Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Rationale for Standard 2: Learner Differences
Artifact name: Modified spelling words
Standard:
The teacher uses understanding of individual differences and diverse cultures and communities
to ensure inclusive learning environments that allow each learner to reach his/her full potential.
What the Standard means to me:
Learners have multiple differences, come from diverse backgrounds, and live in various
communities. It is my responsibility as an educator to provide an inclusive environment for
each learner and make sure they are continually striving to reach their full potential.
Indicator:
2 (h) Understands students' exceptional learning needs (both disabilities and giftedness) and
knows how to use strategies and resources to serve these needs.
Description of the artifact:
Throughout the semester, a spelling test has been given to my second graders every Friday.
Every Friday, the students also take a pretest. This pretest includes five highfrequency words
as well as five words that follow a certain pattern and come from Fountas and Pinnell. All of
the learners in my classroom are at very different levels and it would be unfair to give them all
of the same words to study. Instead, we give them modified spelling words. My mentor has
always done this and it was an amazing opportunity to be able to be apart of this. If a student
gets the word wrong on the pretest they get it to study, after that the words get more
challenging or a little easier depending on the learner and their needs.
Rationale:
These modified spelling words are challenging each learner at their own pace. It would be
unfair to give all the students in the classroom the same list of words each week. If we did that,
there would be some students who struggle every week to figure out their spelling words, and
there would be other students who fly by every week and are never challenged. In this case, if
a learner is struggling with writing and spelling than we will refer to the secondgrade
highfrequency words to know and chose words from that list to give to them. If a student is
needing a challenge we will look through their writing or the book they are reading in a
reading group and pick out words that they are struggling with. Modified spelling words show
that I understand there are going to be a variety of learners in my classroom, and I need to
adjust activities or lessons to meet the needs of learners with disabilities, as well as, learners
who need an extra challenge.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1WbzIqVYBJ3-EcBXF6pveGisbkeCl9mIoFNkrGrVXCXM/edit 1/1