One trend I noticed across the group was that all of us have expanded our view of what literacy is. In my new literacy post I said “While learning about all of these new literacy’s, I have gained a much broader understanding of literacy. Literacy has so many components and it is unfair to confine it to the traditional definition of “reading and writing”. I think that it is so important for students to be exposed to these new forms of literacy.” Maggie posted “I found all of the links extremely interesting and they sent me to things I’ve never seen before and showed me different perspectives.” and Emily wrote “Regarding emotional literacy, one thing that I didn’t consider before working on this project was the special consideration that girls are given over boys when dealing with emotion.”. I noticed that throughout our blog, the same ideas resonated; we all felt that we had learned valuable things about new literacies and we could not wait to apply this knowledge to our own classrooms some day.
One disagreement that we had was over the appropriate age to be using technology in the classroom. In my new literacy post, I wrote “Students will go through the book and scan the illustrations that are expressing the character’s emotions. Students will compile the images in a PowerPoint presentation.” However, Maggie thought that this type of project might be a little ambitious for my students considering their age level. She commented “Even though I'm sure our younger students spend lots of time on their computers and are familiar with various technologies - I think that their knowledge is still limited…I feel that showing our younger students the different technologies and literacies through those is beneficial, but it would take a lot of work to get through something technological without the help and constant guidance of someone older.” We both agree that it is very important for young students to be exposed to new technologies, but we have different ideas about when this new technology should be implemented in the classroom.
All of the group members agreed that race is an important aspect of any classroom and that consequently it is not something that should be ignored. I posted “I know that I should not ignore race, but at the same time I struggle with how to address it. Due to my limited background, I sometimes have a hard time finding connections with students of different backgrounds…I think that even though I struggle with how to connect with my students of different races, as long as I show them that I value them and their experiences and that I appreciate them as human beings, then I will be able to connect with them.” On the same post, Maggie said “Even in a classroom, in a small, white town with have differences among students. All people have different experiences and are from different backgrounds; therefore, teachers should never assume certain things about their students based on things like race.” Emily commented “it is extremely important for teachers to not only see color, but to embrace it. By “not seeing” race, teachers basically claim that all children are the same when the fact of the matter is, students are different and therefore have different needs. These needs need to be addressed and accommodated for if the student is going to learn and grow in a supportive learning environment”. I think that this was a topic that really resonated with each of us. All of the group members agreed that race is something not to be ignored in the classroom.
I personally feel that my group members have really contributed to my learning this semester. They often brought up different ideas and perspectives that I had not considered. In one of my posts I said that I sometimes struggled while working with diverse students because I had practically no exposure to any sort of diversity while I was growing up. However, Maggie reminded me that just because I grew up in an almost all white school, this does not mean that I don’t have any experience working with diverse individuals. She commented “Even in a classroom, in a small, white town with have differences among students. All people have different experiences and are from different backgrounds”. This comment really helped me to see that I don't have to come from a racially diverse backgroud to know about diversity. We spent most of our blog posts affirming what each other had written. I think that we really could have stretched each other’s thinking if we would have challenged/disagreed with more of each other’s ideas. I think we were probably a little afraid of offending each other, so we shied away from challenging each other or disagreeing with each other. However, I think we could have shared a lot more ideas and heard many more opinions if we hadn’t been so afraid to hurt someone else’s feelings.
I think that I should be given 9.5 points out of 10 for the noteblog. Even though I didn’t challenge ideas as much as I could have, I still think I contributed positively to the group. I always read what my group members and gave insightful comments about their posts. I also feel that I did my best to write really good initial posts so that the rest of the group would have a lot to go off of and so that no one would struggle to come up with any comments. Ideally, I should have challenge more ideas than I did, but overall I feel like I did a pretty good job on the noteblog.
Sunday, April 24, 2011
Sunday, April 17, 2011
Letter
Dear Parents,
I am writing to you to inform you of Jose's progress with reading and writing thus far and hope that we can all work together with him to advance his progress even further throughout the year to insure that he is successful. Also, in general, he is a quiet and shy boy so we need to do what we can to help him feel comfortable in the classroom and comfortable with reading and writing. We need to positively motivate him so that he is not afraid to make mistakes. That's when learning happens - after we've made mistakes!
