Practice Quiz 9

True or False: Listening is a prerequisite for taking good notes from a visual presentation.


Multiple Choice: In the SEARCH acronym, the A stands for what?
A. Ask questions
B. Analyze results
C. Alter methods
D. Answer questions

Learning Blog7- Writing to Learn in the Context Areas

 Richardson, J. S., Morgan, R. F., & Fleener, C. 2012. Reading to learn in the content areas. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Publishing Co.

Writing to Learn in the Context Areas

I love the quote at the beginning of the chapter by Jane Evershed, “To read is to empower, to empower is to write, to write is to influence, to influence is to change, to change is to live.” This quote just goes along with the idea that reading is writing and writing is reading. :)

Writing may be the most complex communication process within the communication arts because of the ways it can be used to challenge and enhance thinking skills. It may be easy to express yourself in words and back them up with your gestures, tone, and expressions. However, writing is very different and must be expressed through careful word choice and organization in order for the reader to comprehend. Writing requires abstract thinking, synthesis, and the ability and skill to apply several discrete skills. Writing is a true complement to reading when it enables students to clarify and think critically about concepts they encounter in reading. Because of this, writing should be incorporated in content areas.

I ask my students to do on-demand writing. However, they have a hard time expressing themselves even with prompts and prompting. However, when I ask them to do authentic writing tasks such as: worksheets, creating brochures, Facebook pages, etc I have noticed that they are engaged and follow through with the assignment. Because I teach students with disabilities, authentic writing is an effective way for my students to express what they have learned in writing without being overwhelemed.

A way to clarify reading is through the use of the reading-writing connection. Metacognitive prompts and repetition of the process appears to help students internalize the strategies as well as boost academic achievement. Teachers can use the products of writing as a way to evaluate their students and as an unique way to develop comprehension.

Writing is a process. Process writing includes: draft writing, grammar, spelling, revisions, formatting, etc.  I like how the authors talked about the importance of a rubric (instruments for assessment after an assignment) because I personally believe it is very helpful for students who are writing for a purpose. This checklist is a great visual for students to understand expectations, develop a plan for writing, and monitor their progress from the begging to the end of the process.

Computers are not only fun for students but they too can be very helpful in the writing process. Students, who use computers as an aid for writing are able to write drafts quickly, revise them easily, and save anything they have written (yes!). 

Of course writing fits right into P.A.R. Some strategies to use in the Preparation stage include: Cubing, Brain writing, and three warm-up writing activities. Some strategies to use in the Assistance stage include: Learning logs-or BLOGS!  (Hey! I am doing this now!), written conversation, annotations, poetry/bio poem, cinquains, see what I found, and first person summary. Some strategies to use the Reflection phase include: Guided reading procedure, content-focused drama, collaborative writing, C3B4ME-See Three Before Me (My personal favorite because it requires the students to work on their interpersonal skills), GIST, and Short statements.

I liked the idea for struggling writers, using pictures to prompt discussion to acquire the habit of writing. I support the text by requiring my students to write everyday either in their journals or for a creative writing assignment where they look at a picture and have to tell me what is happening and how the people in the picture or feeling and/or develop a story about the picture. After all, writing is a skill, an art, and a tool that can be effectively used for learning in all curriculum areas.

Learning Blog 8- Supporting Diverse Learners in Context Classrooms

Richardson, J. S., Morgan, R. F., & Fleener, C. 2012. Reading to learn in the content areas. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Publishing Co.

Supporting Diverse Learners in Context Classrooms

This chapter is perfect and very appropriate. As a secondary special education teacher, I have noticed that all students are unique and often struggle with their academic courses, especially when it comes to reading and writing. This chapter provides teachers with strategies to use to support those diverse learners in all content classrooms.

Educators often define diverse learners as those who might be at risk for academic failure and who need special understanding and attention. In every classroom, teachers find students who are diverse in intellectual ability, social and emotional background, language difficultly, racial background, cultural background, and physical attributes. As educators we cannot treat all students the same because, clearly, they are all very different and learn differently. I love how the authors indicated that context area teachers, not just special education teachers, must practice equity pedagogy. This means striving to educate all students and not treating or instructing each individual the same way-but rather with respect to their diverse needs.

This is my chapter! - J I am pretty clear on what special education is and I am currently an inclusion teacher in a general education class and I have seen, first hand, how helpful it is to special education students who are accessing the general education curriculum. IDEA is a law that states that all children with disabilities will receive a free and appropriate public education in the least restrictive environment. Because the goal of special education students is to be as mainstream as possible, more and more special education students are in the general education classes. These students may require individualized accommodations to succeed at school and differentiated instruction (DI) to meet their diverse educational needs, learning styles, and interests of all learners in the content classrooms. DI allows teachers the options of varying learning contents, context, and modes of assessment to meet the individualized needs of each student. Keep in mind that gifted students may require accommodations and DI.

