PED 1140 FSession 10, The Literacy Classroom

Dec 14 2011

KWL

“To gain a positive attitude towards school and learning, your students must have visual stimulation, organization, space, and a feeling of warmth and security.”

(Schwartz and Pollishuke, 2002, p. 6)

What do you need in your classroom?

Brainstorm – what are the essentials?

Classroom set up:

What can I control?

What do I have to live with?

Books...

What tools for learning should be on the walls?

How can the walls become a resource as well as space for displaying student work?

Teacher ‘space’ can take a lot of room.

Does it have to?

How can ‘teacher space’ (desk etc) be minimized?

What Great Teachers Do Differently - YouTube.flv

While we’re thinking about setting up a classroom...

I've come to the frightening conclusion that I am the decisive element in the classroom. It’s my personal approach that creates the climate. It’s my daily mood that makes the weather. As a teacher, I possess tremendous power to make a student’s life miserable or joyous. I can be a tool of torture or an instrument of inspiration. I can humiliate or humor, hurt or heal. In all situations, it is my response that decides whether a crisis will be escalated or de-escalated and a student humanized or de-humanized. — Haim Ginott, 1976.

The Inclusive Classroom

An environment that helps promote learning is critical to engaging students in schoolwork and class activities. A Guide to Effective Instruction, vol 3

What would you consider to be the non-negotiables in an environment that promotes comprehension and critical thinking?

Think about classrooms you have known.

Did they provide an environment that helped promote learning (not just physically)?

If so – in what way?If not – how so?

Record your ideas on the stickies provided.

Place your ‘positive’ stickies on the right hand board.

Place your ‘negative’ stickies on the left hand board.

Hmmm.. Let’s consolidate!

The Challenges:

Combined grades

The beauty of language teaching – it is a continuum!

Ontario Ministry of Education publication:Combined Grades: Strategies to Reach a Range of Learners in Kindergarten to Grade 6, 2007

Focus on the Big Ideas in the curriculum

DO NOT try to teach 2 separate curricula

DO NOT just teach ONE grade level

Integrate across subjects, provide authentic, meaningful tasks that students can take to different levels

Time for a break!

Learners with exceptional needs

Fundamental Beliefs:1. All students can succeed2. Universal design and differentiated instruction

are effective and interconnected tools for meeting the needs of all students

3. Successful practices are founded on evidence based research tempered by experience

4. Classroom teachers are the key educators5. Each child has his or her own unique learning

patterns6. Classroom teachers need the support of the

larger community

A Key Concept:

‘In a diverse classroom, no single method can reach all learners. Multiple pathways to achieving goals are needed’ Hitchcock et al 2002

Universal Design means developing a class profile upon which you base your planning so that the needs of all students are met, not only those of the average and not only those of students with special needs.

The planning must be flexible, responsive, based on ongoing effective assessment and provide real learning experiences for all students.

Effective instructional practices will never disadvantage any student: ineffective, ‘traditional’ practices may disadvantage many students.

Keep it simple!

Communicate clear consistent expectations

Arrange information sequentially to clarify its relative importance

Break instructions down into small steps

Provide effective feedback during and after tasks

Minimize distractions in the classroom

Please:•Post a daily schedule prominently in your classroom•Post assignments with clear expectations, exemplars and anchor charts•Give choice in assessment tasks where possible•Integrate across subjects so that tasks are meaningful

The curriculum tells us WHAT to teach,Differentiated instruction tells us HOW to teach it.

You can differentiate:

Content

Process

Product

Accomodations:

Changes that can be made to the way a student approaches learning the curriculum and/or to how they demonstrate their understanding

Accommodations:

Do NOT alter provincial expectations for the grade level.

Accommodations on an IEP only describe strategies and supports that are different from normal classroom practice.

