Module 6 Summary

In Module 6, we were given pointers for making effective PowerPoint Presentations and examples of things to avoid when creating a PPT presentation. This is a necessary component of the technologically sound classroom. Students must be able to work collaboratively and present their knowledge in varied formats, whether it is something like PPT or KidPix, or something interactive like creating a blog.

Today especially, students need to understand how to receive, present, and send information using technology. If their ideas aren’t presented in a clear format, their content will be lost. This is a new type of literacy, which will be of utmost importance to young students. This is why we have to introduce and instruct in technologically based activities. These types of activities in the classroom will promote collaboration and group problem solving. An easy way to integrate technology into the students’ activities is to use the classroom computers as a learning center. You can provide webquests, online activities, and software to supplement instruction and guide research. 

Module 5 Summary

In Learning Module 5, the emphasis was on classroom and instructional design to best facilitate literacy development and learning. Because I am a huge nerd, this is the portion of my job that I enjoy the most. I love developing classroom space, centers, and procedures that puts the focus on the content and not on procedural clarification due to unclear expectations.  This enjoyment of setting up classroom space and observing how others use their space to improve my own classroom is what is encouraging me to purchase the Spaces and Places book by Debbie Diller in the featured video. I’d like to see what I could do to improve my classroom layout and design.

When setting up your classroom, you have to keep in mind what the student expectations in each area will be. You will want to provide areas that encourage students to either work independently, in groups, or engage in teacher led instruction. The best way to do this, at least the best way that I’ve found because I have Kindergarten special needs students, is to incorporate centers in the classroom. My centers look a little different than in some rooms because the students are not expected to work collaboratively without an adult to model appropriate social and language skills and because we also work on things such as fine motor and self-help skills that are integrated into our centers. However, in any classroom the centers are where the students review, practice, and apply the skills they have been learning in whole and small group instruction. Because the students are expected to work independently, in pairs, or very small groups, the tasks need to be simple and relevant to minimize confusion. It is also helpful if the tasks involved are contributions toward a larger class project, the students are usually more motivated if they are working to produce something that they can reflect on and be proud of.

When designing instruction, not only is it important to use the classroom space wisely, you also have to select materials and design instruction so that everything that the students are doing is relevant to the learning objective. This may include adapting, supplementing, and extending the reading program used by your school. This is something that usually takes a while, you have to be familiar with the program to determine how and when necessary. In my classroom, we use a technology-based reading program that is on a first grade level. The program itself is tremendously motivating to my students because of the technological component. Because it is a multi-grade level classroom I have begun supplementing the program with skills-based activities to address appropriate grade and developmental-level instruction.

Module 4 Summary

The content of Module 4 is related to aligning a student’s needs with instructional literacy strategies and possible ways to integrate those strategies into the content areas. The best place to begin when assessing a student’s needs is within the RTI framework; if the particular student requires interventions above and beyond typical classroom differentiation, it is here that you will find the research-based interventions that are applicable to the individual student.

In my classroom, all of the students are receiving special education services so tasks are guided by their IEP goals and objectives. Each of my student has specific needs and modes of learning that are different than their peers so we implement different types of instruction within the classroom; some are more visual, some learn well with music, and some require technology supplemented learning.

The most complex part of assessing a student’s needs is not only identifying which of the 5 components of literacy require support, but also evaluating how deficits in each area impact the others. Ultimately the goal is comprehension, but the development of each component affects the others, which can have detrimental effects on literacy development. This is why it is extremely important that educators have an understanding of the stages of reading development as outlined by Ehri, and the assessments used are reflective of the component.

           

Because of the developmental nature of literacy development, it is crucial to think of the future and the tools that the student will need to become a fluent independent reader. Strategies to support word recognition and automaticity should be implemented as soon as developmentally appropriate to support the student as learning becomes more student-based with higher expectations as the child gets older. 

Module 3 Summary

After viewing the videos, presentations, articles, and research presented in Module 3, it is very evident to me that as a teacher you must use all means possible to connect children with literature in all content areas. This includes using technology, as presented in the video featuring the Smart Table, which is an extraordinary piece of technology I wish we had access to, in depth development of literacy strategies that allow students to access literature in the ways that best suit them, and accessing a wide variety of texts in the content areas, non-fiction as well as narrative texts.

Because meeting the needs of my students means that we work in shortened segments throughout the day and combining different kinds of instructional formats, I often present different types of texts and media related to the content, and then forget to tie them all together to assist the students to think critically about the information and how it is presented. I should be spending more time previewing the materials to note the focus and point of view from each resource to aid development of critical thinking. This is something I noted when watching the video Integrating Science and Literacy in Early Childhood; it emphasized the importance of the foundations of reading and writing being listening, speaking, and viewing. This concept is something that I experience in my classroom where the students have significant language delays. This video further explained just how deeply language and speech development affected literacy and if not developed at the normal rate, is considered an area of weakness (which is how it is addressed in the current functioning portion of the IEP). This is indicative of the deficit model which does not help us to use their strengths to stimulate growth.

This learning module further stressed the importance of accessing expository text as well as narrative and explained that although using non-fiction texts affects student progress in a positive way, it is used less frequently and with fewer strategies featured, than fiction texts. Ultimately, students need to know how to use a text, where to locate the information they need, and how to think critically about its content. This begins with accessing both types of text, examining the source, and being familiar with the format. This is why we model, practice, and repeat different strategies for each type of text; the students need to be able to implement them independently when they get to the upper grades.