Standard 1 CSTP: Engaging and Supporting All Students in Learning

CSTP 1.1 - Using knowledge of students to engage them in learning

Level of Development: Exploring Date: 9/25/21

Level of Development: Applying Date: 5/6/22
Level of Development: Integrating Date: 10/22/22
Level of Development: Integrating Date: 4/3/23
Evidence:
• I think of student interests and knowledge levels when planning lessons from
the school provided curriculum

• Student “Get to Know You” worksheets are given out at the beginning of the
year

• Journal entries are used to get to know students better

• Start of year personal narrative gives me a great writing sample in which to

gauge their writing, handwriting, punctuation, and spelling capabilities

• We have Morning Meetings in which students are able to get to know each
other better by sharing personal things about themselves

• Word of the Day offers students an opportunity to answer personal questions

about themselves in a whole classroom discussion

• I looked through the cumulative 3iles for each of my students at the beginning of
the school year in addition to meeting with their previous teachers. I have had
additional meetings with previous teachers to discuss certain students.
• I use formal assessments as well as informal assessments like exit tickets.
• I also look at IXL which students use on a regular basis and track scores and
progress.
• I have started to keep an ongoing list of all students academic strengths and
weaknesses

• I keep close track of focus students and give accommodations as necessary

• I respond to parent inquiry emails in a timely basis. Something as simple as

needing to move a student to the front because they have a hard time seeing
even with their glasses on.

• I regularly consult with students’ previous teachers to try to figure out ways to
improve learning and behavior for individual students.

• I document focus students’ strengths, weaknesses, and interests to learn as

much as possible about the student.

• Morning meetings have evolved to become a time to quickly go over the

schedule, but more importantly, I’ve started using it as a time to really get to
know students and build community. We talk about their weekends, books
they like, social emotion learning issues, and many other such things.

• I have a very diverse group of students and so I try to incorporate their

ethnicity… For example, during group discussions and art projects.

• I have started keeping a folder for each student so that I can track where they
need help or where they excel. This also really helps at report card time.

1.2   Connecting learning to students’ prior knowledge,

backgrounds, life experiences, and interests
Level of Development: Emerging Date: 9/25/21
Level of Development: Exploring Date: 5/6/22
Level of Development: Integrating Date: 10/22/22
Level of Development: Integrating Date: 4/3/23

Evidence:
• I learn about the interests of each student in order to engage learning during
lessons

• I have thoroughly gone over the student’s previous teachers notes regarding
their academic and behavioral level

• I give students an opportunity to have some freedom in choosing subjects

they would like to learn about

• Projects are planned with opportunities for students to choose subject matter

• I speak with students on a regular basis about why we are working on certain
things in class and trying to relate it to the real world

• I spend a lot of time with my students and so I have gotten to know them extremely well.
It’s nice to be able to talk to them about their interests because I can carry that over into
their lessons.
• I’ve started using a choice board for those students who are early finishers
and I’ve found that it has cut down on the disruptions from bored students

• Students are given opportunities to research subjects that are of interest to

them

• I try to create stations during group rotations that will hold the interest of all
students

• I’ve started experimenting with groups based on level of knowledge and

planning stations for those groups

• I make modifications for assignments as needed

• Students are given opportunities to choose individual topics, projects, or

activities

• Students are involved in learning activities that are appropriate to their levels
of understanding

1.3   Connecting subject matter to meaningful, real-life contexts

Level of Development: Emerging Date: 9/25/21
Level of Development: Exploring Date: 5/6/22
Level of Development: Integrating Date: 10/22/22
Level of Development: Integrating Date: 4/3/23

Evidence:
• Students are using “Menu Math” during a lesson about adding and
subtracting money to help them to make connections to the real world

• I often uses real world examples in lessons to help students make

connections to real life

• I often connects learning to things that are currently relevant to students such
as Hispanic Heritage Month or Black History Month • Word of the Day often
asks questions in which they have to use the word in relation their own life

• I’ve explored this a lot more in the last few months. Students have done a lot of
writing about personal lives.
• Assignments such as personal narratives and letter writing has helped me to gain a
better understanding of their personalities and what motivates their learning.
• I like to use morning meetings as a time to get to know students better. We
will talk about things going on in their lives. I try to bring up these things I
know about them later and use it as a learning tool to engage their interest
during a lesson.

• I have started to make ongoing adjustments during lessons if students don’t

seem engaged.

• I’ve often pulled several kids to the back table so that I can work with them in
small groups if I see they are having difficulty with something

• I encourage students to ask questions if they need clarification.

• I have been working more with students who I can see are struggling, but are
too intimidated to ask for help

• I love to use their names in a special cursive project we work on throughout

the year. Students look forward to the day that we use their name in one of
our “silly sentences.”

• I always try to discuss something in our lessons that relates to something I

know about one of them. It could be mentioning soccer or spiders because I
know a particular student just loves one of those things.

