Best practice for ell students

The article I read was about best strategies to use with ell learners with disabilities. This was an action research study that was conducted in a few states throughout the US. The focus was on strategies that work in math,reading and science. The top teaching strategies were named for each subject. For reading using visuals, teacher prereading and repeated reading were the top strategies. For math it was using manipulatives, connecting math to real life and using visuals.  The top science strategies were hands on activities, graphic organizers and student made models. The biggest connection I saw between all subjects was the use of visual strategies. I recently went to a training on nonverbal communication which also stressed the importance of using visuals and symbols academically and for management.
I found this article to be interesting but only applies to a very small population of the students I work with (ell students with disabilities).  I do teach a lot of ell students and have had questions on how to differentiate between learning English and a learning disability. There were a few conclusions that were not met in this action research article but it was really well written and gave me some ideas on how to write my next ar write up better.

7 Structures of Best Practice

After reading through Zemelman's chapter on best practices I noticed I have used many of the structures he discusses. There are a few structures I know I need more practice with and through certain activities I plan to incorporate this year, I know I will gain more experience in these areas. I took a few ideas away after reading this chapter.

Small Group Activities:
Zemelman says "students of all grade levels show significant achievement gains across the curriculum when they are organized into collaborative groupings and projects." I have tried to explore cooperative learning more this past year in my classroom. The article discusses using groups in effective ways can be really powerful to a student's achievement. One activity I want to try is group investigations. I think my students would need some guidance but it would be interesting to see where they go with an activity like this.

Reading as Thinking:
Teachers go beyond reading and answering questions during literacy instruction. Zemelman discusses the best reading strategies are "interactive activities that use discussion, writing and drawing to help students engage with, understand, and apply the reading that they do." One strategy I want to try is text coding. I want to teach my students how to respond to text right in their book by marking certain pages. This way I know they are thinking about the text because they put the marks there for a reason. I also want to try written conversations about books but I would have to think about how to do it with students who can't write.

Representing to Learn:
This strategy has students engaged and create something to show what they have learned. Some ideas could be journals, mind maps, drawings etc. Next year I really want to do more with our math journals. I want to incorporate more writing into our math class and include some reflection in our journals.

Classroom Workshop:
"Children learn to read by reading and learn to write by writing" Classroom workshop allows more time for students to be doing more authentic work instead of listening to a teacher's lesson. Children are busy doing work while the teacher conferences with individual students and works on specific needs with each kid. Sometimes I feel like I don't know what to say and ask during conferences at times. Zemelman explains that it can be easy to start with: What are you working on, how is it going or what do you plan to do next. This is a good start and then I can gauge where to go from there.

Authentic Experiences:
Students come up with questions or things they want to learn about and then the teacher supplements lessons throughout the topic. This is a very constructivist approach that puts students in charge and take ownership of their learning. One thing I want to try in my classroom is giving the students time to think of questions they have about certain topics and brainstorming where we could find this information. I think I need to try this approach and see how it goes because the more I do it, the better I will be and the easier it will get to modify lessons.

Reflective Assessment:
This structure involves using different kinds of assessment where the teachers are assessing the kids while doing certain activities, showing what they know or applying information. It goes beyond questioned tests. One thing I tried a little in my classroom this school year is self reflection. I saw the benefits right away and the students were able to think about what they just did. When I do it again next year I will scaffold how to reflect and what a good reflection looks like.

Integrative Units
This is the idea of creating units that are cross curricular that address a specific topic. I feel this is a strategy I don't use very much. Many of my lessons are isolated and I don't have a lot of connection between classes. It would be easiest to start with social studies and reading. I could create a unit on the states and incorporate reading strategies within.

Overall these strategies have a constructivist approach. The teacher is a guide and the students are taking ownership in their learning. I know this article will fit with my AR topic because I want to explore what will work with diverse students. I know these strategies will work with all students so I will see if other authors agree that these strategies work with certain kids.

Attention

It is interesting to reflect upon such an abstract concept and one we don’t analyze very much. Thinking about what you are paying attention to really emphasizes what is important in your life. It can also lead you to realize how much attention you are giving to things you may not want to. I have had this thought many times throughout the year. I seem to be distracted daily. Many of my students crave my attention and will get it any way they can (which can be VERY distracting). This year I have been more intentional about giving certain students my attention and noticing more of the good behavior than the bad. This leads perfectly into the part in the article: “increasing attention you give to your intentions increases the likelihood they will become reality.” Another part that stood out to me was the part about what I choose to pay attention to is really important. Taking time to reflect upon what I spend my attention on will allow me to see deeper into what I should and shouldn’t be spending so much time on.

As I was reading this article I heard a quote on tv: “I’ve been to these places but I’ve never really seen them.” Many of us have been in situations like these and I keep thinking of the quote “live in the moment”.  Taking time to really pay attention to the here and now will allow me to see so much more of what is going on right in front of me instead of always looking ahead.

Praxis

Praxis:

After researching and focusing on big ideas in reading, it became apparent what was really important to my reading curriculum. These ideas became practice and routine in my room and I saw the benefits of these strategies in my students.  I knew sharing and reflecting was important for students to do after reading. After researching and implementing this more routinely in my classroom, I saw the impact it has on engagement and comprehension. .  In Daniels Zemelman’s article Best Practice in Reading, he states that “kids should have daily opportunities to talk about their reading” It is a great skill to learn and take with them into adulthood. I was surprised to read about what level books students should be reading independently.  Allington’s article What At-Risk Readers Need he explains why students should be reading text below their level.  I noticed it was easier for students to talk about their book and they were more likely to finish books that were a little easier for them. Both of these practices will be used in my future classroom. Because I have started implementing them more intentionally, I have seen the benefits.

