This is a unit that I am really looking forward to and hoping to grow from. It is perhaps where I feel most inadequate in my teaching. Without a solid knowledge base in my student's native language, I often feel like I lack in several of the 'best practices' categories and I really strive to become stronger in this regard
The categories that I think I am weakest in are using my assessments to inform instruction, specifically with my kids that are still learning basic English. I'd say that most of my in-class work is geared toward students at the CELDT level 3-4 [since this is where the bulk of my students are currently] and I have not yet totally adapted to meet the needs of my students at CELDT-2. I am only just know getting better at working on issues of sentence structure/word order with my lowest ELLs as well-- I had falsely assumed that it would just 'come' with more practice/English-only interaction. Parts of speech and word order are proving to be a major challenge.
I'm also really week in terms of respect for home language and cutlure. I am constantly praising them for being able to speak Spanish/ "talking up" being bilingual, but I really don't know enough about their culture. I constantly finding myself thinking that I need to read up on this, but have not have time yet. I want to understand their culture better, but with the language barrier... my conversations with their parents about this have not been as productive as I had hoped.
I am probably strongest in terms of using the GLAD strategies for UbD, and I'll even admit that I did not do the best job of this during past units. So far with geography I've used a KWL, T-Chart, Web, Input Chart, CCD, etc... and I have been really trying to focus on bringing more visuals in to my UBD as well as Blending, Read-Alouds, etc. I marked myself highest on Meaningful, Thematic instruction and Models/Visuals/Graphic Organizers. This seems to be an area where I am finally now getting confident about using these strategies, but I still look forward to more improvement as I learn more from this unit.
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
Tuesday, March 3, 2009
110 Equity
I found the article The Silenced Dialogue to be perhaps the most interesting of the articles that we have read so far— it reminded me of the conversations we had about Diversity and Achievement during the summer institute.
Question:
Given what we have learned in this article, what is the answer for a teacher who does not know the language? Frankly, after reading the article I am grappling more than ever with what I am likely doing wrong, how inaccessible the information might be because of my lack of cultural knowledge, etc. I especially found myself puzzled by some of the conversation on the implications of language in culture of power versus a culture without the nuanced language that I am accustomed to speaking with. (34). I often find myself asking students questions like “What should you be doing to get on green again?” or “How does a Rocketeer behave?” in my classroom management. The idea of indirect adherence to rules that Delpit spoke of is something that I think I struggle with—should I just be more direct to help these children? Or is not helping them at all if I am not using the language of the culture of power?
Quote:
“The rules or codes I’m speaking of relate to linguistic forms, communicative strategies, and presentation of self; that is, ways of talking, ways of writing, ways of dressing and ways of interacting. [3.]The rules of the culture of power are a reflection of the rules of the culture who have power” (25) This piece of the article- listing off the attributes of the ‘culture of power’ stuck with me in a particularly strong way. It is something that I often feel so conflicted on—am I being entirely disrespectful to their ways and culture in my lack of awareness? Our school emphasizes the importance of the culture of power, but what will happen when the ‘power’ this children are getting will inevitably clash with the cultural ties of their families and community?
Comment:
There is so much on this article that was really valuable—it caused me to think back on my own cultural associations, inherent power possessed, etc. I have recently experienced some frustration in terms of student/home/family lives so I think this unit could not possibly come at a better time for me. I am still trying to adjust and learn more about the community that I’m teaching in—I sometimes feel like the biggest outsider among the staff since I do not even speak the appropriate language and I think that drives an inherent divide between myself and the students.
Question:
Given what we have learned in this article, what is the answer for a teacher who does not know the language? Frankly, after reading the article I am grappling more than ever with what I am likely doing wrong, how inaccessible the information might be because of my lack of cultural knowledge, etc. I especially found myself puzzled by some of the conversation on the implications of language in culture of power versus a culture without the nuanced language that I am accustomed to speaking with. (34). I often find myself asking students questions like “What should you be doing to get on green again?” or “How does a Rocketeer behave?” in my classroom management. The idea of indirect adherence to rules that Delpit spoke of is something that I think I struggle with—should I just be more direct to help these children? Or is not helping them at all if I am not using the language of the culture of power?
