Wrap up

http://prezi.com/yxf699wpju9h/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy

Above is the link to my prezi presentation, enjoy.

After thinking about all that we learned this semester I realized that we really accomplished a lot over the past three months! The most important tool that I think that I gained was learning how to assess students. After speaking with ELA teachers I realized that knowing where each child is holding academically is crucial in directing them in the right direction. Also learning how to develop a reading program into our classrooms was very helpful. The information taught was extremely practical. Thank you Dr. Hsu for teaching us how to be great teachers!

Week 14-Assignment 1

In the classroom where I observed the teacher used reading as a way of teaching social skills. These five year old students were not developmentally holding at a place where they can read books on their own. The teacher chose interesting books for to read aloud to the class and to discuss the emotions that went on in the story. Many of the students in the class have PDD (pervasive developmental disorder) and the teacher takes every opportunity to teach her students proper social skills and ways to understand their feelings.

Keystone

Taskstream Link to Unit: https://w.taskstream.com/Unit/View/D34BD6D3C088570AA11A508BC44D71C3

Week 11-Assignment 2

http://arktos.nyit.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com.arktos.nyit.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=3825013&site=ehost-live&scope=site

After reading the article "Seven Literacy Strategies that Work" I decided to focus on the strategy of Cornell note taking. I found that note taking was extremely instrumental in my success as a student and later when I became a teacher I found that note taking skills were essential to my students' success. Above is a link to a scholarly journal article titled "The Effect of Note Taking on Ninth Grade Students' Comprehension".  This article discusses a study performed to explore if ninth graders are able to use note taking as not only an external recording method, but as a way to increase comprehension even in areas of low-interest reading. The results showed that the ninth grade students who used effective note taking skills for low-interest reading, their comprehension increased. In addition, the results proved that students failed to transfer their note taking skills to areas of high interest reading. The conclusion was that teachers need to incorporate effective note taking skills into their lessons. Note taking not only provides the students with reliable study sources for later use, but also helps students organize their thoughts and increase over all comprehension.

The strategy of Cornell note taking can implemented in the classroom initially through properly training students how to take notes effectively. Once sufficient guidance in this area is provided, teachers can expect students to utilize this skill during lectures, presentations, reading from text books, etc. Students will benefit greatly from their note taking ability for later use when they need to study for a test or if they need the information for another area. Furthermore, students who take notes effectively are also able to organize the information well and transfer the information deeper into their memories. Below is a link to a lesson plan teaching students how to take Cornell notes and the importance of this skill. http://www.randolph.k12.nc.us/Departments/6-8/AVID/Handouts%20-%20Student%20Video.pdf This skill of note taking is essential in increasing students' comprehension not only in lectures but in reading as well.

Week 10-Assignment 2

http://screencast.com/t/VRAc4bIIq

Week 10-Assignment 1

Segment 1: Where do I start?

How can teachers' expectations of ELLs affect students' learning and performance?

A teacher with high expectations will ensure the success of both her English language learners and her native speakers. Students who are expected to perform on the same high standards as the other students will achieve higher than having to be modified. At the same time, teachers need to understand that English language learners have added challenges that need to be addressed.

How can you use what you already know about literacy instruction and your English language learners to enhance their learning?

A teacher who is an expert at teaching English language will be able to transfer these skills to English learners. In addition, students should be encouraged to use their native language to build on their English knowledge. Students should not be told to forget about their first language. Students need to be able to use their first language as a spring board to learning English.

Segment 2: How can I build on what English language learners bring to the classroom?

Think about your ELLs. What ideas from the video might be useful in your classroom?

I feel that having the students make a personal dictionary would be very helpful in building their vocabulary. In addition, I feel that it is very important for teachers to chose material that is relatable to their students' backgrounds. This benefits all students because it expands their knowledge about other cultures.

How can you ensure that ELLs and their English-speaking peers have equal access to the curriculum?

