Educ 516 (Differentiated Instruction Resource)

http://www.internet4classrooms.com/di.htm

The website Internet4Classrooms is a wonderful resource for differentiated instruction activities.  The tab entitled differentiated instruction contains subcategories labeled classroom planning, instructional theory, learning styles, meta-link sites, sample units/ lessons, and helpful documents.  The site has great links for various ways to incorporate differentiation into the classroom.  The site truly is a comprehensive parent resource for a gamut of outside links dealing with differentiation.  It is nice to have a website that is able to direct teachers to the aspects of differentiation that matter to them.  Differentiation covers such a wide range of topics, and having a place where everything is outlined and divided according to subject truly makes things a lot easier.

This site should certainly help me in my teaching experience as it contains rather valuable information for differentiating instruction.  There are so many ideas of ways to implement fun, valuable activities into the classroom, helping to ensure that all students are helped in one way or another.  The site contains practical implementations and strategies for teaching every child.

Providing all of their articles and outside information in Microsoft Word , Power Point, and PDF formats also makes the site accessible and practical for teachers.  Using universal formats, the website has made accessing its contents fool-proof.

The site has everything from teacher blog entries to scholarly journal articles and books about differentiated instruction, appealing to the specific needs of different teachers.  The site also gives so many activities and assessments to teachers and there is something for everyone to try.

Literacy Blog (Ch 6 & 7)

The opening vignette was a great example of the model student we would all want to enter our classrooms on our first day of teaching.  Teachers often tend to forget how valuable rich literacy experiences are before students enter school.  It can be daunnting to realize the disparity between certain children’s experiences in the classroom.  I can certainly see how the reading readiness perspective and the experience view can be incorporated into my classroom.  There are many ways to teach children, and tailoring perspectives to fit the learning needs and styles of our students is a must.

Encouraging all students to want to foster a love for literacy can really only be done through authentic, rational activities and lessons.  Finding ways to connect literacy experiences to all children can be tricky, though, as they are so diverse in their prior knowledge and experiences.  As the text stated, home and community plays a central role in the literacy development of young children.  Early childhood teachers should find ways to connect what happens inside the classroom to what happens outside so that literacy can become a meaningful tool for addressing the issues in student’s lives.  This is a paramount objective for ensuring that all students learn to read.

Chapter 7 conveys the idea that rich literacy experiences are fostered through interaction with text and other people.  I truly enjoyed that the text gave practical solutions for extending the literacy knowledge of students at varying ability levels.  The code breaking strategies were also quite helpful in that it explicitly explained the two approaches for teaching the skill.  I can see how both approaches can be beneficial

The various activities to foster authentic learning in the classroom were helpful, also.  It can be quite overwhelming determing which activities can be used to better assist student learning, and having a wide range of techniques helps to ease the frustration because teachers are given a plethora of great strategies for various approaches.

Literacy Blog (Effective Assessment Practices for Reading and Writing)

The books mention of the various forms of assessment practices to be used in the classroom were rather helpful.  Assessments are oftentimes seen as daunting tasks, and one thing that I hope to do as a teacher is find a routine that works and makes assessment seem like less of a chore, and more as something that comes along with the many joys of teaching.

Assessments such as the interest inventory surveys we completed with our case study student are great ways to informally gain valuable information about students’ attitudes towards reading.  The first step in evaluating students’ reading abilities is to understand how and why they read.

Portfolios are also great ways to  gain information about student progress, enabling us to gauge student ability.  My CT utilizes portfolios, and it makes it so much easier when she has parent/teacher conferences.  Last week, she was able to back up all of her statements about a certain student with the information found in his portfolio.  Having that visual assessment lends so much validity to our claims.  Portfolios have the ability to encompass so much, and they can truly be used to create an atmosphere in which parent, teacher, and student understand how the student is progressing.

All of the alternative assessments to standardized testing mentioned in the book seems to give the teacher more insight into not only what students know, but how they derived their rationale for certain answers.  The various types of miscue analysis assessments are great for determining how to support the reader’s growth in the reading process.