3 types of accomodation:

Instructional

Environmental

Assessment

For example:InstructionalAssistive technology (voice to text software, text to voice software etc)Concrete/hands on materialsExtra time for processingNon-verbal signalsReduced/simplified languageSmall sequential stepsVisual cuesReduced/uncluttered formatetc

Environmental:Consistent classroom rulesProximity to instructor/strategic seatingReduced audio/visual stimulationPreparation for transitionsAlternate work spaceetc

Assessment:Alternate settingAssistive technologiesExtended time limitsLarge size fontFrequent breaksOral responsesPerformance based tasksReduced formatReduced number of tasksVerbatim scribing

Modifications:

Changes to the content of a student’s learning either through reducing the number and/or complexity of expectations to be covered or by working with expectations from a different grade level.

For example content

Modify:

From Gr.6‘demonstrate understanding of increasingly complex texts by summarizing and explaining important ideas and citing relevant supporting details.’

To Gr. 3‘demonstrate understanding of a variety of texts by identifying important ideas and some supporting details.’

Number of expectations:Evaluation of a reduced number of expectations

Complexity of expectations:

From Gr.4‘demonstrate understanding of a variety of texts by summarizing important ideas and citing supporting details’To‘ demonstrate understanding of a selected text on life as a medieval surf by summarizing important ideas’

If a student’s needs are such that the curriculum must be modified in order for them to succeed or they need significant accommodations these must be expressed in an Individual Education Plan.

•In order to have an IEP (Individual Education Plan) a student MAY go through an IPRC (Individual Placement Review Committee) but does not have to.•It is good to have parental cooperation in the development of an IEP but is NOT essential.•An IEP is a legally binding document.•A student does not have to be formally identified with a diagnosed exceptionality in order to have an IEP.

Roles and responsibilities:

In school team:

PrincipalLearning Support TeacherLearning Resource TeacherClassroom TeacherEducational Assistant (if appropriate)

Board resources:

PsychologistLearning Support ConsultantPeripatetic teachers (Deaf and Hard of Hearing, Blind and Visually Impaired)Social WorkerSpeech Language PathologistOccupational Therapist etc

Who writes the IEP?

The classroom teacher with support from the LST/LRT

Who is responsible for the program?

The classroom teacher unless the IEP states otherwise

Tiered Approach:

1. Conduct assessments, put in place classroom strategies in consultation with parents and Spec. Ed team

2. Bring the student forward to the In School Team for further strategies and possible interventions

3. Request an Educational Assessment and/or psychological assessment at which time the formal identification process may begin

Our job is to help ALL students succeed, not reinforce their sense of failure.

animalschoolwmv (2).wmv

Parents?

Preparing the ground with parents• Communicate with parents early and often - not just

about the ‘bad stuff’• Communicate your expectations clearly to students

and parents• Let parents know what your instructional foci are and

what your culminating assessment task is going to be (and why it won’t be going home to be ‘finished’!)

• Make sure students and parents receive timely, constructive feedback on assignments

• Invite parents into the classroom to celebrate student work when appropriate

Parents are partners in their child’s education. They MUST be included at all steps.

• Keep brief notes on conversations you have with parents

• Keep a record of student behaviours that are causing concern, academic and social

• Know the curriculum and grade exemplars and have a neat, complete record of your assessments of learning and the criteria upon which they are based

• Consider having students keep portfolios of their work or at least keep samples of work as evidence of student achievement

• Let parents know what is happening with their child - the good and not so good

• If a student is experiencing difficulties keep a record of steps you have taken to help and strategies that you have tried, as well as details of their effectiveness

Parent teacher interviews?

Be positive and constructive

Open and close with positive comments

Never compare to other students or siblings

Never blame

Co-operate and collaborate

Sometimes you just know it’s not going to be easy…

• Be prepared – REALLY prepared – have evidence to support what you say

• Be open and positive• Stay calm, if necessary ask a colleague ( VP or

Principal) to join you• Take ‘think time’ if you need to• Keep your door open• If necessary shut the interview down and suggest

that an appointment be scheduled for a future date, bearing in mind the time constraints of regular parent/teacher interviews

KWL