Running head: IMPORTANCE OF LEARNING ABOUT STUDENTS 1

Importance of learning about students

Claudia Alvarez

April 28, 2019

National University
IMPORTANCE OF LEARNING ABOUT STUDENTS 2

Academic Language Abilities, Content Knowledge, and Skills

What might influence your instruction that you can learn about the students.

It is important for me to learn what previous knowledge my students have on the subject. I
would like to learn if my students know what a syllable is as well as what a rhyme is. It will
also be important to know if the students are able to distinguish the different syllables in a
word and rhyme patterns in a phrase This will help me guide how I would teach the lesson.
If my students are well aware with what they previously had to learn then I might not take
as much time reviewing certain areas.

It will also be important to know the skills and abilities of students who are ELL, students
that have exceptionalities and/or are gifted. These students have an important influence on
how I decide to teach and/or instruct lessons. Learning about these student’s abilities and
knowledge will guide me to creating activities that are inclusive to all students and their
learning abilities while helping me create adaptations that are unique to their learning needs.

All of this will help me be able to customize my teaching methods by being able to
incorporate differentiation into my teaching strategies. Use other teaching strategies such as
Specially Designed Academic Instruction for English (SDAIE), this teaching strategy was
designed with the intent to help students who are ELL. There are certain adaptations and
accommodations that I can use in order to help my students in their academic achievement.
For example, the classroom set up can be changed or altered depending on the needs of the
class and/or particular students. Any adaptations will be done in order to help learning
become easier for the students.

Describe how you will learn about your students.

Like I mentioned in the linguistic background section, it is important to talk to previous

teachers if possible, to be able to obtain knowledge on your students. Previous teachers can
provide academic insights but also personal insights on the students. If there are students
with language specialists or special education teachers, it is also important for me to talk to
them so I can obtain detailed information on the students needs and abilities. Any previous
academic tests such as the CELDT may be of importance to review to obtain information
on the student’s academic language skills. It is necessary for me to learn about my student’s
academic language abilities because this way I will be able to format my lessons,
assessments and other learning activities. Other students may have IEP’s that are available
for review. I can review this document in order to help advise my teaching preparations.

The existing portfolio I created is also a valuable tool to help me learn about my student’s
academic language abilities, their content knowledge and any other skills they might
possess. The portfolio will give me access to individual students work in order for me to
assess the student’s academic abilities. It is also important to mention that the portfolio
allows me to add notes on other aspects of the students such as social interactions. For
example, I can note that Bill works best in groups of 3 but if the groups has more than 3
IMPORTANCE OF LEARNING ABOUT STUDENTS 3

peers it is overwhelming and he gets distracted. Information like this helps me analyze my
teaching strategies and learning activities.

How will you use this information in planning academic instruction in your selected
content area?

The information that I find will help me guide my planning for academic instruction because
I will be able to identify the student’s abilities in phonetic awareness and the students
rhyming abilities. My knowledge on the student’s abilities will help me create a tailored
lesson plan that will help the students have a greater learning experience. My finding will
also help me decide how I want to begin the unit. Depending on my student’s academic
language and their content knowledge I will be able to decide if the students need more
review on a certain subject. Maybe the students are able to identify phonetic sounds but are
unable to read a complete sentence. This might change the way I decide to teach the lesson.

Is is important to become aware as a teacher if your students are having enough time to learn
and work through the lesson. The information that I find can help me guide the pace I give
my class as a whole with the lesson and/or with individual students. My findings can
enlighten me to add different types of learning activities. For example, if I sense that my
students are more of hands on learners, then it will become important that I include
multisensory strategies. If I observe that my students are visual learners then I will add
visual stimulating activities allowing my students to learn through their preferred method.

My findings can also allow me to make connections between the unit and the students
personal interests and experiences. By making these connections I will be able to integrate
my findings into my teaching strategies. For example, if I know many of my students have
traveled to Mexico, I can integrate some information about Mexico into my lesson.

Peer-partnering and peer grouping can also be managed through my findings. Students
academic language and content knowledge can help me create partners and groups that will
allow all students to have the best learning experience possible. Working with peers might
be a difficult thing to do for some students but if I am able to use the gained knowledge to
create groups that have students that have similar working styles or mix students that might
need help with others that can help, students might be able to achieve more.