Assessment

            Finally, since this class is about assessment I learned a lot about assessing students. I learned about the need for both formative and summative assessment. I also learned about alternative assessment for students such as ELL’s or students with learning disabilities. Professor Behrens taught us about a lot of assessments that we can use in our future classes. I learned summative assessments such as the QRI, the DRA, the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test, the San Diego Quick, multiple motivation assessments. I’ve also learned about a lot of formative assessment that I would love to implement in my future classroom. I loved when Professor Behrens gave us three cups one red, one yellow and one green. The red cup is when a student needs help immediately, the yellow cup means that the student might need some help or clarification, and the green cup means the student understands! I think this is an amazing idea to be able to monitor your students.  You get to see how they are doing during the actual process; you don’t have to wait until after the activity is over and graded to see if they understand it or not. Another formative assessment that Professor Behrens shared with us was the take away slips, observations, questions, and think-pair-share. We also did brain dumping, which we wrote down as many things as we could about what we had learned the previous class; this helped our comprehension, because writing deepens comprehension! (ESOL 5.1, 5.2, 5.3) (REC 3.1, 3.2, 3.3, 3.4, 3.5, 3.6, 3.7, 3.8, 3.9, 3.10, 5.13, 6.10, 6.11)

Differentiating Instruction

          I learned a lot about differentiating instruction from chapter two in our DeVry’s textbook. As a teacher you really are going to have a wide variety of ability levels. I really noticed this when I was in service learning. There were a handful of students who were sent to enrichment because they are gifted, students who are on grade level, and students who are really struggling. I have spent over 60 hours with these kids so I’ve gotten a pretty good idea of all the students’ ability levels. I started to get kind of nervous of how I would deal with this when I’m a teacher. I need to make it challenging for the kids who are advanced, or else they well get bored.  But it also can’t be too hard for the students who are behind, I need to cater to the needs of these students or else they will fail.  Knowing all of this I got very overwhelmed, but this chapter helped me gain a better understanding of how to attack the differentiating needs in a classroom. I learned how tips on how to differentiate instruction in this chapter.  I learned that pretesting is important, it helps teachers to determine which students know concepts and which don’t. This can help teachers, because you can pair students who are knowledgeable on the concepts with students who aren’t. This creates heterogeneous grouping, which helps comprehension. I also learned that teachers will have to change strategies and activities for some students because of their abilities or knowledge. I learned that it’s ok to not have all students doing the same exact thing. You can provide different activities, and the students can produce different products. I also learned that it is important to assess the students’ interests and learning styles at the beginning of the year to better understand your students. This will help you to accommodate to their needs. ESOL (1.1, 2.2, 3.2, 3.3, 4.1, 4.2, 5.3) (REC 3.1, 3.2, 3.3, 3.4, 3.6, 3.7, 3.8, 3.9, 5.13, 6.10, 6.11)

Florida Continuous Improvement Model

         I also learned about the Florida Continuous Improvement Model.  This model is in place to ensure that teachers and students strive for success continuously.  The model incorporates planning, doing, checking and acting.  I think this model really has a lot to do with RED 4519. I think the most important part of this model is the check portion. The assessment that you conduct gives you data to analyze to determine if any extra help or if an intervention is needed. I think this will be really useful model to keep in mind as a future teacher. I want my students to succeed; I want to be a teacher who positively impacts my students. I think if I implement this model in my classroom, my students will succeed and I will succeed as a teacher. I also learned that this model has a lot to do with RTI (response to intervention). RTI is used to provide early and well organized help to students who are significantly behind and struggling. It is important because we want to improve their academic success so they don’t drop out. For RTI to be possible you need to frequently monitor your students’ progress. This is where the FCIM comes into play, for RTI to happen we need to be continuously planning, doing, checking, and acting. This model is very important for ELL students, because a lot of ELL students happen to be those behind and struggling students. If we don’t incorporate RTI into their education they will drop out. ESOL (1.1, 2.2, 3.1, 4.1, 5.1, 5.2, 5.3) (REC 3.1, 3.2, 3.3, 3.4, 3.6, 3.7, 3.8, 3.9, 5.13, 6.10, 6.11)

Interactive Whiteboard

         Something I loved learning about was the interactive whiteboard. I’ve been introduced to the interactive whiteboard in many classes. However, I’ve never been able to use them, my teachers use them in class, but I was never given an opportunity to. I loved that Professor Behrens asked Josh to come in and explain the cool features of the interactive whiteboard that we can use in the future. I was introduced to many features that I later got to play with and practice using in Professor Behrens classroom. I’m glad I was introduced to this because now I have a better understanding of how I can use this in my future classroom. I think the interactive whiteboard will be beneficial for all students because it is engaging. With Josh’s help I will be able to use the interactive whiteboard in extremely engaging and interactive ways. The students will be excited to learn and hopefully it will create memorable experiences for them. I also think that the interactive whiteboard will be even more beneficial to ADD and ELL students. It will engage the ADD students, and it will provide pictures in a fun way which is great for ELL student’s comprehension. (ESOL 2.2, 3.2, 3.3, 4.1, 4.2) (REC4.6, 4.7, 4.9, 6.10, 6.12)

