Meaningful Victory

My meaningful victory this year is focused on one particular student.  I am sure that I am not alone in having that one student who you consider to be your "project," your one student that you are determined to help grow.  Of course, I want all of my students to grow.  But it is this one student who I am extremely concerned about and want to do everything I can to see her improve.


This student is new to our school this year.  She has a significant speech and language disorder and was tested with articulation that is at a level of less than a two year old.  She was tested in her old school for a learning disability, but her scores were not low enough to receive services.  However, they were giving her 185 minutes of speech and language services per week, which included services that were surely not speech and language-related.  Our special education department has done an excellent job of giving me all of the help that I can get, but she does not receive any support during our classroom math, reading, or social studies/science times.  It is very difficult for me to give her the support she needs, when I have 18 other students who also need my help and attention.


I have a two page list of interventions I have already attempted.  She is not motivated and overall, just not a very happy kid. :(  I have a feeling that she has already internalized a "learned helplessness" because of continued frustration and failure.  It breaks my heart every single day to see how frustrated she is with her academics.  Not only this, but her ability to communicate with her peers and other adults is limited because of her struggle with articulation and expression.


My plan to achieve my meaningful victory is really just the next steps that I will take to help this student.  I understand that with all trial is the possibility of error, but I am determined to find that one trick or combination of tricks that increases her motivation and helps her grow!  I am hoping that my knowledge of speech and language disorders will also increase so that I can help students in the future, as well.

Idea Number One: I will introduce a play group into my classroom that will take place on every “Day 3” in our six-day rotation.  In order to  increase her communication, I will have her be the leader of the play group, choosing 3 students at a time off of our class list, so she has the chance to interact with all students in the class.

            Skills to be improved:

·         Leadership skills among peers

·         Friendship skills such as cooperation, sharing, participation, and helping others

·         Communication skills in a small group setting, hopefully to be transferred into a large group setting once a higher level of comfort is obtained

·         Ability to form new friendships

Idea Number Two: I will learn and teach simple sign language words, including help, stop, bathroom, feeling words, and also one to two sight words per week to help understand her oral reading.

           

Skills to be improved:

·         With simple sign language words, it will be easier for this student to communicate her needs to myself and the various other teachers she works with.  Most adults, even after several tries, can not understand what this student needs.   By teaching a different type of communication, my hope is that we will know the general idea of the problem so that she can feel more comfortable at school.

·         While she gets help in reading from several sources, it is very difficult to know whether or not she is reading the correct word.  Not only will this help in communication, it may also help her to pair a symbol with a word to help in long-term memory of first grade sight words.

Idea Number Three:  I am going to further increase differentiation for this student.  It is obvious that she is frustrated with a lot of the work that we do, so I am going to build more on the skills she does know and slowly start to close the gap.  For example, we do a Daily Math sheet that focuses on problems formatted similarly to those on standardized tests.  In place of this, I would like this student to work on simple number sentences.  Also, seat work that other students work on when they come to school, such as spelling sheets or word puzzles, are very difficult for this student. I will make her a folder of sheets that focus on handwriting and simple words.

Skills to be improved:

·         My hope is that these very simplified skills will help this student to grow.  At this point, she is not able to individually complete any of the first grade tasks successfully. 

·         If she starts to be more successful in these other activities, her effort and confidence may increase, as well as her overall feelings about school.

Idea Number Four: In our Daily Five work, I will allow this student to use a Leap Frog Reader for “Read to Self” one day out of the week.  I think she will benefit from listening to reading and being interactive with the books.  I do not want this to take the place of reading, but I think it will be a beneficial supplement. 

            Skills to be improved:

·         Ability to track words

·         Overall book sense

·         The combination of seeing and hearing first grade words may put more words into her vocabulary bank.

While these may seem like obvious interventions or strategies, I have a long list of others that I have already done.  Each student is so unique and you never know what one thing or combination of things will be the most beneficial!


If anyone has any other suggestions, I would be eager to hear them!

Thanksgiving Break

Ahhh...Thanksgiving Break!  As much as I enjoy my class this year, it is always nice to have a break.  I am taking this break to ponder things I want to try and change before Christmas break.


With our new reading series, it has been difficult to set up the Daily Five routines in the way I would have liked.  Our series, LEAD 21, had students rotating in guided reading groups the first week of the program!  Students didn't feel comfortable with me, with each other, and they definitely didn't feel comfortable with routines in our room at that point.  Now, at the end of November, I feel confident in my class's ability to work together and to really be working on their reading during small group time.  


Up until now, I have been telling groups where to rotate and they have been rotating only with their same-level peers.  On Monday, I am going to begin letting them actually participate in the Daily Five, where they make their own choices of: Read to Self, Read to Someone, Word Work, Listen to Reading, and Writing.  I am excited to get this going, and I know they are too!