Quote:
“The rules or codes I’m speaking of relate to linguistic forms, communicative strategies, and presentation of self; that is, ways of talking, ways of writing, ways of dressing and ways of interacting. [3.]The rules of the culture of power are a reflection of the rules of the culture who have power” (25) This piece of the article- listing off the attributes of the ‘culture of power’ stuck with me in a particularly strong way. It is something that I often feel so conflicted on—am I being entirely disrespectful to their ways and culture in my lack of awareness? Our school emphasizes the importance of the culture of power, but what will happen when the ‘power’ this children are getting will inevitably clash with the cultural ties of their families and community?
Comment:
There is so much on this article that was really valuable—it caused me to think back on my own cultural associations, inherent power possessed, etc. I have recently experienced some frustration in terms of student/home/family lives so I think this unit could not possibly come at a better time for me. I am still trying to adjust and learn more about the community that I’m teaching in—I sometimes feel like the biggest outsider among the staff since I do not even speak the appropriate language and I think that drives an inherent divide between myself and the students.
Saturday, January 24, 2009
108 Assignment 2: Differentiated Assessment
For the unit that your Lesson Study lesson plan is situated in, what are your student outcomes (unit topic, understandings, knowledge, skills) and your end of unit assessment? How does your planned instruction & formative assessment for the lesson plan move your students toward that goal?
It's a little tough to answer this question since I chose to differentiate my blending (or, well, re-differentiate my blending... I tried it about a month ago but I had too many things going on for the kids to do and time-wise it was all over the place). The Top 10 standard I was hitting is Reading 1.10- Generate the sounds from all the letters and letter patterns, including consonant blends and long- and short-vowel patterns, and blend those sounds into recognizable words. Since blending is 'ongoing' the outcomes are essentially what's written in the standard, but I know that for some of my students, they still have a way to go on that. On the other hand, I have 7 that are fairly proficient in this arena, so giving them the independent work to do makes sense I think.
In terms of assessment, its different if we're taking about this in terms of the 'unit' or in terms of the specific day. For the day that I had videotaped, the goal was for the students to be able to blend words that contained the ou (/ow sound/) spellings. We were working on the OCR 'cow card' (day 2 of this study, since we'd already covered the ow spelling). Understanding being that vowel teams paired together can make a different combined sound than the two vowels do separately-- something we've also been working on in the past two OCR 'mini-units'. My instruction for the day moves my students toward that goal by ensuring that all have reached a level of understanding of the sound (via two different means-- written communication with higher students, verbal with lowers) and are able to sound out words that contain the sound. This didn't happen 100% in the lesson for all students (I had 2 that still didn't totally 'get it'), but I had built-in the option of continuing it in Guided Reading groups later in the afternoon to go over it again and specifically address these issues. I'm trying to track what's going on in terms of blending with these specific few kids, because I'm thinking that I may need to implement a 'blending center' (I have a variety of thoughts on how to do this, but will be running a few by Peggy this week) just for my lowest reading group. They seem to need more than what I was able to provide during the differentiated lesson, and without boring the majority of my class (who, per ongoing assessment, totally 'get it'), I think I need to look at other avenues to ensure mastery for them. I hope that that makes sense-- I track 'blending' (and general phonemic awareness lapses) through a system of notes on which kids still need to work on what, and I definitely plan on getting myself together more on this and pulling together a more cohesive system of assessment for this soon.
It's a little tough to answer this question since I chose to differentiate my blending (or, well, re-differentiate my blending... I tried it about a month ago but I had too many things going on for the kids to do and time-wise it was all over the place). The Top 10 standard I was hitting is Reading 1.10- Generate the sounds from all the letters and letter patterns, including consonant blends and long- and short-vowel patterns, and blend those sounds into recognizable words. Since blending is 'ongoing' the outcomes are essentially what's written in the standard, but I know that for some of my students, they still have a way to go on that. On the other hand, I have 7 that are fairly proficient in this arena, so giving them the independent work to do makes sense I think.
