This weeks reading on writers workshop was EXTREMELY helpful for me in my placement. The students have about 45 minutes work of writing and about 45 minutes of reading during our literacy block. This is basically 45 minutes of reading and writing workshops and I have been very lost as to what I needed to be doing during the writing workshop. With the reading workshop, I have just been watching my teacher during her reading groups and then reading with a few of the students that are not doing their reading group. When it came to the writing portion though, I was not sure how to answer questions that the students were asking and how much grammar I should be correcting or how much content I should be addressing and where the story became mine instead of the students because of all of the “corrections” I was making for the students. This chapter really answered a lot of questions that I had and now, hopefully, I can become more comfortable during writing workshop and not just walking around watching the students write their stories.
There was also a section on sharing the student’s work which I LOVE! There is one girl in particular in my class that has some behavioral problems and it has become increasingly more difficult to deal with her during writing and reading workshop because she becomes very bored with what is going on and she acts out, disrupting the students around her. However, she has this amazing story that if she could put more detail in, it would easily be one of the most interesting and well written stories in the class. The big problem with her is that she thinks she is dumb. She regularly says “I don’t know, I’m dumb” and then laughs about it and goes back to her disruptive ways. Her classroom teacher had not had a chance to read her story and after school was out, I told her about the story and we both read over it from her writing journal. The next day, she was asked to read her story out loud to the classroom during sharing time. After each student shares their story, the class is to offer three good comments and three good critiques on how to make the story better for the student. I was told that after she shared her story, she got glowing comments about the story from her classmates and by the next time I was in the classroom, she had published her first story and was eagerly working on her second story. She REALLY wanted to share the story both with me and then again with her classmates. I really think that allowing the students a chance to share their work is a great way to encourage the students in addition to having the students help one another with their writing.
Monday, October 26, 2009
Parachutes at Hawriver
The second trip to Hawriver was much better then the first trip. I don’t know if it is because the students were older or if it was because of the different experiment that we were completing with the students but they seemed to grasp the concepts that we were trying to get across and they seemed much more intrigued by the lesson. The first time that we went, our students knew what a bubble was and how you made one, but they had never read or been introduced to a book about bubbles. When we began our lesson, we asked the students if they knew what a parachute was and they did not recognize the word right away. As we began describing what a parachute was, one of the students went “oh yeah we have a book on those!” and pointed to a book at the front of the room. Once they could make that connection, the lesson went much smoother and they were able to connect what we were telling them to something that they had been introduced to before hand.
Our students LOVED building their own parachutes and they definitely loved being able to stand on a chair and drop the parachute. The fact that they were making their own experiment pieces really got them more involved in the lesson. With the bubbles activity, everything was already made for the students and they were just participating in the step by step instructions of an experiment. With the parachutes, the students were able to tell us what they thought would work best and which ones would fall faster and slower and then they got to test their own ideas and to them, they were creating the lesson that they were participating in.
When it came to recording the data, we wanted to use an average of the three trials that were completed for each parachute. Here, we ran into a problem that we ran into with the bubbles experiment. We did not know these students and we did not know the different levels that they were on or what the students have been introduced to and what they had not been introduced to. The concept of an average was something that we thought third graders would have been introduced to but they had not heard that term in an academic setting. We then had to take some time to explain what an average was and in the end, we decided that it was too confusing for the students to use the average. We did not want the lesson to become about averages instead of parachutes. Another problem that we ran into was the concept of decimals/fractions. When we said that the parachute took 1 ½ seconds to fall, we asked them how to write that in decimal form and they did not know that ½ was equivalent to 0.5. They also could not determine which was more – ½ or ¼ and then they also struggled with whether 0.5 or 0.25 was more or less so we had to help them out with that.
Even though there were a few areas that needed to be worked on (averages and recording the data) I really think that the students understood our lesson and took away the concepts and the right meanings from the lesson that we were trying to get them to take away from it!!
Our students LOVED building their own parachutes and they definitely loved being able to stand on a chair and drop the parachute. The fact that they were making their own experiment pieces really got them more involved in the lesson. With the bubbles activity, everything was already made for the students and they were just participating in the step by step instructions of an experiment. With the parachutes, the students were able to tell us what they thought would work best and which ones would fall faster and slower and then they got to test their own ideas and to them, they were creating the lesson that they were participating in.
