Module 6 Summary

Module 6

PowerPoint: Making PowerPoint Slides- I enjoyed looking through this PowerPoint as it was a good refresher on how to construct a well developed presentation. I found that the information portrayed in this PowerPoint presentation showed examples and information that I have been doing already. A few things that I did not do when creating presentations as an undergrad student, was create an outline slide, a conclusion slide, and ask for questions at the end. During our professional development sessions, our academic coaches do a great job of creating PowerPoints that include all the major components.

 EBSCO: I have used this research tool in past courses when looking for accredited and published articles. I am familiar with this tool, and will definitely be using it for future resources.

Creating Good PowerPoint Presentations:  I found this article to be very informative. It is important that we engage our audience and not bore them. The links included were very helpful in reminding me about key pointers to remember when working with PowerPoint especially. I use PowerPoint daily for my morning kiosk, and I actually found some answers to a few questions I had.

PowerPoint and Kid Pix Studio: I absolutely loved this article. I am always looking for ways to incorporate technology into instruction and allowing my students to learn through multimedia verses worksheets; however, they are sometimes necessary. The templates that came with this source are absolutely fabulous and I will most certainly be using them in my classroom. I really liked how PowerPoint can be connected to reading picture books and even English Language Arts. Our possibilities are unlimited when it comes to engaging our students through the use of technology.

Web 2.0-In reading we have been talking about the difference between digital and print sources. My students have been learning about Prezis, PowerPoints, blogs, and wikis which are just a few of the resources listed. I also am big on using clip art and pictures through daily instruction and with the help of www.morguefile.com, I am sure not to infringe on any copyrights.  I really enjoy using these various tools as a means of instruction; they just tend to take a LONG time to create. L

Module 5 Summary

Video: An Example of Effective Classroom Management

I find that students are often successful working independently and with partners when the task at hand is engaging, fun, but also obtainable. In the video, the students were on task and able to make progress. I like how one lady shared that it is important to not “over work” our students. As a teacher, we need to give them enough questions/prompts to either one, understand that they know the skill, or two, they need remediation. I also find that students work better in literacy centers when the activities are not worksheets but more so hands-on/manipulating review games.

Video: Using Literacy Centers to Strengthen Reading and Writing Instruction

As any guided math or reading instruction, whole group, small groups and one on one instruction are all necessary for successful instruction. I love the question posed dealing with what the rest of the class/students do while you, the teacher, is working with a small group or individual students. Students should be work in literacy centers, displaying what they have been learning and working on through various activities. It is never busy work, which should never be the goal of a successful teacher anyway. Aligned with the new Common Core, these activities completed through literacy centers should focus on reading, writing, speaking and listening.

Video: Designs for Balanced Literacy

I really liked how the teacher in this video arranged her classroom in groups to foster collaborative thinking and team building skills. I have done this more this year, and I am amazed at the difference in work ethics and abundance of depth conversations my students are having. In my classroom, much like this teacher, I allow my students to use supplies that they were not able to purchase openly and even “check out” books in my personal classroom library. I find that it is important for students to feel a sense of belonging-ness and self-worth in their “home away from home”. Structure is KEY. I love it. In addition, I love how she mentioned about collaborating with your team. This has been one of the best parts of being where I am. The 5^th grade team welcomed me in last year, some had their doubts, but through our team work and support of one another, we are a strong and solid team.

Video: Space and Places

I NEED this book. This is so me and what I enjoy doing in my classroom. I am always rearranging my classroom, especially the student’s desks. I typically draw it out, like Spaces and Places described. Also, I would love to see what the book had to say about organizing your classroom, particularly at the end of the year or when having to pack everything up. This will definitely be a book I look into purchasing. 

Module 4 Summary

Literacy Across the Curriculum: I really enjoy looking at thematic units that focus on one topic, yet are discussed in a variety of subject. I find that thematic units are usually a win for students, as they enjoy learning about a particular topic in such depth. However, what I have found is that they are extremely time consuming to create. What I do feel that I am getting more proficient with is connecting my reading and writing with social studies. My students this year really enjoy reading picture books about social studies events and people that we have previously discussed.

RTI-I have had the opportunity to work with the RTI process a good but in the past 2 years. Being an EIP inclusion and reduced sized classroom teacher has given me several opportunities to identify students performing below grade level. I am thankful for the Tier process, as it gives students additional support that they truly need. One thing that I have personally learned about the tier process is that students who make the best candidates struggle in one academic area, typically math or reading. However, students who are general “slow learners” do not usually advance to a tier 4. The charts and pyramid in the RTI PowerPoint was such a great visual to see how the tier process builds and progresses throughout.  

Video-I did not grow up on the TV show Reading Rainbow. I think the song is catchy, thus inviting students to explore the concept of reading as anything can happen in a book. I think the song does a good job of showing students that in a book you can be anything you want to be.

