Reflecting

This week is a chance for you to reflect on the blogging experience.  What did you like about creating a blog?  Didn't like?  How could you see yourself using a blog in your future as a teacher?  How can you see having students create blogs?  Any other reflections about the blogging experience or this class?

The blogging assignment has been a good experience.  There was a time, when I was far less busy, that I blogged regularly.  It made me sad when I needed to cut it out for the purpose of family, school, and all the other things that happen in life.  I like blogging because it let you write and express yourself in your own way, with no one telling you what and how to write.  That being said, I can see the value of the blogging experience for ALL students, but especially those who struggle with the conventions of writing and grammar.  The practice of writing will improve upon their skills and give them the experience of writing. 

I do not know if I would have the students create a blog like the class had me, and my classmates do, but I think that I would adapt the idea to independent journal writing about broad and personable topics that the students would find easy to write on.  Having a notebook dedicated to journaling and not a blog would make sure that each student could participate in the assignment, and not limit it to those who had internet access.  Both methods accomplish the goal of writing and access to writing and can allow the students to find personal satisfaction in a job well done.

This class has been helpful on a personal level.  My 2st grade daughter struggles to read and through the strategies discussed in class, I have been able to help her improve her reading skills.  She is reading better and is more confident because she has learned “tricks” to breakdown words that she thought were too hard just three months ago.

Literary Difficulties Defined

From the reading, define and give examples of reading difficulties, language difficulties, writing difficulties, and other literacy difficulties.  Were there any new ideas that stood out from these chapters or questions you have?  What strategies stood out as strategies you would like to try in your classroom in the future (or currently do use)?

Reading Difficulties: this is defined, typically, as a learning disability.  Learning disability is a general term that describes specific kinds of learning problems. A learning disability can cause a person to have trouble learning and using certain skills. The skills most often affected are: reading, writing, listening, speaking, reasoning, and doing math.  Suggested interventions are:

1.     breaking tasks into smaller steps, and giving directions verbally and in writing;

2.     giving the student more time to finish schoolwork or take tests;

3.     letting the student with reading problems use instructional materials that are accessible to those with print disabilities;

4.     letting the student with listening difficulties borrow notes from a classmate or use a tape recorder; and letting the student with writing difficulties use a computer with specialized software that spell checks, grammar checks, or recognizes speech.

Language Difficulties: impaired comprehension and/or use of spoken language, written language and/or other symbol systems.  The disorder may involve the form of language – phonology, morphology & syntax, the content language – syntax, and/or the function of language in commination – pragmatics – in an communication.  Suggested inventions for this deficit are:

1.     Class meeting routines

2.     Mediation

3.     Bridging

Writing Difficulties:  also called Dysgraphia.  This is a learning disability that affects writing, which requires a complex set of motor and information processing skills. Dysgraphia makes the act of writing difficult. It can lead to problems with spelling, poor handwriting and putting thoughts on paper. People with dysgraphia can have trouble organizing letters, numbers and words on a line or page. This can result partly from:

·      Visual-spatial difficulties: trouble processing what the eye sees

·      Language processing difficulty: trouble processing and making sense of what the ear hears

Suggested interventions are:

1.     Provide alternative outcomes, such as report orally

2.     Provide opportunities to improve upon writing skills

In my classroom, I currently, and prefer to use, alternative outcomes.  I use this for the students with struggles in writing and as with the students who suffer from anxiety when asked to present orally.  I have found this is extremely successful in getting the student to participate, and to gage the knowledge that they have gained.  A win-win for any teacher!

Literacy in students with moderate to severe disabilities

This week your blog is a reflection on your weekly reading (K & H chapter 9).  From the reading, what ideas did you find to help support literacy for students with moderate and severe disabilities?  What strategies did you read about that would apply for students with other disabilities?  What questions or concerns do you have about teaching literacy for students with moderate and severe disabilities?

To support students with severe to moderate disabilities there are a many tools and activities that will get them to participate in reading.

One of these ideas is incidental teaching, which is a technique that in both the typical child, as well as those who have moderate to severe disabilities.  This technique takes advantage of the opportunities that happen in the natural environment of the child, such as school, home, and their community and created instruction from them.  For example, this could be done with by setting out a variety of toys that might interest the student, in the hopes that they will initiate their preferred toy.  Once the child does this, the teacher would encourage the student to vocalize about the item that they selected.

I also think that the picture exchange system would be helpful.  In this method, pictures are used as a means of creating a meaningful conversation with the student.  This idea is used with children who are autistic, but could also be used with pre-readers as a way to introduce high frequency words.

