Chapter 14 - Culturally Responsive Teaching Practices

Last year was my first year of teaching.  I was surprised at the number of different cultures represented in my Pickens County classroom.  I had Hispanic, Chinese, Indian, African-American, and White children in my classroom.  A couple of these children could speak very little English.  I feel that I did a fairly good job of making these children feel loved and welcomed in my classroom.  Even though they may have not always understood what I was saying, smiles and hugs mean the same thing in all languages.  At the beginning of the year, I spend a great deal of time teaching kindness and respect for others.  I do this mainly through read-alouds, discussions, and reviewing classroom rules and expectations.  Our schools also teaches character education.  Our guidance counselor teaches a lesson to my class once a month.  I try to review the monthly word/concept on a regular basis.

This year, my classes are not quite as diverse.  I have one Hispanic student and two African-American students.  I have been guilty of trying to "not see them as different."  I need to pay more attention to their different learning styles and their different backgrounds.  I found the chart on page 323 to be very helpful.  I would like to see a similar chart for other cultures as well.

In the future, I plan to become more educated on various cultures.  For example, I never thought about African-American students being more communal than other students.  But, I can see that now that it has been brought to my attention.  I want to embrace all of my students.  I want every child that enters my classroom to feel welcomed, loved, and respected.

Chapter 9 - Mathematics

Math is my favorite subject.  If I have the privilege of teaching an older grade one day, I would love to teach math and science.  (Maybe I should have been a boy.)  In 4K, our math curriculum consists of learning to count, identifying and writing numbers, recognizing and creating patterns, and identifying shapes.  Many of these skills are taught through calendar math.

I feel that I do a good job of teaching these math skills.  I use a variety of teaching methods to reach a variety of students.  For example, I use music, poems, and rhymes to teach many of the above-skills.  I also use Promethean board activities and play games, such as number Bingo and color and shapes Bingo.  We also do activities such as making number books and shapes houses, just to name a few.

One area that I need to improve in is patience.  Because learning math skills came easy to me, I become frustrated with kids that can not remember numbers, shapes, etc.  My own son has trouble remembering multiplication facts.  It is hard for me to understand that.  I just want to say, "Just memorize them!"

I plan to improve in the area of teaching mathematics by incorporating even more hands-on activities.  For my students that "just don't get it," I will try to use more tactile learning activities to see if that will help them.  My students are very young.  Some of the them may simply need more time and practice.  In the event that I teach an older grade, I will research additional methods for teaching math.

Chapter 13- Assistive Technology

I have never had a student that required the use of assistive technology.  However, I do use technology in my classroom on a daily basis.  I use flip charts on the Promethean board to teach a variety of things, including phonics and math skills.  I use Brain Pop, Jr., Starfall, and United Streaming videos to enhance instruction.  My students are also allowed to "play" on my board during center time.  They also review letter sounds on Starfall while at computer center.

Before reading the chapter on assistive technology, I thought I was fairly up-to-date on computer technology.  Now, I realize there is a lot of programs and software out there that I had never heard of.  I have only touched the "tip of the iceberg" in regards to the use of technology in my classroom.

In the future, I would like to take some technology classes.  Most of the technology that I use, I learned on my own through the sink or swim method.  I am looking forward to getting new interactive white boards and receiving training on how to use them.  I also plan to utilize some of the programs mentioned in the text that simulate real-life situations.  Students are always wanting to know why they need to learn something.  There are many programs that allow students to experience "real-life," especially in regard to math.

Chapter 8 - Written Expression

The only writing that we do in 4K is learning to correctly form letters, and write some popcorn words near the end of the school year.  Occasionally, students will dictate sentences for me to write.  But writing as discussed in this chapter is a little over our heads.  When I assisted in a 5K classroom, the students had writing journals.  Usually twice a week, the students would write in their journals.  Sometimes we would give them the topic, other times they were allowed to choose what to write about.  Prior to writing, they drew a picture.  During conferencing, they would explain what was happening in the picture.  Then, we directed them to make their writing match their pictures.  This was an excruciating process, especially at the beginning of the year.  As the year progressed, the students could do more and more on their own.  Once their writing was complete, they were allowed to share in the "author's chair."  Sharing was our favorite part of the writing process.

While student teaching in second grade, I realized that I knew very little about teaching writing.  That was the hardest part of my student teaching.  I did not have any classes on how to teach writing while working toward my undergraduate degree.  Since I am not a strong writer myself, this is one area that I found difficult to teach.  Fortunately, the classroom teacher was there to guide me through it.  At that time, she was focusing on teaching mini-lessons on writing strategies.

In the future (if I teach an older grade), I will research ways to teach writing effectively.  I will look for a class to take that teaches writing strategies.   I will also use materials such as the story elements graphic organizer in Figure 8.1, as well as some of the strategies, i.e TREE, SCOPE and COPS, listed in the text.  I will also utilize modeling and peer editing when teaching writing.

