The classroom climate plays a crucial role in student
success. That being said, I believe that
honouring cultural diversity sets the tone for inclusion in my classroom. As a
teacher, I need to be interested in my students’ lives (learning about their families
and their culture). I need to provide
opportunities for my students to celebrate their diversity, sharing language,
culture, and experience.
I
found a book that celebrates diversity called Anna Hibiscus written by Atinuke which
I am very much looking forward to including in my grade two program next year. It tells the story of a girl named Anna who
lives in a large African city with her African father, Canadian mother, twin
baby brothers, her grandparents, aunties, uncles, and cousins. (Click here for a summary of the book.) I think this book
would tie in very nicely with the grade 2 social studies curriculum that looks
at communities around the world. For my social studies unit this year I
followed the Hands on Social Studies program, where my class compared our
community in Brantford to those in Nunavut and in Zimbabwe. I think reading
this text aloud would be a great addition to the program, as it would provide
the students with an opportunity to visualize and connect with life in
Africa. For shared reading, I think I would choose passages of the text
that we could study as a class, using various reading strategies and making
connections to the similarities and differences in Anna Hibiscus’ life compared
to our own.
This
comic illustrates the importance of differentiated instruction. It is unfair to expect a classroom full of
students to learn the exact same way. Students
must be accepted and appreciated as individual learners, with their own
interests, abilities, and background knowledge. Differentiated instruction is important to
me as it allows me to engage all of my students, ensuring they are successful
in their learning. A couple of ways that
I differentiate to support comprehension and understanding for my students are:
Think-pair-share: After I have explained something, but
notice that some of my students may not fully get it, I have the students
turn to the person next to them to explain what they understand.
After about 30 seconds of sharing, I have the students share with the
class what they were discussing. This process generally helps the
students fill in the gaps that they are unsure of.
Diagnostic questions and/or assignments: Prior to teaching, I
pose probing warm up questions (or provide little assignments) to
determine what my students know already, what misconceptions they may have
and what their learning needs may be.
Flexible groupings: I use flexible groupings to provide
mini-lessons. This allows me to provide extra support to students as
they require it.
Community is very
important in my classroom. From the
first day of school, the students are taught and practice mutual respect and
attentive listening. Students need a
safe environment where they feel supported and comfortable learning. It is important to create such a climate in
the classroom. For ELL learners, it
takes time, practice, desire, and mistakes to learn a new language. Theses learners need a sense of community
when speaking and reading with their peers in the classroom. They need to know
that they will be accepted not judged when there are errors in their speech or
mispronunciations in their reading.
As the classroom
teacher, I play an important role for my ELL learners; I am their supportive
and intentional coach. I have to make
sure that I am using a variety of resources, instructional strategies, and
assessment accommodations that will help my ELL learners during the reading
process. .
Resources:Meaning is very important to reading. In
order to comprehend a text, you have to be able to understand what is being
read. By providing a variety of
resources (bilingual dictionaries, visual materials or artifacts, culturally
diverse books that have nuances to their culture or home county) ELL learners
are able to draw on previous knowledge and construct new understanding.
Instructional
Strategies:Various instructional
strategies such as visual cues, graphic organizers, scaffolding, previewing
textbooks, pre-teaching vocabulary, and peer tutoring, will help ELL learners
make connections and develop meaning while reading.
Assessment
Accommodations:ELL learners can be successful in their
reading when provided accommodations such as extra time, choice, oral
interviews, simplified language, bilingual support, etc..
After reading the documents Me Read? No Way! and Me Read? And How!, I started
considering the fact that reading programs are sometimes tailored to the girls
in the classroom not the boys. That
being said, I am making a conscious effort in my classroom to ensure this is
not the case as I want to have equitable learning opportunities for everyone. Engagement is the goal of my literacy program. I want my students to be actively involved in
their reading and ultimately their learning.
Here are a couple strategies I have used or would like to use in my
classroom to keep all of my students engaged:
1) Have a wide variety of reading
materials
2) Read across the curriculum (pump up
the volume of reading, not the difficulty)
3) Use the arts to bring literacy to
life
4) Engage the students in accountable talk and critical
thinking
I am
so excited to set up my reading program next year. As this year draws to a close, I find myself
already making tweaks to my current program and plotting changes that I would
like to make. With a main goal of instilling
a love for reading, I look forward to helping my students develop the skills
they need to become life-long readers. I have used the Guide to Effective Instruction
in Reading - Section 8 (found here ) to help me establish current and future learning goals for my
reading program.
These goals are:
·I am learning
to make sense of what I am reading
·I am learning
to think about what I am reading
·I am learning
to ask myself questions about what I am reading
·I am learning
to make connections about what I am reading
·I am learning
to use my prior knowledge to help me when I am reading
·I am learning
to use textual clues to draw conclusions when I am reading
·I am learning
to use fix-up strategies to help me with my reading
Defined as the “gathering of data about student knowledge and/or skills, either informally or formally” (Small, 598), assessment in today’s mathematics classroom must focuses on understanding; taking into account thinking, processes, and strategies. There are a plethora of assessment methods being used in classrooms today. Below is a list that I have compiled to I urge you to consider using these strategies in your very own classrooms.
