Piquing curosity and pointing out connections between the curriculum is no easy task especially at the middle and high school levels. I give credit to teachers and schools that are able to provide this and feel they are exceptional.
Making connections is important as well as implementing an enviroment that encourages curosity, routine, and optimal learning for all. This chapter explained ways you can help students link new info by using KWL charts, unit webs, and discussing experiences before giving new information which engages students.
In my classroom I would incorporate unit webs which would allow my students to see what the topic is for the day or week as well as when it would end. I also would like to try and have my students reflect in their personal journals at the end of the day. I think this would help teachers to see the connections they made. I have done the mystery box and I am going to bring it back!!
1. Seeking a balance to maintain optimal learning is excellent for students and teachers. It is certainly a challenge to create an environment which engages the brain's attentional system. 2. Personal connections with each student may help create connections. After finding the connections, piquing curiosity would be easier to implement in your plans. Students love to be curious and would attend to the lessons better. Daily schedules are very important to students. Schedules not only give guidance, they give students control. They know what to expect next in their day. 3. I use KWL in my classroom. The students like this strategy and remember more when we use it. I also use varying stimuli since my students work at different paces and levels. I like the idea of the mystery box and would like to implement it into my curriculum next year.
I love teaching second grade because all the students have so much curiosity... I love their enthusiasium and eagerness to learn about everything and anything. I strongly agree with making the personal connections with the curriculum and the students' lives. After reading this chapter, what I'd like to do differently is to try the web for the morning agenda. I often use a linear schedule with the time and activities for the kids to keep track of our day... but it will be fun to mix it up a little with a web. By quickly drawing some simple pictures, it will help reach the non readers too.
2. I feel it's so important to keep the kids informed with what's happening during the day as well as days and weeks ahead. Each month I make a calendar on tag board and fill it up with everything happening during the month... birthdays, field trips, assemblies, early release days, no school days, buddy days, when book orders are due, and all the other odds and ends that can be hard to keep track of. The kids love looking ahead and know what's going on and/or when something is going to go on. I feel it's important for me to role model organizational skills along with keep them informed and excited about what's going on.
3. Graphic organizers are wonderful... webs, KWL charts... again they help orgainize and motivate the students. I agree with Katie and Jodi - I'll try the mystery box... I think the kids will love it.
Question 1 - This chapter on Writing Disabilities certainly backs up all of my strategies, recommendations and interventions as an occupational therapist in the area of writing skills. One of the biggest things teachers and schools can do is spend time on teaching kids how to write – systematic direct instruction plus practice. I know there are many competing needs, but so many of our kids start practicing writing at 2-3 years of age, and don’t get sufficient instruction, developing bad habits that are hard to break.
Sousa notes that, just as with reading, the brain has no “writing centers” and requires the coordination of numerous systems in the brain. Learning requires direct instruction and lots of practice, especially for the students who are dyslexic. Sousa presented some nice strategies for providing effective writing instruction, including a predictable writing routine, displaying written work, overt teacher modeling, use of reading to support writing development, intervening early for students with writing difficulty, creating a risk-free environment, helping students self-regulate their behavior during writing and tailoring writing instruction to meet individual needs. These strategies would be helpful for all students.
Question 2 – Sousa had a nice summary of strategies to build confidence in students with writing difficulties, tailoring writing instruction to meet individual needs, identifying and addressing roadblocks to writing, use of technological tools to minimize writing difficulties, accommodations and modifications for students with writing disorders (for rate of work produced, volume of work produced, complexity of work produced, format of work produced and tools of work production). He also discussed remediation strategies for students with writing disorders and strategies to consider for expressive writing for students with learning disabilities. All of these strategies would be helpful.
I was a little surprised he did not mention consultation or referral to an OT for students for persistent writing problems who do not respond to teacher intervention and solid handwriting instruction. He did mention that neurological causes of dysgraphia can include damage to the brain in the parietal lobes, visual spatial problems, deficits in proprioceptive system and motor dysgraphia. These areas can be addressed by OT, and may be related to other sensory motor deficits and needs in the foundation skills needed for writing.
Question 3 - If it were up to me, I would make a word processor available for written production to all students who struggle with writing, and work on the foundational skills (visual spatial, fine motor, sequencing, self-regulation, posture, and teaching handwriting skills etc) at other times. The demands of the writing process are so high for students with dysgraphia, that they are struggling with the mechanics and have less energy to focus on what to write, what to attend to, what to learn. It has been very interesting to watch the evolution in the field of autism when students have had more opportunity to word process and the freedom it gives them to express what it is like to have autism and to complete work that no one thought them capable of, because the act of writing was such a struggle for them. The motor and visual skills needed for typing are so much less, and it frees them up to focus on what they are writing. Increased acceptance, use and integration of word processing for students with writing difficulties will continue to be my plea – though now I have some additional brain research to back it up! Marcy, Chapter 6- Sousa
4 comments:
Piquing curosity and pointing out connections between the curriculum is no easy task especially at the middle and high school levels. I give credit to teachers and schools that are able to provide this and feel they are exceptional.
