The teacher understands the unique abilities, needs, and learning patterns that impact the capability of individual students and chooses instructional methods that suitably challenge and support each student’s learning and development. (InTASC #1)
Cognitive, linguistic, social, emotional, and physical development occur at different rates and times for each student, and those development levels affect the way in which the student learns in the classroom. My instruction should allow the students to draw on their own strengths in acquiring new knowledge. Through careful assessment of each student’s learning, I can select and adapt instructional strategies that scaffold the learning as it is necessary and encourage the successful development and growth of each student. I developed a whole-class novel study of Maus, by Art Spiegelman, for eleventh grade English classrooms, in which I was able to include assessments for identifying student learning, address multiple developmental levels in reading, and offer students an opportunity to draw on their own knowledge and strengths to complete activities.
“What do you know about graphic novels?”
In order to know what information the students were bringing into the novel study, I created a pretest to assess their background knowledge. Once I knew where each student was in relation to the content I would be teaching, I identified where I would need to bring in additional resources and scaffold the learning for some students and where I might be able to move along a little faster. Using this same assessment as a posttest at the end of the unit gave me an understanding of the students’ learning and growth and allowed me to reflect on the effectiveness of the instruction.
MAUS Novel Study Unit
Often, a whole-class novel study is not designed to accommodate the differing developmental levels of students, and literature circles may be a better option. However, classroom and learning environment constraints can sometimes make group work difficult. I chose Maus for a whole-class study because the graphic novel allowed me to keep students working at a similar pace while addressing a range of reading levels and offering learning opportunities for students at each level.
“My Story” assignment
An additional challenge with using the novel, Maus, was making it relevant and accessible to the students. While the story of a Holocaust survivor may be difficult for a student to comprehend, Maus, at its most basic element, is a story of a father told by a son. By focusing on themes such as family, relationships, kindness, and human interactions, it allowed the students to connect in their own way with familiar elements. Maus is also a book written by a cartoonist, and the format of the graphic novel showed students how Art Spiegelman used his own strengths to tell his story. I began the unit with an activity called “My Story,” where I asked students to tell me a part of their story, whichever part they wanted to tell, and to tell it in their own way. I stressed that the goal of the activity wasn’t to write with perfect grammar and technique, but to tell their stories from their own perspectives and experiences.