Module 2 Summary

The content of Module 2 concentrated on two topics, connections between reading and writing and differentiated instruction. Due to the nature of my students, I have much more practical experience in differentiation than writing instruction in the classroom. When watching the Story of Differentiation, I related to the classroom scenario that Tomlinson described; I have also had a class with students of highly varied cognitive skills and academic performance. I thought it was interesting how the concept of differentiation came about out of necessity and have also had to work to address the whole group with content, and then pull students individually to work on necessary skills.

            This differentiation can be accomplished through scaffolding, working within the zone of proximal development (Vygotsky) to gradually assist students to become independent in application. In regards to literacy instruction, this gradual release of control would be addressed in the planning and preparation stages. As you reflect on what the students can accomplish with assistance, you should notice that the strategies and approaches to reading that have been consistently modeled are gradually performed by the students independently. This is especially true in strategic reading lessons that are thoughtfully planned and implemented by purposefully grouping students with specific targeted reading strategies in mind to support fluency and comprehension. This kind of support will assist students to internalize relevant content and processes that will assist them with the necessary steps of problem solving.

             Chapter 11 of the Vacca text thoroughly explained how reading and writing are connected and skills develop simultaneously out of necessity. Because my students frequently demonstrate expressive language and fine motor delays, this is an area where we are behind their typically developed peers; it is only in the last couple of years that I have begun to experiment more with technology and different means for them to express themselves in writing. However, most of our writing still involves lots of modeling, shared writing, and sentence construction using a set of available words.

            The text offers many different ways to set up the classroom to encourage reading and writing, my favorite of which is the writing center. The writing center in my classroom stresses fine motor engagement over creative expression but as the students gain skills and develop independence, more avenues of creative expression are added. To develop writing skills socially, I loved the idea of the buddy journal; this type of communication gives a fun purpose to writing. Journals can also connect students to text instead of each other and different types of reader response journals are outlined in the chapter.

            Several strategies for motivating students to write were also outlined in the text; I particularly enjoyed “topics in my pocket” in which students place pictures, notes, or drawings in an envelope to use as inspiration for writing. This kind of thing would work well in my classroom where most of the students are visual learners. The most important portion of the chapter however, addresses the writing process and suggests strategies for classroom management of the writing portion of the day. It is supremely important to establish routine so the students will be prepared to write when they are expected to.