Strategic Reading Instruction PPT: I really found the slide about the Reading Components and the Big Five eye-opening. When I looked at the chart I visualized the two stages of reading: learning to read, and reading to learn. I felt that these two categories connected with “Decoding” and “Comprehension.” As a 5^th grade teacher, I have found that I tend to focus on the Comprehension stage verses the Decoding stage.

Webquest PPT: In my undergraduate courses, I had the opportunity to create a web quest. This is something I would like to get a refresher on. I find myself researching for pre-made webquests that tie into the standards and curriculum. Students enjoy webquests because it gives them time to research on the computers, and it is much like a scavenger hunt for them. This is something I would like to do more of.

Conquer the Code: Reading is such an important key to living in today’s world. I found that the following quote, “In today’s world, learning to read well is a key to the future success of our children. Not only is reading fluently and with comprehension by third grade a legislated priority, it is an ethical and professional imperative.” (Wolfe and Nevills, 2004) When teaching, I have found that students, who struggle in reading, virtually struggle in all academic areas. They do not know how to read text that connects to science, social studies, health etc., as well as decode mathematical word problems.

Module 3 Summary

Encouraging Enthusiasm for Reading: I found this video touching, as I have never been an avid reader until now. I still don’t consider myself a big reader, but I must encourage my students to still become lifelong readers. I am beginning to find books enjoyable, but it takes one that is “just-right” for me to not want to put it down. I do not remember being read to as a child, which I believe is such a powerful tool at a young age. I loved the quote in regards to us not teaching great books, but about us teaching a love for reading. It is my hope and desire that I am able to instill this love in my students, as well as my own children on day.

Using the SMART table for Collaboration: This video was neat to see because our technology teacher won our school a SMART table by entering and winning an essay contest.  The table was supposed to arrive Tuesday, and we are all excited to use it. When we were being briefed about the table, collaboration was one thing that stuck out to me. As students are working on the table, they have to make unanimous decisions when working together. For example, if they want to close out of an activity, they all have to be touching the screen. I think this will be such a great tool to help teach our students learn to work together.

Exploring Social Studies and Technology: I loved seeing how to use the SMART table more. I think this tool can really be beneficial in the classroom (especially for Special Education students), as there are educational activities, such as math. From the looks of it, it appears that you are able to import your own activities to enhance the learning opportunities.

Integrating Science and Literacy in Early Childhood: This video did such a good job explaining what literacy includes. Literacy is not just reading and writing, but also listening, speaking and thinking skills.  Assessing is often associated with testing, but when teachers assess students, it means they are looking at how they learn and what they, as an educator, need to do to help their students move forward as a literate individual. I love how the alphabet was brought up. Although I am not a primary teacher, parents often think that their child knows their ABCs if they can sing the song, but students must be able to make that one to one correspondence as well. This often times is a big debate.

Informational Literacy: As a 5^th grade teacher, we use a lot of informational text to help foster our learning. According to the definition given in this video, it is my hope that through the various texts we read in class, my students “know when and why to you need information, where to find it and how to evaluate, use and communicate in an ethical manner.” When we read informational texts in class, I now want to do more with the text than just connect it to the specific standards such as how the text would benefit them as an individual.

Five Expository Text Structure and their Associated Signal Words:   I absolutely love teaching expository text structures to my students. It Is 5^th grade a standard I taught during the 1^st quarter, and I enjoy showing students the graphic organizers and how they can use them for various texts they read. Although this standard has been taught, I find myself referring to venn diagrams, character webs, and sequence, problem-solver, and cause-effect charts often. There are so many lessons and activities that allow me to refer back to the different kinds of text structures.

The Effect of Explicit Instruction on Reading Preferences Research: What a neat action research! I truly believe that what students see you, the teacher, read or reference to during class, influences their selection of books. I will recommend books to my students because I think they will enjoy them (especially if they are a non-reader). We have DEAR time daily. I read books during this time that I think my students will enjoy. When I put books back on the self, it is a race to the bookshelf to see who can get to it first. I also think book talks have such an impact on student’s selection of books. One thing that I find intriguing is that after we read any type of book in its entirety, my students will want to read it by themselves. It is amazing how the teacher can impact a student’s reading selection. 

Module 2 Summary

Module 2 Summary

Videos

In the differentiated instruction video, I really liked how it helped us identify what specific students need and would truly benefit from differentiated instruction (all). Personally, I need to work more on creating challenging and extending activities for my high flyers. I love the idea of differentiation being flexible. To me, many of my ideas of differentiation do not occur or surface until the middle of the lesson. The use of choice boards or menus is something that I have always really liked. My struggle with choice boards is that I want to make some that are so generic, that I do not have to create a new one for every unit and/or topic. Also, some teachers use this tool as an incentive for early finishers, which is not fair. What happens to those students who never finish early? It is also important to keep the standards in mind when creating differentiated activities, to ensure the activity assesses the skill at hand. Often times, we think that more is a way of challenging our students, but I feel that it should be more based on the depth of knowledge that is being required to complete a specific assignment. Differentiation can be challenging and overwhelming at times, but I am always looking for ways challenge, maintain and reteach my students.