Education 629: Strategies for Helping ELLs

Visual aids are critical for ensuring that ELL students are reached in the classroom.  My placement is lucky enough to have a SmartBoard, and it has made a world of difference in conveying different concepts to the students.  Not only are students able to hear the teacher’s explanation for certain things, but they are also able to see the processes by which teachers explain their rationale.  I have noticed that the SmartBoard has been a rather engaging tool for ELL students, and they are always so eager to interact with it.  Not only does it make learning more exciting for English speakers, but it allows ELL students the opportunity to gather information in varied formats.  This characteristic is benefit to any type of student.  Having variety in presentation modes is a strategy to use to ensure that there are attempts to reach ELL students with different learning styles.  Visually stimulating aids are one of the reasons that I think a lot of the ELL students in our classroom are so willing to participate.  Making learning exciting is something to which all students can relate, not matter what their first language.

Educ 629: Supports for ELLs in Placement

Frank Porter Graham has great resources for the English Language Learning population.  Pull-out services are provides that are truly enriching and that correlate with what is learned in the regular education classroom.  It is great to see such a cohesive faculty dedicated to reaching all of the ELL students, making sure that their transitions are as seamless as possible.

The majority of the ELL students in my classroom are of Hispanic background, and Frank Porter Graham has done a great job of enlisting the help of staff members with knowledge of Spanish to help translate parent conferences and to send out notices for parents.  There were recent instances where there were not enough translators for the onslaught of parent conferences that were to take place, and teachers that were able to speak Spanish rallied together and stayed after school many hours to help conduct and translate conferences for other teachers.  This truly shows FPG’s commitment to ensuring that all students and families are welcomed and appreciated.

FPG’s staff is extremely encouraging when it comes to fostering relationships with teachers and between students.  The students in my placement are encouraged to be open-minded to the variety of cultures in the area, constantly asking questions about aspects of one another’s cultures.  There are so many outgoing ELL students in my placement because of the teacher and student support that has been shown to them.  Creating an inviting classroom environment is crucial for ensuring that students are comfortable in situations where their language can be seen as a barrier or a deficit.

Science Blog (SAM Animation)

Having the opportunity to utilize the SAM Animation software was pretty cool.  I had a little trouble figuring out some of the features, but by the end of class, I had a pretty good grasp of how it worked.  It would certainly entail a tutorial/workshop for students if I were to implement it into my classroom.

My initial thought was to create the visual of an airplane flying through the sky, and to add annotations about flight patterns and such.  That didn’t work too well.  After spending much of my time attempting to find the perfect airplane for the task, I decided to change the idea.  Instead, I demonstrated a lightbulb as it is charged with energy.  That illustration will certainly be helpful in the spring when I am teaching my fourth graders about magnetism and electricity.  Giving them the opportunity to create their own would be a great assessment tool for me.

The fourth graders in my placement absolutely love the class’ SmartBoard.  Any opportunity I have to engage them with new material on the SmartBoard is a good thing for me.

James Gee’s sentiments about incorporating video games and other technologies into the classroom truly rings true with me.  Having a SmartBoard in my placement has made the experience so much more enriching.  Having familiar technologies from which students can draw prior knowledge to learn new concepts is crucial for their growth and development.  The disconnect between school and home life is lessened because my students realize thatwith technology in school the atmosphere can be just as engaging and tactical as their home environments.

Haw River Visit (Science)

The last experience at Haw River Elementary went remarkably better than the first one.  The activity was much more engaging for the students, and they seemed to gain  a lot more beneficial information than with the Bubbles activity.  Students were completely engaged from the beginning of the lesson with the introductory activity, and though they did not have many questions, they were very attentive and willing to understand the information.  The students thoroughly enjoyed hands-on activities, making the parachutes and brainstorming ways to modify them.  They were able to use their background knowledge and information from the introductory activity to formulate predictions of what would happen next in the investigation.

I truly enjoyed that students were able to incorporate mathematical elements into their investigations with the recording of parachute times.  We were able to have plenty of teachable moments, explaining to the students how decimals worked in a number and helping them to decide which times were faster than others using the characteristics of numbers before and after decimals.

