Schools in Which All Kinds of Minds Can Grow

I decided to read this article because I thought it was going to give me some insight on different strategies to help me teach students whose brains are wired different. I can tell that some of my students are not all wired the same way and that they excel at different things, but when it comes to some topics, I have difficulty thinking of other ways to teach it so I normally go to a colleague; however, this article was not helpful. I decided to continue reading it to see what some of their ideas of a perfect learning environment looked like.

I thought some important ideas for a learning environment where minds can grow would be 1.) teachers would be well trained on how learning works for different brains, 2.) all students would be held accountable for being productive, and 3.) students would be diagnose according to their strengths, but most importantly, parents and teachers would be partners in education.

http://www.readingrockets.org/article/schools-which-all-kinds-minds-can-grow

Chapter 9: Examining the Content and Structure of Text

For this chapter, I decided to only focus on one objective due to the subject matter being more difficult. I will focus on D1-e: Do you think the author made this story believable? Why? Or Why Not? I will read the book "Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day" because the students were getting a little tired of hearing about Molly Lou Melon. I also just read about Alexander this past week so they are familiar with it. Most of this activity will be discussion based, but I did like the fantasy/reality cards. I think it will be a helpful activity that I can use with my students even past this upcoming week. It will also be an easy way to check whether or not my students are understanding fantasy vs reality.

Week 12 VoiceThread

https://voicethread.com/new/share/6735195/

Week 12: Types of Reading Disabilities

I chose this article because I have a few students that struggle with reading, but for different reasons. One student struggles with comprehending what he reads and another struggles with letter recognition, letter-sound recognition, and word recognition so because he cannot read, he struggles with fluency and comprehension in terms of reading. He can comprehend if read to, just not when he reads himself.

Three important things/ideas that I read from this article would be that 1.) 70-80% of struggling readers have difficulties with accurate and fluent word recognition that originates with weaknesses in phonological processing which is also often combined with fluency and comprehension difficulties, 2.) 10-15% of struggling readers have difficulty with speed of word recognition and automatic recall of word spellings, and 3.) 10-15% of struggling readers can decode words, but struggle comprehending what they read, but the most important thing I learned was that most students will have a double deficit, meaning that they will struggle in two areas rather than just one.


I chose this image below because even though a child may struggle with one of the above areas, it does not mean that they have only weaknesses. My most struggling student has strengths and I use those strengths to help build onto other skills. Even though they may make little progress, it is still progress.

http://www.readingrockets.org/article/types-reading-disability

Week 11 Reading

For this week's reading, I read Seeking Help for a Struggling Reader: Seven Tips for Teachers. I was curious to see if it would give me any information that I didn't already know or that I haven't already tried. Three things that I did learn from this article is that: parents often need suggestions of what to do as well, so I should inform them more often of new ideas that I am trying at school, look for tutoring services if I cannot provide them myself, and attend professional developments in the area of need (which I have been doing and is why I choose to get my Master's in Reading), but most importantly, I learned that I should stay current on what resources are out there for me to use with my struggling readers. I have asked several other teachers of what methods they use and have used suggestions of theirs, but I should try to do some more research on my own.

It may seem impossible at times, but we cannot give up on our students! They make progress daily whether it be by great leaps or small ones.

Week 11 Course Activity

To continue with activities for Stand Tall, Molly Lou Melon, I've decided to choose the following objectives: C1-a: Make a personal connection to an experience. Tell how that experience was like the experience of ________ in the story.
C1-b: Make a personal connection to an important feeling in the story. Tell about a time in your own life when you have had the same feeling.
C2-c: Did you like this story? Why or why not?

We have gone over these objectives orally during and after reading, but I have never had them write or draw it themselves. It has always been a discussion so I'm interested to see what their responses might be when I have them write it. I also think that these objectives are a very important part of comprehension for all ages, but especially for younger readers.

I will use the answer frames from pages: 205, 211, and pages 233 and 234.

Most of what I do during this time is group discussion, but 211 will be individual work and then they will have the opportunity to share it if they would like to. Page 234 will be done as whole class, but they will not be able to share their answers until the end.