When it came to recording the data, we wanted to use an average of the three trials that were completed for each parachute. Here, we ran into a problem that we ran into with the bubbles experiment. We did not know these students and we did not know the different levels that they were on or what the students have been introduced to and what they had not been introduced to. The concept of an average was something that we thought third graders would have been introduced to but they had not heard that term in an academic setting. We then had to take some time to explain what an average was and in the end, we decided that it was too confusing for the students to use the average. We did not want the lesson to become about averages instead of parachutes. Another problem that we ran into was the concept of decimals/fractions. When we said that the parachute took 1 ½ seconds to fall, we asked them how to write that in decimal form and they did not know that ½ was equivalent to 0.5. They also could not determine which was more – ½ or ¼ and then they also struggled with whether 0.5 or 0.25 was more or less so we had to help them out with that.
Even though there were a few areas that needed to be worked on (averages and recording the data) I really think that the students understood our lesson and took away the concepts and the right meanings from the lesson that we were trying to get them to take away from it!!
Thursday, October 15, 2009
Special Services Interview
The EC specialist at my school is amazing. She had all the time in the world to talk to us about the EC program at the school and answer any questions that we had. I guess that patience and kindness are two important qualities that an EC specialist should have. She began to explain the process and I was surprised at how simple she made the process sound but then talked about how long it took to get an IEP put into place. The first step was having a teacher recommend a child for special services. The teacher brings their concern to an SST committee. I’m fortunate enough to be working with a teacher that is on the SST committee and I have seen what questions are brought up in the meetings. Many of the teachers that are working to develop a students IEP have worked with the child or at least know the child and their behaviors – one of the benefits of working in a smaller school.
I guess I knew that parents have the final say in all of their child’s schooling but the EC specialist just kept saying “it’s all up to the parent.” Any time there is a change in the students IEP, the parents must be present at all meetings and must sign all paper work. They may also refuse the specialists referral into the EC program and they can withdraw their student from the program at any time. Why would a parent take their child out of a program that is has been designed specifically for their individual student. However, it happens more frequently then you would think according to the specialist.
I feel that as a future teacher the fact that I did not realize this is kind of bad but I did not know that an IEP was a legally binding document. I knew that teachers would get into trouble for not following the IEP but I did not know that legal action could be taken against the county if the IEP is not followed. Not following the IEP can get teachers into a lot of trouble, but what happens to those that work in schools that do not have the resources to meet the IEP. It’s not the teachers fault that the school can not hire enough specialists or order all of the materials necessary but they in the end, take the ultimate blame for the child not succeeding and the IEP not being followed. Not fair. I really look forward to being part of the SST committee and seeing the process first hand!
I guess I knew that parents have the final say in all of their child’s schooling but the EC specialist just kept saying “it’s all up to the parent.” Any time there is a change in the students IEP, the parents must be present at all meetings and must sign all paper work. They may also refuse the specialists referral into the EC program and they can withdraw their student from the program at any time. Why would a parent take their child out of a program that is has been designed specifically for their individual student. However, it happens more frequently then you would think according to the specialist.
I feel that as a future teacher the fact that I did not realize this is kind of bad but I did not know that an IEP was a legally binding document. I knew that teachers would get into trouble for not following the IEP but I did not know that legal action could be taken against the county if the IEP is not followed. Not following the IEP can get teachers into a lot of trouble, but what happens to those that work in schools that do not have the resources to meet the IEP. It’s not the teachers fault that the school can not hire enough specialists or order all of the materials necessary but they in the end, take the ultimate blame for the child not succeeding and the IEP not being followed. Not fair. I really look forward to being part of the SST committee and seeing the process first hand!
Sunday, October 11, 2009
UDL in the Classroom
I think that it’s wonderful that people are starting to accept that not everyone learns the same way. What works for one student will not necessarily work for another student, especially those that are English language learners and those with learning disabilities. Through universal design, students that have trouble learning can learn the same material as those that do not struggle at the same time. For example, the text books that we are creating have interactive components that both English language learners and deaf students can benefit from and learn from – while the other students learn the material as well. They may learn it in a different way and at a different rate, but the material is being presented to all students at the same time and all students have the chance to process the material at the same time.