In terms of assessment, its different if we're taking about this in terms of the 'unit' or in terms of the specific day. For the day that I had videotaped, the goal was for the students to be able to blend words that contained the ou (/ow sound/) spellings. We were working on the OCR 'cow card' (day 2 of this study, since we'd already covered the ow spelling). Understanding being that vowel teams paired together can make a different combined sound than the two vowels do separately-- something we've also been working on in the past two OCR 'mini-units'. My instruction for the day moves my students toward that goal by ensuring that all have reached a level of understanding of the sound (via two different means-- written communication with higher students, verbal with lowers) and are able to sound out words that contain the sound. This didn't happen 100% in the lesson for all students (I had 2 that still didn't totally 'get it'), but I had built-in the option of continuing it in Guided Reading groups later in the afternoon to go over it again and specifically address these issues. I'm trying to track what's going on in terms of blending with these specific few kids, because I'm thinking that I may need to implement a 'blending center' (I have a variety of thoughts on how to do this, but will be running a few by Peggy this week) just for my lowest reading group. They seem to need more than what I was able to provide during the differentiated lesson, and without boring the majority of my class (who, per ongoing assessment, totally 'get it'), I think I need to look at other avenues to ensure mastery for them. I hope that that makes sense-- I track 'blending' (and general phonemic awareness lapses) through a system of notes on which kids still need to work on what, and I definitely plan on getting myself together more on this and pulling together a more cohesive system of assessment for this soon.
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
These chapters were full of great ideas, but I think I still need more time to shift through them and really think about what would work with first graders. It was awesome to read a 'case study' of how stations should work in a 4th grade classroom, but at this point I can't quite figure out how I'd be able to manage them while keeping order with my first graders. That aspect is still a bit of a question for me, so I'm looking forward to hearing how other teachers would approach a 'stations' work time instead of centers. I did really like how Tomlinson added in the "Differentiate Why" aspect-- something I don't always even consider myself. Like I spoke about in last week's blog and last week's meeting, I fall into the trap of pulling my kids out by High-Middle-Low, giving them variants on the same task and then calling that differentiate. Considering the 'Why Differentiate' aspect has really made me change my own understanding of flexible groupings (which I feel like I only do in terms of Guided Reading at this point).
On the other hand, there were elements of the reading that I think could be immediately applicable to my teaching. Agendas are something that I have found to work great with my kids already-- although they have been given the same tasks to complete. I also have only given then daily agendas (or occasionally one runs for 2-3 days). I think that agendas would be hugely effective in writing for me. My students are already accustomed to an editors checklist, and I've been seeking more effective ways to differentiate writing for my lower students especially, as well as my students who are even still struggling with the handwriting element. The article stated that "Generally, students determine the order in which they will complete agenda items. A particular time in the day is set aside as agenda time. In
elementary classrooms and block scheduled secondary classrooms, teachers often select the first part of the day or block. In other classes, agendas are
used once a week or as anchor activities when students complete other assigned work." While creating the actual agendas could be more time consuming for me, in the long run I think they could be hugely effective, especially since I have been transitioning my writing process into a 5-day web, pre-write, drafting, publishing etc process as Peggy has suggested. There is just so much to do in writing that I'd love to have agendas for both their benefit and mine.
In Tomlinson's Chapter 8, the concept of "Entry Points" was especially fascinating to me-- basically the idea that different students may need different jump-off points to access content, and that making content accessible is a crucial element of differentiating. I often find that I wish I was more aware of my students place on the topic of multiple intelligences-- I wish I knew early on how to determine who was spatial, who was linguistic, etc. I will be interested to discuss more of this in our seminar and how other teachers make content immediately accessible for kids who are not the 'typical' learner or who do not do as well with the Rocketship style.