The greatest concern that I have about teacher older students literacy is the great variant of must know words.  The “must know” words that I am referring to are the one that are required to know to participate in society at a basic level.  For example, teaching a student the difference in the women’s men’s restroom is a valuable and needed skill, but not every business labels their doors wit the words women and men.  Often, especially in themed restaurants, the restrooms are often labels with the gender terms for that language or in slang that is not always discernable.  This would be problematic for anyone who is not familiar with the verbiage used, but especially those who struggle with literacy.

Assisting students with moderate to severe disabilities in the literate world that we live in is always a challenge.  Teaching techniques, such as those listed above will help those students become functional adults in a literate world.

Response to Intervention (RTI)

Using the weekly reading as a resource (RTI Book), create a Blog entry that explains the basic process of RTI as if you were explaining it to a parent.  What happens in Tier 1, 2, and 3?  How do students move back and forth between tiers?  What is the goal of RTI?  Other things you think would be important for parents to know?

Response to Intervention, or RTI, is the process in which school make effort to aid children who are struggling in their reading or math instruction.  The process addresses the ideas that are inadequacies instruction or curriculum.   Below you will find a generalization about how it works.

Tier 1 is where the general education curriculum is given and where students are identified as struggling.  It is in this tier that the teacher will offer group strategies that will help the student with the area that they are struggling in.  If the student continues to struggle with the applied interventions, after a certain amount of time, they will be moved to Tier 2.

In Tier 2, students who were previously identified in Tier 1, will receive more specialized interventions to help them in their weak areas.  This might be small group time with the teacher in the specific subject area where learning is not progressing, such as reading.  This will occur to a specific amount of time, typically longer than Tier 1 all while being monitored by the teacher as to the student’s progress.  If, after several intervention strategies, the child is still struggling, then they will be referred to Tier 3.

In Tier 3, the student will receive more individualized, specific interventions.  Typically, it is at this Tier that the student will be referred to the school diagnostician for an evaluation, using the intervention documentation as a support.  Tier 3 could also be referred to as the Special Education tier, as special education teacher are tier 3 teachers.

RTI is important to education because it allows students to get extra help without being labeled with a disability prematurely.  Many times, through RTI, students are able to get the support the need and return to Tier 1.  If they struggle, again, in later years, they could return back to Tier 2, as the Tiers are fluid to address each students needs.  What is important to know about RTI is that it is designed to help struggling students before they fall too far behind.

Parental Involvement in the High School Classroom

Using the weekly reading as a resource (K&H 11 and D&G 8), describe how you would involve and work with parents and families in your ideal classroom.  What supports would you want to provide parents?  How would you improve communication?  How would you help parents learn how to support their student's literacy?  How would you facilitate student, teacher, parent interactions?  Other ideas?

While I agree that parental involvement in education is the keystone to building a successful student, I am torn at how involved a parent should be when their child is in high school.  I say this because I want parents that advocate and support their students, parents that assist and reinforce positive learning skills, but I want these same parents to teach students to advocate for themselves.  As a high school teacher, one of my goals is to teach the students to be independent learners and speak up for themselves when they have needs that are not being met.  I feel that this is a critical skill for them to learn as they will soon be independent adults and will require this skill to become successful in the adult world.

That being said, I still greatly value the input and participation of adults in my classroom and with my advisory students.  To involve parents I do several things throughout the year to check in with parents.  First of all, I make phone calls when a student is being successful in my classroom, and when they are not.  I do this so that they students can know that I value the positive as well as will report the negative.  I also call parents will am concerned about the student, such as they are not working at their normal capacity or have been missing too many classes. 

Because parents are always concerned about grades, I send home a progress report for students in my classes midway through each grading period.  I do this so that the progress report and the final grade are not a shock to the parent and so they know that I am open and willing to work with their student regarding their grade.  It also gives the students some control over their destiny, you might say, in my class.

What I do not do to involve parents is have them participate in the classroom.  I find great value in this for the younger grades, but am not too sure how it would work for secondary students.  Would they appreciate parents in the room assisting them in their lessons?  I find myself doubting that this would be a successful tactic in getting them to read! I feel that it is better to have a good open line of communication with parents and let the students know that I am constant contact with their parent so that they know they cannot get “away” with things in my class.  While this is something that I value, it is also something that I need to improve on.

Parental involvement in the classroom is essential to a successful student.  No teacher will dispute that.  But teacher are not perfect, and I certainly have a long way to go in improving my parent communication.  It is something that I strive to improve each school year.