Field Advisory, February 26, 2008
Kelly Guenther summarizes
the discussion in her group
On February 26, 2008 STEP=UP students and UIC partners came together to discuss classroom literacy artifacts brought in by UIC partners brought in. Based on feedback from previous meetings, discussions followed a structured protocol that included UIC students taking on active roles as facilitators, summarizers or time keepers. In addition to enacting these roles, UIC students asked questions, raised issues and provided suggestions. The groups truly engaged in teacher inquiry and sustained study.
UIC students could see the ways that all students, with varied strengths and challenges, could learn content while enhancing their literacy skills and knowledge. We provide a few examples from classrooms with mild or moderate disability populations. For example, Maryan Fine brought in collages of photos and pictures her students made as part of reading To Kill a Mockingbird. Through it, she (and her student teacher) aimed to emphasize how her junior high students and their life developmental changes mirrored those of one of the main characters in the book. Ms. Fine highlighted how multiple skills in reading, listening and speaking were embedded in the activity that took a few days to complete and present.
Tasha McShan brought in graphic organizers she used to help her intermediate-aged elementary students understand the book Forty Acres and Maybe a Mule. She stressed how a graphic organizer helps students organize and sequence their thoughts. She also shared a strategy in which she has students use different-colored markers to identify words they know, words they can identify through vocabulary lists or word walls, and words they don't know within a given chapter. Students do this for every chapter till the end of the book. When they look back, they notice the colors changing. The color representing words they can identify becomes more frequent and the other color become less frequent. They can literally see their progress, Ms. McShan emphasized, as they read through the book. Another partner, Toni Gonzales, brought in a vocabulary activity she uses with her high school students. Students make cards with vocabulary words and they create (in their own words) definitions that they write on the back of the card. Another basic set of vocabulary strategies, Gonzalez shared, comes from an multiple intelligences survey she gives all students at the beginning of the year. She uses the results to guide her in using different ways to help students learn words, e.g., through movement, in pairs, working alone, illustrating words. One great example is if kids like hip-hop, they come up with a song using the word and record it so that they have fun doing it and never forget the word. Yet another partner, Leila Kuttner, shared an adaptation she made for students in her general education class using the Wilson reading program magnet board. Students are assigned words that the general education class would be working on and spell them out onto the magnet board. Students could do many different activities using the boards depending on the activity of the class. According to Ms. Kuttner this helps students use their hands and minds and increase focus and attention.
Partners also showed ways to infuse literacy learning into learning content for lower incidence populations. Dave Rench brought in concept maps for helping students think about complex text and the interconnection of ideas. Folks discussed the different visual maps that students created. One student started from the simple visual map and went on to create more complex maps for himself as there was more information to organize. Mr. Rench pointed out the importance of expressing ideas and understanding complexity for his elementary students with autism. As with the other group, UIC students made suggestions on how to improve and adapt the concept maps. Jennifer Schafer shared ways she organizes discussions (with verbal and non-verbal students) about how to decide what to cook. She provided examples of how different students could circle correct graphic, or draw a picture, or write a sentence of two to respond to questions.
Dave Rench lays out student work that he brought to
compare how students at different levels can use the same tool in
varied ways
Toni shares her students' work of creating vocabulary cards
Maryan exhibits one of her student's colorful collages
as her literacy artifact.