WEBLIOGRAPHY

ESL Sites

* Dave's ESL Cafe    

This is an ESL website that provides help for teachers, parents, and students.

www.eslcafe.com/ideas/

*  ESL Galaxy  

This site provides great lesson plans, materials, and activities for ESL students.

www.esl-galaxy.com/

* Spelling City    

This website provides interactive help with spelling, vocabulary, and grammar.

www.spellingcity.com

* Using English   

This site provides worksheets to assist ESL students.

www.usingenglish.com/handouts

* Brain Pop ESL  

This site provides various levels of support for teaching reading, writing, speaking, and listening skills.

www.brainpopesl.com/

Reading Sites

* Reading Rockets

Reading Rockets offers a wealth of reading strategies, lessons, and activities designed to help young children learn how to read and read better. Our reading resources assist parents, teachers, and other educators in helping struggling readers build fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension skills.

http://www.readingrockets.com

*Reading Rockets

This article provides homework strategies for teaching students with learning disabilities.

http://www.readingrockets.org/article/202/


Classroom Management Sites

* Teacher Vision  

This website provides classroom management strategies to assist with challenging classroom behaviors.

www.teachervision.fen.com/classroom-management/behavioral-problems/26200.html

* Positive Behavior Interventions and Support  

This sites describes PBIS, which is an effective school wide interventions plan. My school participates in a PBIS program.

www.pbis.org/

* Sparkle Box

This is a wonderful side that has a variety of information, including classroom management tips, signs and behavior reports.

http://www.sparklebox.co.uk/usa/

Interventions Sites

*AIMS Web   

AIMSweb is a benchmark and progress monitoring system based on direct, frequent and continuous student assessment. The results are reported to students, parents, teachers and administrators via a web-based data management and reporting system to determine response to intervention.

www.aimsweb.com

* Research Institute on Progress Monitoring

This site provides information on RTI

http://www.progressmonitoring.org

* Intervention Central

This site provides a variety of services including the ability to create behavior report cards, make charts, worksheet generators, and more.

http://www.interventioncentral.org

*National Research Center on Learning Disabilities

This site provides valuable information on RTI in addition to information on learning disabilities.

http://www.nrcld.org

MISC Sites

* Center on Instruction

This site has a wealth of information on a variety of topics including ELL, Special Education, RTI, and Literacy.

http://www.centeroninstruction.org

*  Teaching Today

This website provides a variety on information on ELL teaching strategies, differentiating instruction, interventions, classroom management and other teaching tips.

 http://teachingtoday.glencoe.com

* KidZui

This site provides online activities for autistic children, students with learning disabilities, and other special needs kids.

www.kidzui.com/special_needs

* Brain Pop, Jr.      

A fun site that teaches various information on a variety of subjects for students in K-3.

www.brainpopjr.com

* Brain Pop

A fun site that teaches various information on a variety of subjects for students in 4th grade and above.

 www.brainpop.com

* GameGoo

A fun site that has interactive games that provide practice with reading skills.

www.earobics.com/gamegoo

* StarFall

This website has a variety of interactive activities for young students.  I use it every week for phonics instruction.  The students go to this site when they are in computer center.

http://www.starfall.com

Chapter 7 - Reading Comphrension

My students do not read independently yet, but I read-aloud to them several times a day.  I like to use visuals, including graphic organizers, with my students.  This past week, we enjoyed a theme unit on penguins.  (Our letter this week was "Pp").  Together we created a KWL chart on penguins.  My students are not quite ready for mnemonics or letter strategies that employ acronyms, but I use poems and songs to teach many concepts.

One area that I am currently working on is questioning.  I am trying to move from the basic knowledge and comprehension questions, to more higher-level thinking questions.  My students amaze me sometimes with the answers (and insight) to questions that I ask about a book I have read.  I have recently tried to implement group projects with my students.  At first, I did not think that 4 year-olds could work collaboratively and cooperatively together (other than centers, of course).  I have been pleasantly surprised.

I will continue to work on questioning strategies with my students.  I also plan to do more group work with my students.  For the most part, they have worked very well together.   Additionally, I am going to do more modeling self-instruction or think-aloud skills.

Chapter 6 - Reading Instruction

In the last two years, I have had seven ESL students.  All but two of them spoke and understood English fairly well.  According to the text, the primary learning disability for CLDE learners is reading.  Since my 4K students have not yet learned to read, it is impossible to know if this particular disability is present.  One area that I feel I do well in is developing positive relationships with the child and their family.  Even if the parents do not speak and understand English, there are ways to show you care.  Smiling means the same thing in all languages.

Since, phonics and phonemic awareness are a big part of the 4K curriculum, I need to pay closer attention to the different sounds made by vowels in different languages.  Also I need to be more conscious of my use of figurative language, such as similes, metaphors and idioms.  Double meanings for words is also confusing to many students (both English speakers and ELLs).  I am also guilty of only discussing customs or traditions of various cultures during holidays or special events.

My desire is to move to a higher grade level in the near future.  In the event that I do transfer to another grade level and teach reading, I plan to try several of the reading programs listed in the text.  I am particularly interested in Modified Guided Reading.  It looks similar to the "Cunningham" method used by the K5 teachers at my school.  I like to idea of introducing the text through picture walks, making predictions, and making connections to the students' personal lives.  I will also consult "veteran" teachers and current research to implement the best reading strategies for all students.