The most fundamental HLP is checking for student understanding before, during, and after a lesson, especially for beginning teachers. When creating lesson plans, it is important to have an understanding of the prior and background knowledge of each student. Being aware of what students already know before beginning a new unit is the key to appropriately adapting that unit to fit the needs of the students. Moreover, it is vital that the teacher is assessing students’ knowledge throughout the lesson to determine if students are understanding the content. If not, then the teacher is responsible for adjusting instruction so that all students are learning and achieving the objectives. Finally, summative assessments are key when confirming student …show more content…
Furthermore, each student walks into the first day of school with different background and cultural knowledge than the other students. Teachers need to be willing to recognize these unique qualities in each student and be willing to celebrate those differences as a whole class. This is the exact reason why it is so important that teachers are enthusiastic about developing relationships with each student and their parents. Knowing more about the student and his or her family will give the teacher clues about how to provide for the students’ academic needs and encourage them with their academic strengths. Overall, if teachers have a solid relationship with each of their students, they will know where students strengths and weaknesses are, which will allow them to develop lessons around the need of each …show more content…
Students have more self-confidence if they are able to hear from the teacher that they are understanding the material being taught. In fact, this positive validation is one of the easiest avenues that a teacher can use to encourage students to recognize their own strengths, and the strengths of others. During one of my on-site visits for EDU 140, the teacher was proctoring a summative assessment for the students in her class. At the conclusion of the written assessment, the teacher had the students trade papers with each other. The students then “graded” each other’s assessments and provided both positive and constructive feedback to the students. An activity like this is an incredible way to develop a socially just classroom. Each student was able to identify the strengths and weaknesses in their classmate’s work, which helped them to recognize that everyone has unique talents and struggles, but if they work together as a team, they will be able to accomplish all