Inquiry Plan 3rd Post! :)

Shewweee!! I'm done..... Needless to say once you see my video you will really get to see a very "limited" portion of my inquiry plan. Due to time constraints, I was really creative in ensuring that you got to see the "meat and potatoes" of my plan. In my video, you are able to see the first group of students that I worked with. Those student's, a majority of them, are on alternative assessment. These students have very limited recall and have difficulty comprehending the text read in class. When instructing to this group, I am more interested in the basics of the text. Do they know the main characters? Can they recall basic information from the text? You will be able to tell that I used error correction when guiding student's to the answers to questions. I did my best to ensure that the student's had an opportunity to be correct. Although the audio is very poor, I asked one student after we had discussed that the main character needed a hammer to fix the roof why the main character needed a hammer. Her reply, "to put a picture on the wall?"..As you can see there is a lot of repetition and basic recall.

When looking at group 2, you can see that we move at a much faster pace. We did very little recalling information from previous day's reading. Students answered guided notes with the help of the document camera for spelling correction. In the second part of this same video you can see that the student's are engaged in a reading group. I wanted to show the video how we normally conducted class before the implementation of this inquiry plan. We used small group instruction to read and student's answered questions. In the reading group, students volunteered to be the lead reader for the day. All students are not very strong readers but there has been a very positive environment created with these group of students and they are very comfortable around each other. You can see in the video when the student was not able to properly pronounce a word in the text that someone else would help them. However, there was only limited time to fit everything into the video.

This plan really turned out how I had hoped it would. This particular group was great to try something like this with. They are a very diverse group of student's and the plan really went well in the classroom. All students were very nervous to be videotaped and you can see when you watch the video that a couple of students are aspiring starts. They keep making eye contact with the camera (haha). This plan will continue to be used in my room, and I hope that through continued modification it can only enhance instruction in the room and hopefully incorporate those lower learners into the reading groups.

Inquiry Plan #2

Things are trucking along! I gave the kids their first test over the first 2 chapters on friday. They all did fairly well. There were a few who did not do well, and I feel that this was due to their lack of focus while I was reading and their lack of cooperation. Other than that, I'm really excited. We started off the week with a new chapter. I have started splitting the class into two groups. The first group goes to the computer lab for fast for word, while the second group stays down to read the novel. This is working out much better than I thought it would. I am able to break the book apart more with the individual groups. The higher ability group has more DOK 3 questions asked orally, I still read to them because they are not very strong readers, but they are filling out graphic organizers for each chapter, and they all do their guided notes individually. With the lower ability group, I spend more time reading the chapter. We focus more on characterization and vocabulary. With the second group, I stop after each question on their guided notes WS and help them answer the questions. The questions are projected on the document camera so they have the opportunity to see how to spell the word. This take a lot of time, and I'm considering giving less questions on the guided notes sheet. I'm not sure though. I still want to make sure they are following along and I feel that if I go ahead and give them the "notes" they will not be as attentive as I would like for them to be. The first group is getting ahead of the second group, but I'm ok because I feel that we are progressing and the students have more time to really focus on the material read and fill out their graphic organizers. This is really progressing and I'm really excited to see that students are learning about the characters in the novel because this is not an easy book for them to relate to.

Any suggestions for the notes situation... please let me know!

Inquiry Plan #1

This week has been a goofy week, we had Rebel Pride this week which is a team building activity day so I didn't get to see my students on wednesday. On monday and tuesday we really started to dive into the book "Where the Lilies Bloom". The kids are really enjoying listening to me read but we have not made a lot of progress with comprehension. We read 1 chapter on monday, but when I went back to assess the questions I had asked orally on monday they could not remember them on tuesday. FRUSTRATING!!!! I decided to switch things up and only do a half a chapter, and drill more on the questions. There are some really important things going on in the book right now. I had to spend my planning picking the chapter apart, looking for the questions that I felt my "higher level" students needed to be asked. I had a more challenging time coming up with these questions. However, I'm playing it by ear to see whether this modification helped at all.

Wish me luck!

Inquiry Plan

I am ready to really kick this project into gear. Hopefully everybody had a spooky Halloween. Hopefully the kids aren't wired this week from all of the candy they ate this weekend :(

I will keep you updated on the inquiry plan progress.

