What modifications for learners who are exceptional do you see?

While I was doing my field work there was one student in the classroom that I noticed was always doing something different than the rest of the class. I inquired the teacher about this and found out that she was a little below grade level in the subject that was being worked on during the time I was there. So, for that amount of time, while the other kids did vocabulary sheets for english time, she would write stories and bring them to the teacher and would go through them to make sure all of the words were spelled correctly. This helped her to be working on the same subject as the rest of the class, but also in a way that was more on her level and enjoyable for the student too. I think that is something that could be a good idea that if one student specifically is struggling, then if there is a way to adapt the way she learns, like just working on writing and spelling rather than doing the reading and vocabulary sheets all of the time, then that is something that would be good for any teacher to try out.

Work with Small Groups and One-on-One

In my field work I have had many opportunities to work with the children in small groups. Right now during the time I am there the kids are working on memorizing and performing plays. I am able to get with each group individually and talk to them about things that they could do to improve their play. We talk about how to stand on the stage so the audience can always see them and not have to look at their backs. We also talk about saying their lines slowly and clearly. A lot of the kids tend to say their lines super fast and end up mumbling all the words together and then it is hard to understand them. It has been fun to work with the students and see what kinds of critiques they are able to come up with for their groups before I have to give them the ones i came up with. 

I have also had the opportunity to work with a few students one on one. After we finish working on the student's plays, they pull out a vocabulary assignment. In this assignment they are to read the story and then answer questions about the story and also look up some of the harder words so they can learn what they mean. A lot of the kids end up working together on this assignment. I have found it interesting though that as each student brings their papers up to me only some of them will have the correct answers and spelling for their questions and words. One student came up to me like 3 times before he finally said "I really dont get this" instead of just walking back off to have his friends help him more. We sat down and went through the questions and I asked him about them and had him answer the questions orally. He was able to answer most all of the questions independently when he was given the chance to do it this way. Once he answered the questions correctly then I would help him to figure out how the best way to word the answer on his paper would be. I think it is very important to remember that not all kids learn in the same ways and we need to be understanding and accommodating to that with all of our students. The end goal is that the students succeed, not that the teachers have an easy life. 

How does knowledge of the way people learn relate to the experience of being a teacher?

Knowing the different ways people learn is so important when you are a teacher. You have to understand the all kids learn differently. In my field work in a 3rd grade classroom yesterday morning we were working on a vocabulary assignment. The students had to read a story and then answer questions about the story and got clues as to what some of the vocabulary words from the story were and then had to list them out. (More difficult to explain on this post that it really was.) After the students had completed their work they were to bring them to me and I would correct it and tell them which answers were incorrect so they could go back and fix it to be correct.
A lot of the students did really well with reading the story and remembering the different details of it to answer the questions and figure out the vocabulary words. It was interesting to watch as the kids did their work together in groups or with partners to figure out what each of the vocabulary words meant. Some kids would act them out to try to explain to another person, some would just give up and ask their neighbor to tell them the answers, and others would try to come up with examples of what it could mean. I think that without meaning to, this assignment used all of the different learning theories, just by letting the kids attempt to do the assignments in groups that helped one another to learn.