Providing students with an equal amount of resources and literature in both languages will enable ELLs to succeed. Also using a bilingual dictionary can help students complete their assignments and increase their vocabulary.

How can you support students in maintaining their first language?

Encouraging students to work with other students with the same native language will help them maintain their first language. This will also help these students work in a more comfortable setting because they will be with people who understand their backgrounds. In addition, when teachers chose material that relates to students' backgrounds this builds on their native culture. Also, having bilingual books in the classroom encourages students to maintain their first language.

 How can the classroom context support ELLs?

When the classroom context encourages students to work with people like them, this provides a big support system for ELLs. It is important for ELLs to work with other students who they feel comfortable with and who they feel can relate to their struggle. This is a way where ELLs can work together to build on their native language and increase their English language skills.

How can you use multicultural literature to support ELLs in your curriculum?
Teachers can chose to read books that relate to multicultural backgrounds in order to support ELLs. When immigrating to a new culture, any familiar thing from your native country is comforting. It is important for students to be able to read about their native culture in their second language so that their understanding increases.

How does your classroom reflect the nature of the community itself as well as materials written by the students?

In my classroom the first language is Hebrew. The students come from orthodox Jewish communities of which I am a member. Therefore it is very easy for me to incorporate materials from their culture into the classroom. For instance, the Jewish holiday of Chanukah is coming up, we therefore did activities associated with the holiday for the students to be able to relate to .

How can you group students so that they use their native language to support their language and literacy development?

Grouping students in a way that they work with students who share the same background and struggles as them enables ELLs to use their native language and helps support their language and literacy development.

Segment 4: What are some strategies for teaching ELLs?

What aspects of reading development are most critical to address when instructing ELLs?
Building students vocabulary is an area that really increases ELLs reading development and comprehension. Creating a word wall with all of the vocabulary taken from books is very helpful in ingraining these new words into students' memories.

How can modeling oral reading support ELLs?

When ELL students hear reading they are relieved of the pressure that exists when they read themselves and they can allow themselves to focus just on the comprehension. In addition, hearing what is being read also teaches the students proper pronunciation.  

What strategies can you use to teach students how to figure out and remember unknown words?
Some strategies could be to have the students make their own dictionaries. This way students can collect vocabulary words and learn their definitions in a practical way. In addition, having a word wall with vocabulary words from the reading is also an effective tool to teach students new words.

What are some strategies you might use to encourage students' to maintain their native language as they develop literacy in English?

Some strategies that I might use is to ask students to share different things from their culture and explain it to the rest of the class in English. This benefits both the student and the rest of the class since the class can gain an understanding of other cultures.

Reader Case Study

Student Profile:

The student that I will be discussing is a nine year old boy who I will be referring to as Sam. Sam lives in Israel and goes to school in an all Israeli environment. He feels that his Hebrew is better than his English. Sam has one older sister and four younger siblings. He is quiet by nature and responds well to motivational prizes. He has a creative imagination and a sweet demeanor. Generally he needs limited choices to make decisions and is not one to do more than what is required.

 

Summary of activities:

I work closely with Sam once a week to review sight words and different rules in the English language. Some of the rules that we learn are “th”, “wa”, “ck’ etc. We also read together. Usually when I meet with him we begin with a sight word test. His sight words are work, word, world, girl, boy, brother, father, mother. These sight words were chosen by the director. After the sight word test we have a rules test with the following words: tooth, through, these, though, water, swan, wallet, brick, pick, back, etc. Next we play a game to review these words. I show Sam flashcards of the words in Hebrew and he tells me the word in English and how to spell it. Next we learn a new rule and do a writing activity having to do with that rule. For instance when we learned the “wa” rule we made a wallet and filled it with all of the “wa” words on the list. We then wrote a story about what would happen if someone lost his wallet. In this story the goal was to incorporate as many “wa” words as possible. After this activity we read a book called “The Marvelous Mixup”.

