Module 8 - Video

Reading Recovery Video
       This video focused on the Reading Recovery program. It is a short-term program that is low cost and designed to produce outstanding results that last a long time. I agree that without early intervention, students can face a future of school failure and discouragement. It is difficult when I have a student in fourth grade who cannot read because their confidence levels are extremely low and they are close to hating reading and school. As an intermediate grade teacher, I allow my students to choose books they want to read and then I work with them to strengthen their weaknesses. Reading Recovery is a program where a student works one-on-one with and a highly trained teacher. The lessons only last for approximately 30 minutes, which surprised me. However, after a full series of lessons (12 – 24 weeks), children can achieve grade level and leave the program. The training for teachers includes weekly classes where they study with other reading researchers and trainers. Additionally, teachers can teach and observe lessons with students who already participate in the Reading Recovery program. I was really interested in the “behind the glass” observations. It was like an interrogation room because the mirror was actually a one-way window where teachers/trainers would sit on one side and observe the lesson being taught on the other side. This is a great way to observe a lesson and the child can be more at ease. I always find my students become tense and sometimes silly when we have “guests” in our room.  Overall, this program pushes their trainers to think about theory and practice. This program sounds successful for both students, parents of the students, and teachers.

Module 8 - PowerPoint

Factors Involved in Reading and Writing Difficulties PowerPoint
       I thought the very first bullet which stated “Elements of success include effort, drive, health, self-esteem, and parental support” is very true. A child’s success relies on all of those components especially when they are in elementary school. A lot of my students this year have a low self-esteem and/or confidence level, so I am making sure I build up those confidence levels by making them justify their answers and using positive discipline. I feel that it is important for the students to choose a topic they are interested in for their reading books because if they are not interested in the book that you give them, they oftentimes never finish it. The most common difficulties within our students relate to the cognitive, linguistic, psychological, social-emotional, physical and educational areas. Cognitive factors deal with students who have difficulties with retaining information and paying attention. I feel that a large amount of students struggle with this difficulty. Visual processing deficits relate to students who reverse the letters which is actually common in the pre-primer grades when the students are first developing their letters. Language factors correlate to articulation/speech and word-finding problems. A child who struggles with word-finding difficulties will also probably struggle with word recognition and comprehension. Social-emotional deficits affect students’ fight or flight mode and self-efficacy. Parental pressure also has a major impact in a child’s social-emotional area. It is important for parent to be involved with their child’s studies while remembering to not be overbearing. Parents need to remember to set positive role model behaviors for their children and provide a rich-learning environment at home. It is also important for teachers to provide a safe, stable, and inviting learning environment at school where she promotes independence and give student choices whenever possible. Physical causes such as neurological factors, hearing impairments, and vision impairments can also cause children to have difficulties with their academics. I think that it is great that my school requires every first and fourth grader to pass vision and hearing tests. Overall, as teachers, we should support all of our students and inspire them to become life-long learners who enjoy learning new knowledge and accepting challenges. Teachers must effectively instruct their students throughout the entire school day. Also, parents should read to their children or with their children while they are young. Finally, I agree that children should be verbally stimulated throughout the day with rich conversations, explanations, and interactions that will build their language and vocabulary.

Module 7 - Video

Analysis of a Video: Robert Slavin - Scaling Up Success for All
            Success for All is a package of professional development programs for mostly high poverty and Title 1 elementary schools. There is a facilitator located in the school that assists teachers with teaching skills. There is also a solutions team that deals with all of the problems outside of school and integrates with other sources in the community. I agree that you cannot solve just one problem in an education system because everything is interconnected. Success for All is located in 1,000 schools in approximately 47 states. I was surprised how he skipped over the slide on the “research behind Success for All”. I wonder why he did that. I feel that it is important to understand what type of research this program has completed thus far. I like the idea that there is a strong emphasis on coaching within the elementary school. I believe there should be plenty of professional development options, especially since education is continually changing and adding new topics or materials.

Module 7 - PowerPoints

Perspectives for Tutoring PowerPoint
            I agree that it is vital that we attain students’ opinions/views of their reading/writing when assessing them. It helps me understand a child better if I know their opinion on how they feel they are progressing with the different subjects. I love to converse with my students to gain an understanding about their abilities along with their dislikes/likes. I try my hardest to know my students personally since I am with them for 8 hours a day. I love getting to know my students and their families. I take time out of my weekends to visit my students during their extra-curricular activities and show my support for them both academically and socially. I socialize with the parents during the students’ extra-curricular activities which gives me additional insight into my students’ behaviors and overall interests. My students chose/read books that interest them and are on their independent/instructional levels. Reading something they are interested in helps them become stronger readers.

