Summary of Field Advisory, April 2009
Tasha McShan talks about her unit on
Charlotte's Web where she connected
literacy and science.
We held the last field advisory for 2008 - 09 on April 14, 2009. CPS
partners and UIC students exchanged several interesting ideas around
student literacy artifacts. Here are some examples. Alex showed two
video clips of short movies her students made by selecting pictures
that in their minds connected to various parts of a poem they read.
The short movie consisted of images related to the mood and meaning
that the poem evoked for the student and how those images changes.
Alex explained that this helped students connect comprehension with
images using Windows Media Player software. Since it is easy to use,
and available on all PC computers, her students could focus on
selecting meaningful pictures instead of wrestling with complicated
software.
Mary Stalzer and Dave Rench began the discussion in their group by
sharing their experiences of co-teaching in which students in
self-contained classrooms and resource settings blended with general
education kids. UIC students wondered about issues like when
co-teaching is appropriate, how the teachers approached talking with
general educators about it, and what challenges they faced. Dave
shared his approach and perspective, saying he has found that
structuring students into small groups enables productive work while
receiving individualized instruction to help all students succeed.
Mary Stalzer shared how she made a science text related to diseases
accessible to all students. She showed a National Geographic picture
book (National Geographic Investigates Science Series] that she found
more accessible in comparison to the textbook. Mary stressed that the
text in the National Geographic materials also had several new
vocabulary words. She described pre-reading strategies she used to
evoke prior knowledge (and helping students associate ideas with what
they already know) and how she also used graphic organizers to guide
all students as they read.
Donn Simon brought examples of short autobiographies written by
students in his high school English classes. After sharing the
different student samples, he asked UIC students in what ways they
could encourage reluctant writers. He encouraged them to use the idea
of writing an autobiography to build vocabulary; kids like to write about
themselves. He then builds on their writing and picks up on skills
and ideas they have through extension activities that also meet the
learner standards. UIC students made several suggestions such as
focusing on vocabulary related to life events, relationships. and
perhaps writing a biography as a follow-up activity.
Carlitta Tucker brought in a worksheet about clothing. She shared the
difficulties some of her students have with appropriateness of
clothing and how she used the worksheet as a means for life skills
teaching to understand what "appropriate" means. She also asked UIC
students how they would change or modify the worksheet. One
suggestion about how to simplify the worksheet was to remove words
that are not commonly used. UIC students made other suggestions,
including the use of magnetic clothing games for sorting and matching,
relating clothing choices to weather, and learning names of different
types of clothing pieces.
Tasha McShan shared a unit she created around the book classic,
Charlotte's Web. She showed how it starts out with reading the book
while integrating science. Students also watched the movie towards the
end of the unit. In the entire unit, students worked on activities for
reading comprehension that included discussing how long they have been
friends and what makes friends, and common interests they have with
their friends. That theme, integral to the book, is also key to her
middle school students' lives. She encouraged students to identify
sentences in the book and to make text to self connections as a way of
increasing comprehension of the text.
For example, students wrote: “In the text, it says....and this
connects to me because....”
The meeting ended with UIC students presenting artifacts from their
classroom experiences. Sarah brought samples of flip-books on cell
mitosis that her students made in order to learn about the phases of
mitosis and the sequence. Nicolle brought student work from a
pre-reading activity she used to pique curiosity before students read
a mystery.
David Rench
shares student work from his classon a semester
long unit on Landmark
Buildings in Chicago
Alex
Horn-Lichtenfeld shares short movies that students made on
how they
relate to the poetry they read in her class.
