EDUC 422: Information Literacy Quickwrite

Summary: QUICK WRITE

To effectively research material online, one must evaluate sites being used. It is important to use the advanced search method to narrow results and improve quality provided. For example, adding quotations to search topics will allow for those exact words to be in the results. Also including "-.com" at the end of the research topic will eliminate the ".com" websites, allowing for more reliable content. Searching for certain items on websites is also important, such as: publisher, sponsor, author, authority, date, tone of language, quality of writing and so on.

EDMS 521-Domain 3

TC NAME: Haley Hemrich

RICA Domain: Fluency

RICA competency: Role in Reading Development and Factors that Affect the Development of Fluency; Instruction and Assessment

Grade Level: Kindergarten

INSTRUCTION:

Teacher reading "Apples" to the class

I observed Mrs. M provide books at appropriate reading levels, and model fluent and efficient reading as whole-class instruction. She begins each day reading an appropriate leveled book to the class. Before actually reading, Mrs. M asks questions to spark background knowledge and has the students look at the pictures/text. During reading she uses a variety of voices to bring to life each character, pauses for students to fill in suspected blanks within sentences if pattern is apparent (usually the case), and continues to ask probing questions. After reading, Mrs. M asks the class to relate the story to the class, their lives, or other events. The teacher reads reads aloud to model the correct reading abilities within fluency, rate, expression and accuracy.

Often times the teacher will use audio support (tape assisted reading) for the first read of the book, then will model/read the book aloud to the class, and finally, have the students read the same text with limited support. I observed this strategy in the beginning of the year, but have not seen the method used lately.

The book given to the class for reading within the "activity centers" is of appropriate reading level. The students receive books each day that focus on colors, letters or shapes. I have not seen differentiated instruction for ELs and students with special needs in regards to appropriate level text. Although, Mrs. M does offer one-on-one help to struggling readers during the "activity centers". She is able to read the text with the student for further audio-visual practice. Thus, increasing print concept awareness and blending of phonemes.

There is no fluency standard for Kindergarten, but these strategies are the framework for successful and fluent reading.

INSTRUCTIONAL SETTING:
I observed that the instructional setting contained a visual of the literature piece being read aloud, appropriate levels of reading material for each student, and appropriate levels of text for independent silent reading.

Apple/Color word book for the day

EDUC 422-Article #4: "Technology on the Oregon Trail"

"Technology on the Oregon Trail"

In the article "Technology on the Oregon Trail", Vera Williams talks of her lesson plan on the Oregon Trail for Social Studies and how she differentiated instruction by involving technology. Williams had many students receiving special education and struggling readers, so the need for differentiated instruction was necessary. She provided the content to the class by using a PowerPoint presentation, and within this template were the added tools for engagement. The slides provided audio support for those students who were at lower reading levels, so that they could hear the words and follow along visually. Williams also modified the reading material within the "historical fiction unit plan", in order to match the appropriate reading levels of her students. The PowerPoint included pictures and web links to enhance student engagement throughout the presentation/lesson. She also included an animated icon that traveled the Oregon trail along with the students. This icon captures students attention and allows them to imagine they are traveling the trail along side the animation. After the lesson was taught, Williams had her students blog and "WriteBoard"their reactions, prior knowledge, new knowledge, and any further questions and/or comments. She then had the students reflect on their peers blog postings.

I love the resources used throughout the lesson to involve ALL students, and the collaboration aspect at the end of the presentation. The use of PowerPoint with audio support and animation is key to an actively engaged Elementary/Middle school classroom. It is very important for teachers to remember to reach every student by determining their needs and offering support/extra help. The audio support for the struggling readers is a great idea because following along with audio and being able to see the words helps to aide in understanding concepts of print and the learning of sight words. 

The "Communication and Collaboration" (a and b) standards were utilized in this lesson plan. The ISTE NETS under "Communication and Collaboration" state that students, "interact, collaborate, and publish..." and communicate with a variety of audiences. This lesson allowed the students to communicate with the teacher, each other and people on the web within their blog posts. The other standards touched upon involve the teachers use of technology in the classroom and it's effectiveness. 