Task 5: Domain 3 A

Article: Understanding How Adolescents Think

Movie: Big Thinkers. Howard Gardner on Multiple Intelligences

Blog: Just Plain Good Teaching: Part Two. Engage the Body and the Brain

How does this relate to the work you do in your classroom?

All three internet sources that I researched talked about student engagement and how important its effects are in the classroom. In the article, Raleigh Philp discusses the need for continued growth regarding active engagement. How do we know our students are being engaged? Do we really understand what it is that engages the students? Philp discusses really understanding the tween/teen brain. Not all parts of the adolescent brain is fully developed. Are they just being slow or non participative when they say I don't know? Or is this a true statement on their behalf. In my classroom, I often get frustrated with the kids, especially when they let their emotions gauge their participation/learning in the room. They are always upset about things, and I tend to get very frustrated when they can't "leave" those problems at the door. However, Philp mentions that often their emotions can guide their outcomes from an early age. He also talks about having several different activities that last no more than twenty minutes. I will continue to work on switching things up to keep students engaged. Both the movie and the blog touched on active engagement in terms of multiple learning intelligences. Are we teaching too much? Is what the kids are learning not enough to stay with them when they leave school? All these things really got me teaching. But as I have mentioned in previous blogs, there are timelines and content to cover. In the movie, the man stated that students are being taught too much. They have a miles worth of knowledge that is only an inch thick. How do we change this? Well, he calls for political backing. Legislators must make a commitment with education to try something new with the hope that it will be successful. Engagement is always my main focus. Without that, it would be a pretty boring 7.5 hours.

How does this deepen your thinking about this domain?

As I researched these sources, I really began to think in more detail as to the significance of active student engagement. Active engagement might take more creative thinking on the part of the teacher, but it can also mean that students are really enjoying themselves in the classroom. It has really got me thinking in more detail about the structure in my classroom. Is it too structured? Am I too worried that I am not letting "loose" so to speak with my activities. Students don't need to be sitting the whole time, they need to be up stretching enjoying themselves. The main thing I would like to work on is incorporating music into my classroom. Learning has many different faces and I think I have not met those other faces. I want my students to have fun, but I want them to learn in the process. I am really working towards getting to that "comfortable" place where I feel like I really know what I'm doing with confidence.

How could this fit into your inquiry plan?

As far as my inquiry plan goes, I would like to really focus on the types of activities I am doing. I always start out with a vocabulary word of the day and then a smartboard daily language activity. I am up for suggestions in terms of how to engage students with a 90 minute lesson regarding reading, since this is what I teach. I would like to focus on activities that get the kids out of their seats and moving. If you guys have any suggestions that would be great. I'm stuck!

Task Four: Domain 3

Domain 4

Which component from this domain are you most comfortable with?

3b-Communication with students. Teachers communicate with their students through language, sometimes verbal language but body language as well. I feel that in my classroom I really make an effort to talk to my students to get a feel with how they perceive the everyday activities in my classroom. I always make sure that I target several different modalities. Instructions are always given in a variety of different ways. I always verbally speak the directions to them, write it on the white board and put the directions on the Smartboard for those visually impaired students who need text enlarged. With the directions posted in a variety of ways, students are aware of the expectations and know that everyone is required to complete the task. Setting these high expectations and communicating with my students they are all aware of what I want to see from them during the day.

Which component from this domain do you believe most strongly ties to instruction?

3c-Engaging students in learning. Learning happens when students are engaged. When you are able to grab their attention there are endless possibilities to what can happen in the classroom. There is a flow to the classroom as well, there is less behavior problems as well when students are engaged. When students are not engaged, lots of distractions can happen. I see this everyday working in a Special Education setting with 75% of my students that have a diagnosis of ADHD. Keeping them engaged is a full time job in itself. However, I am getting more creative and instruction happens when they are engaged. Engagement is everything ultimately!

Which component from this domain would you like to zero in on in your own instruction?

3d-Using assessment in instruction. Assessment has always been an important part of education and the more we use assessment the more we begin to see how assessment can play an even larger role that it already is. I often will assess students for knowledge of comprehension, but I have difficulty knowing what to do with those results. I may be targeting a specific skill, and when I am doing this I often do not know how to assess that skill in a non-traditional way. Assessment is something that I struggle with overall. I hope that the more I use assessments in the classroom and the more data that I collect, the easier it will be for me to transform that into hard data that shows learning happening.

Domain

I am interested in Domain #3