Throughout this course, you have studied the major principles, concepts, and learning theories related to the major developmental milestones and stages of development. With this knowledge, you will explore how to integrate the major principles, concepts, and learning theories when determining the appropriate instructional strategies that meet the diverse needs of all students.

Imagine you are a third-grade general education teacher trying to support the needs of specific students in your classroom. Using the "ELM-500 Case Study," essay that addresses the following areas of development:

Describe each student's current state of cognitive, linguistic, physical, social, and emotional development.

Explain how you would use the background information and experiences, interests, and strengths of the students in the case study to design developmentally appropriate and engaging learning experiences, promote the acquisition of knowledge, and increase motivation.

Describe three developmentally appropriate instructional strategies that a teacher could implement in a third grade classroom to support the learning of all students.

Explain how you would adjust (differentiate) each instructional strategy to support Alicia, Sena, and Jeremy's cognitive, linguistic, social, emotional, and physical development. Use major concepts, principles, theories, and other research to support your adjustment suggestions.

Describe one technique or strategy you could implement with each student in the case study to increase their motivation and promote self-directed learning.

Explain what personal values and biases may affect teaching and how those can influence student learning, specifically students with diverse needs such as those in the case study.

Support your findings with a minimum of 3-5 scholarly resources.

ELM-500 Case Study

Scenario: You are a third-grade general education teacher at Oak Street Elementary School and have the following students in your third-grade class.

Name: Alicia Hernandez

Alicia has attended Oak Street Elementary School since first grade. She is a native English speaker. She is a very happy outgoing child. Both her first and second grade teachers report that Alicia loves art and enjoys participating in art class. This year her parents enrolled her and her best friend in a Saturday painting class.

Alicia is very social at school. She has many friends that she plays with on the playground. She shows kindness to classmates and volunteers to help with classroom jobs. She works well when paired with peers or in a group setting.

While in first grade, Alicia struggled to master all the first grade benchmarks but with support met the minimum requirements and was promoted to second grade. In second grade, Alicia continued to struggle. Her second grade teacher met with Alicia's parents several times concerning her lack of progress on the second grade benchmarks. A variety of teaching strategies were tried to support Alicia's academic needs.

Baseline data from the reading assessment indicates Alicia is reading below grade level at 1.6 (first grade and six months).

Baseline data from the math assessment indicates Alicia is performing math calculations below grade level at 1.8 (first grade and eight months).

Name: Sena Kim

Sena has attended Oak Street Elementary School since second grade when she and her family moved to America. She has been classified as an ELL student and receives English language development, in addition to content area instruction. Sena was born in South Korea and her family only speaks Korean at home. She attended school in South Korea until moving to America. Her family is very involved in their local Korean-American church.

Sena's teachers have indicated she can complete grade-level work when the material is presented in her native language but has not yet mastered English enough to fully understand either written or oral instruction in only that language.

Sena is shy and does not talk a lot in the classroom but has begun building relationships with a few girls in the class and can be seen laughing and smiling during their small group interactions. She enjoys drawing and playing with her siblings at home.

Baseline data using native language material indicates Sena is reading on grade level at 3.2 (third grade and two months).

Baseline data using native language material indicates Sena is performing math calculations above grade level at 4.1 (fourth grade and one month).

Name: Jeremy Smith

Jeremy has attended Oak Street Elementary School since kindergarten. He is a native English speaker with an above average IQ (133). Jeremy has an orthopedic impairment and uses an electric wheelchair for mobility. He enjoys creative activities and taking art with his peers. Cognitively he functions above his peer group but struggles with social interactions.

His parents indicated that he sometimes experiences depression because he feels different than his friends at school and cannot participate in all of the typical activities his peers can engage in regularly. Jeremey tends to be very hard on himself when he makes mistakes and can behave inappropriately when he gets frustrated. He enjoys playing video games at home.

Baseline data from the reading assessment indicates Jeremey is reading above grade level at 6.2 (sixth grade and two months).

Baseline data from the math assessment indicates Jeremey is performing math calculations above grade level at 5.5 (fifth grade and five months).