 

Assessment Analysis  and Recommendations for Future Instruction:

Sam has been involved in this program for the past eighteen months. Within that period he learned the ABC, phonetic blending, and common rules in the English language. Although he speaks English well, he has trouble remembering the rules. I feel that he did not fully grasp each rule before he learned a new one. As more rules were being taught the gap between the words that he was fluent in and the new words grew substantially. Now I feel that he is at the point where no new rules can be taught before he gains a handle on the old ones. When dealing with this type of situation it is difficult to regress without discouraging the student. Therefore, after discussing the matter with the assistant director, I decided that Sam should pick two words from every rule that we learned and compile a list. The words on this list were the only words that Sam was responsible for knowing. This method was meant to make the large amount of unknown material more attainable. Once Sam saw that he had a list of eight words instead of thirty words, he would feel that he was capable of learning these rules. Once Sam mastered this list more words can be added on. It is important that Sam feels invigorated throughout this process so that he does not lose his motivation to review the old words.  

 

Samples of student work and assessments should be included:

Sam’s list: water, with, true, want, they, rule, fruit, glue

 

Sam’s mistakes before he created the list:

Rule=rool

Fruit=froot

Glue=glew

 

The following is an article that Sam wrote about a cow jumping rope:

Who would teach a cow to jump rope? A farmer

Why would a cow jump rope? To lose weight

Where would a cow jump rope? On the farm

When would a cow jump rope? After eating

 

Reflection of this case study experience in comparison to the entire field experience in general:

This case study with Sam was unique compared to the other students that I work with. To start I believe that Sam is a middle to high beginner level according to the NYS limited English proficient level rubrics. Sam has been a part of this program for eighteen months. I would have presumed that Sam was well versed with the technicalities that were supposed to be taught in the past. The other older students that I work with catch on rather quickly and are enthusiastic to continue. I am obviously not a professional but I do not think that Sam has learning challenges that are preventing him from grasping the new rules. Rather I feel that Sam’s quiet nature probably misled his previous teachers into thinking that he understood what was being taught implying that he was ready to go on. I feel that Sam’s teacher needs to be aware of Sam’s quiet personality and be sure to perform proper assessments before moving on.

All of the students who I have seen work at their own individual pace. It seems that the same lesson plan format is encouraged to use for everyone. The director formulated a system to address the unique needs of Israeli children learning English. She adapted preexisting curricula to best fit her needs. The program consists of four different stages. The first stage teaches students the ABC. Students are expected to know the name, sound and formation of each letter. The next stage students learn phonetic blending and read stories from a reader. In the third stage students learn rules in the English language along with sight words. In the fourth stage students are able to write and read well and complete more sophisticated projects. This system has been implemented for the past fourteen years and has a positive reputation.

I feel that this program was based on solid research and has been tested and proven to be effective. At the same time I feel that teachers need to be flexible to adapt the program to the unique needs of their students. Furthermore, teachers need to incorporate their own innovative creativity to make learning exciting. English language learners, as well as any other students, need stimulating and motivating lessons in order to ensure growth.

SOLOM (STUDENT ORAL LANGUAGE OBSERVATION MATRIX)