Preparation is key to the success of any lesson, and it was a lot easier to prepare for this lesson than for the parachute activity.  There was little room for error as with the bubbles, and the outcomes were easily explainable and evaluated.  I felt a lot more confident in my ability to explain the concepts covered by the lesson, and the students’ experiences were a lot more fulfilling because of that.

One modification that I would have made to the implementation of the activity was being better prepared for student misconceptions or lack of concepts with parachutes.  The group of students to which I taught the activity had little to no prior knowledge about the look and function of parachutes, and having visual aids to reinforce the ideas and acquaint students with the concept would have been rather beneficial.

Educ 516 Interview and Observation of E.C. Specialist

Interview conducted on 10/14/09 (Observation time from 9:30-9:55a.m.)

The interview I conducted with Mrs. Grau, an EC Specialist at Frank Porter Graham Elementary School truly gave me great insight into the processes and requirements for E.C. students, parents, and school faculty.  These were her answers for the following questions:

1)      How, when and where do referrals begin? Who can refer? What is the process for eligibility services at FPG?

• Parents of teachers can refer students for E.C. services.  The Student Support Team meets to identify problems/weaknesses and to implement strategies to correct them.  If parents approve, the SST conducts an evaluation tells that of eligibility for evaluation by the school psychologist and E.C. specialist.  Based on an evaluation by the school psychologist and E.C. coordinator (Comprehensive Inventory and Basic Skills or Brigance Diagnostic Test)
• An I.E.P meeting is then set up to determine the specific goals and plans for the student’s academics

2)       What services are offered for students with special needs at FPG?

• Students with IEP’s do not necessarily have pull-out services; they are only pulled out when their IEP’s indicate that they require academic or behavioral support (consult).  Services offered include Speech and Language, Occupational
  Therapy, ESL, The Resource Room, and AIG, if specified.

3)      What happens when students come to FPG with an IEP or 504 plan from another school or state?

• When this occurs, the same IEP is implemented as before, with no further SST meeting.  Re-evaluation is every 3 years, so if it is time for an evaluation, then it is given.

4)       How often and for how long are students required to meet with E.C. specialists each week?

• The time requirements are based on the IEP.  Some IEP’s are very specific about meeting times and places.  The average is at least two times per week for thirty minutes each time.

5)       How many students are typically in the Resource Room and how does it look?

• The amount of students in the Resource Room varies.  Sometimes students are there individually, other times they are with other students.  All students do individual work because of their varying ability levels; grade levels vary.

6)       Do your activities directly correlate with classroom activities; are they just modifications of teacher lessons?

• Lessons are completely different than regular classroom lessons.  They are based on grade level goals and objectives with modifications and support to increase student grades.

7)       What is your evaluation process for student progress?

• Students are given goals and worksheets.  If they successfully complete four out of five worksheets correctly, then they move to the next one.  IEP meetings can be called by teachers and parents at any time to make new goals.

8)       Are there any modifications you have implemented in classrooms to mimic the work in your classroom?

• Books-on-tape are used in conjunction with classroom activities to make modifications.

Classroom Environment

Mrs. Grau’s classroom has plenty of labels.  A word wall is a very identifiable resource.  Problem solving strategies are located in almost every corner of the room.  There are a lot of affirmations and awards located on the walls to boost the student’s confidence.  Explicit directions are located on the walls and electronic equipment around the room.  The class looks much like a regular education classroom, but with less chairs.  There is one activity table with audio and headphones, one conference table, one work table, two computer desks, and a bookshelf with a description of the alphabet.

Classroom Interactions

I visited during a time that one of the student’s in my classroom placement was receiving pull-out services. During the observation, he took a self-timed math drill on addition, adding one’s to increase math fluency.  These drills were enacted because during his IEP meeting there were concerns with his math fluency.  He is responsible for completing a chart to monitor his progress and he has a goal of completing the drills.  Mrs. Grau’s interactions with her students are really student-lead.  She prompts them to realize what they must do to complete their work, and she allows them to set their own goals through plenty of scaffolding and asking students to repeat their statements for her understanding.

