Mid-Winter Break
I'm writing to you from Apgar Village, Glacier National Park, enjoying my "Mid-Winter Break." The snow is falling steadily but gently. I always say it snows here, "the way it's supposed to."
Due to the break, we had a short week and early-out yesterday. I think it goes without saying that the week flew by.
On Tuesday, we retested our Reading Mastery students on their ISIP tests. While a break-down of the results showed improvement in vocabulary and spelling, not enough gains were made in text fluency and comprehension to move students to the next tier. We are still seeing slow and steady growth but when you look at the results in black and white, it does not look good.
So, what are we doing to help these kids? We have added a read-aloud to the reading block, incorporating the technique of "Fast Mapping." In cognitive psychology, fast mapping is learning a new concept after a brief exposure. What does that mean?! When we read our read-alouds, we add in synonyms or brief definitions to words our students may be unfamiliar with.
An example:
A sentence from the book Rainbow Crow Retold by Nancy Van Laan:
But who would be willing to leave Earth to visit the distant place where the Sky Spirit dwelled?
Instead of reading it word-for-word, we would read:
But who would be willing, ready to leave Earth to visit the distant or far away place where the Sky Spirit dwelled, where the Sky Spirit lives or inhabits.
We also are conscious of how we speak to the class. As we walk around the room, we verbalize it: I'm walking around, circulating, checking to see your work is complete or finished.
Even something so simple as announcing, I'm ready to start or begin the lesson can help as students did confuse the synonyms dealing with sequence on their test such as begin & start, last & final.
We had our SMART Board installed as well so we've been playing around with that. Miss Rowe, one of the third grade teachers taught me some basics on building an interactive synonym game. Our students loved it and enjoyed coming up to the board and being able to touch a word and drag it to its synonym. As additional scaffolding, the tiles have not only the word, but also a picture. I hope to add on to the game and create an antonym version as well.
On Wednesday, I had my last official observation by my University Supervisor AND the Principal! Wow, was I nervous. I re-worked a Language for Writing lesson into an interactive lesson on the SMART Board. It was my first time using the board for an entire lesson. Of course, I had some minor technical difficulties but overall, the lesson went well. I was also filmed as a requirement of my Elementary Education Portfolio. I was nervous to watch myself as I am my own worst critic. I was pleasantly surprised to find that I was most disturbed by my "Cleveland accent" and most entertained by one of my students making fart noises in the background!
Due to the break, we had a short week and early-out yesterday. I think it goes without saying that the week flew by.
On Tuesday, we retested our Reading Mastery students on their ISIP tests. While a break-down of the results showed improvement in vocabulary and spelling, not enough gains were made in text fluency and comprehension to move students to the next tier. We are still seeing slow and steady growth but when you look at the results in black and white, it does not look good.
So, what are we doing to help these kids? We have added a read-aloud to the reading block, incorporating the technique of "Fast Mapping." In cognitive psychology, fast mapping is learning a new concept after a brief exposure. What does that mean?! When we read our read-alouds, we add in synonyms or brief definitions to words our students may be unfamiliar with.
An example:
A sentence from the book Rainbow Crow Retold by Nancy Van Laan:
But who would be willing to leave Earth to visit the distant place where the Sky Spirit dwelled?
Instead of reading it word-for-word, we would read:
But who would be willing, ready to leave Earth to visit the distant or far away place where the Sky Spirit dwelled, where the Sky Spirit lives or inhabits.
We also are conscious of how we speak to the class. As we walk around the room, we verbalize it: I'm walking around, circulating, checking to see your work is complete or finished.
Even something so simple as announcing, I'm ready to start or begin the lesson can help as students did confuse the synonyms dealing with sequence on their test such as begin & start, last & final.
We had our SMART Board installed as well so we've been playing around with that. Miss Rowe, one of the third grade teachers taught me some basics on building an interactive synonym game. Our students loved it and enjoyed coming up to the board and being able to touch a word and drag it to its synonym. As additional scaffolding, the tiles have not only the word, but also a picture. I hope to add on to the game and create an antonym version as well.
On Wednesday, I had my last official observation by my University Supervisor AND the Principal! Wow, was I nervous. I re-worked a Language for Writing lesson into an interactive lesson on the SMART Board. It was my first time using the board for an entire lesson. Of course, I had some minor technical difficulties but overall, the lesson went well. I was also filmed as a requirement of my Elementary Education Portfolio. I was nervous to watch myself as I am my own worst critic. I was pleasantly surprised to find that I was most disturbed by my "Cleveland accent" and most entertained by one of my students making fart noises in the background!
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