Making connections is important as well as implementing an enviroment that encourages curosity, routine, and optimal learning for all. This chapter explained ways you can help students link new info by using KWL charts, unit webs, and discussing experiences before giving new information which engages students.
In my classroom I would incorporate unit webs which would allow my students to see what the topic is for the day or week as well as when it would end. I also would like to try and have my students reflect in their personal journals at the end of the day. I think this would help teachers to see the connections they made. I have done the mystery box and I am going to bring it back!!
1. Seeking a balance to maintain optimal learning is excellent for students and teachers. It is certainly a challenge to create an environment which engages the brain's attentional system.
2. Personal connections with each student may help create connections. After finding the connections, piquing curiosity would be easier to implement in your plans. Students love to be curious and would attend to the lessons better.
Daily schedules are very important to students. Schedules not only give guidance, they give students control. They know what to expect next in their day.
3. I use KWL in my classroom. The students like this strategy and remember more when we use it. I also use varying stimuli since my students work at different paces and levels. I like the idea of the mystery box and would like to implement it into my curriculum next year.
I love teaching second grade because all the students have so much curiosity... I love their enthusiasium and eagerness to learn about everything and anything. I strongly agree with making the personal connections with the curriculum and the students' lives. After reading this chapter, what I'd like to do differently is to try the web for the morning agenda. I often use a linear schedule with the time and activities for the kids to keep track of our day... but it will be fun to mix it up a little with a web. By quickly drawing some simple pictures, it will help reach the non readers too.
2. I feel it's so important to keep the kids informed with what's happening during the day as well as days and weeks ahead. Each month I make a calendar on tag board and fill it up with everything happening during the month... birthdays, field trips, assemblies, early release days, no school days, buddy days, when book orders are due, and all the other odds and ends that can be hard to keep track of. The kids love looking ahead and know what's going on and/or when something is going to go on. I feel it's important for me to role model organizational skills along with keep them informed and excited about what's going on.
3. Graphic organizers are wonderful... webs, KWL charts... again they help orgainize and motivate the students. I agree with Katie and Jodi - I'll try the mystery box... I think the kids will love it.
Question 1 - This chapter on Writing Disabilities certainly backs up all of my strategies, recommendations and interventions as an occupational therapist in the area of writing skills. One of the biggest things teachers and schools can do is spend time on teaching kids how to write – systematic direct instruction plus practice. I know there are many competing needs, but so many of our kids start practicing writing at 2-3 years of age, and don’t get sufficient instruction, developing bad habits that are hard to break.
Sousa notes that, just as with reading, the brain has no “writing centers” and requires the coordination of numerous systems in the brain. Learning requires direct instruction and lots of practice, especially for the students who are dyslexic. Sousa presented some nice strategies for providing effective writing instruction, including a predictable writing routine, displaying written work, overt teacher modeling, use of reading to support writing development, intervening early for students with writing difficulty, creating a risk-free environment, helping students self-regulate their behavior during writing and tailoring writing instruction to meet individual needs. These strategies would be helpful for all students.
Question 2 – Sousa had a nice summary of strategies to build confidence in students with writing difficulties, tailoring writing instruction to meet individual needs, identifying and addressing roadblocks to writing, use of technological tools to minimize writing difficulties, accommodations and modifications for students with writing disorders (for rate of work produced, volume of work produced, complexity of work produced, format of work produced and tools of work production). He also discussed remediation strategies for students with writing disorders and strategies to consider for expressive writing for students with learning disabilities. All of these strategies would be helpful.
I was a little surprised he did not mention consultation or referral to an OT for students for persistent writing problems who do not respond to teacher intervention and solid handwriting instruction. He did mention that neurological causes of dysgraphia can include damage to the brain in the parietal lobes, visual spatial problems, deficits in proprioceptive system and motor dysgraphia. These areas can be addressed by OT, and may be related to other sensory motor deficits and needs in the foundation skills needed for writing.
Question 3 - If it were up to me, I would make a word processor available for written production to all students who struggle with writing, and work on the foundational skills (visual spatial, fine motor, sequencing, self-regulation, posture, and teaching handwriting skills etc) at other times. The demands of the writing process are so high for students with dysgraphia, that they are struggling with the mechanics and have less energy to focus on what to write, what to attend to, what to learn. It has been very interesting to watch the evolution in the field of autism when students have had more opportunity to word process and the freedom it gives them to express what it is like to have autism and to complete work that no one thought them capable of, because the act of writing was such a struggle for them. The motor and visual skills needed for typing are so much less, and it frees them up to focus on what they are writing. Increased acceptance, use and integration of word processing for students with writing difficulties will continue to be my plea – though now I have some additional brain research to back it up!
Marcy, Chapter 6- Sousa
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