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Tuesday, February 25, 2014
Blogging Reflection
Keeping this blog throughout this course has been an invaluable learning experience. I have always considered blogging to be a great outlet and a wonderful way to let your voice shine. I am so glad that this course as given me the opportunity to try blogging. I have decided that I would like to continue blogging beyond this course. I would like to transform my blog to become a place for my parents, peers and families to visit in order to learn more about the things that are happening in my classroom. I try to be a voice for my diverse students who face so many challenges during their kindergarten year. I feel as though a blog would be a great way to bridge the connection between home and school.
Friday, February 7, 2014
Sheltered Lesson
After watching a series of videos about comprehension sheltered lessons for ELL students, I have a few take aways for my own classroom of diverse learners. It is always great to be exposed to best practices in the field for different types of learners because what is good for one student could be beneficial to another (for different reasons).
1. Expose students to difficult vocabulary prior to reading. A great way of doing this is by taking photos of the vocabulary and making poster sheets for the students to look at. I liked this idea because one photo of a park may not look like a park your student has been to, but if you find 3-4 pictures of different parks it might really help them to understand the word.
2. Give clear and specific directions to students. Have them written and also show students what you want them to do. This is the sheltering of the lesson, where you are leaving little room for confusion or error for your students. You can also have students repeat the directions to each other.
3. I loved the idea of having students stop to share their own ideas, traditions and opinions. This helps to build connections in the middle of a story. The teacher in the video made a list of these ideas. I think at the Kindergarten level you could have parents send in a list or picture of a tradition that they have helped students with prior to reading a story about a holiday.
I am looking forward to bringing these ideas to the diverse learners in my own classroom! I hope you find them helpful!
1. Expose students to difficult vocabulary prior to reading. A great way of doing this is by taking photos of the vocabulary and making poster sheets for the students to look at. I liked this idea because one photo of a park may not look like a park your student has been to, but if you find 3-4 pictures of different parks it might really help them to understand the word.
2. Give clear and specific directions to students. Have them written and also show students what you want them to do. This is the sheltering of the lesson, where you are leaving little room for confusion or error for your students. You can also have students repeat the directions to each other.
3. I loved the idea of having students stop to share their own ideas, traditions and opinions. This helps to build connections in the middle of a story. The teacher in the video made a list of these ideas. I think at the Kindergarten level you could have parents send in a list or picture of a tradition that they have helped students with prior to reading a story about a holiday.
I am looking forward to bringing these ideas to the diverse learners in my own classroom! I hope you find them helpful!
Sunday, February 2, 2014
Comparing Running Records
This past week I compared running records that I took from two different ELL students. I was analyzing their miscues for meaning, syntax and visual cues. I was looking for trends in each individual student's running record as well as trends between the two students' records.
I choose to compare students that were at a similar reading level and I found that their miscue's were reflective of their habits and not necessarily their native languages. For example student A has a habit of inputting words when she doesn't know a word. On the other hand, student B has the habit of skipping the word when she doesn't know it. Both of these are traits of low level readers who need more clear word attack strategies.
I feel as though both of these students could be coached together in order to build a toolbox of strategies that they can go to when they arrive at an unknown word. Some students struggle in reading because of their native language but many of the mistakes that exhibit are similar to other readers at similar levels. We need to continue to expose them to strategies and skills that will get them to the next level.
I choose to compare students that were at a similar reading level and I found that their miscue's were reflective of their habits and not necessarily their native languages. For example student A has a habit of inputting words when she doesn't know a word. On the other hand, student B has the habit of skipping the word when she doesn't know it. Both of these are traits of low level readers who need more clear word attack strategies.
I feel as though both of these students could be coached together in order to build a toolbox of strategies that they can go to when they arrive at an unknown word. Some students struggle in reading because of their native language but many of the mistakes that exhibit are similar to other readers at similar levels. We need to continue to expose them to strategies and skills that will get them to the next level.
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