I have been feeling (in general) really overwhelmed with teaching in general at the moment. Not necessarily with instruction or being in my classroom with my students, but moreso in terms of being pushed beyond what I'm capable of juggling at the moment. Throwing more differentiation into the mix is only adding to that stress, so I'm trying to really think through what my best routes would be to differentiation-- how to do it effectively for both the benefit of myself and my students. I'm looking forward to hearing about different ways to differentiate during the next meeting.
On the other hand, there were elements of the reading that I think could be immediately applicable to my teaching. Agendas are something that I have found to work great with my kids already-- although they have been given the same tasks to complete. I also have only given then daily agendas (or occasionally one runs for 2-3 days). I think that agendas would be hugely effective in writing for me. My students are already accustomed to an editors checklist, and I've been seeking more effective ways to differentiate writing for my lower students especially, as well as my students who are even still struggling with the handwriting element. The article stated that "Generally, students determine the order in which they will complete agenda items. A particular time in the day is set aside as agenda time. In
elementary classrooms and block scheduled secondary classrooms, teachers often select the first part of the day or block. In other classes, agendas are
used once a week or as anchor activities when students complete other assigned work." While creating the actual agendas could be more time consuming for me, in the long run I think they could be hugely effective, especially since I have been transitioning my writing process into a 5-day web, pre-write, drafting, publishing etc process as Peggy has suggested. There is just so much to do in writing that I'd love to have agendas for both their benefit and mine.
In Tomlinson's Chapter 8, the concept of "Entry Points" was especially fascinating to me-- basically the idea that different students may need different jump-off points to access content, and that making content accessible is a crucial element of differentiating. I often find that I wish I was more aware of my students place on the topic of multiple intelligences-- I wish I knew early on how to determine who was spatial, who was linguistic, etc. I will be interested to discuss more of this in our seminar and how other teachers make content immediately accessible for kids who are not the 'typical' learner or who do not do as well with the Rocketship style.
I have been feeling (in general) really overwhelmed with teaching in general at the moment. Not necessarily with instruction or being in my classroom with my students, but moreso in terms of being pushed beyond what I'm capable of juggling at the moment. Throwing more differentiation into the mix is only adding to that stress, so I'm trying to really think through what my best routes would be to differentiation-- how to do it effectively for both the benefit of myself and my students. I'm looking forward to hearing about different ways to differentiate during the next meeting.
Sunday, January 11, 2009
108: Self Assessment
The Tomlinson reading and this assignment provided me with a good opportunity to reflect and realize that, even when it seems like progress is slow going, I definitely have shown improvement this year. I have such a long way to go still before I would consider myself truly 'skilled' in any of my areas for growth, however, I know that I am making progress and will continue to make progress based on the reflection I've done.
There was one specific quote that really jumped out at me regarding differentiation "Differentiated teaching is responsive teaching. It stems from a teacher's solid (and growing) understanding of how teaching and learning occur and it responds to varied learners' needs for more structure or more independence, more practice or greater challenge, a more active or less active approach to learning and so on." It is this particular facet of differentiation-- how it is responsive, changes, etc that scares me to some degree. As I become more and more comfortable with teaching, as presenting the material becomes more routine and streamlined, I start to think of how, in some ways, next year will probably (hopefully?) feel easier. I will have my materials, know what is reasonable to expect from first graders etc. But at the same time, each year of teaching means completely starting fresh in terms of differentiation. Every child will have different needs.
All of this, plus Christmas break and being away from teaching, gave me some time to think about ways to really target kids. I am almost embarrassed to admit that I didn't realize that three of my 'higher' students had serious deficiencies in one specific area until December. One student is in my morning class, the other two in my afternoon class, and they are all at slightly different places in all of it. This week I have started a whole new course of action with them- having them bring home extra work, spending more time with them during school and after to work on this one specific need. Still, I don't want the same thing to happen next year-- I'd really like to assess needs better (or rather, make sure I am addressing the whole range of academic needs, not just comp and decoding struggles etc) so that I can be better differentiating for all of my students, not just my extremely high or extremely low ones.