The Response to Intervention (RTI) model is used as an alternative approach to determine the eligibility for special education and related services. However, this approach can be used on all students to determine where their strengths and weakness are.  

At risk students are in danger of dropping out of school because of low achievement, usually because of educational disadvantages, low socioeconomic status, or underachievement. Many other reasons for underachievement are: poverty, drug and alcohol abuse, crime, teen pregnancy, low self-esteem, ill health, poor school attendance, welfare dependence, and others.  Teachers may refer to these students as “lazy” or “hard to teach”, but what I have experienced, I believe it may be a product of learned helplessness- they have failed so many times that they believe they cannot do it. However, it is important for educators to be patient with these students, positive, and caring enough to realize that change takes time both academically and emotionally for these students. It is important to understand that not all students are resilient students and are able to be resilient to the challenges they face (sometimes on a daily basis). Teachers can encourage resilience by fostering positive (word of the day (: ) teacher-student communication.

Students from low-socioeconomic environments, low self-esteem, English as a second language student, English language learners, are all students who may need additional assistance in the classroom and, more importantly, a teacher who is patient and positive. These students often struggle with reading. As a result, they will avoid it at all cost. I have witnessed a “good” student turn “bad” once he was asked to read. Students rather be “bad” than “stupid”.  This is sad, but that is the attitude that they often have.  Some strategies to use for teachers to consider are: comprehension monitoring, differentiation for struggling learners, PLEASE (love it!), and steps for context teachers to use to help guide understanding. Some strategies for struggling readers are: Request, Mystery clue game, analogies, language experience approach, concept formation study guides, embedded questions, beginner-oriented texts, interactive notebooks (good one!), etc.

It may take extra effort, patience, time, require myriad strategies, but all learners (regardless of their disability, culture, race, SES, etc.) benefit from the respect and understanding developed in the process.

One thing that bothers me is when I hear general education teachers complain about a student’s accommodations or say things like, “I am not a special education teacher, why do I have special education students? They bring down my SOL scores. I do not know how to teach them.” I wish all general education teachers were required to a few special education courses to learn how to use DI effectively and other strategies to teach the diverse learners in their classrooms. All students are different! Let’s embrace it and develop creative ways to ensure everyone’s success! :)

Blog6- Beyond Traditional Textbooks

Richardson, J. S., Morgan, R. F., & Fleener, C. 2012. Reading to learn in the content areas. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Publishing Co.

Beyond Traditional Textbooks

Who likes reading out of a textbook? From experience, not students at my school! It's amazing how much the students shut down once they hear we will be reading out of the textbook. As a special education teacher, it is more beneficial to me if I find other alternatives to using a textbook as the sole resource in my classroom. As a result, I have found that using additional resources to aid in student learning is not only benefiting my students, but it also benefits me, as a teacher, because I am able to reach my students on a newer higher level.

A way to support, augment, and move beyond textbooks is through the use of Read-Alongs and Read-Alouds. Read Alongs, is when a teacher shares an excerpt with the students, who read the piece individually, in small groups, or with the teacher. Using Read-Alouds, the teacher generally reads the excepts, story, or article, to the entire class. However, Read-Alouds is a more effective approach because it captures student's attention and allows the teachers to gauge the interests of the students. It also engages student learning and allows the teacher to decide what the student is interested in.

In my opinion, the most effective way to move beyond the traditional textbooks is to set the environment of your room in a way that allows the students to access additional resources such as: books, internet, magazines, newspapers, and a quiet place to read. There are many ways to locate materials and resources to use in your classrooms: parent organizations and raising money for purchases, libraries lending books for extended classroom use, local business donating materials or offering small grants, teachers using bonus points form book club orders to get additional materials, and schools purchasing mobile labs or common labs. This is important to know because teachers do not make a lot of money- free resources is always good!:)

Tradebooks are generally used books that can be an alternative/addition to use in the classroom to support the textbook and are both interesting and relevant to the context material. WARNING! Make sure you consider your sections carefully. Not all literature is current. I enjoy adding literature as an aid to the textbook because I have noticed that the students enjoy non-fiction and the change from the day to day textbook. They are able to comprehend the context because they are able to relate it to a story.

If you use a textbook in your class make sure it appeals to the reader. Simply stated, readability is the match between the reader and text. If the textbook is clear, well-expressed, and suited to the reader, the reader will have a better chance of comprehended what they are reading. If you can, try to choose your own textbooks- find one that has readability. This will not only help your students, but also create less work on your end. Without readability, barriers to comprehension and learning are established. However, be sure not to find textbooks that "dumb down" the reading by oversimplifying it. When important points and intricacies are missing, the reader loses both content and clues. No good. An effective way to determine the readily of a text is to use a checklist (Seems easy enough). Look for: linguistic factors, readability, writing style, conceptual factors, organizational factors, learning aids.

