Only when I know what grade I am teaching will I be able to fully understand the active nature of student learning and acquire information about the levels of development for individual students. For the second grade classroom I am currently teaching in my students range from Piaget's Pre-Operational to Concrete Operational Stages. They are a very bright class and I have high expectations. The more I am in the classroom everyday the more knowledge I gain about each of my students. Acquiring knowledge from several sources about individual students’ is how I am able to adapt my lesson plans. In my lesson plans I use these varied approaches to learning, knowledge and skills, special needs, and interests and cultural heritages.

          The reflection of the attached math lesson for my Education 324 course, was taught at Mary C. Snow West Side Elementary School, is prominent here for the purpose of bringing to light the various levels of development and learning for the students in the fifth-grade classroom I was placed. I begin my reflection by discussing how this classroom is a mixture of two distinct stages of Erik Erikson’s stages of development. We have those students who are in the industry versus the inferiority stage and those in the identity versus role confusion stage of development.

          I concluded that these two stages do not coexist well in this classroom. Students who want to do well try to focus and show this to their teacher. While other students search for their place and possibly resort to violence and profanity, which they see every day in their environment, to displace their confusion. I knew that acquiring knowledge and information from several sources, not just my cooperating teacher, was necessary to learn about each student's unique learning style, skills, and interests. This is why I have included a student interest survey in my regiment. While in the fifth-grade classroom, I was able to get to know every student and gain knowledge and insight into them all. However, a survey can be advantageous when trying to acquire information about students’ different levels of development.