I think my current level of understanding, in general, varies widely in terms of the TPEs we have been working on. I feel the weakest on Instructional Planning-- while I generally have weekly plans done ahead of time now, and I always do what I intend to in the time that I intend to use, I still feel like I'm not maximizing the time that I have with my students necessarily, nor am I pushing for their participation as much as I should be. I think there are still a few students, in both classes but moreso in my morning class, who are not getting nearly as much out of class as they should be. That comes down to my teaching, and my not reaching them as much as I should be. Also, this to some degree ties in with investment. While my middle-to-high students are VERY interested in making it to Level 16 on DRA, my lower students can still sometimes come off as ambivalent. It's often the higher kids trying to motivate the lower ones as opposed to the lower ones really giving their best effort independently.
Somewhere that I think I have improved on the Mid-Year Review is Creating and Maintaining Effective Environments for Student Learning. Its been a strange process of even figuring out the most effective ways to use a classroom and the space I have, and keeping it organized in a way that makes sense to both my students and myself. I want them to have ownership over the space, and I think I do still have a ways to go in that (i.e. making sure a lot of their work is up on the walls, etc).
In summary, I think the areas that I am doing the best at are differentiating for my higher students (finding ways to challenge them, making their work appropraite to their level), specifically with my afternoon class; Instructional Time and making content accessible to my ELLs (though I am definitely still working on this). In terms of Instructional Time, this is where I have seen the greatest improvement in my skills as a teacher. Though I still have a good ways to grow in this regard, I have gotten significantly better at sticking to our daily schedule, following the 10-2 rule, using up extra time in effective ways (with activities that we are able to do whole class, or that students are able to do independently or with a partner, etc). I feel like my use of instructional time is almost completely different than the first month of school, where I was just looking for things to do to fill the time or stretching activities longer than they needed to be. Now, class is a lot more fast-paced and I hope this continues. I also think that I have majorly grown in terms of classroom management and I am so happy with how things have changed in that regard. I totally attribute that success to my work with Peggy, Melissa, etc, and being taped, watching the video and reflecting on that.
I am looking forward to more growth in terms of reaching the needs of all of my students. I often reflect on how much better things go with my afternoon class, and their scores on assessments always show that. The mood is more fun and engaged, the students are more interested, etc. I feel like their energy (which was overwhelming at the beginning of the year) has been channeled into a love of reading and that is so rewarding to see. Making that happen for my morning class is something I'm really going to push hard for in the next few months. They are simply not as engaged, not as invested, etc despite being very well-behaved. They have taught me a good lesson that classroom management on its own is not enough, and I need to push them more.
I still think I have a long way to go on my UbD instruction as well. This particular unit is a major challenge for more, so I'm trying to push through it (as we had it 'planned') for the next week or so before I meet with the other first grade teacher and we make any changes we need to. Overall though, I'm not sure that my UbD instruction teachers for 'deeper understanding' quite enough, and I plan to adhere much more closely to Jay McTighe's vision of what UbD should look like, and how to combine it with DI in our next unit.
Reflecting back on my Continuum of Teacher Development, two things stand out. First, I misjudged my skills after the summer institute. While those may have held true for the grade level that I had taught over the summer, they did not necessarily hold for first grade. The most obvious spot where I did this was in 'Determining Student progress toward achieving essential outcomes'. I placed myself in the emerging category, and looking back, I was definitely in Beginning. I'm just NOW getting into emerging. Better communicating the standards and learning objectives was my professional development New Years resolution, and something I am determined to do better at in 2009.