Adaptation Strategies and Routines

These are the strategies/routines I hope to continue in future years with a connection to adaptation.

Instruction-how

*Questions. After teaching a backward design unit I found myself asking more questions than just delivering information. This gave the students control and the opportunity to share what they know and for them to ask more questions.

*Cooperative learning activities. I want to prepare my students with the skills it takes to work together. This takes a lot of work with my students but they love working together. We have worked a lot on how to problem solve with other students and how to appropriately react to certain situations. I will definitely continue to use cooperative learning in the future.

Discipline-what

*Use big ideas. I have just started using this strategy with my units but I can see its power and benefit. It helps build those connections between my lessons.

*Use real world examples. Using real world examples in my classroom has made my content more relevant to my students. They feel more connected and have more to add when they feel connected to the curriculum.

Environment-relationships

*Teaching the social curriculum. This has always been an emphasis in my classroom but this year I have focused a lot on cooperative learning. We have focused on empathy and being aware of what others are feeling.

* Ownership and sharing. Our classroom should be a place where students are discovering and exploring. If they need certain tools or materials they should feel comfortable using what we have. I need to instill in them a sense of ownership of our classroom and respect for out things. I will continue to teach them real life skills like manners and what to do when you need something.

Assessment

 *Provide time for discussion and questions. Students should have the ability to share what they have done and think out loud about what we have learned. Usually lessons are rushed but when I leave time for reflection and discussion my students tend to make more connections and think deeper about our learning.

* Use a variety of assessments. When I’ve used different assessments students were able to show me more about what they know more than what they would have been able to with traditional assessments.

Change

Over the past year I have noticed a lot of change personally and professionally. Because of the reflective nature of our classes I am more aware of what’s important in my life and my intentions.

Relationships: I have always been good at building relationships with my students and had to learn real quick that this is the only way I am going to get them to take risks in my room. Because of the students I work with building relationships has been the most important aspect of helping my students reach their potential. In the past few years I have really focused on my students who struggle. This year I made it a point to build relationships with those quiet students who don’t usually get a lot of my attention. I can’t believe how good it felt to purposely set some time aside to those students who otherwise might not get that time from me. My cliffette was one of those students and I think because I had to find time for her she accomplished and grew so much more because I was able to give her more. I will definitely keep the idea of a cliff cliffette in mind in future years. This has changed the way I look at my class as a whole and individual students.

Instruction/discipline: Over the past year I have taken a few risks and tried new things in my instruction. I’ve implemented new constructivist activities that got my kids taking more responsibility for their learning. At first it felt a little uncomfortable going outside of what I usually do but it was interesting to see the response from the students. I have also tried new teaching strategies that were engaging. I have been more aware of my lessons and activities and I analyzed them to see if they were high yielding and beneficial to the students. Overall the biggest change I’ve made in my instruction and discipline is applying big ideas. While planning and teaching individual lessons I try and think about the connections and big ideas I could come back to.

Assessment: Creating assessments before teaching the unit has been a great change I’ve made. I usually use the standards to build lessons but it was beneficial creating assessments ahead of time. It created direction and connection in my teaching. I became more accustomed of grading students based on big ideas instead of individual lessons. I have been using a variety of assessments and using that data to grade appropriately.

Backward Design Unit

Backward Design:

This semester I planned my first backward design unit on rocks and minerals.  This was definitely a learning experience. There were times when I felt great about how my students responded and learned using this structure and there were times when I felt myself go back to explicit instruction (I know a balance is needed but it was interesting how easy it was to go back to old ways).

Planning with the standards:

I have become better at planning with the standards over the last few years. With this unit I knew exactly what I needed to cover but I thought of it more like how can I present these ideas so the kids discover and explore these ideas. When I plan with the standards in mind I feel like I know what path to take and stay more on track to cover certain information.

Utilizing Essential Questions and impact:

The essential questions were new to me and this is an area I would like to do better with next time. I presented the questions to my students at the beginning of the unit and we started off with a discussion. I felt like since I posed these ideas as questions my students were more engaged in discussions and ideas because I was asking for their input instead of just presenting big ideas. I also felt like my students knew it was ok to ask more questions about what we were learning and at times it was ok to go off on a tangent (still within the topic of rocks) and I encouraged it. I found my students asking more questions because I was posing questions to them. One thing I would like to work on next time is continually going back to the questions and adding more ideas and building off of previous thoughts.

Creating assessment prior to teaching:

Since I created the assessments before, I knew and had a better plan for what I was going to teach and what activities I was going to do.  I knew I had to teach certain ideas before they could do some of the assessments. For a few of my assessments my students had to take what we learned and build off of it. They knew before the assessment that they would have to use their own ideas to create a book about the rock cycle. We had a brainstorming session and then I let them create their own. I was surprised how creative and thorough they were while still showing what they knew about the rock cycle.

Comparing BD to planning without the end in mind:

While creating a unit using the backward design structure I felt each of my lessons were connected and more focused around one or two ideas. We continually came back to similar ideas and made connections to what we had learned a few days ago. When I’ve taught lessons without using BD I felt my lessons were very isolated and didn’t build connections to other lessons.  My BD unit also gave more time for student input rather than me presenting information. Since I posed our lessons in question form or started out with essential questions, the students were able to tell me what they know or have learned.