Week 6

Components of Reading and Writing
Which ones are important and how will they be taught?

 

All the components in reading are very important for a student to have skills with.  These components include: phonemic awareness, alphabetics (letter knowledge, phonological awareness, phonics), motivation, fluency, vocabulary, and reading comprehension.  Background knowledge in all of these areas are necessary in order to continue growing in reading and writing skills.  It is important for a student to practice skills within these components on a daily basis.  I believe all of them are important for a student to develop their reading skills and be well rounded in the area of literacy. I know I will use many different strategies for teaching these components.  I want to practice utilizing many different strategies in order to learn what works best with my students.  Knowing what strategies to use and how to implement them will be developed over time and with more experience.  It also will depend on the learning styles of my future students and on what motivates them. 

One strategy, presented in class, was Reading Recovery. I believe this is a great way for students to practice many components of reading.  The lesson overview includes rereading, running record, magnetic letter work, writing, cut-up sentence, and a new book.  This method helps a student feel confident in their reading by starting with a familiar text and building up to a new one through a series of steps.  It helps the student understand how letters and words work.  The student also has the opportunity to practice their writing and making sentences. The sequence within this strategy is perfect for a child to build their skills and work towards solving reading work independently. 

When teaching fluency, I plan to use a lot of modeling.  Some strategies to promote fluency are choral reading, partner reading, tape assisted reading, and shared reading.  I think all of these will be useful for students in my future classroom.

Vocabulary has many strategies that can be used.  A few that I will make use of and teach to my students will be word hunts, word maps, and word walls.  Vocabulary can be implemented in all lessons in all different ways.

Finally, reading comprehension is a major factor in successful students.  It is very important that students not only learn how to read but understand what they are reading and are able to relate it to other things. Again, there are numerous strategies for this component.  Just a few that I plan to use to teach my students are sequencing, concept maps, summarizing, think-alouds, question-answers, and reciprocal teaching.   All of these will give my students the opportunity to think about what they have read. 

Overall, I believe all the components are important to teach to students.  They need all the components in order to be a successful reader.  With the deaf and/or hard of hearing students the same strategies can be used, however modifications may need to be considered in order for the students to fully comprehend what they are doing and how to do it.  They may need more assistance, direct teaching, and modeling in order to be successful. 

Week 5

When teaching a lesson, when should you use cues, questions, and advance organizers?  What adaptations might these need in working with students who are Deaf/Hard of hearing?

I believe when teaching a lesson, a teacher should use cues, questions, and advance organizers whenever possible.  It is important that teachers use cues and questions appropriately as much as they can during a lesson.  We want to push our students to think critically during lessons so they can gain the most knowledge out of it that they are capable of.  Cues allow for the students to start thinking about what the answers are and how they want to answer a question. It is vital that we get our students thinking for themselves rather than always providing them with an answer.  We want them to learn how to think critically beyond the first stage.  I think graphic organizers should be used whenever possible.  They help organize information.  I think writing down information on graphic organizers helps students remember it better.  Also, they can have a reference to look back at when they cannot quite remember the information.  I think graphic organizers get students thinking because essentially the student has to fill in the blanks with his or her thoughts.  For students who are deaf or hard of hearing, some things to consider might be working with the students on the organizers rather than having them do it completely on their own.   There may also need to be more visuals for these learners in order for them to be successful in completing the organizer and thinking critically through questions given to them. 

 

Homework??

My personal opinion – homework is the worst.  Even though I really do not like being assigned homework, I know it is a major reason why I am successful in school.  Homework is further practice on what is being taught in the classroom.  It helps refresh the brain on material previously learned.  Homework can even be looking ahead at what will be taught in the classroom the following day.  This is useful because students can come prepared ready to ask questions and learn. So I believe homework is necessary.  However, I do believe there should be a limit on the amount of homework given.  I think homework should be given out appropriately.  Students are in the classroom all day and need a break from school as well.  It is important that the homework is actually helping them and not just always busy work. Homework should be evenly distributed so they are not overloaded in one day.  Just like the book says, the amount of work given also depends on the age of the students.  Overall, I agree with what the CITW has to say about homework.  I know that I want my students to be successful so I will be assigning homework. 

Week 4

Stages of development v. Common Core Standards v. Curriculum Scope and Sequence v. hierarchy of skills – which are important when teaching students with a hearing loss?

I believe all of these stages, standards, and skills are important to consider when teaching students with a hearing loss.  There are a variety of skills within all of these.  I believe it depends on the students and where they are developing within their academics.  Although these cannot exactly predict where a child with a hearing loss should be performing and where areas improvement is needed, it is good to have some sort of guidelines.  It is important to have an idea of what the child should be learning and how they should be performing according to their grade level.  A child has to start somewhere.  I believe the hierarchy of skills is one way to discover what skills a student should be focused on. In many cases a student needs to accomplish lower level skills in order to advance into higher level ones.  It is necessary that we make sure the students have these skills in order to be successful in the future. 

Overall, teachers of the deaf and hard of hearing need to be aware of skills that are not yet mastered and work towards providing the child with instruction in order for them to gain those skills. My focus will be on making sure my students acquire the necessary skills in order to move on the next skill.  I want to push my students to see what they can do beyond their grade level as well.

Week 3

Assessments

There is a lot for an educator to take into consideration when assessing a child with a hearing loss.  They need to have background information on the child in order to know how the child may perform on the assessment and what they child may need in order to perform their best. Some things that need to be considered are the type and degree of hearing loss, environment, appropriateness of the assessment, and modifications that may need to be implemented.  The question is: should one use only tests designed for this population?  I believe the answer is no.  This population should take assessments that their typically developing peers are taking.  I think it is a good idea to see where they are at in comparison to their peers.  Modifications can still be made, however I think it is good they experience the same assessments as their peers.  I also recently learned that many of the assessments designed for this population are old and that there are not very many of them. So again, it is good that this population is exposed to these updated assessments.   However, taking the assessments that are designed for them can still provide very useful information.

Communication

It is necessary for good communication in this field. Teachers and staff need to be constantly communicating in order to stay up to date on things.  Today there are many ways to stay in touch with others.  But what is the best way to stay in touch with teachers and staff?  Should it be face-to-face or through email?  I believe that it all depends on what is being communicated and who it is between.  It is important to determine this early in a relationship among teachers. I think everyone has a preference on when to email and when to use face-to-face communication.  There are definitely more appropriate times to use face-to-face rather than email.  This can be determined after getting to know staff members.  I plan on getting to know my staff and peers before determining which method to use more often.  I know I want to make sure I communicate effectively and appropriately at all times.  It will depend on what is being discussed that will help me determine whether to use face-to-face or email.