Comprehension Strategies PowerPoint

            I found it interesting that the three common causes for lower reading comprehension is unfamiliarity with the text features/demands, undeveloped attention strategies, and inadequate cognitive development/reading experiences. Many of my students have a wonderful oral reading rate and show great fluency. However, they struggle when they are tested on overall comprehension. Throughout this class I have come to the realization that “comprehension is the reason for reading” and I added more emphasis on this skill in my classroom. My students know that they should read as much as possible and to always read with a purpose so they can make connections with the text and build their schema. I use the “think aloud” strategy when I read any texts to my students to demonstrate the skills necessary to become a great reader. My students use sticky notes and their reading journals to record their thoughts, new ideas, questions, summaries, connections, etc. I pull small groups according to the students’ weaknesses and strengths in order to strengthen their reading skills (i.e., predicting, inferring, synthesizing, evaluating, etc.). I believe writing about their reading helps students think through difficult parts in the text and become stronger readers.

9 Best Practices PowerPoint

            Whenever I introduce a new topic, I always determine my students’ schema and background knowledge of that topic. I then can model and scaffold my students’ learning to best fit their needs. I often have my students take notes or summarize their readings. I agree that this task promotes greater comprehension because they have to write about what they’re reading in their own words and therefore, they are seeing it for a second time. In fourth grade, we take notes in our journals and use two-column notes, outlines, and an abundant amount of graphic organizers or flipbooks. I agree in providing effective praise as well as constant feedback to my students because they look forward to the personalized comments. Effective praise and personalized comments build students’ confidence levels and students in return will be more tenacious and dedicated to the tasks at hand. I like the slide about assigning homework and practicing skills because I believe students need to review notes and extend their learning outside of the classroom; however, I really enjoyed when it stated, “parent involvement should include facilitating the process but not solving problems for their children” (slide 28). I still find parents completing homework for their children in fourth grade and it is aggravating when the students “understand it at home” but then “crash and burn in class”. I stress that the importance of homework is to practice the skills they learn at school and to become more efficient and effective with these strategies and topics. Overall, I use several of these strategies because my main goal as an educator is to increase student achievement and success.

Module 6 - Videos

Why I Flipped My Classroom Video

            I really enjoyed watching this video because our local middle school is a pilot school for the “flipped classrooms”. In fact, one of my team members is currently taking a class on flipping her classroom. I found the research and videos to be very interesting because I oftentimes feel like I am teaching to the middle of class. I do get nervous that students will not watch the videos for homework. However, the teacher said that she allows students to watch videos on the computer during morning or lunch time in order to catch up. I think this is a great idea because we could really use our time wisely to differentiate and meet the needs of all students. I always say that I could teach math centers all day because I need to first model/scaffold my students for a good thirty minutes on a lesson before I have them work individually while I pull small groups and extend or remediate as required. I cannot wait to hear more about my co-worker’s experience or the middle school students’ experiences with the flipped classrooms. I would be interested in the idea of flipping a classroom for all subject areas and how it would work in subjects like reading and/or writing.

Using Assessment to Improve Instruction

            This video was created by an educator who wanted to share his ideas about using assessments to improve instructions and to dispute another educator. I agree that some assessments (i.e., CRCT) can take away from instruction time. A woman name Pat Cross, once called assessment the “zipper between teaching and learning” which makes sense because we teach students then assess their knowledge on that learning. Great assessments really cannot be separated from great instructions. I agree that an assessment is “an act of observing, attempting to understand and provide feedback on the ways the students are grasping, integrating and applying the material/concepts they are learning in the classrooms.” I tend to use students’ work like their journals as a source for assessments because it is authentic. Also, I understand that assessments can take a great deal of time, but it is worthwhile to be able to gauge how much the students grow throughout the school year. I believe that learning does matter!

