From the NEAToday
Monday, December 10, 2012
Inspiration
ORF distribution and Progress
One of our assignments for field was to perform an ORF on the student we were tutoring at field. I could not complete this since he was completing tests all morning and I was not allowed to take him out of class. We were told if we could not complete this to write about how we think our student has progressed.
My student started the year as a shy unmotivated and unfocused student. We did repeated timed readings every week to work on his fluency, and he enjoyed completing these activities "it's like I'm competing against myself" his exact words. The other part of reading that my student struggled with was making inferences and comprehension in general. We worked on multiple strategies for working on comprehension, and he frequently was required to complete these activities at home. At the beginning he did not complete them but once we found out a strategy that would help him remember he started completing them and based on the completed enrichment activities he was grasping the concepts and improving.
My student also had a lot of trouble with spelling and writing. His writing was clumped together, you could not make out any words and he had a lot of trouble with spelling, and when asked to sound them out he would usually just turn to me and ask again how to spell it. We worked on his sounding out skills, and before he started his journal entries we made goals that had to do with his writing. One of the main goals was for him and his teachers to be able to read his writing. He has made great progress towards this goal and has gotten into the habit of placing spaces between his words. Overall I believe my student made proficient progress in both reading and writing.
My student started the year as a shy unmotivated and unfocused student. We did repeated timed readings every week to work on his fluency, and he enjoyed completing these activities "it's like I'm competing against myself" his exact words. The other part of reading that my student struggled with was making inferences and comprehension in general. We worked on multiple strategies for working on comprehension, and he frequently was required to complete these activities at home. At the beginning he did not complete them but once we found out a strategy that would help him remember he started completing them and based on the completed enrichment activities he was grasping the concepts and improving.
My student also had a lot of trouble with spelling and writing. His writing was clumped together, you could not make out any words and he had a lot of trouble with spelling, and when asked to sound them out he would usually just turn to me and ask again how to spell it. We worked on his sounding out skills, and before he started his journal entries we made goals that had to do with his writing. One of the main goals was for him and his teachers to be able to read his writing. He has made great progress towards this goal and has gotten into the habit of placing spaces between his words. Overall I believe my student made proficient progress in both reading and writing.
Chapter 16: Professional Roles and Responsibilities
The above image is a mind map created using the site popplet.com.
I wanted to use another tool that does mind mapping because this site has a lot of excellent features for students. It is a collaborative mind map. If I gave the other people viewing this blog permission they could add as well. Unfortunately no one who is viewing this blog has a popplet account yet. Part of a professional teachers job. I believe, is finding new types of technology that will support their students' learning, and this is something I have just displayed.
Chapter 6: Instructional Resources
Basal Readers
Basal readers in my opinion are not the best resource to use when teaching literacy. In most of the placements I have been in they have used basal readers. Most of the time when I was to teach a lesson however both cooperating teachers that used it encouraged me to pick a section and make my own lesson based off of the skill, they wanted the students to be introduced to a different routine so it wasn't the same thing. From this experience I can say that the students responded positively, they loved doing something that wasn't in the basal reader. From class discussion I took notes about the advantages and disadvantages of using a basal reader. After completing two field placements with basal readers being used I have observed that teachers would lean more on the negative side of the scale.
The chapter in the book discusses using online resources for teaching writing and reading skills. I am a huge supporter of this idea! One such online tool that I have used before for teaching literacy are e- books, they are great for students because they are easily accessible and the students can go back to the site anytime to read the book again or a different book if they want. To help students work on writing the teacher could have students create their own blog so that the teacher can interact and provide feedback as well as fellow peers.
The chapter in the book discusses using online resources for teaching writing and reading skills. I am a huge supporter of this idea! One such online tool that I have used before for teaching literacy are e- books, they are great for students because they are easily accessible and the students can go back to the site anytime to read the book again or a different book if they want. To help students work on writing the teacher could have students create their own blog so that the teacher can interact and provide feedback as well as fellow peers.
Chapter 5: Instructional Environment/ Context
Part of this chapter puts an emphasis on teachers figuring out what their beliefs are when it comes to learning and teaching. To model this I am posting my mission statement for my future classroom that I created my sophmore year in SED272.
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Mission
Statement
I
believe that the classroom should be a safe and secure environment in which my
job is to support the moral, emotional, physical, and intellectual development
of each student. To this end I will create opportunities for the students to
experience and apply respect, responsibility, and leadership.
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During class we brainstormed context/ environment in which we prefered to study and learn. Below is a floorplan of a classroom I created during my sophmore year of college. Using the program skitch.com I added notes about things I would change looking at my design today, and I listed some of the things we brainstormed during class about my personal beliefs about the instructional setting.
In the future when I am teaching I must remember this list about my learning environment since it will have an influence on my students' learning.
Election Time!
It is clear after looking at these two platforms that education has a better future with Obama. As the image above states Obama wants to invest more in education while Romney's plan could end up cutting $2.7 billion from programs for low income students and special education up to $2.2 billion. Romney's plan does not make it necessary for schools to take action when students are struggling. This is important when it comes to what we are studying in this class because Romney's plan doesn't require that students who might be struggling in reading writing or math receive the help they need to catch up and the students will just fall further behind, and their motivation to take part in learning will decrease until they get to high school and decide to drop out. Obama's plan motivates teachers to do the best job they can to give the support to their students when they need it. Another issue that relates to our SED342 class is Mitt Romney's plan for the cutting of funding to special education. This is very concerning because we need that funding to give students all the supports they need to succeed. I was disappointed in most of the debates where both candidates are at fault of skating over our education issue. I at least expected Obama to touch on it. But there was nothing. This makes me feel like they don't care as much about education as everything else. I know that other things are important but if our education system doesn't improve how do they expect our society to improve? I am voting for the candidate I feel will put us on track to a better education system.Who will you vote for?
