Prompt: Addressing all these developmental needs seems almost impossible-what would it look like in authentic practice? What aspects of your lesson plan show that you understand the abilities and limitations of the age group which you are teaching?
Claim 3 is packed full: it states that teachers prepared at Houghton College are professionals who are able to understand and foster students’ cognitive, psychological, social, and moral development.
I believe this claim starts at knowing your students and knowing what is typical of students at the age that you are teaching. Last year for junior practicum, I was in a 3rd/4th grade class. I didn’t expect that my student teaching placement, in a 2nd grade class, would be drastically different-afterall, they’re only a year or two younger than my 3rd and 4th graders! Oh, was I wrong! I learned (quickly) that a lot happens in that year or two between second and fourth grade.
In terms of my students cognitive/psychological devleopment, I learned that they are still very much in the stage where they need everything modeled for them, and need a concrete representation for almost everything from cleaning their tray after breakfast to adding and subtracting to how to write a personal narrative. I always plan into my lessons a time to model for them exactly what I expect. I have also learned that these students are not quite at the cognitive/psychological level where they are able to reason with you. For example, when a student is not treating another student kindly, it is much easier to call out the unkind behavior, “Stop saying mean words”, than to say, “When you say mean words, how do you think your classmate feels?” While I am trying to introduce this metacognition as much as I can, I am realizing that it will take time.
The prior example also relates to how I foster their moral devleopment; by teaching them how to think more about others and less about themselves and more about the impact their actions have on others. I have to keep in mind that many of them are still in Kohlberg’s “pre-conventional morality” stage where they are just focused on obedience and punishment orientation and self-interest orientation. This helps me to understand how to most effectively interact with/discipline/teach my students. I plan lessons which are aimed at a level where they are comfortable thinking and reasoning and then, with appropriate scaffolding, try to stretch them a bit beyond that comfort zone.
In terms of my students social development, I have learned to allow time for them to talk during the day and to learn how to socially interact with one another in a positive way. During my two-week takeover, something that I have done differently from my teacher is to allow them to talk quietly during breakfast (She usually prefers silence). I find that this is an important time for them to talk and to get to know each other. In my lesson plans, I have allowed time for students to give responses, to tell stories, and for them to get to express their interests. I hope that this helps my students to develop social skills in the classroom.
I believe that claim 3 really gets at the heart of teaching (i.e. it’s not all about -by not only understanding but by working and taking actions to foster students’ cognitive, psychological, social, and moral devleopment, you are helping students to be empowered and to feel valued as learners in your classroom.
Lia Thomassian's Student Teaching Blog 
This year I was in a first and second grade multi age classroom and this was my first time ever hearing od a multiage program. I too thought that because the kids are so close in age that they would be learning similar content. I quickly came to the same realization that you mentioned. Although they might be learning similar content they were at VERY different levels of instruction. I found that I struggled in teaching writing because there was a range of students who could write pages and pages independently and those who needed help on every word in writing a three worded sentence.It is great that you were able to plan a specific time for modeling everything for your students. Because I had never had experience with small children before in the classroom, that was one of the hardest things for me to get used to. I was not used to modeling every detail or going so far into the basics. Things like telling the students when to get their crayons was something I would have never thought I would need to do. I liked that you not only thought about the modeling the content, but the necessary skills, such as knowing how to clean their tray. You sound like you did a great job applying claim three in your student teaching experience and that is awesome!
This year I was in a first and second grade multi-age classroom and this was my first time ever hearing of a multi-age program. I too thought that because the kids are so close in age that they would be learning similar content. I quickly came to the same realization that you mentioned. Although they might be learning similar content they were at VERY different levels of instruction. I found that I struggled in teaching writing because there was a range of students who could write pages and pages independently and those who needed help on every word in writing a three worded sentence.It is great that you were able to plan a specific time for modeling everything for your students. Because I had never had experience with small children before in the classroom, that was one of the hardest things for me to get used to. I was not used to modeling every detail or going so far into the basics. Things like telling the students when to get their crayons was something I would have never thought I would need to do. I liked that you not only thought about the modeling the content, but the necessary skills, such as knowing how to clean their tray. You sound like you did a great job applying claim three in your student teaching experience and that is awesome!
Lia, it was interesting to hear your perspective on experiencing developmental differences between two age groups. I had almost the complete opposite experience–being used to first graders during practicum last year, and often underestimating the cognitive, psychological, social, and moral capacity of my fourth grade students this year. And I agree, it really has shown me the importance of understanding the developmental level of your students when teaching. I can recognize now that fourth graders are going to be more capable of questioning the moral validity of rules than first graders, and that they don’t necessarily need to have every single thing they are asked to do modeled for them. You also mentioned in your post that after determining the developmental level of your students, you always met them at their level, but also challenged them to push even further beyond their current developmental stage to prompt further growth. It definitely made me recognize how dangerous it would be for me to consistently treat my students as less capable than they truly are—despite us all being able to benefit from concrete examples and supports, our goal is to foster growth and independence, which it sounds like you were doing at your placement 🙂