Secondly, I think I am still, for the most part, still in the Emerging/Applying categories overall. Looking at that is a bit frustrating; I now realize that teaching is a huge learning curve and I have such a long way to go. I really want to be in the Innovating category for the sake of my students, and it is hard to see myself still struggling in certain aspects of teaching. That said, I am seeing lots of progress and I know I will get there, if I really focus on the specific needs that I have. Something that I began doing in the middle of last semester, and plan to continue doing this year is to focus on one personal goal per week. One week, that goal was differentiating my phonics instruction for my higher student. Another week, it was pushing for better understanding of spelling rules and patterns, etc. I plan to keep doing this, since I found it, in conjunction with tying it to the seminars and my one-on-ones with Peggy, forced me to move forward on small aspects that are part of the larger picture in terms of the continuum. Tying my goals more closely to the rubric will hopefully help me make progress in the specific areas that most need it during the second half of the year.
There was one specific quote that really jumped out at me regarding differentiation "Differentiated teaching is responsive teaching. It stems from a teacher's solid (and growing) understanding of how teaching and learning occur and it responds to varied learners' needs for more structure or more independence, more practice or greater challenge, a more active or less active approach to learning and so on." It is this particular facet of differentiation-- how it is responsive, changes, etc that scares me to some degree. As I become more and more comfortable with teaching, as presenting the material becomes more routine and streamlined, I start to think of how, in some ways, next year will probably (hopefully?) feel easier. I will have my materials, know what is reasonable to expect from first graders etc. But at the same time, each year of teaching means completely starting fresh in terms of differentiation. Every child will have different needs.
All of this, plus Christmas break and being away from teaching, gave me some time to think about ways to really target kids. I am almost embarrassed to admit that I didn't realize that three of my 'higher' students had serious deficiencies in one specific area until December. One student is in my morning class, the other two in my afternoon class, and they are all at slightly different places in all of it. This week I have started a whole new course of action with them- having them bring home extra work, spending more time with them during school and after to work on this one specific need. Still, I don't want the same thing to happen next year-- I'd really like to assess needs better (or rather, make sure I am addressing the whole range of academic needs, not just comp and decoding struggles etc) so that I can be better differentiating for all of my students, not just my extremely high or extremely low ones.
I think my current level of understanding, in general, varies widely in terms of the TPEs we have been working on. I feel the weakest on Instructional Planning-- while I generally have weekly plans done ahead of time now, and I always do what I intend to in the time that I intend to use, I still feel like I'm not maximizing the time that I have with my students necessarily, nor am I pushing for their participation as much as I should be. I think there are still a few students, in both classes but moreso in my morning class, who are not getting nearly as much out of class as they should be. That comes down to my teaching, and my not reaching them as much as I should be. Also, this to some degree ties in with investment. While my middle-to-high students are VERY interested in making it to Level 16 on DRA, my lower students can still sometimes come off as ambivalent. It's often the higher kids trying to motivate the lower ones as opposed to the lower ones really giving their best effort independently.
Somewhere that I think I have improved on the Mid-Year Review is Creating and Maintaining Effective Environments for Student Learning. Its been a strange process of even figuring out the most effective ways to use a classroom and the space I have, and keeping it organized in a way that makes sense to both my students and myself. I want them to have ownership over the space, and I think I do still have a ways to go in that (i.e. making sure a lot of their work is up on the walls, etc).
In summary, I think the areas that I am doing the best at are differentiating for my higher students (finding ways to challenge them, making their work appropraite to their level), specifically with my afternoon class; Instructional Time and making content accessible to my ELLs (though I am definitely still working on this). In terms of Instructional Time, this is where I have seen the greatest improvement in my skills as a teacher. Though I still have a good ways to grow in this regard, I have gotten significantly better at sticking to our daily schedule, following the 10-2 rule, using up extra time in effective ways (with activities that we are able to do whole class, or that students are able to do independently or with a partner, etc). I feel like my use of instructional time is almost completely different than the first month of school, where I was just looking for things to do to fill the time or stretching activities longer than they needed to be. Now, class is a lot more fast-paced and I hope this continues. I also think that I have majorly grown in terms of classroom management and I am so happy with how things have changed in that regard. I totally attribute that success to my work with Peggy, Melissa, etc, and being taped, watching the video and reflecting on that.