Williams, V. (2008). "Technology on the Oregon Trail". Learning & Leading with Technology. (36)4. 33-34. http://www.learningandleading-digital.com/learning_leading/200812#pg35

EDUC 422-Article #3: "If you give a kid a video camera..."

"If You Give a Kid a Video Camera..."

The article, "If You Give a Kid a Video Camera..." is a play on the book, "If You Give a Mouse a Cookie...". This article suggests that providing children with technology will prompt their desire to learn more. Teachers need to ask the right questions, in regards to what benefits technology can provide. Using video cameras in Language Arts gives students the opportunity to make one-minute videos expressing the main idea, send messages to pen-pals in other countries, and create book reviews. With these videos, teachers are then able to provide feedback in learning centers and analyze progress as an assessment tool. In math, video cameras can be used to create a mathematical scavenger hunt, create a math story problem, and record student thinking. Before passing out these video cameras, students need to be taught how to properly use the device and why they are so helpful in the classroom. The author, Laurie Campbell, offer great tips for video camera use in the classroom. She suggests the cameras are each given a number and assigned to certain groups of students each time. Campbell also said to always be thinking of new ways to implement the video cameras to further instruction. Lastly, she said to occasionally provide little amounts of direction in order to force experimentation upon the students.

This article was extremely helpful in providing exact ways to implement/involve technology in the classroom. Video cameras are an older invention, but actually utilizing them to further class instruction is a newer strategy. I think this will not only promote student learning, but it will allow for independence and responsibility. This implementation allows for collaboration, experimentation and presentation. All of these skills increase understanding of the instructed concepts. I also really like the fact that this concept is related to a children's book to demonstrate a cause and effect relationship. Bringing technology into the classroom environment sparks student involvement and creations to facilitate learning.

There are two ISTE NETS standards for students that stood out in the analyzing of this article. The first correlating standard is under "Creativity and Innovation". Students are told to use the video cameras a to demonstrate understanding. It is their responsibility to experiment and apply previous knowledge to these assignments. The second standard addressed is under "Communication and Collaboration". Children are to communicate and collaborate with their peers, while presenting a complete (or sometimes incomplete) understanding of the concept.

Campbell, L. "If you give a kid a video camera..." Learning & Leading with Technology. (34)5. 30-31. Retrieved from http://www.learningandleading-digital.com/learning_leading/201202#pg32

EDMS 521-Domain 1 Analysis (Haley Hemrich)

TC NAME: Haley Hemrich

RICA Domain: Planning Reading Instruction based on Assessment

RICA Competency: Planning organizing and managing reading instruction; Reading Assessment

Grade level: Kindergarten

Classroom Description: Mainstream/All day

INSTRUCTION:

I observed Mrs. McDonald during reading/writing instruction and witnessed planning, organization and management of her lesson design. The teacher used balanced instruction by recognizing what skill level the majority of her students are at to reinforce that material throughout reading. She picked out the sight words the students were supposed to have learned, used repetition, and provided word recognition techniques. The teacher read-aloud a book with vivid illustrations, provided magnetic sight words on the board, had students find the letter of the day in the daily news she writes on the board, and slowed her pace for differentiated instruction.

The reading activities given after the anticipatory set are modeled on the board as examples. English learners must finish at least two, if not more. This goes along with pacing of instruction and differentiation. Advanced learners must color inside the lines, write neatly and be able to read the sentences to the teacher. This is NOT more work, it is more challenging and is the correct way the assignments should be turned in.

The beginning of the class includes reading, sight word recognition, sentence building, and more. She begins with whole class instruction, moves to guided practice in centers, and ends with individual work on activities in their table groups. Mrs. McDonald is scaffolding throughout the lesson, in order to help her students reach the end goal. I witnessed an English leaner ask the teacher for help and the teacher was able speak some Spanish words to her and provide clarity.

I was able to witness a trip to the library where the students picked out books for independent reading. These books will be read during "silent-reading-time" (or SSR) after lunch. These self-selected books will help in the recognition of language patterns, increase reading fluency, expand vocabulary, broaden knowledge and encourage students to read more often.