I enjoyed reading about the rule of thumb to determine readability. I will definite use this! I also liked how the authors touched on the Lexile framework as an adaptation of readability measures. This approach matches the reader with an appropriate text. This is wonderful because not all readers read on the same level. This works well with independent reading. Again, be caution about readability formulas.

I love love love the cloze procedure. I use it all the time! :) It is often written in my student's IEP because I believe it is so effective in so many ways. I also use interactive reading. -"and they must believe that their new learning has relevance to their lives" <<< :) great stuff. page 162.  Because I thoroughly enjoy cooperative learning, some strategies teachers could use are: the jigsaw (hey! we did that!) and the three-step interview.

#2- Stop after Possible Sent., pgs.176-183

Cooperative Learning

Vocabulary instruction for students with learning disabilities requires more purposeful, varied, and repeated exposures to vocabulary strategies to ensure their success. If a student has a learning disability or no prior knowledge of a word, teachers should present concepts in a very concrete manner and limited to words that are most needed to understand the reading. It is more important for the students to understand the meaning of what they are reading, rather than new vocabulary that does not directly relate to the text.

An effective way to determine unfamiliar words for your students is to develop a word inventory. The students indicate what words they know, somewhat know, and words they do not know at all. A fun way to do this is to jot down ten words and have the students indicate the words they are familiar with a smiley face :), words they somewhat know with a slant face =/, and words they do not know at all with a sad face :(.  The unfamiliar words should be used in graphic organizers, semantic maps, and other ways to assist the student with understanding and accelerate the process of learning new vocabulary words. At the end of the vocabulary unit, students should be able to know the meaning of the unfamiliar words, use them in a sentence, give a antonym and a synonym for the word, and be able to provide a simile or metaphor using the word, and/or indicate the meaning of the word through the use of a picture. etc... the possibilities are endless!

I personally love graphic organizers! :)
I also like asking my students to draw a picture comic strip using a key vocabulary word- they illustrate that they comprehend the meaning without using any words.
http://www.flocabulary.com/ is fun too! turn the key words into a rap or a poem :)

However, these strategies are not just for student with learning disabilities. They are for all students. After all, the idea is to give meaning to unfamiliar words so that students can have a clear idea what they are reading. :) Vocabulary can and should be Incorporated into each part in the P.A.R. framework.

I-Search Proposal-Draft

 I-Search Proposal-Importance of Differentiated Instruciton

--- Not going to happen!

Topic: Importance of Differentiated Instruction

Questions:  What is differentiated instruction?  How can you use differentiated instruction? What are the advantages/disadvantages of differentiated instruction? Why don't general education teachers use differentiated instruction as much as special education teachers? I know it's important, but how do you do it effectivly?

General Resources:  NCTE articles and IRA articles from ODU's online library.  Also, any recent article pertaining differentiated instruction and how it is used in literacy.

People to Interview:  I plan on interviewing, Mrs. MacMahn, the reading specialist that I am co-teaching with this semester to gain perspective on her own personal experiences with differentiated instruction and how she uses it in her inclusion Reading class.
and/or
 Ms. Cathi Ownes, secondonary English teacher who also uses differentiated instruction in her classroom.

Titles of Articles planned to be used:  Conundrums in The Differentiated Literacy Classroom; Reading Instruction in Tier1: Bridging the Gaps by Nesting Evidence-Based Interventions within Differentiated Instruction; To-With-By: A Three-Tiered Model for Differentiated Instruction; Comparing Inclusion in The Secondary Vocational and Academic Classrooms: Strengths, Needs, and Recommendations. So far...

Notes:

My main concern is educators do not understand the importance of differentiating instruction and are not using it in their classrooms to ensure student academic success. The purpose of this paper is to research the importance of differentiated instruction and interview teachers who are implementing it in their classrooms effectively.

Possible Interview questions:
1. What is differentiated instruction to you?
2. How do you use differentiated instruction in your classroom?
3. Is differentiating instruction important for student success? How so?
4.What are the advantages of using differentiated instruction?
5.What are the disadvantages of differentiated instruction?
6. Is differentiated instruction hard to do in a large classroom setting?
7. Is differentiated instruction only for special education students/teachers?
8. Do you think differentiated instruction is more effective at a higher or lower grade level?
9. Do you think teacher's need more training to learn more about differentiated instruction?
10. What are some effective strategies to use when differentiating instruction?
11. Is it even possible to provide differentiated instruction in a core class? If so, how do you do it effectively while still providing some sort of direct instruction?
12. How does differentiated instruction work in an inclusion classroom setting with both general education students and special education students?
13. Any additional thoughts? concerns? etc...

