Today we discussed 'The Football' which is when you structure a class so that everyone starts together and then is separated in to groups and then they come back together in the end. This is something I did often with my grade 9 class but did not do very often in my grade 11 class. Perhaps, this is one of the reasons that my grade 9 class went better than my grade 11s.
Throughout this month of schooling, I am hoping to maybe find some answers as to why I felt my grade 9 class went so much better than my grade 11 class and I'm already starting to understand that.
In my grade 11 class, I had one student who hated it when we read stories as a class. He often would read it quickly on his own and then start doing something else (like listening to his iPod). This was frustrating to me because I often thought he was just not interested in the story but then found out he was actually ahead. Therefore, in my UDL and DI assignments I have chosen to allow students to read the story in groups according to reading ability and readiness. Therefore, for the higher-level readers, students may choose to read on their own and come together as a group to discuss the story while all the other groups finish up reading.
I also have decided that my UDL and DI assignments will have to be based on the same lesson because I honestly do not have time to pick apart more than one lesson, which is a shame, because I really wanted to have two amazing lessons to put in to my portfolio.
ELL:
ESL is a very high area of interest for me. I have been tutoring ELL students for two years now and even took a course online on how to teach ESL. The online course, however, was not very helpful but I did feel it discussed a lot of the things we are talking about in class right now (except now we are talking about it in a lot more detail). So far, this summer institute has given me two different lesson planning approaches which can help me keep ELLs in mind. I honestly think I will be able to apply these to my future lesson plans. When I got 'out on the field' I felt like I had forgotten many of the things that I had learned. I was actually really excited to go back to class and review some of the things we have learned and to learn more. I am happy to say that I really do feel like it was worth it to take this summer institute because I am able to reflect on what happened during my practicum and apply what I am now learning to real-life situations that occurred.
Throughout this month of schooling, I am hoping to maybe find some answers as to why I felt my grade 9 class went so much better than my grade 11 class and I'm already starting to understand that.
In my grade 11 class, I had one student who hated it when we read stories as a class. He often would read it quickly on his own and then start doing something else (like listening to his iPod). This was frustrating to me because I often thought he was just not interested in the story but then found out he was actually ahead. Therefore, in my UDL and DI assignments I have chosen to allow students to read the story in groups according to reading ability and readiness. Therefore, for the higher-level readers, students may choose to read on their own and come together as a group to discuss the story while all the other groups finish up reading.
I also have decided that my UDL and DI assignments will have to be based on the same lesson because I honestly do not have time to pick apart more than one lesson, which is a shame, because I really wanted to have two amazing lessons to put in to my portfolio.
ELL:
ESL is a very high area of interest for me. I have been tutoring ELL students for two years now and even took a course online on how to teach ESL. The online course, however, was not very helpful but I did feel it discussed a lot of the things we are talking about in class right now (except now we are talking about it in a lot more detail). So far, this summer institute has given me two different lesson planning approaches which can help me keep ELLs in mind. I honestly think I will be able to apply these to my future lesson plans. When I got 'out on the field' I felt like I had forgotten many of the things that I had learned. I was actually really excited to go back to class and review some of the things we have learned and to learn more. I am happy to say that I really do feel like it was worth it to take this summer institute because I am able to reflect on what happened during my practicum and apply what I am now learning to real-life situations that occurred.
