Module 2 Summary

Goals for Differentiated Instruction Video

     This video 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 my students choose their individual reading book because I feel that it is important for the students to be interested in the topic as well as feel a sense of ownership. I also 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. Additionally, I provide flexible approaches to content instruction and products. This allows the students to work in varied instructional formats. In conclusion, I agree that one major goal for differentiated instruction is to establish learner-responsive, teacher-facilitated classrooms.

The story of Differentiation by Tomlinson Video

     This interview was interesting to watch and listen to and I was hooked in when she discussed her first teaching experience when she had half of students above level and the other half below four grade levels. I think some teachers tend to teach to the middle because it is the easiest. However, we are not serving justice to our students. This is very common in schools. As teachers, we always want our students to work together and excel within the curriculum as well as everyday life. I agree with Tomlinson that we need to use flexible grouping throughout our school year. I use it in math and language arts because students’ knowledge changes almost daily. My students enjoy having different centers or homework in mathematics. Yet, they also love reading their own books at their level. I often remind the students that doctors wouldn’t give a Band-Aid to a person with a sprained ankle or broken arm…only the one with a cut would receive a Band-Aid. This analogy helps the students see that they all learn at different levels and speeds.

Learning Theories PPT

     This PowerPoint discusses the various learning theories. I agree that we need to pay attention to students’ learning styles and teach our lessons with that in mind. I also like the slide about what life really is because I agree that it is creative, abundant, full of surprise, and diverse. My students and I often talk about how boring it would be if we were all the same and acted the same. Students need to learn though discovery and a problem solving curriculum. This helps them become engaged in their learning as well as responsible for new knowledge. They should have technology to utilize while learning new skills or practicing old skills. I like how this PowerPoint encouraged us to “stop reinforcing a curriculum that’s a mile wide and an inch deep” because Common Core has challenged us to change it to a curriculum that is an inch wide and mile deep. We have shifted to a more critical thinking and problem solving curriculum where the students have to develop higher order thinking skills at a much younger age than what we expected prior. I am excited to see how the Common Core changes the ways teachers teach and students learn.

Planning Strategic Reading Lessons PPT

     This PowerPoint provided vast knowledge regarding the definition of strategic reading lessons and how to develop them. Strategic reading is a teacher-directed instruction approach that allows for students to be grouped together based on which strategy they need to review. We utilize strategy groups at my school during reading workshop which is a great way to have students review the basic reading strategies (i.e., comprehension, inferring, fluency, comparing and contrasting, etc.). However, I try to use the students’ texts so they become more interested in the lessons and groups. I personally have never used the format that was discussed on this PowerPoint although I do use parts of it. I always plan with the end in mind so that students know the purpose for reading. I have seen my students’ attitudes increase positively towards reading and thinking critically. They also gain knowledge of other books that they might not have thought of prior to the group.

Literacy Content Reading & Scaffolding PPT

     This PowerPoint identified ways to use content area reading materials to support reading comprehension along with listing materials and resources available for us to accomplish this. I find it easier to integrate all academic areas with each other. I am currently teaching science and social studies via my reading and writing workshop. We are learning how to take notes on the science and social studies curriculum and read nonfiction text. It is important to scaffold students throughout all academic areas so they can become successful. I agree that all students need scaffolding before, during, and after reading. Once you incorporate this method, you will learn which students need more or less scaffolding. It is important that the teacher prepares his/her materials and identifies vocabulary, text structures, and prior knowledge before the students dive into the text. I try to gain my students interest and motivate them to read about our curriculum by showing them video clips or reading a fun read aloud book. I really enjoyed the charts on slides 15 – 16 showing the pattern differences that we can teach using science, social studies, math, and literature materials. All of these literacy skills (i.e., identifying main idea, locating facts and specific details, organizing material mentally, vocabulary comprehension, summarizing, etc.) are vital to have because they will them throughout their lifetime at school and into their adulthood out in the business world.

