developmental stages differently

and their paths vary, I am able to adapt my teaching more effectively for each student.
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References

Cherry, K. (2022, May 2). What is Piaget's theory of cognitive development?

https://www.verywellmind.com/piagets-stages-of-cognitive development-2795457

Mcleod, S. (2020). Vygotsky's sociocultural theory.

https://www.simplypsychology.org/vygotsky.html

Schonert-Reichl, K. A. (2017). Social and emotional learning and teachers. The Future of

Children, 27(1), 137–155. http://www.jstor.org/stable/44219025

Sprenger, M. (2013). The developing brain: Building Language, Reading, Physical, Social, and

Cognitive Skills From Birth to Age Eight. Skyhorse Publishing.

Strickland, D. S., Ganske, K., & Monroe, J. K. (2002). Supporting struggling readers and

writers: Strategies for classroom intervention, 3-6. Stenhouse Publishers.

Weaver, C. (2009). Reading process: Brief edition of reading process and practice. Heinemann.
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Appendix A

Emergent Reader Books

Practicum 2 ED661
Kathy Smith 3/10/2016

Introduction:
The process of co-writing these books with two six-year-olds at different levels has been
an exciting experience. The first student who chose to write with me was in 1st grade. I was
able to work with her after school during homework club in my HT’s classroom. The other
student is a very proficient kindergartner. Both students were excited about the process, and
watching their ideas come to life was fun.

Book #1
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Process:
This first book was written by a 1st grader named Matix. When we started talking, I asked
her what type of books she liked to read and what were some of her interests. We looked at
some books in the classroom, and she picked a few, and I asked her why those were interesting
to her. She chose some about animals and said that she liked learning about them and that
they would be fun to write about. She mentioned owls first. We wrote down some ideas about
what her story might be like. I took a plain white sheet of paper and folded it into sections to
represent the pages of her book. I asked her about her story’s beginning, middle, and end.
While she talked, I wrote down just a few keywords for each idea she had. We also talked
about the books she had pulled from the shelf, looked closely at the author’s title page, and
talked about what an author is. For this first book, I offered to do the writing for her, but she
chose to do it herself. Once we decided what kind of format she wanted to use, we were on our
way. She wrote the story first and did the title page last. I asked her if I could write the author’s
page for her, but she chose to write it herself. She did not have a title for her book until it was
written. She drew the cover picture but stopped and asked if I knew how to draw an owl. I
showed her a quick sketch of what I thought it could look like, and she asked me to remove it for
her. She drew the third and fourth pictures in her book she did on her own at home after our
time together. The images are somewhat random, and I do not believe they relate to the story.
When I asked her about them, she told me she just felt like drawing, so she did.

Reflection:
It was interesting to me how her thought process worked. As we talked about what the
story was going to be about, she would stop every once in a while when I would ask her what
would happen next, and she would say, “I forgot.” After the second time, she said that I
responded by saying, “Well, you didn’t forget, you haven’t written it yet; that is part of coming up
with a story; you will add to it, change it, and make it better as you go. It’s your story, and you
can make it be whatever you want it to be.” These words gave her some confidence and
motivation to be creative and keep working.
When she wrote the words on her page, I noticed they were all on the upper left side.
Her words did not extend across the page. I wonder if we had used a piece of lined paper if this
would have looked differently. I felt her phonemic awareness was good; she had questions
about a few words, such as owl, which was the only word I helped her with. She has left the
vowels out of several words, but the consonants are correct. This is part of the developmental
process that she is currently working on.

Book #2
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Process:
Matix chose to write her next book about Goldilocks, which was one of her central ideas
when we first began talking about what she might want to write about. I had written Goldilocks
down on a piece of paper when we were coming up with our initial ideas, and this was
something she went back to. She mentioned that she would like the book to look slightly
different this time. I gave her some ideas about how we could fold the paper or other types of
paper she could choose. She chose to use colored paper. At first, she focused more on the
cover page picture than the story and writing. She didn’t seem excited this time, so I thought
asking if she would like to type her story would be good. That was what she needed to get
motivated for her second story. She grabbed my laptop and started typing. She was pretty
excited, to say the least when I printed the words out for her to add to the pages of her book.