An assessment was given to each student, as the first test-like format for the children. It was not all reading-based, but recognition of letters, reading colors with the provided balloons and shape recognition. This was my first look into assessment, so I decided to to reflect upon it. Some students were able to identify each letter quickly, and knew every color and shape. Those children are the students who are writing and reading independently. The children struggling in reading and writing took longer to identify the letters, shapes ad colors and/or completely did not know them. These children need help constructing words and sentences and struggle with reading. We work to blend phonemes and increase phonological awareness with those students.

INSTRUCTIONAL SETTING:
I observed Mrs. McDonald read aloud to the students on the color-carpet, point to words in the book and reference learned sight words on the board (magnetic). She used tone and repetition to enhance the sight words and context. The letter of the day was emphasized in the story. Students in each table group read to the teacher in a center, while the rest of the class worked on the modeled activities.

EDMS 521 (Domain 2)-Haley Hemrich

EDMS 521

Field Observation Evidence Report

TC NAME: Haley Hemrich

Rica Domain: Word Analysis

RICA competency: (4) Understand the role of concepts about print, letter recognition, and the alphabetic principle in reading development and how to develop students' knowledge and skills in these areas. 

Additional Descriptors: Mainstream class with five English learners (CELDT levels unknown)

Instruction:

Before beginning the lesson, Mrs. McDonald writes daily news on the board based on what students have to say in the morning. She then asks the "student of the day" to come up and circle the "word of the day", which was "Bb"on this particular day. This shows the importance of uppercase and lowercase letters and gives students the chance to locate them. 

I observed Mrs. McDonald during the allotted time for language arts, which includes reading and writing. The teacher began reading a book using a sing-a-long tool (audio), then read it without audio and had students follow along, teaching print awareness. She then explained, in-depth the four activities that went along with the reading material and had them posted on the board as a visual. The students were instructed to finish coloring their book of the "Days of the Week" for the first activity, trace the capital letters of the alphabet for activity two, color and trace a sentence for the specific "color page" for the third activity and finally to read a book with her and choose three sentences to emulate on their own. 

The reason Mrs. McDonald gives the students clear, precise, oral and visual directions for each of the four activities is to provide differentiated instruction for the struggling readers and English learners. There are about four or five struggling readers and five English learners in her kindergarten class. Those students are in charge of completing at least one or possibly two activities in the given amount of time for this set of requirements. The advanced learners should and usually do finish all four activities, sometimes with extra time to read quietly until recess. 

The third activity that requires students to color the picture and trace the sentence, encourages students to sound out the word ("red","green","purple", etc.) in order to know what color to use for the picture. This is forcing the students to sound out and blend the letter sounds, creating phonemic awareness, letter-sound relationships and word decoding.

Reading the book, pointing out the letters, and student-help to find certain letters all made up the pre-assessment. The questions asked and the activities building up to the last, acted as the formative assessment and the end book that the students completed with the teacher in groups, served as the summative assessment. The last activity prompted the students to read "I" then a picture of a person running, jumping, swimming, digging and other beach activities. Then they looked at paper-books with the words actually written in (beside the small visual representation), and picked three of their favorite sentences. The students had to use their knowledge of print concepts, phonemic awareness, letter recognition and capitalization of letters to construct their sentences, which assessed their understanding of phonetic spelling. Some completed this faster than others and a few children had to finish it the next day. 

INSTRUCTIONAL SETTING:

I observed that the setting of the classroom contained many supports and visuals for children to learn phonemic awareness, alphabetical knowledge, print awareness, letter/word recognition, graphemes, phonemes and more. The board has magnetic, small words and graphemes on the top of it that the children can use in constructing sentences on the whiteboard. The classroom has an alphabet train that the students can refer to for letter recognition. All activities are modeled and act as visuals. Each activity is pre-made and separated into the order she wants them completed. Students are to get the first activity from the bucket on their desks (group-table) and the next few are in piles by the numbers, arranged accordingly. Last, but certainly not least, all reading Mrs. McDonald does is paired with the actual book for visuals and an audio piece to engage ALL students. 

