This week in field experience, I was able to learn about reading interventions and the three tiers. I did not learn this in the classroom, though. The students had a morning assembly while the teachers were given the option to plan or attend a professional development even in the school. My CT decided to attend the event so I went as well. The focus of the presentation was the main goals in literacy for each grade. For 1st grade (as well as kindergarten) the main goal was sight words. In this district, 1st graders are expected to know 200-300 sight words by the end of the year, although the state standard is way lower. My CT discussed with me a few of the ways that she works on sight words with her students as well as how she differentiates for her 3 tier 3 students, who are the lowest preforming. I found out that the district introduces a lot of new and different programs very often, so things that had worked for her in the past to help her students with sight words were no longer available and she had to come up with new strategies - which are not working well thus far. I was surprised to hear that techniques or programs that were working for a lot of students were being replaced with programs that are not working as well. I was able to see my CT assess and work with the tier 3 students on sight words last week, and I noticed that the technique was not very interactive. She showed flashcards and the students said the words. Then, she laid out the cards and had them hand her the cards as they said the words. Each student has their own bag of 5 word cards that they work on at once. When they get one of them down, she introduces the next words and marks it off on the assessment sheet. I was wondering why this was so formal and bland, but now I know that the program she used in the past which sounded like a song/music program was no longer available to her because of the district. Students learn better from interactive activities, so this left me wondering why they no longer use the more interactive program.
My goal for this week was to make sure that I knew at least half of the students names and that I had a chance to help with classwork. I believe I know about 10/22 names, and I was able to assist students during their brainstorming session before doing a writing assignment.
Hello Kaylie,
ReplyDeleteI also was able to learn about the three tiers and experience being in each tier firsthand. Its great that you were able to discuss a few ways on how to work on sight words as well as differentiating between the three tiers. That's super important when it comes to teaching and finding ways to scaffold each child's learning development, while still allowing the higher level students to advance and having the lower level students advance as well but at their own pace. Also it's great that your achieving your goal in terms of knowing the names of the students.
Thanks for sharing, Nadine
Kaylie,
ReplyDeleteWe also attended a professional development meeting. This was very beneficial to know how the district is doing different programs and what programs worked and what programs did not work. My CT has also mentioned programs and strategies he used in the past that really seemed to help the students that he can longer implement in the classroom due to the programs and policies changing throughout the district. I hope you are able to reach your goal next week with knowing their names and helping throughout the classroom.