Literacy Blog: Chapter 3 (Getting to Know Students Developing Culturally Relevant Practices for Reading and Writing)

Chapter 3 in Literate Lives began by explaining their interpretation of the divide between the teacher’s culture and students’ cultures.  It explained tht the divide was “ever-widening” (I guess I will open this entry with a little rant).  This seems to be such a disheartening notion since all we hear about is appreciating others’ cultures and incorporating multiculturalism into the classroom.  Even with the majority presence of white, female teachers in classrooms, I wonder how racially heterogenous classrooms must be in order for students’ cultures to be represented.  The focus needs to be shifted more from focusing more on the racial composition of classrooms to the appreciation of cultures.  I am the only black person in my placement, and because of all of the readings I have done in the SOE, I almost expected to feel uncomfortable and  alienated being the only black person in the class.  I did not it surprising that the chapter opened with talk of race instead of less visible differences.

Anyway, I always appreciate the notion of capitalizing on students’ funds of knowledge, using their life experiences to cater to student needs.  The idea of a “virtual school bag” is also a nice concept.  I would love to incorporate that idea and make it an activity when I have my own classroom.  On the first day of school, it would be nice to have students place identifiers of themselves into little bags to share with the classroom.  This would be  great opportunity for students to share their ideas with others and allow the opportunity for students to appreciate the diversity of their classmates.

With the implementation of culturally releveant pedagogy, using multicultural texts, codeswitching, contextualizing through authentic literature, documenting students’ home and community literacy practices and finding ways to ensure that lessons are student-centered will certainly ensure that ther is little to no potential for the perception of cultural mismatch.  Students must be closely observed and various facets of their lives taken into account to ensure that the whole child is educated.

I thorough enjoyed the ideas of the surveys, something that my classroom teacher made sure to do during the first week of school.  It was such an easy way to know the students interests and recognize the diversity of students that is often not mentioned, such as the differences in book choices.  When students are valued for all of their differences, classrooms are a lot more efficient and diversity is recognized as more than racial differences.

Educating Peter

I found myself plagued with rather mixed emotions watching the documentary Educating Peter. On one  hand, I loved the fact that he was able to be included in the lives of his classmates, but the means by which the class reached their status came at a hefty price.  Peter’s actions towards his classmates were astonishing.  As a teacher, it would be quite difficult to watch my students being physically abused and taunted (even though the teacher acted as if she did not notice the instances).  That must have taken serious patience and forgiveness on the parts of his classmates, and though it seemed to be worth the effort, there is still a huge part of me that would rather not have to deal with that in a classroom.

The students were great at attempting to understand Peter’s differences, and they made sure to contribute Peter’s actions to his disability, not to him as a person.  The students were truly inspiring, and I would love to have a classroom full of students like them.

The teacher’s role in the situation was to include an inclusive environment not only for Peter, but for his classmates.  She did a great job of addressing some situations, but I feel that there were a lot of instances when important learning opportunities could and should have taken place.   Peter’s kicking one of the other students in the face should have been a time when the teacher addressed the situation, because it was serious.  It would have been terrible if the student’s nose had been broken, or if he needed stitches.  How would that be explained to the student’s family?  The teacher would not have been able to say that she addressed the situation appropriately.

The teacher did do  a great job of including Peter in the classroom and tailoring her teaching to his needs.  He was given a lot of specialized attention, and her expectations for him seemed in line with his abilities.  I understand how it must have been difficult for her to foster the type of learning environment in which she found herself, but, overall, she did a pretty good job.  Her concerns for Peter’s education were that he would not receive as much academic information as the other students and that his disability would be a hindrance for his progress with relationships with other students.  These were all very valid concerns.  Her use of modifications such as allowing him his own space and ways to complete and present work and differentiating instruction according to his academic levels certaily helped aid with Peter’s success.

The teacher’s modifications and the students’ understandings of Peter’s disability created an overall healthy classroom environment.  For every pro for Peter’s inclusion, there is also a con, but there must be a subjective evaluation of whether or not the experience was worth it.  I would say that it was.  I could see how this situation would not work for a lot of classroom situations, but for Peter and his classmates, they seem to have gain valuable experience and learned a lot along the way.