Tucker Signing

        In Professor Behrens class we were introduced to Tucker signing. Tucker signing gives certain gestures to different letters and sounds. This process helps students to decode words. I really liked Tucker signing and would love to use it in my future classroom. Professor Behrens showed us many videos about Tucker signing and it was easy to see how beneficial it can be. I loved the video of Professor Behrens teaching it to a young boy. You could see how fast he learned the signs and how much it helped him to decode the words she provided. Also, you could see how interested and excited the boy was to do the signs and figure out these words! I think this would be really beneficial for students who are not motivated, have ADD, or ELL students. I think it could be very helpful for ELL students because it includes gestures, which is an ESOL strategy which helps to deepen comprehension. Plus decoding and sounds can be hard for ELL students because some languages don’t have the same sounds as English. I think adding the gestures for letters and sounds would help them understand while also helping to motivate them! (ESOL 1.1, 2.1, 2.2, 3.2, 4.1) (REC 1.A.1, 1.F.4, 2.A, 4.3, 4.5, 4.6, 4.7, 4.9, 6.2, 6.3, 6.6, 6.10)

Reciprocal Teaching

         I learned about Reciprocal Teaching first in RED 3012, however when it was introduced in RED 4519 I realized I didn’t learn that much about it! We completed a KWL chart in class about guided reading and reciprocal teaching. I knew a ton about guided reading because I had to research it a lot in RED 3012 for my guided reading lesson plan. However, I really couldn’t even remember what reciprocal teaching was. I am a visual learner, so I learned a lot about reciprocal teaching from the video that Professor Behrens played in class. Reciprocal teaching is similar to guided reading, but the students take turns becoming the “teacher” or leader during reading sessions. They learn how to discuss books they read through the reading strategies: summarizing, questioning, clarifying, and predicting. I think this would be really beneficial for students, they would be actively engaged, and it would deepen their comprehension.  In addition it would improve their discussion and communication skills. This would need a lot of teacher guidance and modeling before students will be successful at it. I think this would also be really beneficial for ELL students so they can work on communication skills but I do think they might have some difficulty with this exercise and will need extra modeling. (ESOL 2.2, 2.3, 3.2, 4.1) (REC 1.F.5, 2.E, 2.F.2, 5.3, 5.7, 5.8, 5.9, 5.11, 6.5, 6.6, 6.7, 6.8)

Gradual Release Model

          I loved learning about the Gradual Release Model. I was never sure how to actually teach things to students before I learned about this. When I did Junior Achievement, I had to teach the students lessons, they never really went well. I would always try to explain the activity to the students and they were always confused. I felt like they weren’t really learning anything. I was actually getting really discouraged and thought maybe I won’t be a good teacher! But this model would have really helped me with the Junior Achievement lessons, and will help me in the future. This model gives me a structure to follow when I’m teaching, to ensure that I’m teaching explicitly.  The gradual release model is: I do it, we do it, ya’ll do it, and you do it. This allows students to be properly scaffolded when learning something new. Another thing I think is really important is that you might have to stay in one section of the gradual release model for longer than others. When I’m a future teacher, I will use formative assessment to evaluate whether or not my students need extra time in a certain part of the Gradual Release Model. I will also realize I need to be flexible with my planning and schedule, because if students need more time, I will need to adjust my lesson and the rest of the day accordingly. (REC 2.E, 5.3)

Professional Learning Community

          I first learned about PLC’s in RED 3012, each table became a PLC to help each other along the way. Then I was further educated about them in RED 4519. In Professor Behrens class we are actually working together, interacting, and learning from the students in our PLC.  It’s not just someone to call if we need help on an assignment like it was in RED 3012. I thought that the PLC’s deepened my comprehension of assignments, textbook readings, articles, and classroom content. As a future teacher I definitely want to incorporate PLC’s into my classroom. It helps encourage the sociocultural theory. I also think that since ELL students benefit from heterogeneous grouping, PLC’s may be very useful for ELL students in your class. They can work together, learn from each other, and deepen their comprehension of the material. Most ELLs I have had experience with through service learning do not work well on their own, they get confused, discouraged, and give up. I think PLC’s would be helpful to keep them on task, give them confidence, deepen comprehension, and also increases their communication with peers! (ESOL 2.2, 3.2, 4.1) (REC 1.F.5, 2.E, 5.2, 5.3, 5.7, 5.8, 5.9) 

Sustainable Strategies

         In Professor Behrens RED 4519 class I learned about sustainable strategies. Before this class I was never taught about sustainable strategies. I learned about reading comprehension strategies in my RED 3012 class to implement before, during, and after reading, but I had no idea about sustainable strategies. I learned a lot from Professor Behrens in class, as well as her article, about this. Sustainable strategies are ways to think, but because it should be able to be used in multiple disciplines, you will be able to use in your future.  As a future teacher, I definitely will want to incorporate sustainable strategies in my classroom.  I want to teach my students meaningful strategies that can help them in their future.  In one of my lesson plans for my RED 3012 class I used a strategy for my guided reading lesson plan that wasn’t sustainable. In the future I would change this to a strategy that can be used to help them read text in their other classes as well. Such as a text coding strategy that can help them better comprehend their textbooks. (REC 2.E)