Module 4 learning summary

Module 4 summary

RTI stands for response to intervention. The RTI process is in place for students who don’t learn along with the other 80% of general education students. There are many reasons why a child might need interventions but the RTI process is to help get students with learning or behavior disabilities the right help to make them successful in school. Teachers are responsible for the interventions in tier 1 but as a student moves up the ladder towards tier 2 or 3 other personnel come in to help the student be successful. The RTI process is meant to identify a problem, discuss why it is happening, figure out a way to fix it and see, then see if the intervention worked. The teachers take data to show how the interventions are working and whether new interventions need to be implemented. Through the RTI process we are able to identify when a student has a learning disability. Identification of students with learning disabilities should take time through the RTI process to monitor how a student works when different strategies are implemented.

When we set up a reading program you need to keep in mind which kids fall into the core, supplemental, and intervention groups to best fit their needs when it comes to reading. There is a difference between phonics and phonological awareness. Phonological awareness is the ability to recognize word lengths, rhyming, and syllabication, segmenting onset and rime, and working with different sounds. Phonics is when you have letter to sound associations, decoding, and encoding. Readers progress through four stages which are sounding out, saying whole word, sight words, and automatic word reading. The end goal is to read for comprehension and meaning. Assessment is important but we must implement the correct ways to comprehend before we can assess. Web-quests are a great way to incorporate technology into reading through the tasks at hand: retelling, compilation, mystery, journalistic, design, creative product, consensus building, persuasion, self-knowledge, analytical, judgments, and scientific. As a teacher it is important to get readers to the highest level you can in first grade or else they will struggle for the years beyond that grade. Explicit instruction at this young age for phonemic and phonological awareness will help a student become more successful. We must expose our students to new words every day in order for them to achieve at high levels in vocabulary development by the time they are in fifth or eighth grade. While reading students should question, visualize, predict, connect, and respond to what they are reading. Teachers are the biggest influence on student reading abilities and levels. We must model good reading if we want our students to be good at reading. Overall through this module I have learned that we are the biggest advocates for our student’s success and we must be intentional on how we teach them to read. 

Module 3 Summary

Video on encouraging enthusiasm for reading: It's important that parents read with and to their children to help them build a love for reading. As teachers do in school by modeling the reading process, parents are encouraged to do the same at home to help their children get enthusiastic about reading.

Smart Table: Is a great way for students to interact during an activity. Whether it be a math activity or a reading activity where they can work together to achieve the end goal. It's for primary grades and is an easy way for four students to work together as well as using technology. There are endless amounts of ways to incorporate this technology but for social studies I think it would be beneficial when you are talking about locations to use the technology with maps or create a map with pictures of different events and placing them on the map where they occurred. I just think about my class and I teach US history from the Civil War to today and there are loads of locations my students need to know and how if they could move things around to get a better feel as to where these events take place. With literacy in my classroom I could see students writing a paper then recreating the paper or story on the board to tell the story with friends.

Science and literacy integrated: I think great ways to incorporate literacy development into science could be by making up songs to go along with the important key vocabulary of a unit to get them exposed to the language in a fun and exciting way. Science journal are a great way to incorporate writing into science. Literacy is reading, writing, listening, and speaking. Science content is difficult for students with language barriers because the background knowledge of the vocabulary might not be there. Having students speak about what experiment they just did could help build their speaking skills with key vocabulary in relation to the science content.

Literacy Development: I would say the development of literacy starts with being able to recognize words, read words, speak about reading, then being able to synthesize or analyze what you are reading.

Expository Text: We live in the information age and it's vital for students to be able to retell and engage in conversation about reading expository text. We see through the new common core standards how much emphasis has been put on being able to read and write informational text. Teachers should use expository trade books to teach students how to retell and summarize what is being read.

Research study: The research done showed that when explicit instruction of informational text was incorporated, students were more likely to read informational text on their own. Students are highly influenced by what the teacher is incorporating into the classroom. I found it interesting that the explicit instruction of fiction didn't have nearly the impact that explicit instruction of non-fiction did.