Module 1 for EDRD 7718

Reading Strategies for Struggling Readers Video
Reading is the pinnacle for all academics. Not having the foundation for reading detrimentally affects students. Phonological awareness is only taught in primary grades but I agree that it should be taught throughout all grade levels. Phonics seems to be difficult because English incorporates over 40 sounds. I like the idea of saying nonsense words like during a game of “war”. In fourth grade, I tend to focus on the fluency of reading so the students can read accurately and quickly. I like the idea of reading the same piece three times in a row to build a child’s fluency – building their confidence and fluency levels. I also focus on building vocabulary. In fourth grade, I teach students to use context clues but oftentimes we have to use a Frayer model (definition, synonym, part of speech, sentence, and picture) to learn a new word. This helps the students learn the new word and gain more knowledge about this word. I loved the idea of using an ice cream sundae as an example of a main idea and its supporting details. I always use box and bullets but appreciate the use of graphic organizers for my students who are lower leveled readers.

Trip to Hawaii Videos
I really enjoyed this assignment because I have only been to Hawaii once and would love to go back, especially since I had to scrape ice off my car this morning! This reminds me that I should always hook my students into my entire lesson – I often use simulations or grabbers in an effort to get them involved. I agree that graphic organizers should be used because they can help maximize students’ exposure, knowledge, and organization. I use them a great deal with my students who struggle with reading or writing or cannot organize their thoughts individually. However, I use foldables and other organizers daily in all subjects. Many students are now visual learners due to the technology they are continuously interacting with, and graphic organizers help students “see” the picture. Since I am a fourth grade teacher, I have often allowed my students to create their own graphic organizers either on paper or the computer. They need to take ownership of their graphic organizers because this helps them complete them and actually use them throughout the lessons. I agree that we constantly are working on improving their cause and effect skills in fourth grade. This video was a great review of the different graphic organizers in grades K – 5 and how they build upon each other as students become older.

Expository Texts – Understanding Text Organization PowerPoint
I believe it is important to teach organization with all texts because this sets the students up for improving their comprehension for both fiction and expository stories. I believe that most people remember more information if they make notes while reading. It is important to teach students how to compare and contrast. This is a skill we are currently working on in fourth grade because my students can talk/write about their differences but have a difficult time seeing the similarities between ideas, which surprised me. I like the idea of telling them about the “signal words” and will introduce this concept to them next week. As I mentioned in the trip to Hawaii summary, I really love having the students involved in making and completing their own graphic organizers (they love to decorate them to their liking).

Expository Text Structures - Lewis and Clark, Website/Reading
The PowerPoint began by comparing expository and narrative texts and I believe most students understand the difference between the two styles. I do agree that boys prefer non-fiction based on the fact that I always have four to six boys that I cannot get to read a fictional book but they love reading the non-fiction books. This was an interesting PowerPoint since “Expanding West with Lewis and Clark” is a fourth grade standard. It is always challenging to have fun with this topic because it is at the end of our school year. I liked the idea of sequencing events with a timeline – my students in the past have used a computer program to create a timeline for their biography project. This helps students see the big picture in chronological order. I have never used the Problem and Solution graphic organizer but like the idea of the flow, and believe that we could use it when we start talking about the American Revolutionary War in a few weeks! I think it is difficult to find primary sources for our students to be exposed to but this is an important standard in fourth grade because they must know the difference between primary and secondary sources and then be able to compare the sources. Finally, I really enjoyed reviewing the SQ3R since I am tutor for studying skills and just printed off slides 45 and 46 to use with my students. It is important to get the students involved in their reading and finding out information about the topics instead of the teachers always being in the front of the classroom.

Fry Readability
I chose to examine the reading level for Number the Stars since I just finished it for another class and did not have any of my fourth grade teacher edition books at home this weekend. For the 100 word passage, there were almost 6 total sentences. The average amount of syllables per 100 words was approximately 130. This indicates that the book is in the fourth grade section on the Fry Readability Graph. This was a difficult task to complete and would not like to do this for every book I had read – very thankful for DRA and AR levels.

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!