Module 6 - PowerPoints

Reading Strategies PowerPoint

            This PowerPoint included reading strategies that I will be using from now on! I already utilize a majority of these strategies such as the think alouds during my reading/writing lessons as well as the KWL charts throughout my science and social studies lessons. Additionally, I have my students complete anticipation guides or textbook activity guides during social studies and science lessons. I always want to build on my students’ prior knowledge so they have a strong foundation to support the new knowledge. I use the 3-2-1 strategy in the form of a pyramid or column notes when my students watch an educational video. Although I rarely use RAFTs, I customarily use them during social studies where my students accept a role as a historian or the person we are currently study. I love using graphic organizers, especially spider webs/maps because the majority of my students are visual learners. We often use Kidspiration where the students build their own maps using the computer software. Also, I built my very first word wall this year because of all the readings in this class. This PowerPoint had some great pointers that I will include within my word wall this year and years to follow. I agree that the word wall should be in an obvious spot where the students can easily see it. My students often go up to our word wall throughout the school day. I include vocabulary from all academic areas on this word wall. I make up the word on Microsoft Word and try to include a picture whenever applicable. The only problem I have run into is that I am already running out of room under common letters. I wish I had a much bigger wall! I like the idea of guessing the word which would help build identification of the word and students would also practice the spelling of the words. I think I will use WORDO before the CRCT this year and I will call out the definition instead of the word itself to make it more challenging. Overall, this was a great PowerPoint to refresh my memory about all the wonderful reading strategies that are available. I agree that an effective teacher should teach and model the strategy and then supervise the children so that all students can succeed with the specific strategy.

Differentiated Instruction Goals PowerPoint

            This auditory PowerPoint discussed differentiated instruction goals for a teacher. I agree that differentiated instructions help meet the learning needs of all students. I continuously engage my students in all curriculum areas. I believe it is important for all students to be engaged throughout their school day. I let the students choose their individual reading book because I feel that it is important for the students to be interested in the topic and feel a sense of ownership. I engage my students by designing opportunities that enhance their creativity and challenge their individual needs. I provide appropriate scaffolding throughout my lessons so I can watch my students prosper. I make sure that I provide opportunities for students to work in varied instructional formats. Currently, my students are working on writing a fictional story in my classroom. Yet, in the computer lab, they are currently working on their own podcasts. In conclusion, I agree that one major goal for differentiated instruction is to establish learner-responsive, teacher-facilitated classrooms.

Considerations for Assessment PowerPoint

            This PowerPoint was very helpful because it offered information on assessments that I am not familiar with. I have never been a fan of standardized assessments because I tend to “psyche” myself out and end up making lower test scores than I ever thought possible. I am not familiar with intelligence tests nor have I ever seen the results for anybody’s test. However, I would tend to agree that low test scores cause students to have low expectations. I believe in self-fulfilling prophecies such as where a student believes they are a horrible mathematician and eventually it comes true because that is what they are always thinking about and believing. However, one can have a positive self-fulfilling prophecy (e.g., a student believes that they are the best speller ever and that child will strive to be the best speller he/she can be). I also have never heard of the Wechsler Scales. It seems like poor readers do not score well on the arithmetic, digit span, information, and coding assessments. However, they receive higher scores on non-verbal and visual aspects. I feel that these assessments are used for testing students who are labeled as “struggling students”. Some of these assessments sound similar to the ones that I hear about during my RTI or IEP meetings. I think I would better understand these assessments if I was able to see an example of the questions.

Module 5 - Video & Readings

Rubric Video
       I often use rubrics throughout my entire curriculum. I use a rubric for their interactive journals and the students also grade themselves before turning in their interactive science or social studies notebooks. I feel that it is important that the students understand how I am grading them. Also, I feel rubrics help students see what they need to strive for as well as what they can achieve.  I like that the author used the chocolate chip cookie as an example. I agree that as humans, we are constantly judging events and objects around us.  I never thought of using percentages because as an elementary school teacher, I have always used points since my students do not turn in huge assignments that are weighted differently than other assignments. This school year, my team and I collaborated and developed a rubric for our three topics in writing which was very helpful when I went to grade my students’ narratives last week. I felt like I could use it with every student since they knew the requirements beforehand. This rubric also allowed for teacher comments so I could annotate areas of improvement as well as their major strengths.
 
Chapter 13 - #2 on pg. 335: Some teachers in your school system feel that elementary-grade children are too immature to learn study skill techniques. How would you convince these teachers that this is not so?
       My school is actually going through this scenario currently since we are establishing an after-school enrichment program that focuses on students improving their study skills and organizational skills. We first had to convince the other staff members since there were only 5 teachers (including myself) that felt there was a need for our students to be offered some sort of study skills program. We just held our first study skills workshop where we partnered with Huntington Learning Center. It went well and we had a great turn out. I think teachers are starting to get on board with this program because they are seeing how it is positively impacting their students’ overall grades and confidence levels. However, we are only offering this program to intermediate students (fourth and fifth graders) due to how crucial note-taking is in those two grades. We are taking teacher requests first then parental requests for this program. Our hope is that teachers, parents, and students will see a positive change in their study and organizational skills.