Module 2 Summary

Videos

Differentiated instruction is extremely valuable when providing instructions to students. The video provided information on identifying what specific students need differentiated instruction. Some teachers believe that differentiated instruction is just for students who are performing below grade level. However, that is not the case. Differentiated instruction is for ALL students. I teach students who are learning on three different levels. I have accelerated learners, on-level learner, and students who are below grade level. Differentiation is a must in my classroom. Each one of my students has different needs to be met. This strategy helps me provide instruction and learning activities that will meet their learning needs. Choice boards are a big hit in my classroom for reading centers. I provide three different choice boards for each level of learners. This allows for my high flyers to be challenged while my on-level learners are practicing grade level standards and my below grade level students are working on learning activities that will help them reach their learning goals.

 In The Story of Differentiation, this video provided a refresher for me. At my school, teachers are trained on differentiated instruction using Carol Tomlinson’s knowledge on the topic. We have many books in our book room to help teachers provide differentiated instruction for ALL students. One big idea from the video was flexible grouping. This is something I’m very familiar with and provide for my students learning needs.  

Planning Strategic Reading Lesson Plan

The PowerPoints in this module were very interesting. From the information presented on planning strategic reading lesson plan, it is important to remember that it is teacher directed that supports instructional goals by providing purposefully grouped students with target strategies that will facilitate fluent reading and comprehension. This type of plan offers text exploration through various reading strategies and leads to more student directed instructional approaches such as literature circles. Teacher instruction and explanation of reading contexts is extremely important, it’s also important for students to become independent and self-sustained readers. This can be accomplished through the use of literature circles.

Literacy Practice: Promoting Content Area Reading Scaffolding

Literacy is seen in all content areas. This can be a problem for students who struggle with reading so it is important for teachers to help students overcome their learning challenges. One way teachers can help students is scaffolding the instruction presented to students. Scaffolding helps students to gain a better understand of the learning material. Instruction should be modeled by the teacher to introduce the learning material or task and overtime the learning task shift to the students.   

Bloom’s Taxonomy Wheel

This is a great resource to have when planning instructional activities for students. It’s important for teachers to provide lessons which reflect different areas of the Bloom’s Taxonomy. As teachers, we work hard to provide engaging activities that promote in-depth conversations as a way to promote higher order thinking skills. The Bloom’s Taxonomy wheel helps provide key words when creating comprehension and discussion questions.

Module 1 Summary

PowerPoint-Expository Text-Understanding Text Organization

I really enjoyed watching the Expository Text-Understanding Text Organization. This is something I have been teaching my second graders. I think it’s important for students to know and understand that all text follows a certain structure. As teachers it’s important to teach students about expository text and provide examples of how different text structures can be. This PowerPoint provided a great overview of the different expository text structures and the key words that are associated with each. It also provided great graphic organizer to use when teaching text structure within expository texts. It’s important for students to understand the different organizational patterns that are associated within expository text. This will help them to learn the signal words used with in and hopefully allow them to have more understanding when reading or writing an expository text.  

Video-Reading Strategy for Struggling Readers

I found this video to very informative and provided many great ideas to use within the classroom with struggling readers. The definitions of the key terms were extremely helpful, as well as how each activity related to the particular reading skill shown within the video. I can’t wait to explore the website presented in this video. I already have a few students in mind that could benefit from many of the activities that were presented in this video. Struggling readers often try to avoid reading because they feel embarrassed when reading because they don’t read perfectly. Working with struggling readers in a small setting using some of the activities presented in this video will certainly help change their thinking towards reading. I’m currently tutoring three students who have reading difficulties. I can’t wait to introduce my students to some of these amazing activities to help increase their reading abilities.

Fry’s Readability Test and Irwin-Davis Readability Test

Both readability tests were very interesting to read about since I had never heard of this before. With the new Common Core Standards, we are encouraged to use more leveled articles that integrate social studies and science concepts into our reading block. I often find it difficult locating articles that are “just” right for my students reading level. This is an option for me to look into as I start pulling articles into my reading lessons for students to practice close reading strategies on complex text.

Trip to Hawaii

These video were very engaging and provided meaning information regarding the purpose of graphic organizer within the classroom. As a classroom teacher, I use graphic organizer all the time to support student learning. I mostly use them during my reading and writing block to help students make connects to their learning. One graphic organizer I found interesting was the Vocabulary Prediction Chart. It allowed students to make predictions on what they thought the word meant prior to reading, and then allowed then to change their response after reading. After reading, they are given the opportunity to look the up the unknown word in the dictionary. This is a great way for students to learn new vocabulary words or unknown words. The vocabulary prediction chart will definitely be utilized in my classroom. Graphic organizers are important tools for students to use. It’s important for teachers to teach students how to use and make graphic organizer to help them understand the information being presented in their reading material. One thing I love about graphic organizer is that they are appropriate for all grade levels and their learning needs.