Exit Slip 2/24

One topic I would like to see on the mid-term is focus on finding and capitalizing on a students locus of control.

Lesson Plan Planning

Living Systems - 5th grade

Fact storming,
KWL
These strategies allow students to organize prior knowledge and begin finding gaps in which we need to focus.

Picture books, dichotomous keys

Objectives

TSWBAT classify organisms in a dichotomous key using physical characteristics, body structures, and behavioral traits.

TSWBAT create a chart organizing organisms by survival behavioral traits.

Written Purpose
Within life science students need to be able to use a dichotomous key to classify organisms.

2 instructional strategies for each stage of Par
Preparation - Word inventory,
Assistance - Jot Chart
Reflection -

Reading Materials -

Living Systems

5.5             The student will investigate and understand that organisms are made of one or more cells and have distinguishing characteristics that play a vital role in the organism’s ability to survive and thrive in its environment. Key concepts include

b)   classification of organisms using physical characteristics, body structures, and behavior of the organism; and

c)   traits of organisms that allow them to survive in their environment.


Vocabulary strategy -
Word inventory, graphic organizer. Students need to address vocabulary in the beginning but the main focus of vocabulary for a science lesson should be during the assistance phase of a lesson.

*Not finished

#3 Stop after podcast Pages 183-190

Conscious reading is key to understanding vocabulary. A student must have strong meta-congition and note taking strategies to pick out and understand unknown vocabulary.
Word association activity - work in groups to clear up misconceptions
Different type of context clues( 1.Definitions 2.Signal Words 3. Direct Explanations 4. synonyms 5. antonyms 6. inferences)
Structural analysis- a basis of morphology can help students understand

Discover the words context
Isolate the prefix
Separate the suffix
Say the stem or root word
Examine the stem or root word
Check with someone
Try the dictions

Learning Blog 5

Vocabulary development is my second important component to teaching reading. Once decoding is mastered I believe the main focus needs to be on continual development of comprehension and vocabulary. As adults we will always encounter new vocabulary. Using context clues, glossaries, and dictionaries are skills that will never go to waste.

The strategy that I absolutely love for teaching vocabulary is the word inventory. I believe as adults we do this sub-consciously. When reading textbooks and article journals we quickly skim over the bolded or italicized vocabulary noting those that we are unfamiliar with. I remember in 4^th and 5^th grade we would have to do a “how many words are in your brain” test in the beginning of each chapter and unit.  We would use ratings (1-I don’t know it, 2-I’ve heard it, 3-I know it!) and anything under three had to go in our “learn it” section in our notebooks. This strategy helped me not only learn how to handle new vocabulary but also solid note taking skills as well.

The other section of this chapter that really intrigued me is the incidental vocabulary development. I believe that this is also a very important section of vocabulary development. As teachers we cannot possible teach every important word to a student, they have to assume some of the responsibility. We can assist by changing some of our conversation vocabulary to challenge our students but the text also points out that reading is the biggest tool for incidental vocabulary. Students don’t even need to read books but rhymes, poems; advertisements are all things that can foster vocabulary development. However with incidental vocab development teachers need to be sensitive to multi-use words when teaching intentional vocabulary. One thing I have experienced working in upper elementary is that pop-culture has shaped meaning of words that you have to very conscious to in order to keep school appropriate conversation in the classroom. One tool that helps me ensure this is to use urbandictionary.com or other slang sites to research words I think may have an inappropriate context. In these cases I don’t leave these words open to discussion but allow students to ask questions on exit slips if they need clarification.

Vocabulary is an extremely important concept of reading to focus on. Vocabulary is also universal throughout the reading process. Different vocabulary strategies can be used for pre-, during, and post- reading activities.