I have completed a series of assessments with all of the students and Jose has shown that he is struggling. During a reading assessment, I gave him a simple book to read to me. As I listened to him read, I kept track of the words he was reading correctly and the ones that he misread. At first, it was difficult to get him to start reading and when he finally did, he was very quiet and hesitant. Nevertheless, we got through it. Through this assessment I saw that he was able to recognize many high-frequency words, but when he got to unfamiliar words he would stop reading and would say, "I don't know what that word is." He did not try to figure out what it may be and then I encouraged him to keep reading. I believe that Jose needs a lot of help and I will do this by spending time with him with guided reading. This is when I work with a small group of students who are at the same reading level. This small group is comforting for students. I choose a book that they are interested in and one that I know that they will able to read with 90% accuracy. Then I introduce the book to them and we all look at the cover, title, and author. Then I activate the student's background knowledge by going over key vocabulary. I also take them through a picture walk of the book. This is when we look at the illustrations, discuss what we see and make predictions about the story. Finally, I will review with them a few reading strategies that I will encourage them to use while they read. Finally, the students each get a copy of the book and read it independently. If the students are having trouble, then I can help them individually. For example, since Jose has trouble decoding unfamiliar words, I will ask him to look at the individual letters and tell me what sounds they make. Then he can take those sounds and put them all together to try and figure out what the word may be. For example, with the word "red", Jose can sound out each individual letter, r-e-d, and then make all the sounds flow together to figure out that the word on the page is "red". I would encourage you to do the same with him at home so that he has the opportunity to practice more in the comfortable setting of your home. I will send a few books home with him that you can work on together.
When it comes to writing, Jose is also very hesitant and usually only ends up writing his name. After various lessons, I have the students draw a picture that relates to the lesson and then I ask them to write a few words to explain their picture. To help Jose, I will use a "language experience approach". At first, I will do this in small groups to build up his comfort level and then we will transition to do this with the entire class. I will ask Jose to dictate words and sentences about an experience that relates to the lesson and I will write it down. By doing this I will model how written language works by bringing his attention to punctuation, capitalization, etc. But first I will model to him how I can help myself figure out how a word may be spelled by sounding out each letter that I hear as I say it out loud. Then I will ask him to continue writing using that strategy.
I hope that with our guidance and encouragement Jose will become more comfortable with reading and writing and be very successful. If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to ask.
Best,
Magdalena Kopacz
I am writing to you to inform you of Jose's progress with reading and writing thus far and hope that we can all work together with him to advance his progress even further throughout the year to insure that he is successful. Also, in general, he is a quiet and shy boy so we need to do what we can to help him feel comfortable in the classroom and comfortable with reading and writing. We need to positively motivate him so that he is not afraid to make mistakes. That's when learning happens - after we've made mistakes!
I have completed a series of assessments with all of the students and Jose has shown that he is struggling. During a reading assessment, I gave him a simple book to read to me. As I listened to him read, I kept track of the words he was reading correctly and the ones that he misread. At first, it was difficult to get him to start reading and when he finally did, he was very quiet and hesitant. Nevertheless, we got through it. Through this assessment I saw that he was able to recognize many high-frequency words, but when he got to unfamiliar words he would stop reading and would say, "I don't know what that word is." He did not try to figure out what it may be and then I encouraged him to keep reading. I believe that Jose needs a lot of help and I will do this by spending time with him with guided reading. This is when I work with a small group of students who are at the same reading level. This small group is comforting for students. I choose a book that they are interested in and one that I know that they will able to read with 90% accuracy. Then I introduce the book to them and we all look at the cover, title, and author. Then I activate the student's background knowledge by going over key vocabulary. I also take them through a picture walk of the book. This is when we look at the illustrations, discuss what we see and make predictions about the story. Finally, I will review with them a few reading strategies that I will encourage them to use while they read. Finally, the students each get a copy of the book and read it independently. If the students are having trouble, then I can help them individually. For example, since Jose has trouble decoding unfamiliar words, I will ask him to look at the individual letters and tell me what sounds they make. Then he can take those sounds and put them all together to try and figure out what the word may be. For example, with the word "red", Jose can sound out each individual letter, r-e-d, and then make all the sounds flow together to figure out that the word on the page is "red". I would encourage you to do the same with him at home so that he has the opportunity to practice more in the comfortable setting of your home. I will send a few books home with him that you can work on together.
