Summary of Field Advisory, February 2009
Nicolle, a UIC student looks at the portrait
created by a student in Alex's class. The
portrait was one of the options on the choice
board to demonstrate understanding of a
character in the book.
On February 10, 2009 we held the first field advisory for the Spring
2009 semester. UIC students and CPS partners met together to discuss
literacy artifacts that highlighted the teaching of reading
comprehension to students with disabilities.
Alex Lichtenfeld, a CPS partner working with junior high students,
talked about literature circles and "reading circle choice boards".
The choice boards give students options to show what they know and
understand about a book in ways that are based on their interest and
strengths. Each student had several options by which to share what
they knew about a character in the book and the setting, mood or theme
of the book. Options for the character aspect included writing a short
story about the character, writing a diary that the character may have
kept, making a portrait of the character and a visual time line of the
character's life experiences. Options for the setting aspect included
creating a song, a skit, a painting/collage or gathering quotes to
demonstrate setting. in order to motivate reluctant readers
Lichtenfeld takes into consideration recently released movies based on
books.
Aidan, a UIC student, wondered if the students were reading
independently. Alex talked about how the students participate in
literature circles and how those provide support. Students are
assigned roles for example finding meaning of new vocabulary, keeping
track of interesting observations and questions etc and they then
report to each other everyday. In addition to reading independently,
Alex has students report out periodically to the whole class.
David Rench, another CPS partner who works with lower cognitively
functioning kids, brought in a literacy artifact from a discussion
about Chicago landmarks. He chose which landmarks to work on based on
students' interests. For example, the class initially worked on
learning more about Wrigley Field and is currently working on learning
about the Sears Tower. Rench asked the UIC students to look at a
two-page expository text with information about the Sears Tower. He'd
also used that with his students. UIC students identified several
problems with this text such as "too many buildings in the picture...
difficult to read text... architectural jargon of the text...not
bringing in students' background knowledge about landmark buildings."
He then shared two pages of text about the Sear Towers that he created
that had several modifications. Those included having one idea per
picture and paragraph, conveying the idea in the form of a story or
narration, color coding the paragraphs, having only single font
throughout the text. He also showed different assessment tools. One
included a movie students made about what they learned about Wrigley
Field!
Carlitta Tucker, a CPS partner who works with young adults, brought in
writing from one of her students who is usually reluctant to write.
Her student, who is 18 years old, talked about taking a year off in
his
writing. She elicited suggestions from UIC students on what they saw
in his writing and how they would think about motivating him to
continue writing. Several ideas were floated during this discussion
such as
having him write about something he knows a lot about, having
guidelines for his choices to help him pinpoint what he wants to know,
and supporting him on how to structure the essay. Another partner
suggested asking him about some of sentences from his current piece of
writing since it is "so packed with intriguing ideas."
The meeting concluded after the UIC students shared literacy artifacts
that they brought for the meeting. Some examples include graphic
organizers for vocabulary building, modifications for students to help
them do persuasive writing, and word maps for comprehension and
vocabulary.
Toni
Gonzales, a CPS partner, describes the contents
of her students'
reading folder.
Dave Rench,
CPS partners, shares the videos his students
created about Wrigley
Field.
Mary and Aidan
reading the writing sample brought by Carlitta
Tucker as she talks
about it, while others listen.
