There has been a change of pace in the month of March. For example, there were less visits to my local library [for books on my topic] and much more online browsing through databases for research.
The month of March has really revolved around my Independent Component 2 and finalizing my essential question answers. My first Independent Component was composed of both mentorship and lesson planning hours. In a previous blog, I described that I learned important communication skills by doing these additional mentorship hours but expressed how there was not enough creativity involved. So for my second IC, I came together with another I-Poly senior, Alexis Crisanto,
who has a similar senior topic, and together developed a elementary school teaching blog!
What Alexis and I did first was develop a Google Plus email account [better known as gmail+], allowing us to have linked accounts to Blogger, YouTube, and Docs. We chose to host our blog on Blogger as well and by transitioning to the Plus account, we can easily access YouTube to upload activity/craft tutorials. I included visuals of what our email account looks like and where we go to access Blogger below. The last visual is of our blog's overview and we will begin to actively post beginning of April. For my IC 2, there was also a Pinterest account made. The link to the teacher's blog and Pinterest account can be found on the top right hand of this blog.
"It was one of those March days when the sun shines hot and the wind blows cold: when it is summer in the light and winter in the shade." - Charles Dickens
Content: Post 20 open-ended questions you want to ask an expert in the field concerning your senior project. The focus of your questions should be on your answer to your EQ.
1. How can an elementary school teacher best engage students who lack motivation?
2. If there were behavioral issues with a student, how might you identify and address them?
3. What is the most effective way to track a student's reading progress and why?
4. How can a parent/guardian help their student with language acquisition at home?
5. What is a functional classroom layout that encourages creative learning?
6. What are the similarities and differences you have noticed with every incoming generation (class)?
7. How are you able to determine if a student meets reading (standards) proficiency?
8. What are some obstacles elementary school teachers and students face today?
9. How might an elementary school teacher reduce classroom conflict(s)?
10. What skill-sets and talents should elementary school teachers have and why?
11. How could technology be used to improve a student's reading ability?
12. What is the most effective way to support students with academic and or social issues?
13. What are your thoughts on the new Common Core State Standards?
14. Describe how you would help a student who is struggling in reading fluently please.
15. What are some ways to communicate with parents/guardians advantageously?
16. What are your methods for classroom organization?
17.What are the pros and cons of the public elementary school system?
18.When working alongside colleagues, how might you communicate effectively with them and why?
19. What are the similarities and or differences of elementary education in the U.S. versus other countries?
20. What are some effective teaching techniques that have improved reading [comprehension] performances?
21. EQ: How can an elementary school teacher most effectively produce fluent readers?
1. What is your Essential Question?
How can an elementary school teacher most effectively produce fluent readers?
2. What is your third answer? (In complete sentence format)
An elementary school teacher can most effectively produce fluent readers by expanding their vocabulary and tracking any to all progress made.
3. List three reasons your answer is true with a real-world application for each.
- R1: By tracking students progress, the teacher could adapt further instruction according to the students needs to excel fluency proficiency. In Essentials for Effective Reading Instruction, the University of Texas Health Science Center found that this way of teaching left no student "inferring what they are supposed to learn" because they knew what was expected of them.
- R2: Expanding a students vocabulary allows them to better comprehend reading content. During mentorship, the students who knew the meaning of words on their weekly spelling words list better understand the accompanying story which used them.
- R3: Teachers that track a students reading progression is able to provide parents/guardians with ways they could help at home. My mentor does weekly fluency reading assessments on short stories and tracks students performance on individual folders. The student is then able to show their parents where they are at and what the goal for the following week is.
4. What source(s) best supports your answer and details?
Essentials for Effective Reading Instruction by Carolyn A. Denton (ART)
Great Habits Great Readers by Paul Bambrick-Santoyo (BK)
Teaching All Students to Read in Elementary School by Joseph Torgesen, Debra Houston, Lila Rissman and Marcia Kosanovich (ART)
5. Tie this together with a concluding thought.
In my research, I found there are various ways to track students' reading performances and no one set way to go about it. But by my using both traditional (paper) and modern (tech) documentation methods, of a students progress, the student, parent, and teacher benefit from it.
