Teaching Gifted Learners

When I first thought of the needs for gifted and talented students, I didn't think they needed much. I figured as long as I had some extra work for them, that would be ok. I was completely wrong! Not until I did a little research and read Chapter 3 in our book did I realize how much devotion and accommodation a teacher needs to make for these students. Assignments need to be altered to challenge these students and provide them with critical thinking problems. They need time to explore uninstructed materials and books and teachers need to assess these students to see what they already know to avoid repetition. Paring a gifted student with a student who is at a lower achievement level benefits both students. It allows the gifted student to teach a concept while the other student receives one-on-one help from a peer, making it easier to comprehend. Teachers of gifted students need to take the extra time in accommodating their classrooms, materials and assignments to satisfy the needs of a gifted and talented child.

I found this great article "What it Means to Teach Gifted Learners Well" with some great advice and do's and don't of teaching gifted students! Enjoy! 

Preparing for ELL students in your classroom

For those of you who have taken EDEL 244 already, which I think everyone raised their hands in class, we have already looked at diversity and what makes cultures different. We analyzed the CLEAR EGG topics individually and at one point my class had to make an IMovie about a topic we were still a little uncomfortable about. For me, that was having ELL students in my classroom. I think my biggest fear about this was I felt like I was unprepared to properly teach students who speak another language. Even though I took Spanish and loved it all throughout high school, would I still be capable of teaching ELL students how to read? That’s what sparked me to research more into this ELL for that project. One of the statistics I found startling was that for every 150 ELL students there was one ELL teacher. As Maria already mentioned, about 85% of the country’s teachers speak English only. How are these teachers going to be prepared in their classrooms? If there isn’t an ELL teacher at your school to assist you, how are you going to be prepared?

The book gave great examples of ways to help ELL students with language and literacy development. Something my English class just discussed were the different types of journals you can incorporate in the classroom. One that the book suggested to use with ELL learners was having the students keep a dialogue journal. In a dialogue journal two students write back and forth to each other about whatever they want. The teacher also reads and responds in the journal while monitoring the student’s progress. I think this is a great way to get students using vocabulary and practicing their reading and writing skills. Our book suggested pairing a student who is proficient in English and has some knowledge of the language spoken by the non-English speaking child with the ELL student.

This website contains additional instructional strategies you can use in the classroom. It gives ideas that the book mentions and some more that you may not have thought about before. Such as, how to adjust your teaching style and motivating/providing background knowledge. I am also attaching a YouTube video of Dylan Garity talking about the struggle with helping ELL students. It is a very powerful video that was presented to me in class last year and really spoke out to me. It discusses how his sister struggles teaching ELL students in Boston, Massachusetts and other issues relevant to ELL. Lastly, I included a map showing the percentage of public school students who are ELL by state. It is for the school year 2011-2012 and the top states are: Alaska, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, and Texas.

Gifted Students

While planning this post I decided to find an image to go with my topic of gifted students. I went to google images and typed 'gifted students." Thinking I might get an info-graph about gifted students I began looking through the images. I soon realized a theme among the images. Many of these images pictured young people in glasses sporting their smartest looks in front of a chalkboard with e=mc^2 written on it. It is disappointing that with all of the research and knowledge about gifted students out there this is how we actually picture gifted students. Being gifted is not just about excelling in math. Being gifted means so much more. This website from Scholastic gives a little more insight to what it truly means when we talk about gifted students. It is written particularly for parents but it gives us an idea of what parents expect from their gifted student and their gifted student's teacher. So lets get educated on what being gifted means and stop labeling stock photos of kids in glasses with math equations behind them as gifted. Gifted means so much more than that. 

Second Language

Teachers will encounter many different languages in their career, no matter what career is chosen there will be a variety of languages. There has been a good bit of debate in if children should learn a second language earlier than high school or not. The truth is many students that we will, or have already started to encounter already are in the process of learning a second language, English. The most appalling thing I read in this chapter was on page 63, "by 2030, 40% of the school age population in the Unites States will be English language learners... A major concern is that about 85% of the country's teachers speak English only." English only. I see a problem with this, not to say that these teachers are not qualified or wonderful teachers, but it creates a language barrier between the teacher and student as well as the teacher and parents. When students speak another language at home there is more than just the language being ignored at school.

A bigger part of language is the culture it comes from; language is only a small piece of culture. Why are teachers ignoring this part in the classroom? Last semester in the program I participated in we talked a lot about being culturally relevant and accurate. Most if not all teachers should really strive to be both of those, because it is a part of being a STAR teacher, I believe. As future teachers this is heavily emphasized in every classroom, we are all told to be culturally relevant but how can we do that if there are five different languages in one classroom? How can teachers provide a unique comforting feel to those students that come in knowing almost nothing in English, and we have no idea how to communicate with them? Most teachers consider these children difficult or hard to work with, and some may not understand the difficulty that the student is going through. Some may not know how the student feels when they cannot explain in the most used language, it is a frustrating feeling on the student’s end and could be on the teacher’s.