• I’ve started to connect every lesson with to real life contexts for my students

• BrainPop is a great resource for helping students understand real-life contexts

1.4   Using a variety of instructional strategies, resources, and technologies

to meet students’ diverse learning needs
Level of Development: Emerging Date: 9/25/21
Level of Development: Exploring Date: 5/6/22
Level of Development: Integrating Date: 10/22/22
Level of Development: Integrating Date: 4/3/23

Evidence:
• Daily Math and English rotations ensure that students will be able to use a
wide variety of resources to help support learning needs

• I have the ability to change instructional strategies based on observing the

class during a lesson plan

• Rotations through Math and ELA help students to be able to access all the
different elements of a lesson

• I provide large examples on the board to help students understand concepts

(For example, a white board graphic organizer about character up on the
board to be filled out when reading different stories/novels)

• I like to extend classroom learning to real life for students as I feel that this helps
with their overall interest and understanding in the subject matter.
• We are currently working on personal narratives and this is a great writing project
for students to relate classroom work to their own lives.
• I have started using IXL as a way to assign students individual assignments
based on their levels of understanding. In this way, I’m able to meet students’
individual learning needs and track their progress as well

• During center time, I try to create a diverse assortment of activities for them to
do. They don’t always get a choice during rotation centers, but they always
get to go through each station. I’ve been keeping track of feedback to see
what interests each individual student. I only have 18 students so it is not that
difficult to keep track of.

• I like to give students a variety of ways to learn. I incorporate whole class

discussions, partner talk, small group activities, and partner reading to give
students an opportunity to engage in different ways.

• I’ve put students into a specific order on the carpet so that they are paired
with someone that they can help or learn from

• I use rotations twice a week in my class. One time it’s focused on Math and
the next time it is focused on ELA

1.5   Promoting critical thinking though inquiry, problem solving, and

reflection
Level of Development: Emerging Date: 9/25/21
Level of Development: Exploring Date: 5/6/22
Level of Development: Integrating Date: 10/22/22
Level of Development: Integrating Date: 4/3/23

Evidence:
• Students are encouraged to come up with and answer their own research
questions regarding a variety of subjects

• I create fun opportunities for students to work together as a team to solve

problems or puzzles

• Rubrics are used to give students an understanding of their strengths and

areas where they need to grow

• I meet with grade level teachers regularly to ensure that students’ needs are
always at the forefront of lesson planning

• I try to ask probing questions about previous lessons and things we’ve discussed
already gone over. I also try to relate subject matter to their real lives.
• I’ve started posing questions to the class at the beginning fo the day so that
they have time to think about it as the day progresses. They all get super
excited about trying to solve the riddle and I even hear them talking about it at
recess.

• I incorporate opportunities within lessons for students to research their own

questions about the subject

• Some of the journal prompts I use are designed to get them to argue their
point. They have to tell me why they think a certain thing. I’ve been trying to
get them to reflect on their own opinions about things.

• I always ask open-ended questions and then model how to best solve the
problem by thinking critically

• I try to have them build on each other’s learning by using statements such as
“I agree with _____ .“ And then add an additional comment to the classroom
discussion

• When doing a read aloud or a novel study I try to encourage students to think
about characters in the story and what needs to be resolved within the story.

• Students journal a couple of times per week so that they are able to reflect on
a specific topic or how they did on an assignment

• I always provide rubrics for assignments so that students are able to see what
is expected and are able to accurately reflect on their grade

1.6 Monitoring student learning and adjusting instruction while teaching

Level of Development: Exploring Date: 9/25/21
Level of Development: Applying Date: 5/6/22
Level of Development: Integrating Date: 10/22/22
Level of Development: Integrating Date: 4/3/23

Evidence:
• I allow comments and questions from students to help guide the rest of the
lesson

• I give time for students to come up with ideas about what they are learning

• I adjust lessons if a lack of understanding is noticed

• I might teach another lesson based on a lack of understanding in a previous

lesson

• I make ongoing adjustments within lessons on a regular basis. If I see that students
are not understanding I will stop and go back over concepts. I have gotten much
better at identifying students’ needs.
• I am constantly monitoring students as I walk around the room checking for
understanding

• I will bring certain students to the back table during individual work time if I
see that they are not understanding a concept

• I often have students answer questions by showing me 1,2,3,4 on their

fingers. Sometimes this can be for a multiple choice question I pose or for
how many syllables are in their word of the day.

• I encourage students to ask questions and think in terms of a growth mindset.

We have “Life Skills” that we teach at my school and having a growth mindset
is one of them

• I monitor student literacy with a program called Renaissance Learning. I am

able to give them STAR reading tests and then can take AR tests after
finishing a book. Starting this year we have been able to begin using the STAR
program to also give students math tests.

• I often use student comments and questions to guide the rest of the lesson

• I will often have a follow up discussion or lesson if I see that students weren’t
able to understand an element of the previous lesson.