Reflection:
I think this book went a little quicker because her attention span was getting shorter. It
was a little challenging to get her to develop many details. Adding the typing was a good thing.
She was less focused on the handwriting and focused more on the spelling. As she said a
word, I could see her look at the keys; I believe this was a helpful tool. She was not focused on
how to form the letter on her paper but more focused on the sounds the letters made. One of
my favorite kid writing words she wrote was Popb (papa). This related directly to her speech
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and how she pronounces that word. I also recognized the way she spelled hibernating
(hybrnat). She has the sounds but did leave off the ending. Matix was excited to take her book
home and read it to her family. Her mother commented about how excited she was during
parent-teacher conferences. This pride shows ownership and confidence in the work that she
did.

Book #3
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Process:
This book was written by a kindergarten student who is six years old. This student has
had a great deal of exposure to books. When we started our discussion, she said she liked
reading chapter books. I knew that this was going to be an enjoyable experience. Even the
way she held her pen was advanced for a kindergartner. We discussed what might be some
topics she would like to write about, and animals were first on her list. She said she would like
to understand animal talk, so that is what our story is about. I asked Sarah if she knew what an
author’s page was, and she did and then proceeded to ask me to write it for her while she told
me what to write. (Yes, my misspelling of kindergarten appears on the author’s page). That
error had nothing to do with her. She knew exactly what she wanted to let her readers know
about her. The process of writing this book went very smoothly. While she was working on her
book, our conversation was quite interesting. She has decided that maybe she could be an
author someday. The illustrations were a big part of our conversation. The first picture in the
book is the boy who is telling the story sitting on a couch. On the coffee table is a mug with I
(heart) R, which stands for “I love to read.” This kid has been exposed to text for quite some
time now, which is evident in her writing.

Reflection:
This writing experience instilled in me the importance of early exposure to literature.
Being familiar with books even before being able to read is essential. The confidence this
student had in her writing was excellent. She scratched her head a time or two and then would
write what she thought was best. She never asked me how to spell something and self-
corrected a few times. The surprising thing about her writing was the backward B in the rabbit.
This was not a consistent error on her part and a standard error for kids this age; it just
surprised me that she didn’t catch it after she had already written it correctly a few times. The
details of her drawings are incredible. One of the things I love is how Arthur is sitting criss-cross
apple sauce at the picnic. I don’t think I could have figured out how to draw that. Also, the eye
placements she gives to her characters provide illustrations with lifelike qualities. They look at
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each other, and it makes the pictures come alive. It seemed that she had written the story, and
then as she drew the pictures, more dialogue about the story came through. It would have been
fun to edit the story with her and hear what more she may have added. When her dad came to
pick her up, she asked him if she could read it to him; he immediately sat down on the floor and
listened intently while she read. When she was done reading, he asked if maybe she would
write children’s books someday. Priceless.

I want to compare and contrast the two experiences I had. Interestingly, the younger
student was more enthusiastic and content with our work. We didn’t have to talk much about
writing a book or what that looked like; she was into it. The older student in 1st grade was more
difficult to inspire. I believe she was more excited about it initially because the other students
looked at what she was doing and wanted to be a part of it. Also, her attention to detail in her
writing and drawings were not what I thought it would be. However, the younger student was
very intuned to detail in her writing (using descriptive words) and her drawing (drawing the air
under the feet of jumping animals). This was very eye-opening to me regarding the different
levels of interest and what they have been exposed to and have had conversations about thus
far in their educational development. There was a connection between the amount of time the
kindergartner has been exposed to reading, writing, and books at home. When compared to the
first-grader. I feel that this is a testament to the theory that reading to your kids at a young age
has benefits in the classroom.
Writing these books was a great experience. I enjoyed talking with the students,
listening to their ideas, and watching them put their thoughts on paper. This assignment gave
me a better understanding of how young children process their ideas. It was a bonus to slow
down, listen to their comments, and have a great conversation with them. It was a valuable
experience for me and hopefully for them as well.