I am looking forward to more growth in terms of reaching the needs of all of my students. I often reflect on how much better things go with my afternoon class, and their scores on assessments always show that. The mood is more fun and engaged, the students are more interested, etc. I feel like their energy (which was overwhelming at the beginning of the year) has been channeled into a love of reading and that is so rewarding to see. Making that happen for my morning class is something I'm really going to push hard for in the next few months. They are simply not as engaged, not as invested, etc despite being very well-behaved. They have taught me a good lesson that classroom management on its own is not enough, and I need to push them more.
I still think I have a long way to go on my UbD instruction as well. This particular unit is a major challenge for more, so I'm trying to push through it (as we had it 'planned') for the next week or so before I meet with the other first grade teacher and we make any changes we need to. Overall though, I'm not sure that my UbD instruction teachers for 'deeper understanding' quite enough, and I plan to adhere much more closely to Jay McTighe's vision of what UbD should look like, and how to combine it with DI in our next unit.
Reflecting back on my Continuum of Teacher Development, two things stand out. First, I misjudged my skills after the summer institute. While those may have held true for the grade level that I had taught over the summer, they did not necessarily hold for first grade. The most obvious spot where I did this was in 'Determining Student progress toward achieving essential outcomes'. I placed myself in the emerging category, and looking back, I was definitely in Beginning. I'm just NOW getting into emerging. Better communicating the standards and learning objectives was my professional development New Years resolution, and something I am determined to do better at in 2009.
Secondly, I think I am still, for the most part, still in the Emerging/Applying categories overall. Looking at that is a bit frustrating; I now realize that teaching is a huge learning curve and I have such a long way to go. I really want to be in the Innovating category for the sake of my students, and it is hard to see myself still struggling in certain aspects of teaching. That said, I am seeing lots of progress and I know I will get there, if I really focus on the specific needs that I have. Something that I began doing in the middle of last semester, and plan to continue doing this year is to focus on one personal goal per week. One week, that goal was differentiating my phonics instruction for my higher student. Another week, it was pushing for better understanding of spelling rules and patterns, etc. I plan to keep doing this, since I found it, in conjunction with tying it to the seminars and my one-on-ones with Peggy, forced me to move forward on small aspects that are part of the larger picture in terms of the continuum. Tying my goals more closely to the rubric will hopefully help me make progress in the specific areas that most need it during the second half of the year.
Sunday, December 7, 2008
105- How Teachers Learn
Q: Throughout this reading, I found the one major stumbling block to really supporting teachers being that there are so very many ways to do it, but few programs that do enough to truly support teachers, according to the article. Knowing that all teachers learn differently, how do we possibly select the most effective (including time-effective and cost-effective) manners to support teachers without overwhelming them?
Q: "Action research is an approach to professional development in which,typically, teachers spend 1 or more year working on classroom-based research projects. While action research has has multiple forms and purposes, it is an important way for teachers to improve their teaching and curricula, and there is also an assumpting that what teachers learn through this process can be shared with others." (199/200?). I found this quote interesting because, having just come from college where I was accustomed to doing research and getting credit for it, my brain is somewhat still in that 'mode.'Being in that mode, and knowing that I benefit from this type of collaboration, I think pushing myself to do this in the future, could really benefit me as a teacher, and also make me feel significantly more productive just personally.
C:One thing that really struck me was when the article discussed how the percentage of money invested by schools in educating their teachers is minimal-- 1 to 3 percent of the operating budget. When you consider that, it seems to be no wonder that teachers can feel so isolated and unsupported in the typical classroom setting. I do not feel this so much at Rocketship, but this feeling was a huge possibility we were warned about this summer at Institute. I can only imagine how much more success schools might see in teacher retention if they truly invested in making their teachers have important resources. The Guided Reading in-services are something I really appreciate about Rocketship, and seeing that statistic only made me appreciate them more.