The second most shocking part of the chapter was when it said that the students that are learning English as a second language was for some part due to the lack of inclusion or understanding of a home culture. So my real question at the end of reading this, is the same question I thought hard about last semester, what is culture? Can you honestly define culture? What affects it? How was it created? There is no one strict definition of what culture is. Culture is an ever-changing concept as people go through life. Culture is a piece of every person’s life, because we all have culture. Culture is who we are, and it explains why we do what we do. As teachers we hope to be very open minded, but how can we do that when 85% of us do not try to immerse ourselves into a completely foreign culture? 

Below are: a video from youtube (What is Culture?) and a picture that simply sums up what makes it up.

Culturally Responsive Teaching

In Chapter 3, there is a big emphasis on diversity in the classroom. According to the text, cultural diversity is referred to "a wide variety of background, languages, customs, and environments represented within the larger society or a give classroom." Teachers should learn to respect a child's home cultural by valuing what they can bring to the classroom. Allowing students to bring in their cultural backgrounds to the classroom will make students have meaningful connection to their education. Last semester, I taught a lesson in a 5th grade classroom that I incorporated their names and community into an antonym and synonym lesson. The students were very engaged in the lesson, and were excited to see their names in the lesson. This lesson helped me understand the importance of culturally responsive instruction.

In the graphic above, the model of culturally responsive teaching can be applied to English Language Learners. In the blue part of the graphic, it says, "bringing native language into the classroom." There are many ways that a teacher can do this in the classroom. Teachers should allow for text in English, but also text in their native languages. Also, there should also have labels around the room in their native language. Teachers should also have the ELL students teach the other students in the classroom some of their native language, such as greetings. If the teacher shows that they value the students native language, students will become more engaged in the classroom. The yellow part of the graphic says, "understanding history and culture." Understanding the students culture will allow the teacher to understand their values and incorporate them into the classroom. For example, if a student comes from a culture where they cannot look at their elders in the eyes, understanding that if the student does not look at you in the eyes is a sign of respect. Not knowing this can cause ethical issues within the classroom. Furthermore, the green area says, "family involvement." Incorporating students families can allow for more educational experiences for the students. Families can be great educational tools within the classroom by allowing them to share their cultures and traditions to the class. Also, according the the text, "it is helpful to talk with parents about their child's level of familiarity with English. When a student is an ELL student, then the parents are a great resource to gadge where they are at in learning English. Also, giving materials to families to have their child practice English at home is also a great way to involve families. Finally, in the orange section, it says, "Community cultural into the classroom." This means bringing in the child's community to make more meaningful connections to the content. Like my example above, students who see themselves in the content, will be more connected to the content, therefore they are more engaged in learning. Using all the sections above create a culturally responsive teacher, and a more meaningful classroom enviroment.

In conclusion, showing interest in the students' native culture and language provides a supportive environment in which future literacy learning can flourish. Allowing students to embrace their cultural and native language will make them more confident in their educational abilities. Trying to eliminate their native language in the classroom with not only hurt there native language abilities, but ruin the experience of learning English. The goal for any ELL student is to become proficient in English, but also proficient in their native language.

Diversity in the Classroom

When someone thinks about "cultural diversity" in classrooms, they most likely think about lists of holidays, food differences, religious traditions, or even language.  Although culture is about all of those things, it is much more than that.  A person's culture is the way that they live, their experiences, the way that they learn, grow, and adapt.   To get students involved in the classroom, we need to reach out to them in a way in which they are comfortable.  We must expand our efforts in ways that are not only culturally appropriate but linguistically responsive as well.  Asking children's parents to come in and share their culturally appropriate stories with the classroom is a great way to get a family involved in the classroom and it gives a little insight about their culture from their perspective.

This video is just a short little inspiration on why we need to celebrate diversity in the classroom

 

Having strategies in your classroom that are targeted for ELL students will help them adapt better and feel a sense of comfort in your class.  Knowing what is going to happen every day will get children on the right track in the classroom.  Not only will having a daily schedule or a daily routine in your class help ELL students, but all of the children in your class will benefit from it.  Assigning classmates to work together as a "buddy" will give them a little extra push and support when children are struggling.  Children who are paired with ELL students should have certain qualities that stand out among others, such as being friendly, knowledgeable, respectful, and eager to help others.   Around your classroom your ELL students will benefit greatly if you have posters with different languages on them, such as "Spanish and English" posters.  These posters will have a picture of an object or an action with the English word on top and the Spanish word written underneath.  This could give the ELL student a sense of comfort and they may even have fun explaining to their peers what those words are and it could even spark an interest in a speaking in different languages for your other students as well.  One activity that really jumped out to me when thinking about cultural diversity in the classroom is "A Bag of Artifacts".  In this activity you engage in visual communication.  Each child will bring in a paper bag filled with objects that they like from home.  Each child then takes out the objects and explains what the objects are and why they are meaningful.  This gives not only ELL students, but all children a special time to share their unique stories with the classroom.
 