Teaching Vocabulary- Chapter 6

Richardson, J. S., Morgan, R. F., & Fleener, C. 2012. Reading to learn in the content areas. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Publishing Co.



Teaching Vocabulary- Chapter 6

Teaching vocabulary is essential in reading comprehsnion. As educators, we can not assume that students understand what exactly they are reading. Simply said, if readers do not know the meanings of most words in a passage, they will be unable to understand the passage.

 According to the text, there are two types of vocabulary. Content-specific vocabulary and academic vocabulary. Context specific vocabulary relates to the terms that are critical, yet specific, to a particular discipline or unity of study. Academic vocabulary is a set of terms often found among expository texts and formal presentations or speeches but which is not unique to any content or academic discipline.I would refer to academic vocabulary as "sight words". Words that students see often but may not necessary know the meaning of.  Both types are very important in reading comprehension. Reading, writing, and vocabulary- need it all!

A way to prevent vocabulary and school failure is to ask students to brainstorm about targeted vocabulary concepts and write possible definitions. Students can also apply what they know about a vocabulary concept by being exposed to the word in different contexts. This is called contextual knowledge. Research supports practices that help students connect new vocabulary to known vocabulary and concepts. Teachers should engage students to find synonyms, antonyms, and connotations of words for additional clarification.I also would encourage students to draw a picture of what the words mean to help them to retain the meaning (vocabulary illustration) or make a comic strip using the word to show me that they understand the meaning behind the word.

 If a student has a learning disability or no prior knowledge of a word, teachers should present concepts in a very concrete manner and limited to words that are most needed to understand the reading. Semantic maps or manipulating word parts may accelerate the process of learning new vocabulary words. Some strategies to use when teaching vocabulary in preparation for reading are: word inventories, graphic organizers, semantic maps, word maps for the keyword metaphor,  concept map,

Because teachers can not "protect" students from words by teaching every difficult term, they must help students understand words that clarify the text. As an educator, I stress the importance of using context clues to determine the meaning of unfamiliar words in a text. They usually find out the the definition of the unfamiliar word is in the sentence. :)

I enjoyed learning about the Dissect approach to vocabulary.
D- iscover the word's context
I-solate the prefix
S-eperate the suffix
E-xamine the stem or root word
C-heck with someone
T-ry the dictionary

Some additional strategies to use when teaching vocabulary in all three areas of the P.A.R framework are: semantic feature analysis, post graphic organizers, and categorization, word analogies, magic squares, vocabulary illustration, word bubble, word bingo,

I also enjoyed reading about the vocabulary study system TOAST-  I will definitely use this strategy in my classroom.
Test, organize, anchor, say, test.

Chapter 5-Learning through Reflection

Richardson, J. S., Morgan, R. F., & Fleener, C. 2012. Reading to learn in the content areas. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Publishing Co.

Learning through Reflection

Finally! We are able to see what our students have learned! The third and final step in the Preparation, Assistance, and reflection (P.A.R) framework is reflection, which takes place after the student have been prepared and assisted with the reading.  The reflection phase helps clarify thinking and focus understanding. In this stage, students develop new ways to remember the information they have learned. Reflective thinking is a helpful way for students to retain material because the more time students spend reflecting on what they have learned, they more they will remember it and use it in their everyday lives.

Five important categories of reflective learning are: rehearsal, elaboration, organizational thinking, comprehension monitoring, and affective thinking. After all, the main goal is for our students to be autonomous learners-self regulated learners! Some important skills to emphasize in the reflection phase of reading are the importance of communication skills, critical thinking skills, and critical literacy. As teachers, we do not just teach our context area we teach how to think “outside” the box. However, this can be extremely difficult when teaching students with ASD who have social deficits. Because these students are very literal and have difficulties communicating effectively, these skills are often even harder to teach than the actual context. 

Reflecting through cooperative learning allows students to get involved in their learning (if they are willing to). When cooperative learning takes place it allows students to develop leadership and communication skills, and improve motivation and achievement. Cooperative learning is different than group work because cooperative learning requires the use of interpersonal and social skills in order to achieve a task not just breaking work up into pieces.

 PAR relates directly to cooperative learning:

Phase1- individual phase; key concept-commitment

Phase2-group work; key concept-consensus

Phase 3- teacher-led discussion; key concept-arbitration/mediation

Some strategies and activities for reflection in reading are: Brainstorming, post-graphic organizers, make connections, double-entry journals, rallytable, numbered heads together, paired reading, three-step interview, repeated reading and text lookbacks, group summarizations, reelection guides, think-pair-share, extended anticipation guides, ABOUT/POINT,  think-Alouds.