Module 2 - Learning Summary

Goal for Differentiated Instruction Video:

Differentiated instruction is a strategy of teaching and learning that is used to meet the needs of every student in the classroom.  Differentiating instruction is essential in every classroom and in every grade.  There is no student that learns in an identical way as another student.  Each child in our classrooms should be given opportunities to learn in ways that are interesting to them and in ways that they can learn best.   

The Story of Differentiation Video:

I enjoyed listening to Carol Tomlinson share her experience with beginning differentiation in her classroom.  As a first year teacher, it has been very shocking to me to see the large variation of ability levels within my classroom.  I don’t believe I would be able to meet each of their needs if I didn’t differentiate in some way.  I really liked at the end of the video that she focused on seeing the big picture of all students in the classroom.  She talked about not just focusing on the students that need the most intensive help and not just focusing on the high achieving students, but focusing on the class as a group with varying needs.  She made a wonderful point that differentiation isn’t the focus on just one group, such as struggling students, but that it’s meeting the needs of every student in the classroom.  

Planning Strategic Reading Lessons:

The first thing that made me excited to learn about strategic reading was reading about how it helps students.  Many students that may be behind grade level in reading have negative attitudes towards reading.  An example I see frequently with my students is Accelerated Reader.   Students that don’t get many AR points have poor attitudes about reading and about the program in general.  I would love to see strategic reading lessons begin to foster a great love of reading in those reluctant readers.  Before beginning planning lessons, I do think it’s important that teachers determine the objective of the lesson and the child’s purpose for reading.  I also think it’s important that before teaching the lesson, teachers should make both of those points clear to the students.  

Literacy Practice: Promoting Content Area Reading:

Scaffolding is extremely important in helping students read.  Students need assistance when tackling reading that would generally be considered too advanced for them.  Scaffolding makes it possible for students to accomplish reading more difficult texts while receiving assistance from teachers.  The teacher preparation slide is a main step in scaffolding.  Teachers must know the readability of texts before reading them with students, especially if the text being read is a textbook.  Teachers can better scaffold if they are aware of areas that may be difficult prior to looking at the text with the students.  Teacher previewing allows time to reflect on what steps are necessary before introducing the text to students. 

Verb Wheel Bloom’s Taxonomy:

This is an awesome reference!  I love how simple this wheel is, and it applies to all subjects.  This is a great way to think about the products that students are creating and which domain they address.  I plan to print out this document and keep it posted in my room.  I see this being very helpful in planning lessons and thinking about differentiation for my students. 

Module 1 - Learning Summary

One of my favorite parts of this module was the video of strategies for struggling readers.  I like that the video was geared towards parents.  Many parents want to help their children, but they don’t know how.  This video is interesting and a perfect guide for parents that need assistance developing strategies to help their child succeed in reading.  I also like that it provided examples of students completing the activities so parents would have an example of what they could say to help their child and what is expected of their child during the activity. 

            I also really like the powerpoint on understanding organization in expository texts.  The charts throughout the powerpoint that list the text structure, its description, and examples of signal words is an awesome guide.  When talking about text structure with my students, I would love to show those slides from the powerpoint to aid our discussions about their textbooks.  I can see each of the charts being extremely helpful as the students continue to read in their textbooks to gain meaning both now and as they move on to middle and high school.  I think the examples of graphic organizers that could be used for different text structures are also very helpful when teaching about organization in textbooks.  

            The final video of the module titled Presenting Ideas gave me so many ideas for my classroom!  I love the idea of having students make a video to explain something.  What I particularly liked about this video, though, was its use of pictures and graphics.  I think this adds an additional piece to a project since all materials need to be made by the students.  I hope to have my students complete a project similar to this one at some point this semester.  

            I found Chapter 14 of the Vacca text to be very relevant.  While reading the text, I was thinking of the science book my students use.  Vacca mentions that the text should be interesting; the pictures should be appealing, the design should be up-to-date, the type of the text should be varied and interesting, and the page should come alive for the students.  The science textbook my students use is about 8 years old, and the pictures are dated.  The students find very little joy in exploring their science textbook, while they do actually enjoy flipping through their math textbook, for example, which is new this year.  Additionally, the text is often difficult for the students to read.  I enjoyed reading the strategies before reading presented in the text, particularly previewing and skimming.  I think that simple step could be beneficial for students as they read their textbook.  Vacca also focused on the benefit of graphic organizers, which I very much agree with.  I use graphic organizers with my students at least once a week.  I think it’s an excellent way for students to organize their knowledge in one place, and a place that they can refer back to when they need to study.

Module 1 - Trip to Hawaii

The most interesting part of the trip to Hawaii, in my opinion, was all of the second video.  The various examples of graphic organizers and how they can be used in all content areas and grades gave me many ideas for new graphic organizers I can introduce to my students.  I love the problem solving grid provided in the first grade graphic organizer example.  Although I teach fifth grade, I can see that a graphic organizer similar to the one in the example geared towards older students and problems would be very helpful for word problems in particular.  I love using graphic organizers in my class, especially in science.  I find that my students are more successful when they are given a specific format for a way to organize and think about their learning.  We use Frayer models frequently for vocabulary words.  We also use tree diagrams to show how small concepts build into larger ones.  

I like that the second video mentions the importance of teaching students how to use graphic organizers.  I realized early this year that although we were using many graphic organizers, not all students saw how they were a tool to their current learning.  In addition to seeing the immediate usefulness of graphic organizers, I also talked with my students about how they are a tool when studying for assessments.  We spent time talking about the helpfulness of graphic organizers and how they can aid students in understanding the topics we are learning.