Unfortunately in my class placement, there are no English language learners that I can observe, but there is a student with a learning disability. The student struggles with their speech and as a result, also struggles with their reading comprehension. Their comprehension when a text is read out loud to them is much higher then when they read it themselves since they struggle with reading. I’m really excited to present the books that we are making for our science units because I really think that they will benefit from the interactive component with the characters that read out loud. Since there are no English language learners in the classroom and only one with a learning disability that is pulled out for about an hour each day during most of the reading and writing workshop time – my teacher does not have to modify any of the lessons really and there are also not a lot of different learning strategies used in the classroom. I really wish that I could see more of this universal design for learning in the classroom because I think its amazing and that a lot of students will benefit greatly from it!!
Unfortunately in my class placement, there are no English language learners that I can observe, but there is a student with a learning disability. The student struggles with their speech and as a result, also struggles with their reading comprehension. Their comprehension when a text is read out loud to them is much higher then when they read it themselves since they struggle with reading. I’m really excited to present the books that we are making for our science units because I really think that they will benefit from the interactive component with the characters that read out loud. Since there are no English language learners in the classroom and only one with a learning disability that is pulled out for about an hour each day during most of the reading and writing workshop time – my teacher does not have to modify any of the lessons really and there are also not a lot of different learning strategies used in the classroom. I really wish that I could see more of this universal design for learning in the classroom because I think its amazing and that a lot of students will benefit greatly from it!!
In between Bottom-Up and Top-Down
After reading this chapter, I started to think about what I am seeing in my classroom now and on what I experienced in my classes in elementary school. The classroom that I am in right now has a set up that is a mix between Ms. Teal’s classroom and Ms. Battle’s. The students are arranged in small groups and have very frequent small group discussions on what they have read and what they are writing about. While they do work together to work on their comprehension skills of various texts, they do complete many individual tasks such as silent reading and writing but they are always asked to share with their group members any ideas they have for stories and they are also asked to write letters to their teachers and myself talking about what they are reading during their silent reading.
Practice, practice, practice, words that I’ve heard over and over and over again from my parents and many teachers throughout the years. Whether it was about swimming, playing a musical instrument, or with my school work, I’ve always been taught that in order to master something, practicing it is the only way to learn it and it worked. When I was in school, learning how to read was about learning the different sounds that letters made and the ways they were shaped and how they were combined. We practiced this with worksheets and projects. Whenever a book or a passage was read, worksheets/questions from the book were assigned and I recall most of this work being individually and not in a group setting.
The bottom-up and top-down theories are the two extreme ends of the spectrum. I think that those in the earlier years that are learning how to read would do well with a bottom-up type of classroom such as Ms. Teal’s classroom. They learn to pick apart words and their meanings and they later on use this knowledge that they have learned to comprehend and analyze reading selections. As the students progress, they should be moving into more top-down theory classrooms like Ms. Battle’s. In these classrooms, the students can become more independent and take control of their learning through self selections in books and group discussions about these books. The only problem with this progression is that students learn at different rates, especially those students that struggle with reading and English language learners. In these situations, having a classroom that still incorporates some bottom-up instruction would be beneficial to those students but the students that are not struggling would still have the top-down instruction.
Practice, practice, practice, words that I’ve heard over and over and over again from my parents and many teachers throughout the years. Whether it was about swimming, playing a musical instrument, or with my school work, I’ve always been taught that in order to master something, practicing it is the only way to learn it and it worked. When I was in school, learning how to read was about learning the different sounds that letters made and the ways they were shaped and how they were combined. We practiced this with worksheets and projects. Whenever a book or a passage was read, worksheets/questions from the book were assigned and I recall most of this work being individually and not in a group setting.
The bottom-up and top-down theories are the two extreme ends of the spectrum. I think that those in the earlier years that are learning how to read would do well with a bottom-up type of classroom such as Ms. Teal’s classroom. They learn to pick apart words and their meanings and they later on use this knowledge that they have learned to comprehend and analyze reading selections. As the students progress, they should be moving into more top-down theory classrooms like Ms. Battle’s. In these classrooms, the students can become more independent and take control of their learning through self selections in books and group discussions about these books. The only problem with this progression is that students learn at different rates, especially those students that struggle with reading and English language learners. In these situations, having a classroom that still incorporates some bottom-up instruction would be beneficial to those students but the students that are not struggling would still have the top-down instruction.