Student’s Name: Sam  Robbins (pseudo name)			Grade: 5th	Examiner’s Signature: Aviva
Language Observed:English/Hebrew			Date:11/13
	A.  Comprehension	B.  Fluency	C.  Vocabulary	D.  Pronunciation	E.  Grammar
1	Cannot be said to understand even simple conversation.	Speech is so halting and fragmentary as to make conversation virtually impossible.	Vocabulary limitations so extreme as to make conversation virtually impossible.	Pronunciation problems so severe as to make speech virtually impossible.	Errors in grammar and word order so severe as to make speech virtually unintelligible.
2	Has great difficulty following what is said.  Can comprehend only “social conversation” spoken slowly and with frequent repetitions.	Usually hesitant; often forced into silence by language limitations.	Misuse of words and very limited vocabulary make comprehension quite difficult.	Very hard to understand because of pronunciation problems.  Must frequently repeat in order to make himself/herself understood.	Grammar and word order errors make comprehension difficult.  Must often rephrase and/or restrict himself/herself to basic patterns.
3	Understands most of what is said at slower-than normal speed with repetitions.	Speech in everyday conversation and classroom discussion is frequently disrupted by the student’s search for the correct manner of expression.	Frequently uses the wrong words; conversation somewhat limited because of inadequate vocabulary.	Pronunciation problems necessitate concentration on the part of the listener and occasionally lead to misunderstanding.	Makes frequent errors of grammar and word order, which occasionally obscure meaning.
4	Understands nearly everything at normal speech, although occasional repetition may be necessary.	Speech in everyday conversation and classroom discussions is generally fluent, with occasional lapses while the student searches for the correct manner of expression.	Occasionally uses inappropriate terms and/or must rephrase ideas because of lexical inadequacies.	Always intelligible, though one is conscious of a definite accent and occasional inappropriate patterns.	Occasionally makes grammatical and/or word-order errors which do not obscure meaning.
5	Understands everyday conversation and normal classroom discussions without difficulty.	Speech in everyday conversation and classroom discussions is fluent and effortless approximating that of a native speaker.	Use of vocabulary and idioms approximates that of a native speaker.	Pronunciation and intonation approximates that of a native speaker.	Grammatical usage and word order approximates that of a native speaker.

SOLOM (Student Oral Language Observation Matrix)

Teacher Observation Scale

Student’s Name: Sam Robbins (pseudo name)
Language Rated: English/Hebrew			Grade: 5th	Date(s):11/13, 11/6, 10/30
School: English Chug			Teacher: Sara Rochel Reinman	Total Score(s):21
	A.  Comprehension	B.  Fluency	C.  Vocabulary	D. Pronunciation	E.  Grammar
1	Cannot be said to understand even simple conversation.	Speech is so halting and fragmentary as to make conversation virtually impossible.	Vocabulary limitations so extreme as to make conversation virtually impossible.	Pronunciation problems so severe as to make speech virtually impossible.	Errors in grammar and word order so severe as to make speech virtually unintelligible.
2	Has great difficulty following what is said.  Can comprehend only “social conversation” spoken slowly and with frequent repetitions.	Usually hesitant; often forced into silence by language limitations.	Misuse of words and very limited vocabulary make comprehension quite difficult.	Very hard to understand because of pronunciation problems.  Must frequently repeat in order to make himself/herself understood.	Grammar and word order errors make comprehending difficult.  Must often rephrase and/or restrict himself/herself to basic patterns.
3	Understands most of what is said at slower-than normal speed with repetitions.	Speech in everyday conversation and classroom discussion is frequently disrupted by the student’s search for the correct manner of expression.	Frequently uses the wrong words; conversation somewhat limited because of inadequate vocabulary.	Pronunciation problems necessitate concentration on the part of the listener and occasionally lead to misunderstanding.	Makes frequent errors of grammar and word order, which occasionally obscure meaning.
4	Understands nearly everything at normal speech, although occasional repetition may be necessary.	Speech in conversation and classroom discussions is generally fluent, with occasional lapses while the student searches for the correct manner of expression.	Occasionally uses inappropriate terms and/or must rephrase ideas because of lexical inadequacies.	Always intelligible, though one is conscious of a definite accent and occasional inappropriate patterns.	Occasionally makes grammatical and/or word-order errors which do not obscure meaning.
5	Understands everyday conversation and normal classroom discussions without difficulty.	Speech in everyday conversation and classroom discussions is approximating that of a native speaker.	Use of vocabulary and idioms approximates that of a native speaker.	Pronunciation and intonation approximates that of a native speaker.	Grammatical usage and word order approximates that of a native speaker.
Score	5	5	4	4	3