When it comes to writing, Jose is also very hesitant and usually only ends up writing his name. After various lessons, I have the students draw a picture that relates to the lesson and then I ask them to write a few words to explain their picture. To help Jose, I will use a "language experience approach". At first, I will do this in small groups to build up his comfort level and then we will transition to do this with the entire class. I will ask Jose to dictate words and sentences about an experience that relates to the lesson and I will write it down. By doing this I will model how written language works by bringing his attention to punctuation, capitalization, etc. But first I will model to him how I can help myself figure out how a word may be spelled by sounding out each letter that I hear as I say it out loud. Then I will ask him to continue writing using that strategy.
I hope that with our guidance and encouragement Jose will become more comfortable with reading and writing and be very successful. If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to ask.
Best,
Magdalena Kopacz
parent letter
Dear Parents,
I have been noticing that Ana has been struggling with some aspects of her reading and writing and I wanted to share these struggles with you so that you can be helping her at home and so that together we can come up with an action plan to help her improve in these vital areas.
In terms of reading, I have noticed that Ana struggles with decoding multisyllabic words and with fluency. If a word is unfamiliar, she struggles with reading figuring out what the word means. She also often skips words or repeats words when she is reading. To help her with decoding words, I propose that she is taught a procedure for decoding multisyllabic words. She will be taught to remove the prefixes and suffixes to indentify the root word and brainstorm lists of words for different root word. These activities will help Ana become more confident and successful when she tries to decode multisyllabic words. To help her with her fluency, I will work to make sure that she is reading books that are level appropriate for her. I will also encourage her to practice reading more, so she becomes more used to the process. Some strategies that I will teach her are: reading the text quietly before reading it aloud, reading familiar texts and using choral reading in small groups.
In terms of her writing I have noticed that she struggles with being too dependent on the teacher’s approval. She is constantly checking her work with the teacher and can’t go on until she has the teacher’s approval of her work. Also, her compositions often lack focus. Her ideas are not succinct and often move in many different directions. To help her with being too dependent on the teacher’s approval, I will encourage her to check her work with a classmate before she comes to the teacher. I will also set up specific times when she can come talk to me about her work when she needs to. To help Ana focus her ideas, I will have her highlight the sentences in her writing drafts that pertain to the topic and cut the sentences that do not connect to the topic. When I’m working with her individually, I will show her examples or unfocused writing and have her revise them so she gets used to revising her own papers in this way.
Ana is a great student who is very motivated to do good work. I know that if we work together to help her is some areas she struggles with, she will start excelling as a reader and writer. I look forward to the progress she will make!
Sincerely,
Miss Allie Talaski
I have been noticing that Ana has been struggling with some aspects of her reading and writing and I wanted to share these struggles with you so that you can be helping her at home and so that together we can come up with an action plan to help her improve in these vital areas.
In terms of reading, I have noticed that Ana struggles with decoding multisyllabic words and with fluency. If a word is unfamiliar, she struggles with reading figuring out what the word means. She also often skips words or repeats words when she is reading. To help her with decoding words, I propose that she is taught a procedure for decoding multisyllabic words. She will be taught to remove the prefixes and suffixes to indentify the root word and brainstorm lists of words for different root word. These activities will help Ana become more confident and successful when she tries to decode multisyllabic words. To help her with her fluency, I will work to make sure that she is reading books that are level appropriate for her. I will also encourage her to practice reading more, so she becomes more used to the process. Some strategies that I will teach her are: reading the text quietly before reading it aloud, reading familiar texts and using choral reading in small groups.
In terms of her writing I have noticed that she struggles with being too dependent on the teacher’s approval. She is constantly checking her work with the teacher and can’t go on until she has the teacher’s approval of her work. Also, her compositions often lack focus. Her ideas are not succinct and often move in many different directions. To help her with being too dependent on the teacher’s approval, I will encourage her to check her work with a classmate before she comes to the teacher. I will also set up specific times when she can come talk to me about her work when she needs to. To help Ana focus her ideas, I will have her highlight the sentences in her writing drafts that pertain to the topic and cut the sentences that do not connect to the topic. When I’m working with her individually, I will show her examples or unfocused writing and have her revise them so she gets used to revising her own papers in this way.
Ana is a great student who is very motivated to do good work. I know that if we work together to help her is some areas she struggles with, she will start excelling as a reader and writer. I look forward to the progress she will make!