On another note...
I have begun to think back to last year and how chaotic our classroom was when we came back from Christmas break.  I can not believe how quickly this year has flown by and how close we are to that already!  I wonder if, besides model model model, there are any tips to decrease the craziness!  The next few weeks will be full of concert practice, parties, and interrupted schedules.  Remember to breathe. :)  And to enjoy every moment! 

Feelings Surveys

I can not believe that it is almost the end of November!  Time flies!

Two weeks ago, we had parent/teacher conferences.  Not surprisingly, I was very nervous!  For some, it is the first time we are meeting, and we all know that we don't always have sunshines and rainbows to report. :)  I did have something new to add to my folder this year, though, that my parents reacted very positively to.

For my PDP, I am focusing on the social curriculum.  Each week, I give students a feelings survey, where they can circle a sad face, middle face, or happy face for the following areas: classroom, friends, playground, bus, and home.  I put together graphs for each student, showing the results of the First Quarter Feelings surveys.  I conducted interviews to explain any negative feelings and so that I could pinpoint the problem areas of my classroom.  

Parents were pleasantly surprised to not only have data regarding test scores, but also about how their young child felt about different areas of school.  

I feel better knowing that I have a better understanding of how my students feel while they are at school.  It is easy to forget, sometimes, that they are only six and seven years old, and that what we might consider irrelevant issues, might be affecting their well-being on a daily basis.

Mini Action Research

Question: How can I provide authentic learning through vocabulary instruction?

Research Window: Between November 8^th and November 24th, every morning between 9:45 a.m. and 11:15 a.m.

Situation-At-Hand: Our reading program, LEAD 21, provides about 5-6 vocabulary words per unit.  The Teacher’s Manuals offer daily verbal instruction, but it does not go much deeper than that.  After completing Unit 2, I do not feel that my current instructional strategies are providing my students with genuine learning experiences in which they would necessarily feel comfortable using the word outside of direct questioning.  I am wondering what the best-practice strategies are for vocabulary instruction and ways to implement them in a first-grade classroom.

My Plan: I will use the Five-Step Process for Teaching Vocabulary from the resource A Handbook for Classroom Instruction that Works in order to provide best-practice strategies for vocabulary instruction.  This process involves both teacher and student effort in understanding.

Five Step Process

1.    Provide students with a short description or definition

a.   My Plan: Show students the new word and give the definition from the manual.

2.  Present students with a nonlinguistic representation

a.   My Plan: Show students a picture example.

3.  Ask students to generate their own explanation

a.   My Plan: Students participate in think-pair-share to come up with their own definitions.

4.  Ask students to create their own nonlinguistic representation

a.   My Plan: On Day 1, students will draw a picture of what the vocabulary word means to them.  On Day 2, students will get with partners or small groups to come up with a visual using their bodies and props around the room.  I will allow them to use my camera to take a picture of their understanding.  Days 3-4, students will share their pictures with other groups.

5.  Periodically review understanding

a.   My Plan: Activities listed above will be carried out using a visual organizer. These visual organizers will be kept in students’ book boxes, which are used daily, to be looked at during Read to Self or Read to Someone times.

Method Description:

·       Student Samples: Using the five-step process for teaching vocabulary from A Handbook for Classroom Instruction that Works, I will provide student work samples that display the steps they are responsible for.

·       Journaling: I will journal frequently about changes I am seeing due to the new process for teaching vocabulary.

·       Documents: Since we are beginning Unit #3 at the beginning of my data collection period, I will go back and give a short assessment of vocabulary words from Unit #2.  I will give a similar assessment to display whether or not there was increased learning with the use of new strategies.

Becoming Your Own Teacher

     I was recently talking with a colleague of mine about our Learning Community.  She made an interesting comment that really spoke to me.  She was explaining that, similar to me, she only had a few years under her belt of teaching before she went to get her Master's Degree.  During her first few years, she felt as though she was being tugged at from different directions about what was best practice for working with elementary school children.  She explained that it was only after getting her Master's that she felt she had become her "own teacher."  
     I think that anyone can relate to this in one way or another.  There are so many things that I want to improve upon as a teacher.  Of course, it is helpful to go to a colleague for suggestions or ideas.  The difficult part is that, while their particular idea may work wonders for them, it is not always true that it will work for everyone, due to differences in teaching styles, values, and classroom morale.  
     Our Learning Community allows me to see points of view and ideas that are outside of my everyday conversations within my school.  I am also excited to choose something for my action research project that really intrigues me and is going to improve my practice.  
     I absolutely adore my grade-level team that I work with.  I feel very fortunate to have the co-workers that I do, in that we do not come across conflict very often.  I believe that this is due to each of our abilities to understand and appreciate our differences and our willingness to share support and ideas.  I know that continuing with this Learning Community program will help me to become an equal player in this team as I become my "own teacher" and can share more ideas than I currently do!