Sunday, October 4, 2009
Misconceptions
It’s difficult to measure the student’s conceptual change from the bubble experiment because one, we did not know the students before hand and we did not know what they had been taught in their classes and two, because the students had never heard of surface tension before. When we asked the students what they thought it meant, all we got were blank stares. They had never heard of the term surface tension, we even had difficulty getting the students to understand what a surface was, and they just did not get what tension was in terms of emotions or in scientific terms. However, even if the students had known what surface tension was, I doubt they would have learned much from the bubbles activity and their misconceptions would probably still be intact because of how advance this experiment was and our lack of content knowledge.
As far as conceptual change that I have seen during science in my classroom, there is not a lot of time spent on science. They have science every other day and they are currently just taking notes on different types of forests. Based off of other subjects that I have observed it seems that the students are fairly willing to accept changes to their original beliefs when presented with facts. Another thing that I have noticed in the class that makes me believe the students are very accepting of changes is the way that the students take notes during their science and social studies lessons. They make a person KWL chart almost and then as a class they create a larger KWL class chart – most of the time sometimes they just talk as a class. The students are first asked to write down what they know about the topic on the left side of their paper and then the class creates a combined list (like they would for the “K” portion of a KWL chart) and then they write down any questions that they have about the topic on the right side of the paper and then share that part as a class (like they would for the “W” portion of the chart). At the end of the lesson, at the bottom of their paper, they write down a summary of the reading and any questions that they still have about the subject and then as a class they try and answer most of the questions. As a class, they then go through the facts that they had come up with at the beginning and see if they as a whole believe that these “facts” are still true. Many of the students that offered the “facts” at the beginning of the lesson correct their own statements before other students can.
As far as conceptual change that I have seen during science in my classroom, there is not a lot of time spent on science. They have science every other day and they are currently just taking notes on different types of forests. Based off of other subjects that I have observed it seems that the students are fairly willing to accept changes to their original beliefs when presented with facts. Another thing that I have noticed in the class that makes me believe the students are very accepting of changes is the way that the students take notes during their science and social studies lessons. They make a person KWL chart almost and then as a class they create a larger KWL class chart – most of the time sometimes they just talk as a class. The students are first asked to write down what they know about the topic on the left side of their paper and then the class creates a combined list (like they would for the “K” portion of a KWL chart) and then they write down any questions that they have about the topic on the right side of the paper and then share that part as a class (like they would for the “W” portion of the chart). At the end of the lesson, at the bottom of their paper, they write down a summary of the reading and any questions that they still have about the subject and then as a class they try and answer most of the questions. As a class, they then go through the facts that they had come up with at the beginning and see if they as a whole believe that these “facts” are still true. Many of the students that offered the “facts” at the beginning of the lesson correct their own statements before other students can.
Thursday, October 1, 2009
Basal vs Literacy Day
I’m not sure if my classes in elementary school used the Basal reading series, but the descriptions of what a Basal reading class would look like sounds a lot like what we did. We had a series of books with passages in them; we answered questions before the passage, then read the passage, and then answered questions after we read – which is pretty much what the Literature based Basal series is. While it got a bit repetitive, it seemed to work and get the point across to our class and it did enhance our comprehension skills. Now with the debate between which Basal program is better, the Literature or the Phonics, I think it’s a tie. Both teach skills that are necessary and I don’t think that you can place a higher value on either one. Students need to phonemic awareness in order to read and in order to truly comprehend what they are reading, but they also need the comprehension skills because without the ability to comprehend what you are reading, reading becomes pointless.
In the classroom that I am in right now, the teacher uses A LOT of reader and writers workshops. One of the reasons is that we have a lot of AIG students in the classroom and they are not always pulled out so we have a lot of different students that are reading and writing on different levels and she needs to be able to work with each group individually. One of the things that I really liked was the suggestion to do individual reading for about 20-30 minutes and then partner reading. When the students in my class are asked to do quite, independent reading, there are some students that do read but for the most part, the students just want to talk to their friends. If the students were asked to do partner reading, they get to read possibly two different books, talk with their friends, and still work on their reading skills. I also really like the idea of having a literacy day maybe once every other week or maybe once a month. I think the students would get a lot out of spending one day every now and then focusing on different reading and writing activities. However, if you were to do this, I feel that doing it in a school that uses the Basal program would not be the best idea. They use a very set structure for their reading program and veering away from it might confuse students that were used to using the Basal readers, regardless of whether it is the literature based or the phonemic based one. But I do hope that one day in my classroom we can have literacy day and that the students will enjoy it as much as I would have!!
