I agree that having a postive and low stress enviroment will help students stay focused. I think students need to continually hear positive reinforment especially in the fall. I spend a lot of time with my 1st graders to help them realize yes they can read and spell. Some may only know a few words, but with constant reinforcement they soon realize they are capable.
I think that I can use the term "goal" with my 1st graders when we go over the daily schedule and before a certain lessons. I have not used the MI terms with my students so this would be a great place to start with my students. After doing so I feel my students would be ready and more capable of setting goals.
I have not used the eight MI in my teaching. I would like to make this a focus of my teaching this year. After developing the final unit I will be able to apply this to other units I teach as well as share with my 1st grade team members. I also would like to incorporate the self assessment/reflection to my projects by having students write in their journals. This is one great way to see how they feel they did.
A great book that is relavant and very practical for MI is Multiple Intelligences in the Classroom by Thomas Armstrong..I use it for my online class and it is the best I know...gives lots of great ideas on how to implement the MI theory...Lots of problems go away when your classroom becomes a MI classroom...kids really begin to respect each other...neat to see!!
1. I agree that setting personal goals for students is very important. I try to create positive experiences and create opportunities for success for each of my students. My students and I sit down and discuss personal and academic goals for them at the beginning of the year. We set a time frame to reach the goals and then begin a new goal. It works great and the students love the positive success. Sometimes we have a contract and I post it in my classroom. 2. I would like to try a self-assessment survey with my students. It's great to allow the students time to identify their strengths. Again, it's positive feedback for them. I can use the information to reflect on the student's strengths. Especially when they begin to feel overwhelmed or try to give up on a task. 3. My students currently use a daily journal. We reflect on our day. Sometimes we use journals to reflect on lessons taught in class. Often times they like to draw pictures in their journal. It's just another way of reflecting and it's also calming to them.
1. Sousa’s last chapter is a summary of interventions for students with learning difficulties. He did a nice summary of identification, accommodation to the instructional environment, encouraging and motivating students with learning difficulties and the need for communication with parents.
The area I think we often fall down in as schools is communication with parents. This is so important for our students with learning challenges – and often becomes very stressful for teachers, parents and students. The teachers I have worked with who are most successful make extra efforts to communicate with the parents frequently, include them in problem solving, provide materials for home as well as school, have a set system (e-mail, phone call, set meeting) so the parents know when to expect to hear from them. It makes such a difference when the parents and school staff are on the same page!
2. Sousa did a very nice job summarizing suggestions for accommodating students with learning difficulties. Modifications to the learning environment, modifying instructional strategies, modifying curricular materials, getting the reluctant starter going, maintaining attention, using group instruction and peers, adjusting time demands and homework and dealing with inappropriate behavior would be helpful for all students. Some of the strategies would be easy to implement, and so beneficial – such as alternating active and quiet tasks, establishing a routine, provide a checklist for multitask assignments, foreshadow for transitions, add activity with movement. These are simple strategies but can be very powerful.
In addition, he offered strategies to motivate students – an important piece we often struggle with, especially for our students with learning needs who get so easily frustrated and develop low self esteem. One of the most important ones I think is to structure activities for success.
3. I think the area of parent communication is an area I personally need to improve in. I am often the bridge between parents and school, and need to do a better job understanding the parents and being a link for them to school. I had a recent experience with parents who were involved in a conflict with school staff over the communication issue, which eventually went to a district mediator when they got to a point that all communication went through the principal.
In reflecting back on the situation, I had been very involved as an intermediary between parents and staff the year before, and managed to work through the conflicts. Last year, I tried to shift that communication back to the school staff, and it backfired. Had I stayed more involved on the parents’ end, I might have been able to help resolve some of the conflict before it became impassable. Maybe not, but at least I would have felt that I did what I could.
It did point out to me the importance of developing and maintaining that link if it is not there. Preferably it’s the regular and special ed teachers that maintain that link, but if they can’t, it’s essential that someone does help to bridge it if they can’t.
I also realized with another middle school situation that it’s even harder in middle and high school to develop good parent-school communications. I have seen it be successful, but it takes extra effort on the part of the teacher and the parent, though the benefits are well worth it.
I agree that students shouldn't have to be mind readers... we need to let them know what is expected of them, time lines, schedule and different agendas. Along with all this organization information the kids should know - they also need to know the relevance and connection a lesson, project or task has to them. At times I think we get so busy we forget or skip over explaining that to the students.
At the end of each quarter, I have the kids do a self evaluation on how they did and what they've learned during the 9 weeks of instruction. It's neat to see the kids realize how much we've accomplished. I think the idea of self-assessment to help the student reflect on their progress during a project. Neat idea. Reflect is so important!!
Thinking about reflect and reading what the author wrote about daily journals made me remember... "Today I Learned..." that Ed Pino had us do when I was working on my master's degree with him. "Today I Learned" would be an awesome tool to bring back into my classroom. It's was a wonderful way to end each day. We now use daily assignment books that go home each night. They are wonderful for home/school communication - and would be a wonderful place to write a sentence or two about what we learned that day.