Sincerely,
Miss Allie Talaski
Differentiating Instruction Letter
Dear Parents,
I am writing to you today to discuss Shantel and my plans to help her succeed in my classroom. After having her complete a few reading and writing assessments in order to determine her reading/writing level, Shantel is reading and writing at below grade level, specifically at the third grade level. She is specifically struggling with reading fluency, sigh word recognition and vocabulary development. There are other students in the classroom who are at a similar level of development and some students who are at a fourth grade reading level or above. In order to ensure that Shantel is getting the attention and help that she needs, I intend to offer differentiated instruction in order to help her succeed. For example, at the beginning of Literacy hour, I have the students participate in independent reading where each student gets 20 minutes to read in a book that is both interesting to them and at their reading level. After the 20 minutes has passed, I will have them complete an online comprehension check in order to ensure that they are comprehending the text that they are reading. I will take the results from those checks and post them in a chart so that Shantel and other students can monitor their own growth and learning. This can help to motivate students to continue learning and improving. In addition to this, when we are reading a story as a class, I have the students who are ahead of everyone else read on their own in the reading corner while I read to the other students personally. What this does is allow the struggling students to gain a better understanding of the content of the story without having to worry about the technical aspects of reading the text.
Another form of differentiating instruction that I have prepared to help Shantel improve her reading ability is called guided reading lessons. During this type of lesson, I will take Shantel and other students who are reading at her level and we will read a chapter or two of short chapter books that are at their reading level and reflect each students’ ability to use different reading strategies. Following that, the students will discuss those chapters and will then proceed to reread them independently or with a friend. This will allow them to develop the comprehension that they need for understanding the important aspects of the story while still giving them practice reading on their own and gaining that kind of experience. When they are reading with a friend, I will ensure that the person they are reading with is at a similar reading level so that each student can assist each other while avoiding the problem of one person dominating the reading session. As a group, we will record a list of the books that we have read and this will help the students to develop confidence in their reading ability because they will be able to see first-hand the amount of reading they have been able to accomplish. During this activity, all of the books selected for reading contain valuable and interesting information that is represented in the core standards for fourth grade curriculum. This means that what your student is reading is not only interesting to them but relevant to their learning needs.
After the students have completed reading for the day, they will engage in a variety of activities that help to ensure comprehension and extension of the ideas presented to everyday life as well as other classroom subjects. These activities may include making venn-diagrams, writing a summary sentence, creating brochures or poster boards, writing poetry or short stories, creating concept quilt squares, etc. The important common characteristic of all of these activities is that all of them will be specially selected based on the level of development for each student. This means that students who are struggling will be working on a different, but equally as challenging and important, activity from those who are ahead of the rest of the class academically. This ensures that all students are challenged appropriately.
Another aspect of the differentiating instruction that I have prepared to help Shantel succeed is differentiated spelling tests. Each week, the students in my classroom are given a vocabulary list of words that they need to know how to spell. I give them a pretest in order to assess their prior knowledge of the words and then the students will work on the words every day until Friday when they will take the spelling test. During the week, Shantel completes individual activities such as Making Words and Word Sorts which both focus on developing Shantel’s vocabulary and sight-word recognition. This will help to improve her spelling ability as well. Each student will be given a different set of words that matches with their individual level of development. This way, all of the students are challenged without being offered material that is too difficult and often discouraging for them. Because Shantel tends to need more time to finish the spelling tests than other students, I will be sure to allow her the time she needs to complete the test to the best of her ability. I believe that this kind of flexibility is necessary in order to ensure the success of my students.
When students are working on projects, they are often given many different choices regarding the topics of these projects, the type of information gathered, and the way in which they present the information. This means that each project is meaningful to each student because they are given choices so that they can complete the project in a way that is relevant to them. These options also allow students to showcase their individual knowledge and skills in unique ways because they are able to choose the method of presentation. For example, Shantel seems to really enjoy dramatization. She might chose to present her report by acting out the information she wishes to share.
The final area of differentiated instruction that I would like to include in my classroom is an after school club that I would like to create. This club would meet every Tuesday and Thursday right after school and would focus on developing reading and writing skills. During this club, I could help students who are still struggling in these areas in a one-on-one, personalized setting. We could do activities as a group that are fun and interesting but also help develop such skills as reading fluency, sight-word recognition, vocabulary development, writing skills, comprehension, etc. During this club, I would also like to encourage parent volunteers to come in and read and write with their students. This can help to encourage the students and developing their reading and writing skills as well as provide assistance to other students who need it. Please let me know if you would be interested in participating in this type of after school club.
I look forward to having a wonderful year with Shantel and I encourage you to contact me at any time if you wish to discuss the development of your student.
Sincerely,
Emily Rippetoe
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