In the classroom that I am in right now, the teacher uses A LOT of reader and writers workshops. One of the reasons is that we have a lot of AIG students in the classroom and they are not always pulled out so we have a lot of different students that are reading and writing on different levels and she needs to be able to work with each group individually. One of the things that I really liked was the suggestion to do individual reading for about 20-30 minutes and then partner reading. When the students in my class are asked to do quite, independent reading, there are some students that do read but for the most part, the students just want to talk to their friends. If the students were asked to do partner reading, they get to read possibly two different books, talk with their friends, and still work on their reading skills. I also really like the idea of having a literacy day maybe once every other week or maybe once a month. I think the students would get a lot out of spending one day every now and then focusing on different reading and writing activities. However, if you were to do this, I feel that doing it in a school that uses the Basal program would not be the best idea. They use a very set structure for their reading program and veering away from it might confuse students that were used to using the Basal readers, regardless of whether it is the literature based or the phonemic based one. But I do hope that one day in my classroom we can have literacy day and that the students will enjoy it as much as I would have!!
Teaching Peter
Teaching Peter was fascinating to me. You could not help but love him just from watching the video, regardless of his actions that were not always socially acceptable. While watching it, I tried to figure out how I felt about Peter being included in the classroom. I think that students with disabilities should be allowed to be included in a “normal” classroom, as long as the student’s behavior does not affect the other students in the classroom to the point of hindering their learning ability. Inclusion needs to benefit both the student with the disability and the students without disabilities. During the film, there were points in which I think both the students with out a disability and Peter were benefiting from the social interactions. The students seemed to really take a liking to Peter and became very protective of him. They also helped explain the class work and played with him during what appeared to be centers time or recess. However, there were also times in which I think having Peter in the classroom was harmful to the other students learning process. There were several times in which Peter had an outburst during class time and the students were distracted and the teacher eventually had to take time out of instruction to calm Peter down.
The teacher was remarkable, or at least from what I could see. She rarely got involved with Peter’s outbursts unless it seemed necessary. She allowed the students to work things out with Peter when there was a problem which built both the “normal” students and Peter’s social skills and abilities to deal with different situations. When Peter seemed out of control, the teacher dealt with the situation to the best of her ability and tried not to allow it to affect the students learning.
I think that inclusion is important for both the student with the disability and for the other students in the class. The students that do not have a disability learn to deal with different social situations and they can also learn the material by explaining the assignment and helping the student with the disability to complete the assignment. The student with the disability has the social interaction that they need and can learn how to interact with people that are different from them while getting an education. However, while I think that inclusion is very important, I do believe that there is a point at which inclusion becomes harmful to the other students in the classroom, and as a result, not beneficial to the student with the disability. If there is a student that disrupts the class so much that learning can not go on, the students in the class without the disability do not get what they need to get out of lessons. Additionally, if the teacher is spending more time disciplining the student with the disability, the student with the disability is not being taught. For those extreme cases I believe that inclusion is not the best idea for everyone involved. Peter was not an extreme case and I was really happy to see that having him in the classroom worked out in the long run for everyone involved!!
The teacher was remarkable, or at least from what I could see. She rarely got involved with Peter’s outbursts unless it seemed necessary. She allowed the students to work things out with Peter when there was a problem which built both the “normal” students and Peter’s social skills and abilities to deal with different situations. When Peter seemed out of control, the teacher dealt with the situation to the best of her ability and tried not to allow it to affect the students learning.
I think that inclusion is important for both the student with the disability and for the other students in the class. The students that do not have a disability learn to deal with different social situations and they can also learn the material by explaining the assignment and helping the student with the disability to complete the assignment. The student with the disability has the social interaction that they need and can learn how to interact with people that are different from them while getting an education. However, while I think that inclusion is very important, I do believe that there is a point at which inclusion becomes harmful to the other students in the classroom, and as a result, not beneficial to the student with the disability. If there is a student that disrupts the class so much that learning can not go on, the students in the class without the disability do not get what they need to get out of lessons. Additionally, if the teacher is spending more time disciplining the student with the disability, the student with the disability is not being taught. For those extreme cases I believe that inclusion is not the best idea for everyone involved. Peter was not an extreme case and I was really happy to see that having him in the classroom worked out in the long run for everyone involved!!
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