In The Story of Differentiation, I really liked how the term flexible grouping was brought up. I constantly find myself using the same groups. I do not have set groups for math or reading, nor have I even created groups this school year. I find it easier and more beneficial to use this method of flexible grouping. It is also important for us to use more of a flexible grouping method to ensure our students are not always in the same group, as they begin to make generalizations about how “low” or “behind” they must be. It is important to pull your high students as well, as many times they are forgotten about because they do not need any extra help or support.

PowerPoints

It is important that when planning a strategic reading lesson plan, that it is teacher-directed. As a fifth grade teacher, I appreciate the approach that this plan takes where groups should be planned with pre-set goals. For fifth grade students, we are focusing on reading to learn (comprehension). Although teacher instruction and explanation of the context is important, I also think that literature circles have a great impact on students to become independent, self-sustained readers.

When developing any type of lesson, regardless the subject, scaffolding and bloom’s taxonomy are a must to me. I believe that using the gradual release approach helps set up your students for success, thus allowing them to become independent readers. When using Bloom’s taxonomy, we strive to engage our students in in-depth conversations, thus having them use their Higher Order Thinking Skills (HOTS). I really like how the Bloom’s Taxonomy wheel helps us identify key words to use when creating discussion and comprehension questions. With Common Core, I have found that many of the questions asked or suggested are thorough, causing the students to pull from background knowledge and engage in critical thinking. 

Module 1 Summary

Module 1 Summary

PowerPoint-Expository Text-Understanding Text Organization

I really enjoyed this PowerPoint, as text structure is a big part of fifth grade reading curriculum. It served as a good reminder what each structure can be used for and key words that are associated with each. I truly enjoy using the various graphic organizers associated with each structure to analyze text.

Video-Reading Strategy for Struggling Readers

I found this video to be very informative, seeing that it served as a good reminder of the reading instruction that takes places in younger grades. Being a fifth grade teacher, I do not work much with phonological awareness. I do spend time with my struggling readers on fluency and decoding, but for the most part, our focus is on reading for meaning. The definitions of the key reading terms were very helpful and seeing how each of the activities related to the particular skill shown. I am very excited about using the website provided, as the resources are abundant and engaging. It is important for students to understand that regardless the subject; it is not too late to learn. As the student was complaining about reading, it reminded me that many students have it engrained in their head that they are a horrible reader (and always will be), causing them to shut down at the sight of a comprehension passage. As health is a hard subject to fit in weekly, I often times use health comprehension passages for a grade. I have found that my struggling readers do great on the health passages, but when it comes to a comprehension passage completed during our scheduled reading time, they do poorly. We must remember to encourage our students and remind them that they can be lifelong readers at any age. With implementation of the shown activities in the video, I hope students begin to see that reading can be fun, exciting and achievable.

Trip to Hawaii

The Trip to Hawaii videos were very engaging and informative regarding the use and purpose of graphic organizers. I personally enjoy using graphic organizers in my classroom. I find that when I use them, especially during reading time, the students tend to take ownership of their work. One graphic organizer that I do not have experience with but will definitely be using in the near future is the Vocabulary Prediction Chart. What a neat and engaging way to build and develop vocabulary skills. Another point that was made in the videos I really liked was that it is not just important to use graphic organizers, but it’s important that you make the graphic organizers creative and interactive. Graphic organizers are not grade specific which I love, as ones mentioned for kindergarten in the videos have been used and found very successful in my 5^th grade classroom. I also think that students enjoy using graphic organizers, especially ones they are able to create on their own. 

Module 8: Video Analysis

What is Reading Recovery?

                We have the Reading Recovery program at my school, but it was not until after viewing this video that I had a general understanding of what it was, how it was ran, how students were picked etc. I remember getting my tour of the school last year and being told that there were rooms with two way mirrors. I now see what those are used for and just how effective they truly can be. Reading Recovery seems to be the ideal reading program that provides one on one support to struggling readers. Students who are below grade level need more than just small group instruction and to know that they are getting 30 minutes of reading support on a daily basis with a trained teacher is just great news. I found it intriguing how Reading Recovery teachers must go through an entire year of trainings and professional developments to be certified for this program. Last year I had a student (5^th grade), who was able to exit Reading Recovery. She did not attend Reading Recovery like the video stated due to being in the upper grade levels, but she did receive additional support through other reading programs and support teachers. This student still did struggle some with her reading abilities and comprehension, but she had come a long way and met the criteria to be dismissed from the program.