Activity centers

The book read aloud to the class

EDUC 422-Article 2

"Girls save the world through computer science"

This article aims to influence high school girls to engage in computer science fields, due to the lack of women in technologically-based careers. Christine Murakami took twelve high school girls (sophomores and juniors) to the Caribbean and handed out laptops to several classrooms. The girls were told to teach the students how to use the devices, effectively and efficiently. A meaningful experience was gained, in that the girls developed technological confidence and learned something new about themselves. The objective was t expand the girls' horizon and offer possible career pathways. Murakami's genius program involved her students teaching kids, which resulted in new-found computer skills and meaningful life lessons. She encourages people to emulate this project and show the many facets of technology, besides "gaming and programming". This was an independent study course, without grading, and still attracted over thirty teenage girls (later reduced to fifteen). The girls had to learn (before the trip) about the hardware, software, maintenance, troubleshooting, networking and the many activities that can be performed with the laptops. They then would transfer their learned knowledge to the minds of the young students in the Caribbean. 

The moral of the story is that we need to understand that girls learn and benefit from relationships. We see technology as a tool to build upon, use to enhance things, and reach goals. In contrast, boys usually see technology as a game or something to "tinker with". This article highlighted the importance of technology as a teaching tool in the classroom. We need tools to use a reference or to communicate concepts more clearly to our students. I see relevance in this article because most girls refrain from using technology during their years of schooling (k-12), but in college, technology is implemented heavily by men and women equally. We struggle to learn all of the technological advancements that now exist, instead of having already been familiar with the concepts from grade school. This is slowly beginning to change with the rise in the use of the ISTE NETS.

This article clearly demonstrates "Communication and Collaboration" by allowing girls to work with peers to teach computer technology. They are required to communicate the computer concepts effectively, in ways that can be easily understood by elementary students in a different country. By doing so, the girls are teaching themselves and taking away greater knowledge of the technological advancements and other culture's technological stances. 

Murakami, C. (2011). Girls save the world through computer science. Learning and Leading with Technology. (38)7. 24-28. Retrieved from http://www.learningandleading-digital.com/learning_leading/201105#pg26

EDUC 422 Article 1-Haley Hemrich

"What is Technology's Role in School Improvement?"

The article expressed the technology's role as "meeting the needs of all students". This meaning, the teacher must begin where each student is, in regards to his/her developmental level. The goal is to integrate technology to provide individual learning across all subjects, if possible. Shari Camhi explains that technology needs to be aligned to the curriculum, while sparking student interest. Teachers have incorporated a variety of technological tools in the classroom, that include: Wiki, blogs, chat rooms, podcast, and much more. Sarah Rolle is in charge of an act that will allow students to access more resources online, in an effort to "unlock learning". This article encourages people to take the initiative and attend conferences to promote utilization of technology in schools. The program is called the "ISTE 2010", is aligned with the ISTE standards and is held annually. 

Teachers can enforce the use of technology in a variety of ways. Some ways, I believe, are better than others, but most technological tools promote student learning. This article asks parents and teachers to take a stand and incorporate more technology use in the classroom. I think this is a wonderful initiative due to the fact that teachers need an abundant amount of resources to aid in teaching the mass amounts of standards that are required by the government. These days, classrooms are so diverse and there are many different developmental levels to address. Technological tools can help reinforce concepts for all students to see, learn and come to understand. For example, an interactive Smart Board lesson provides students with extra visuals and hands-on learning. This would be very helpful to English Language Learners to have those extra aids. Also, blogging and podcasts are awesome tools to integrate student ideas, opinions and work through communication and collaboration. Technology's role in the classroom is to act as another learning tool to assist instructors and promote student learning.

This article addressed two of the "ISTE NETS Standards for Students", along with others. "Communication and Collaboration" was discussed in the article's reflection, in regards to student-blogs and podcasts that could be used as an extra aid for students at home or in the classroom. The article touched upon the "Technology Operations and Concepts" Standard by asking parents and teachers to implement new technology to better the classroom instruction.

McAnear, A. (2010). What is Technology's Role in School Improvement? Learning & Leading with     Technology. (37)5. 5-6. Retrieved from http://www.learningandleading.digital.com/learning_leading/201002#pg7