5 comments:
I agree that having a postive and low stress enviroment will help students stay focused. I think students need to continually hear positive reinforment especially in the fall. I spend a lot of time with my 1st graders to help them realize yes they can read and spell. Some may only know a few words, but with constant reinforcement they soon realize they are capable.
I think that I can use the term "goal" with my 1st graders when we go over the daily schedule and before a certain lessons. I have not used the MI terms with my students so this would be a great place to start with my students. After doing so I feel my students would be ready and more capable of setting goals.
I have not used the eight MI in my teaching. I would like to make this a focus of my teaching this year. After developing the final unit I will be able to apply this to other units I teach as well as share with my 1st grade team members.
I also would like to incorporate the self assessment/reflection to my projects by having students write in their journals. This is one great way to see how they feel they did.
A great book that is relavant and very practical for MI is Multiple Intelligences in the Classroom by Thomas Armstrong..I use it for my online class and it is the best I know...gives lots of great ideas on how to implement the MI theory...Lots of problems go away when your classroom becomes a MI classroom...kids really begin to respect each other...neat to see!!
1. I agree that setting personal goals for students is very important. I try to create positive experiences and create opportunities for success for each of my students. My students and I sit down and discuss personal and academic goals for them at the beginning of the year. We set a time frame to reach the goals and then begin a new goal. It works great and the students love the positive success. Sometimes we have a contract and I post it in my classroom.
2. I would like to try a self-assessment survey with my students. It's great to allow the students time to identify their strengths. Again, it's positive feedback for them. I can use the information to reflect on the student's strengths. Especially when they begin to feel overwhelmed or try to give up on a task.
3. My students currently use a daily journal. We reflect on our day. Sometimes we use journals to reflect on lessons taught in class. Often times they like to draw pictures in their journal. It's just another way of reflecting and it's also calming to them.
1. Sousa’s last chapter is a summary of interventions for students with learning difficulties. He did a nice summary of identification, accommodation to the instructional environment, encouraging and motivating students with learning difficulties and the need for communication with parents.
The area I think we often fall down in as schools is communication with parents. This is so important for our students with learning challenges – and often becomes very stressful for teachers, parents and students. The teachers I have worked with who are most successful make extra efforts to communicate with the parents frequently, include them in problem solving, provide materials for home as well as school, have a set system (e-mail, phone call, set meeting) so the parents know when to expect to hear from them. It makes such a difference when the parents and school staff are on the same page!
2. Sousa did a very nice job summarizing suggestions for accommodating students with learning difficulties. Modifications to the learning environment, modifying instructional strategies, modifying curricular materials, getting the reluctant starter going, maintaining attention, using group instruction and peers, adjusting time demands and homework and dealing with inappropriate behavior would be helpful for all students. Some of the strategies would be easy to implement, and so beneficial – such as alternating active and quiet tasks, establishing a routine, provide a checklist for multitask assignments, foreshadow for transitions, add activity with movement. These are simple strategies but can be very powerful.
In addition, he offered strategies to motivate students – an important piece we often struggle with, especially for our students with learning needs who get so easily frustrated and develop low self esteem. One of the most important ones I think is to structure activities for success.
3. I think the area of parent communication is an area I personally need to improve in. I am often the bridge between parents and school, and need to do a better job understanding the parents and being a link for them to school. I had a recent experience with parents who were involved in a conflict with school staff over the communication issue, which eventually went to a district mediator when they got to a point that all communication went through the principal.
In reflecting back on the situation, I had been very involved as an intermediary between parents and staff the year before, and managed to work through the conflicts. Last year, I tried to shift that communication back to the school staff, and it backfired. Had I stayed more involved on the parents’ end, I might have been able to help resolve some of the conflict before it became impassable. Maybe not, but at least I would have felt that I did what I could.
It did point out to me the importance of developing and maintaining that link if it is not there. Preferably it’s the regular and special ed teachers that maintain that link, but if they can’t, it’s essential that someone does help to bridge it if they can’t.
I also realized with another middle school situation that it’s even harder in middle and high school to develop good parent-school communications. I have seen it be successful, but it takes extra effort on the part of the teacher and the parent, though the benefits are well worth it.
I agree that students shouldn't have to be mind readers... we need to let them know what is expected of them, time lines, schedule and different agendas. Along with all this organization information the kids should know - they also need to know the relevance and connection a lesson, project or task has to them. At times I think we get so busy we forget or skip over explaining that to the students.
At the end of each quarter, I have the kids do a self evaluation on how they did and what they've learned during the 9 weeks of instruction. It's neat to see the kids realize how much we've accomplished. I think the idea of self-assessment to help the student reflect on their progress during a project. Neat idea. Reflect is so important!!
Thinking about reflect and reading what the author wrote about daily journals made me remember... "Today I Learned..." that Ed Pino had us do when I was working on my master's degree with him. "Today I Learned" would be an awesome tool to bring back into my classroom. It's was a wonderful way to end each day. We now use daily assignment books that go home each night. They are wonderful for home/school communication - and would be a wonderful place to write a sentence or two about what we learned that day.
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