Rationale/purpose for giving homework and independent work. Meaningful? Objectives? Specific feedback? Role of technology in communication process?
I have a hard time coming up with a rational for homework. On a philosophical level, I think Americans need to refocus on balance in their lives. As a society, I think we push ourselves too hard and don't take the time to just enjoy our lives with sports, crafts, or just being with our families.
I don't see the need for homework in my particular teaching situation. I teach within a block schedule which provides more instructional time and less transitions anyway. Teaching language arts, I see my students for 80 minutes every day. We do that to include a 20 minute independent and/or guided reading time during the day. I have always covered my state and district mandates curriculum in a deep way, so it is not like I need my students to do work at home to gain ground.
My understanding of homework is that it's purpose is for students to practice skills at an independent level, or to move their information from short term to long term memory. I believe that if you structure your lessons correctly, you release responsibility within each lesson allowing for independent practice before they even leave your room. If a student can already do a skill independently without help, how is doing it over and over more beneficial than doing anything else more meaningful. If a student leaves school and immediately does their homework will that help their long term and short term memory more than if they do their homework at the end of the day before bed? I don't understand that aspect. If you spiral through your curriculum, I believe you can continually work the short term and long term memory the same way.
The only time I could see the need for homework is for students trying to catch up. If you start a race behind everyone else and run at the same pace as they are are during the race, you will never catch up. However, I wouldn't call it homework. I would prefer to see it as tutoring. A student lacking in skills will probably not be successful at acquiring skills on their own at home. They will need guidance and direct instruction. They will need to put in double time to keep up and catch up unfortunately.
I will address the ideas of meaningful, objective, reflective, and technologically based instruction within the classroom. Out of those four things, I find meaningful lessons the most important. If a student is not engaged, you will not get any where near 100% effort. Plus, I believe a meaningful lesson teaches students the purpose of objectives by attaching them to real life. I believe that every lesson should tap into specific objectives with assessments that make sure they are targeting the skill you are striving toward. The assessment should utilize teacher, peer and self reflection, so that it is meaningful and accurate. Technology is a huge en-gager and support. Fear of technology and its use can hold a teacher back in allowing their students to grow beyond what you as a teacher and textbook can give and do for them.
Sunday, April 22, 2012
Blog #9
Differences in fiction vs. non fiction. Easier vs. harder for ELL
Both would be overwhelming for an ELL student.
Non fiction has pictures to support the vocabulary words and concepts. It would be used as a reference which is structurally good, because it has bolded titles and the vocabulary is highlighted. It has a glossary for definitions. At this point there is not pictoral support, but it was present in the chapter itself where realia was used for explanation. Structurally, it is good, because it has checkpoints, reviews and experiments. Non-fiction can be used for literary processes like inferencing, connection, predictions, etc. Also, it breaks down steps for experiments concretely.
Fiction would definitely be more challenging. My fiction has no pictures. It is good for developing engaging questions and real life emotional processing. It would be used for literary processes of inference, prediction, plot charts, character development, etc. If a student comes from a background similar to and they are familiar with these aspects, it would be easier. In this particular book, vocabulary is not tough, but the structure of chapter to chapter with setting (time and place)changing with each chapter is challenging. Therefore, I would make sure that it was a book that is fairly linear in plot as it is structured. Plus much scaffolding and many visual supports would be needed to insure success.
You would have to teach text structure in both and support them at their level cognitive and in a literary way. However, overall, I think non-fiction would be easier.
Both would be overwhelming for an ELL student.
Non fiction has pictures to support the vocabulary words and concepts. It would be used as a reference which is structurally good, because it has bolded titles and the vocabulary is highlighted. It has a glossary for definitions. At this point there is not pictoral support, but it was present in the chapter itself where realia was used for explanation. Structurally, it is good, because it has checkpoints, reviews and experiments. Non-fiction can be used for literary processes like inferencing, connection, predictions, etc. Also, it breaks down steps for experiments concretely.
Fiction would definitely be more challenging. My fiction has no pictures. It is good for developing engaging questions and real life emotional processing. It would be used for literary processes of inference, prediction, plot charts, character development, etc. If a student comes from a background similar to and they are familiar with these aspects, it would be easier. In this particular book, vocabulary is not tough, but the structure of chapter to chapter with setting (time and place)changing with each chapter is challenging. Therefore, I would make sure that it was a book that is fairly linear in plot as it is structured. Plus much scaffolding and many visual supports would be needed to insure success.
You would have to teach text structure in both and support them at their level cognitive and in a literary way. However, overall, I think non-fiction would be easier.
Monday, April 9, 2012
Blog #8
Reflect on what the teacher did to promote comprehension. Teacher do? Students do? Reflect on readings. List essential components.
In this video, I saw all of the aspects of a SIOP lesson plan. The teacher set up the behavior expectations with rules that were posted, stated out loud and shared kinesthetically with the class. To scaffold learning, she used realia with the spoon and manipulatives when applicable. She also, did motions when she talked to help develop vocabulary acquisition.She allowed for students to use their background knowledge of their native culture and their neighborhood connections to help them collaborate on their learning. She pushed students to answer with higher level resoning. She tapped into high interest topics and encouraged the playing of games where they could apply their learning.
Throughout the lesson, students were seen in various group settings: whole class, individual, and collaborative groups. The students had jobs and were aware of their responsibilities in the classroom and with their learning. They kinesthetically engaged by lifting their hands, standing up, and repeating rules and information. They knew that it was beneficial to follow along with the text while listening to the reading. They were taking two column notes.