Q: "Action research is an approach to professional development in which,typically, teachers spend 1 or more year working on classroom-based research projects. While action research has has multiple forms and purposes, it is an important way for teachers to improve their teaching and curricula, and there is also an assumpting that what teachers learn through this process can be shared with others." (199/200?). I found this quote interesting because, having just come from college where I was accustomed to doing research and getting credit for it, my brain is somewhat still in that 'mode.'Being in that mode, and knowing that I benefit from this type of collaboration, I think pushing myself to do this in the future, could really benefit me as a teacher, and also make me feel significantly more productive just personally.
C:One thing that really struck me was when the article discussed how the percentage of money invested by schools in educating their teachers is minimal-- 1 to 3 percent of the operating budget. When you consider that, it seems to be no wonder that teachers can feel so isolated and unsupported in the typical classroom setting. I do not feel this so much at Rocketship, but this feeling was a huge possibility we were warned about this summer at Institute. I can only imagine how much more success schools might see in teacher retention if they truly invested in making their teachers have important resources. The Guided Reading in-services are something I really appreciate about Rocketship, and seeing that statistic only made me appreciate them more.
Tuesday, December 2, 2008
105: How People Learn, Assignment #1
Learning from Speculation to Science
Q: "The new science of learning does not deny that facts are important for thinking and problem solving. Research on expertise in areas such as chess, history, science an dmathematics demonstrate that experts' abilities to think and solve problems depend on a rich body of knowledge about subject matter. However, the research also shows clearly that "usable knowledge" is not the same as a mere list of disconnected facts. Experts' knowledge is connected and organized around important concepts." (p 10).
This quote really struck me as I, all too often, find myself falling into the category of giving them random knowledge, but not making it entirely applicable category. Our incredibly randomized spelling lists from the beginning of the year stood out to me especially--- without a true reason, why would my students remember the words? It is little surprise that they did as poorly on the first spelling tests as I did.
Q: The article spoke of the idea of how we must incorporate pre-existing knowledge in order to be successful. However, this is something I really struggle with when, sometimes, at the first grade level, very little pre-existing knowledge may exist. How do we tailor this to a lower-elementary level? What are some strategies to make a year a cummulative buildup of pre-existing knowledge?
C: I found it interesting to even frame learning in the context of a 'science'. It takes it to the metacognitive level, but also forces thoughts on methodology and process, and fact as opposed to 'theory'. This article kind of stood in the face of what we have all heard so often-- 'this' or 'that' theory of education. When we are forced to think of education beyond the context of theory, and take it to the level of research-compiled fact, with both the behavioral and academic contexts considered, I think we have the opportunity to reach new depths as educators.
Q: "The new science of learning does not deny that facts are important for thinking and problem solving. Research on expertise in areas such as chess, history, science an dmathematics demonstrate that experts' abilities to think and solve problems depend on a rich body of knowledge about subject matter. However, the research also shows clearly that "usable knowledge" is not the same as a mere list of disconnected facts. Experts' knowledge is connected and organized around important concepts." (p 10).
This quote really struck me as I, all too often, find myself falling into the category of giving them random knowledge, but not making it entirely applicable category. Our incredibly randomized spelling lists from the beginning of the year stood out to me especially--- without a true reason, why would my students remember the words? It is little surprise that they did as poorly on the first spelling tests as I did.
Q: The article spoke of the idea of how we must incorporate pre-existing knowledge in order to be successful. However, this is something I really struggle with when, sometimes, at the first grade level, very little pre-existing knowledge may exist. How do we tailor this to a lower-elementary level? What are some strategies to make a year a cummulative buildup of pre-existing knowledge?
C: I found it interesting to even frame learning in the context of a 'science'. It takes it to the metacognitive level, but also forces thoughts on methodology and process, and fact as opposed to 'theory'. This article kind of stood in the face of what we have all heard so often-- 'this' or 'that' theory of education. When we are forced to think of education beyond the context of theory, and take it to the level of research-compiled fact, with both the behavioral and academic contexts considered, I think we have the opportunity to reach new depths as educators.
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