Learning Blog #4 Comprehension for mute learners

As a teacher making autonomous readers and teaching metacognition strategies is something I have always struggle with. These are things that really happen inside a child’s brain and every brain is different. One of my undergrad professors ended every class by saying “our job would be a cake walk if we could just open a student’s head and see what they missed.” Comprehension strategies are key to making an autonomous reader but we cant make them comprehend. I really love how this chapter breaks teaching comprehension strategies down to begin with communications skills. I never really thought about if a student cant communicate effectively it can hinder their reading comprehension. I am currently teaching a 5^th grade inclusion class and I have two students who are selectively mute. One student will whisper to any teacher when spoken to but the other student has not said a single word all year. This makes it even more difficult to understand where students are in their reading comprehension. The only way these students communicate is through written expression. Even though I believe that focusing on communication in general and about what they have read is a great step for my main stream students but I am wondering how skipping this step affects my mute students. One thing I really like about these reading strategies is that most if not all of them can be adapted to involve written expression. I believe as the teacher we need to verbally model these strategies but these strategies do not leave my mute students unable to participate.

            The most important things to remember when creating and using reflection activities is to; Be open-ended, provide multiple entry-points, deal with intellectually important content, and if you use partner or group projects provide clear evaluate criteria.  Do you believe that not being able to verbally communicate will hinder your comprehension skills?

Chapter 4 Learning Blog 3

When teaching reading in the younger grades it is obvious that we need to assist students during reading time. Teachers sometimes over look this skill when integrating reading into the content areas. When students begin reading to learn instead of learning to read we need to teach them what to do with this knowledge. Students can read a paragraph fluently but then forget everything an hour later because they never did anything with that knowledge. If students are not actively making connections and organizing information as they are reading then they are not learning.  Even as an adult I am guilty of spacing out during reading and not comprehending what I am learning. As teachers we need to teach students several strategies to actively connect with the text as well as know when they are no longer focused.

One reading strategy that really stuck out to me is reciprocal teaching. Reciprocal teaching is a verbal strategy where students and teachers work together to understand text. The teacher assigns a passage of reading then asks students to help summarize the paragraph and then answer thought provoking questions.  As the teacher uses this strategy they can release power to the students. Students are able to completely summarize and ask questions to their peers. This is a great teaching strategy because it models the thought process behind reading and synthesizing information.

Another strategy I really like is the jot chart. A jot chart can have different sections and columns depending on the topic. One example would be math or science, students can organize facts, pictures, and vocabulary in a way easy to study. I believe that this makes students responsible for their own learning. They can organize the information that makes sense to them and what they feel is important.  Students can make connections from personal experience while also linking the information within the text in a way that helps them.

When using these strategies it is important to understand your students’ level of independence so that they can be successful.  Do you believe that there is a level of appropriateness or with scaffolding all strategies are possible?

Learning Blog #2

Students are not robots

When teaching sometimes we can get wrapped up in the pressure of tests, standards, and goals. It would be a lot less stressful if we could send the information in an email to the students and they would be automatically programed to know and use the data. Unfortunately that is not how the human mind works. Also when teachers become rushed and stressed they focus on moving forward and being efficient and “fun” activities can be sacrificed. When having fun students are actively engaged and this allows their minds to make more connections and file this information away more permanently. One mistake that I believe teachers can make with this theory is that they focus too much on fun. With all the theories and methods in teaching balance is key. If I was to base most of my lessons on if they were fun or not I would need to keep in mind a few things. First of all, I need to have a strong enough classroom management system that will keep my students focus and keep order and control in the classroom. Also if the lesson content heavy enough that the students are learning while having fun not just playing around. One way teachers can monitor this is by being actively involved. If you are going to assign a hands on fun lesson and then sit at your desk you are being no more productive than the teacher who scares their students into learning using no fun. I believe that it is also important the when including fun into a lesson you need to know where your students prior knowledge ends. This prior knowledge needs to be on the type of fun you are having, game or activity you are playing, and content knowledge. If you assign a matching game with words that are 3 levels above your students and content they haven’t learned you have completely lost the lesson. However the same goes for the activity. Especially as years go on certain activities that may be common knowledge to the teacher may be completely foreign for the student. Just as we assess for content knowledge we need to pre-assess for where the “fun level” exists in our classrooms.