There was nonlinguistic representation in the realia objects, the student use of two column notes was a graphic organizer appropriate for their task, and verbally she did the topic-restriction-illustration frame when discussing with the students the names of their streets, and how they come from Span to Mexico to California.
In this video, I saw all of the aspects of a SIOP lesson plan. The teacher set up the behavior expectations with rules that were posted, stated out loud and shared kinesthetically with the class. To scaffold learning, she used realia with the spoon and manipulatives when applicable. She also, did motions when she talked to help develop vocabulary acquisition.She allowed for students to use their background knowledge of their native culture and their neighborhood connections to help them collaborate on their learning. She pushed students to answer with higher level resoning. She tapped into high interest topics and encouraged the playing of games where they could apply their learning.
Throughout the lesson, students were seen in various group settings: whole class, individual, and collaborative groups. The students had jobs and were aware of their responsibilities in the classroom and with their learning. They kinesthetically engaged by lifting their hands, standing up, and repeating rules and information. They knew that it was beneficial to follow along with the text while listening to the reading. They were taking two column notes.
There was nonlinguistic representation in the realia objects, the student use of two column notes was a graphic organizer appropriate for their task, and verbally she did the topic-restriction-illustration frame when discussing with the students the names of their streets, and how they come from Span to Mexico to California.
Tuesday, April 3, 2012
Blog #7
Running record on 2 ELL students, analyze miscues, features of errors, next teaching points, and possible strategies or assignments to address reading challenges.
I was at the mercy of the ELL instructor as to which student I saw for the running record. I met with a Peruvian seventh grader in his second year of ELA. He has fluent literacy skills in his first language of Spanish. She wanted me to meet with him because he can read words or transfer knowledge from Spanish to English but has difficulty with comprehension. I also met with a seventh grader in his third year of ELA. He is from Taiwan and was fluent in Chinese. She wanted me to meet with him, because he can't pronounce a lot of words, but has very high comprehension of the meaning. She said both are excellent students.
I found my running records matched her assessment of the students. The Spanish speaker read a page from a book that has a lexile range of 700. He only missed two words. He said gourd for guard and resume for resume. The first miscue was due to a visual cue. He read over it quickly and phonetically it is tricky to learn the double vowel blend rules. Resume (continue doing something) for resume (a paper application of your qualifications) is clearly understandable. He was following the typical English rule of the silent "e" at the end making the vowel say it's name. However, resume is a French word. For next steps, I would recommend doing a retell and analyzing where his comprehension is falling apart: predictions, sequence of events, characters and details, vocabulary, main idea or message, or events. From there I would isolate where exactly the intervention was needed. Finally, I would also analyze whether or not the comprehension had to do with a lack of cultural awareness.
The Taiwanese student was reading the Hunger Games with a lexile range of 810. He had some phonetic miscues like "drugged" for "dragged" and trable for trouble. I think these more had to do with switching from Chinese to English and the sound differences that occur because the use of the tongue in pronunciation of sounds. Another time he said, "weder" for "weather". This is a common phonetic mistake since the "d" and "th" sounds are produced in the same location in the mouth by the tongue. To correct this one could visually show and talk through the location of the tongue in the mouth and practice the difference.Other miscues were simple exchanging one participle for another like "a" for "the" which do not change the meaning of the text. One time, he completely missed the word "crevice" and said "crease." The sentence was, "It was in every crack and crevice." Therefore, crease still made contextual sense. I feel like with him that he was way more insecure about reading out loud, and if he just slowed down, he would not make those errors.
I was at the mercy of the ELL instructor as to which student I saw for the running record. I met with a Peruvian seventh grader in his second year of ELA. He has fluent literacy skills in his first language of Spanish. She wanted me to meet with him because he can read words or transfer knowledge from Spanish to English but has difficulty with comprehension. I also met with a seventh grader in his third year of ELA. He is from Taiwan and was fluent in Chinese. She wanted me to meet with him, because he can't pronounce a lot of words, but has very high comprehension of the meaning. She said both are excellent students.
I found my running records matched her assessment of the students. The Spanish speaker read a page from a book that has a lexile range of 700. He only missed two words. He said gourd for guard and resume for resume. The first miscue was due to a visual cue. He read over it quickly and phonetically it is tricky to learn the double vowel blend rules. Resume (continue doing something) for resume (a paper application of your qualifications) is clearly understandable. He was following the typical English rule of the silent "e" at the end making the vowel say it's name. However, resume is a French word. For next steps, I would recommend doing a retell and analyzing where his comprehension is falling apart: predictions, sequence of events, characters and details, vocabulary, main idea or message, or events. From there I would isolate where exactly the intervention was needed. Finally, I would also analyze whether or not the comprehension had to do with a lack of cultural awareness.
The Taiwanese student was reading the Hunger Games with a lexile range of 810. He had some phonetic miscues like "drugged" for "dragged" and trable for trouble. I think these more had to do with switching from Chinese to English and the sound differences that occur because the use of the tongue in pronunciation of sounds. Another time he said, "weder" for "weather". This is a common phonetic mistake since the "d" and "th" sounds are produced in the same location in the mouth by the tongue. To correct this one could visually show and talk through the location of the tongue in the mouth and practice the difference.Other miscues were simple exchanging one participle for another like "a" for "the" which do not change the meaning of the text. One time, he completely missed the word "crevice" and said "crease." The sentence was, "It was in every crack and crevice." Therefore, crease still made contextual sense. I feel like with him that he was way more insecure about reading out loud, and if he just slowed down, he would not make those errors.
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