Summary of Field Advisory Meeting, October 16, 2007
Jennifer shares her artifact with her group
We held the second Field Advisory of fall semester Tuesday, October 16, 2007. The meeting began with a few minutes of introductions wherein Chicago Public School (CPS) partners/special educators and UIC students shared information about their professional work. After this brief introduction UIC students and CPS partners engaged in very rich discussions around the classroom literacy artifacts that CPS partners brought. For example, Lesley works with high school students who have autism. She focused on yoga, and showed how she develops fluency and understanding with respect to informational text about it. She puts up pictures of the yoga positions on the board and teaches students how to do yoga with a focus on flexibility and breathing. Through this activity, she also teaches them vocabulary for reading the information on each picture and uses these pictures to assess their fluency. She demonstrated that any recreational activity can also incorporate and in fact motivate reading that is related to it.
Toni showed the non-fictional book Fast Food Nation that she uses to her her high school students understand nutritional information and think about what goes into the food they eat. She talked about how she is getting students to read scientific studies about advertising and food by connecting it to their everyday life and habits. In addition to the book, she is also showing the students the movie "Super Size Me." Aaron brought in a series of graphs he uses with his junior high students to foster development of concepts about graphs and equations. Instead of giving them definitions, he uses the graphs to induce students to look at the graphs and construct their own understandings.
Kim engages her group of UIC partners in a discussion
around the artifact that she brought
Tasha talks about how she uses visual organizers
to help her students with science
One of the UIC partners studied how Paul works with
his students on laundry and folding clothes
Tasha brought in several graphic organizers which she uses especially
with students who are strongest in their visual processing. She
encouraged UIC students to think about which graphic organizers are
effective, simple and useful for students, and showed which organizers
her students use the most. She especially uses the organizers to teach
science concepts. She showed how a range of literary techniques help
students add to a "science booklet" to learn a concept. These
ready-made booklets at available at www.abcteach.com. and students fill
it in with what is required.
Both Dave and Paul work with students with autism. Dave brought in a
classroom map that his students were in the process of making. He
talked about how to help students get a sense of perspective and
direction in relation to a place or object, and the various strategies
that he has been using. Paul brought in several pictures of his
students doing life skills development and showed an extensive activity
involving them doing laundry (particularly, folding clothes.) Most of
his students have severe and profound disabilities, and are limited in
their reading, writing and concentration. He showed how he uses the
idea of sequence to help students, uses sequential photographs for
showing them ways to fold clothes and do laundry, and places dots to
identify the right way to fold clothes and dry laundry.