Titon, Jennifer. (July 11, 2012). Anecdotal Records. Retrieved from: http://tinyurl.com/cubb296
Anecdotal Notes: Write records to keep track of your students’ progress in the classroom, including mathematical conversations, strategies, strengths, and areas of improvement.
Brainstorm: Put a new concept up on the board. Starting in pairs (or small groups), have your students think of different things that remind them of the new concept. Bring the class back together and your students share their ideas.
Checklist: Monitor your students’ mathematical performances and behaviours to see whether or not they are demonstrating success criteria.
Discussion: Participate in a mathematical discussion with your students, allowing them to share their thinking and strategies. Ask thoughtful questions to assess your students understanding of mathematical concepts.
Exit Tickets: Provide your students with a question at the end of the lesson and have them independently demonstrate what they know.
Games: Observe your students while they are playing mathematical games to assess their mathematical language and their ability to use mathematical strategies.
Gallery Walk: Post 3 to 5 questions about a particular problem on separate sheets of chart paper taped around the room. In small groups, have your students pause at each sheet of paper, discussing the question and writing comments on the page. Ring a bell after a couple of minutes to advise groups that they are to switch to the next chart. Once the groups have contributed to each chart paper, review what was written.
Graffiti Wall: Lay chart paper on several desks and write a single word or topic on each. Divide your students into groups and have each group use words, numbers, and pictures to connect with the topic on their sheet of chart paper. Ring a bell after a couple of minutes to advise groups that they are to switch to the next chart. Once the groups have contributed to each chart paper, review what was written. Please click here for a great example.
Group Work: Provide a problem for your students to solve in small groups. Observe your students as they work together to solve the problem. Note strategies being used and link the strategies to the grade level expectations.
Interview: Prepare a couple of questions and tasks for your students to complete, assessing their understanding and their thinking.
Journals: Have your students use math journals for self-assessment. Your students can reflect on their understanding and learning of mathematical concepts, thinking about their individual performances. Please take a look at the video attached for some great math journal ideas.
KWL: Create a chart with your students on things they know, thing they want to know, and after the lesson, things they have learned.
KWL Snowball Fight: Provide each of your students a piece of white paper and have them write anything they know about a given topic on the paper. Have the students crumpled the paper into a 'snowball'. Give your students the magic words “Snow Ball Fight!” and have them throw their papers around the room. Say “Stop!” and have your students pick up the snowball nearest to them. Choose volunteers to read what is written on their page. Compile a chart of all the ideas shared. Repeat the same process with “what do you want to learn?”. At the end of the unit, have your students repeat the process with what they have learned.
Bromhead, Ginette. (2011)
Learning Goals and Success Criteria: As a class, develop “I can” statements that describe what successful learning looks like, based on the learning goals from the unit that you are working on. Be sure to provide descriptive feedback for your students, recognising their strengths, areas of improvement, and next steps.
Performance Task: Provide your students with a challenging task, giving limited or little instruction, that allows multiple solutions, relates to prior know, and has personal meaning. Assess this task to determine what your students know and are able to do.
Rubrics: Provide your students with rubrics, clearly articulating how their work will be assessed and the standards required to achieve each level. Be sure to provide descriptive feedback for your students, recognising their strengths, areas of improvement, and next steps.
Stars and Wishes: Provide your students with descriptive feedback in the form of stars and wishes. Stars represent your students’ successes and wishes represent areas of improvement or next steps.
Think Sheet: Have your students share their prior knowledge and understanding of a math concept by using pictures, numbers, and words to explain everything they know.
Well, it is official. I just created my first classroom video on L'arbre aux Ballons and I am going to be posting it on our new classroom blog on the Commons website. Who knew that I (not very tech-savvy Sandra) would be creating videos and blog. Thanks Zoe for teaching me how to create videos and writing blogs!!
I
found a book that celebrates diversity called Anna Hibiscus written by Atinuke which
I am very much looking forward to including in my grade two program next year. It tells the story of a girl named Anna who
lives in a large African city with her African father, Canadian mother, twin
baby brothers, her grandparents, aunties, uncles, and cousins. (Click here for a summary of the book.) I think this book
would tie in very nicely with the grade 2 social studies curriculum that looks
at communities around the world. For my social studies unit this year I
followed the Hands on Social Studies program, where my class compared our
community in Brantford to those in Nunavut and in Zimbabwe. I think reading
this text aloud would be a great addition to the program, as it would provide
the students with an opportunity to visualize and connect with life in
Africa. For shared reading, I think I would choose passages of the text
that we could study as a class, using various reading strategies and making
connections to the similarities and differences in Anna Hibiscus’ life compared
to our own.
