Module 4: Summary

Integrating subjects while teaching is now common practice and even expected in the classroom. The Common Core Frameworks help provide opportunities for integrating subjects with our new standards. Incorporating literacy strategies throughout all subjects helps prepare students to be independent, successful readers. I found the list of 5 active reading strategies helpful. I would like to post these in my classroom and encourage students to refer to them while they read.

Much of this module was devoted to RTI information. I believe RTI has the potential to help students who struggle become more successful, but I also think it is hard for classroom teachers to make it as effective as it could be. Due to the large class numbers and the increased amount of RTI files it is challenging to keep up with the individual intervention, documentation, and meetings while managing the rest of your class as well. I enjoy doing interventions with my students and watching them make improvements, but ideally I would like to pull small groups to work with when I do not have the rest of my students in the classroom creating distractions and interruptions. I think RTI could use some improvements to offer the most effective and significant results. I personally think there should be RTI teachers like there are EIP teachers. RTI has the potential to offer interventions to help students make tremendous improvements academically and behaviorally, but I just don’t feel that it is implemented as effectively as it could be in my experience.    

I can remember watching Reading Rainbow in elementary school, and now in my own classroom we watch Brain Pop Junior. I always wonder if my students will remember watching Brain Pop videos the way I remember watching Reading Rainbow videos. I like to be reminded of fun experiences like that from my childhood, and I hope my students can have these same types of memories of school when they grow up. The other video provided a fun, interactive way to teach sentence structure and parts of speech. Learning all the rules for sentences and words can be overwhelming for students especially in the primary grades. They need several different ways to reinforce and practice these skills.   

Module 3 Summary

I have found that the best way to encourage students to read is through read alouds. I have recently started reading chapter books to my students this year, and they absolutely love every one of them. They beg me to keep reading each day when I read a few chapters. Many of them have recently become more interested in chapter books too, and I think it is partly because I exposed them to chapter books through read alouds. 

I have a Smart board in my room, but I haven’t ever seen the Smart Table. I know my students would absolutely love working on a Smart Table, because it makes learning more interactive, fun, and engaging. I especially like that the Smart Table has a multi-touch feature, unlike the Smart Board. It would be great for any subject I think, but I could see it really helping bring life into science and social studies. We study several people in social studies and the reasons they are important, so the Smart Table could have an activity where students match pictures of these people to their inventions or other things significant to their life and role in history. I also think it would be good when studying landforms and maps. The visuals it provides could help students understand the difference between different maps and landforms.

Literacy was discussed as not only reading and writing but as listening, speaking, and thinking as well. The lady in the video also discussed assessing as more than just testing. She defined “good assessors” as teachers and parents who monitor the behaviors of children so that they know what the child can do and what the child needs to do. In order to be a good assessor you must be a good observer. I have used an observational notebook during science lessons before and allowed time for students to read their notes to the class. I have found this to be a good way to incorporate those 5 areas of literacy into science instruction. Singing was mentioned as a way to pull language into its two parts of sound and meaning. In my experience, most students view singing as fun, and I find that it helps them retain information better.      

     

The slideshow explained information literacy as, “Knowing when and why you need information, where to find it, and how to evaluate, use, and communicate it in an ethical manner.” The internet provides easy access to information, but students must be taught how to use the internet appropriately and find reliable information.  

The signal words and graphic organizers on the expository text structures chart would be useful with helping students understand each type of pattern listed. Each graphic organizer would help students visually see and understand what type of information they needed to know or look for within the text.  

I found the action research study on how the teacher influences student book selection very interesting. I completely believe that what a teacher exposes his/her students to affects the students’ interest and book selection. I have seen this happen several times in my own class. Once I expose my students to Magic Tree House books several of them want to read them all the time. I have also seen them take interest in specific topics after I have exposed them to a non-fiction book such as a biography.