Chapter 4
Complete this "adventure" for chapter 4:
1. All of the following are guidelines for assessment except:
a. Be systematic
b. Match assessment to purpose and to instruction
c. Assess continuously
d. Involve parents in the grading process
2. One of the main reasons for completing assessments is to:
a. simply get get a grade for a student
b. figure out a student's weaknesses only
c. promote reflection and self assessment
d. figure out where the student should be placed in the classroom
3. How often should assessment occur?
a. once a month
b. it should be ongoing
c. once a week
d. at the end of each unit.
4. All of these might be included in a diagnostic portfolio except:
a. work samples
b. miscue analysis
c. a list of student allergies
d. observations of reading and writing behaviors
5. What is the most effective way a teacher can share a portfolio?
a. give it to the students' parents
b. hold a conference with each student to explain and discuss certain artifacts
c. simply give the portfolio to the student
d. portfolios should not be given to students they are for the teachers use only.
6. When conducting a parent teacher conference the following are guidelines except:
a. meet in a private and confidential setting
b. use jargon
c. Clarify the purpose of the meeting
d. Be tactful
7. What is the most neglected source of information regarding a student's performance?
a. their parents
b. the student
c. specialists that work with the student
d. observations made during class
8. What is a diagnostic portfolio?
a. organized and intentional collections of data
b. it helps diagnose a student with a disability
c. it determines the placement of a student
d. it diagnoses a student with a medical condition
9. What guideline means making sure the assessment is relatable and relevant?
a. assess meaningful activities in appropriate contexts
b. be systematic
c. match assessment to purpose and instruction
d. assess continuously
10. What part of the assessment- instruction process model does this chapter cover?
a. getting started with assessment
b. Reflection, decision making, and planning
c. evaluating the context
d. both a and c
Answer key: 1.d, 2.c, 3. b, 4.c, 5.b, 6.b, 7.b, 8.a, 9.c, 10.d
Some information was taken from the article: Diagnostic- reflective Portfolios by Ann Courtney and Theresa Abodeeb and can be found in the Academic Search premier database.
Pictures retrieved from google image database
I decided to create my own "adventure" for this chapter to show what I learned from the chapter by picking out questions that might be included on an actual "adventure." Since the theme for this chapter was assessment I decided that creating an assessment for this chapter would be the best way to represent it. The reason I am calling this an adventure instead of a quiz is because Professor Wile always told me that students are less likely to panic if the word quiz, assessment, or test are not used. He always labeled his assessments as adventures and from personal experience I can say that this did actually relieve some of the stress. It's amazing what one simple word can do.
1. All of the following are guidelines for assessment except:
a. Be systematic
b. Match assessment to purpose and to instruction
c. Assess continuously
d. Involve parents in the grading process
2. One of the main reasons for completing assessments is to:
a. simply get get a grade for a student
b. figure out a student's weaknesses only
c. promote reflection and self assessment
d. figure out where the student should be placed in the classroom
3. How often should assessment occur?
a. once a month
b. it should be ongoing
c. once a week
d. at the end of each unit.
4. All of these might be included in a diagnostic portfolio except:
a. work samples
b. miscue analysis
c. a list of student allergies
d. observations of reading and writing behaviors
5. What is the most effective way a teacher can share a portfolio?
a. give it to the students' parents
b. hold a conference with each student to explain and discuss certain artifacts
c. simply give the portfolio to the student
d. portfolios should not be given to students they are for the teachers use only.
6. When conducting a parent teacher conference the following are guidelines except:
a. meet in a private and confidential setting
b. use jargon
c. Clarify the purpose of the meeting
d. Be tactful
7. What is the most neglected source of information regarding a student's performance?
a. their parents
b. the student
c. specialists that work with the student
d. observations made during class
8. What is a diagnostic portfolio?
a. organized and intentional collections of data
b. it helps diagnose a student with a disability
c. it determines the placement of a student
d. it diagnoses a student with a medical condition
9. What guideline means making sure the assessment is relatable and relevant?
a. assess meaningful activities in appropriate contexts
b. be systematic
c. match assessment to purpose and instruction
d. assess continuously
10. What part of the assessment- instruction process model does this chapter cover?
a. getting started with assessment
b. Reflection, decision making, and planning
c. evaluating the context
d. both a and c
Answer key: 1.d, 2.c, 3. b, 4.c, 5.b, 6.b, 7.b, 8.a, 9.c, 10.d
Pictures retrieved from google image database
I decided to create my own "adventure" for this chapter to show what I learned from the chapter by picking out questions that might be included on an actual "adventure." Since the theme for this chapter was assessment I decided that creating an assessment for this chapter would be the best way to represent it. The reason I am calling this an adventure instead of a quiz is because Professor Wile always told me that students are less likely to panic if the word quiz, assessment, or test are not used. He always labeled his assessments as adventures and from personal experience I can say that this did actually relieve some of the stress. It's amazing what one simple word can do.
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