Portfolio Post #3 -Student Profile Organizer

Below you will find a chart which provides a brief profile of students in Primary, Junior, and Intermediate grades. Initially, I was required to choose two from Primary, Junior, Intermediate, and Senior; since then, I decided to bridge the gap between Primary and Intermediate by completing the Junior part of the chart. When completing the Junior part, I thought about how much the Junior grades are "in-between", neither one stage nor the other. This made me think, though, that really all students are "in-between" in different areas. No one is exactly at "grade" or "age" level in all areas at one time; everyone develops at a different pace. This taught me a great lesson in differentiation and the importance of knowing your students.

	Motivation	Interests	Focus	Needs	Others
Primary	Learning about the world around them, natural curiosity. Pleasing parents or teachers; largely external motivations, reward systems work, but are limited.	Captivated by novelty. Interested in exploring how things work. Fantasy and imagination are important. Friends are also a primary concern.	On the present, little consciousness of past or future. Mainly on self, but also extending to family and friends.	Scaffolding and guidance to build foundational skills. Routines and structures are necessary to provide direction and guidance in learning, as well as stability. Visual, auditory and tactile learning are essential.	Primary students have not yet begun to think critically or abstractly. They must also be taught many concepts explicitly.
Junior	Learning becoming increasingly self-directed. Motivated by personal interests.	Social groups are becoming increasingly significant. Exploring the why and how. Interests developing based on skill (ie: athletic, artistic, academic, etc)	Still on the present, with some thought of the future. Focus moving from self to social groups.	Increased challenges, but with that, increased encouragement and belief in abilities. Routines are still important, but opportunities for responsibility and independence are essential.	Junior students are bridging the gap between the concrete thinking of the primary age and the more abstract thinking required in the intermediate grades.
Intermediate	Relevance of what is learned in school to own current life. Motivation to prepare for high school or for later high school years.	Developing social groups, fitting in with peers. The use of technology and social media.	Have a focus on the present, but a developing consciousness of the future (ie: early or late high school years). Focus on self-image and role in social groups.	Opportunity to express self, new levels of independence and increased responsibility/leadership. Increasing academic challenge and preparation for high school or later high school years. Emotional support and honest respect, recognition as a young adult.	Increasing self-awareness, social awkwardness, abstract thinking, global awareness.

Approaches and strategies for meeting the special needs and characteristics of Intermediate Grade students:

1.     Changes in setting – Students can be moved to a setting with less visual or auditory distractions in order to help with focus on a task or to alleviate social pressures that are hindering performance.

2.     Changes in instruction delivery –Teachers can modify the delivery of instruction to students, depending on their need. Instructions or concepts can be written, heard orally, modelled, explained through pictures or videos and other demonstrations.

3.     Changes in response type –Students can be asked to complete tasks in different ways, differing depending on their strengths. Response types can include written, oral, auditory/musical, audio-visual, graphic, or dramatic. Depending on the needs of the student, the length of response can differ as well.

4.     Changes in timeline - A student can be given more time to complete work. Tasks and lessons can be divided and chunked into smaller parts to aid comprehension and so that the student is not overwhelmed.

5.     Changes through technology – Many of the above-mentioned modifications can be made effectively through the use of new technologies. For example, www.readthewords.com is a free website where text can be transformed into speech for alternative learning.