If the everyone in the world were to have the ability to view life through a child's point of view again, we would see a huge change in our lifestyle.  One of the best qualities about our little ones is that color, cultural differences, and even language usually don’t phase them.  They don't see another person and immediately judge them for being different.  This being said, that doesn't mean that children don't not notice the differences between themselves and another student, but they don't usually let those differences affect their outlooks on them.  Teaching about different cultures at a young age will have a lasting impression on children throughout their entire lives.

Learning Disabilities and Gifted Students

Something that really stuck out to me was this chapter: In early childhood every youngster is seen as a unique individual, however, now, more than ever there is greater diversity in todays classrooms, differentiating instruction to meet the individual need of all children is a necessity.

While I was reading chapter 3, the topic about children who are gifted, who have learning disabilities and ADHD. While reading though the whole chapter it opened my eyes to see what types of students you really will have in your classroom. Those who are gifted are the students that you will have to maybe have a back plan in your back pocket for, not busy work for them to do, but something a little bit more challenging about that activity that you are giving to the rest of the class. Those students also need to be able to share what talents they have because they are your students that feel like they do not get anything challenging and they get bored with school very quickly. With that being said it is very important that you are always encouraging them throughout the year. Maybe if you have some time in the year, let them share their special talent with the whole class. Maybe one of your students is really talented with the piano maybe have days for music where they get to show that off. I know that a lot of teacher focus on those students who have learning disabilities or special needs, because they want to make sure that those students are not falling behind and they totally forget about their students who are gifted. One really good idea that the book said about gifted students is, if they finish their work early then let them, read of book of their choice, or assist a student who is struggling, or work on an ongoing project of their interest. I never knew that gifted children feel like that they are forgotten. I also did not know that you have to be encouraging to those students because they will get bored with school easily. I never knew that there were students called gifted students, I might just have been very naïve in school when I was younger but it was something that I never realized until high school. The next big disability they brought up was learning disabilities. There are a lot of learning disabilities. Reading about all of the different ones made me think well I know someone with that one, and that one, and so on so forth. I have a reading comprehension disorder and I have always had problems paying attention in class, especially during reading time, because when I was little I never really understood what I was reading. I was just kind of reading it, because I was told to. Just like that children with learning disabilities are the same way. It is hard for some of them to sit still for very long without breaks, or it is hard for them to pay attention. The pictures in the book would always distract me. The other thing that the book said about children with learning disabilities they should have preferential seating close to the teacher so he/she can redirect that student when needed. The last thing that I really liked about the end of this section was that the programs for the learning disabled and children with ADHD should be highly structured, with short period of direct instruction. Provide materials that will interest them. I agree that no matter what kind of children you have in your classroom they need to have something that they can do that interests them, like projects and readings. If they don’t have things that interest them they will get bored with schoolwork and not want to do it or turn it in. Last but not least always be encouraging towards your students, you do not always know the family live they come from, so if you have a student with a learning disability try everything you can to make sure that student always knows that they are the best and that no matter what they can and cannot do, you will be there along the way to make sure that they succeed.

Multiple Intelligence Instructions Within the Classroom

As future teachers we have to face the realization that no two students learn the same way, because no two students are exactly alike. Students are unique individuals that have a multitude of strengths and weaknesses, and we need to be able to address and nurture those differences and learning abilities. Within chapter three, in the section Addressing Diversity through Differentiated Instruction, the authors make reference to the fact that all students have diverse learning styles. They use Howard Gardner’s Theory of Multiple Intelligences, which focuses on all the different learning styles: Linguistic, Logical/ Mathematical, Spatial, Bodily/Kinesthetic, Musical, Interpersonal, and Intrapersonal.  

By incorporating all areas of the Multiple Intelligence theory students are able to  have well rounded, and fulfilling educations that fit  their own personal strengths and weaknesses. By being able to address all areas of learning we are promoting all students to grow and succeed because we are appealing to each of their own personal needs within their education. The fact of the matter though is that teachers struggle to hit all these areas within instruction. This could be due to lack of instruction time or because of fundings being cut which can affect certain areas of the Multiple Intelligence theory such as the performing art aspects of Bodily/ Kinesthetic, but fortunately other alternatives could be used if certain areas are cut that can be incorporated within instruction. The benefits of using the Multiple levels of Intelligence learning instructions would be endless. By using this method of instruction we could meet the needs of all our students, even our students with special needs. Students would be able to  have opportunities to work together collaboratively, or even one-on-one with the teacher. 

Why is it then that we still do not use this form of instruction? Which to me appears to be the answer to a lot of problems within teaching and can benefit students greatly. We want our education to be equal and fulfilling for all students yet we are isolating some students because they may not learn the same way as everyone else. Often in classrooms students are not able to grasp concepts or pay attention and this could simply just be a result of not being able to learn through a certain style or teachers not tapping into  students particular strengths. As teachers we need to make sure that our teaching instructions are rich in alternative strategies and resources that can help all students. While it may take longer to write lesson plans, it is not about us, it is about the students and doing what is best for them.

New Standards and a New Test for Indiana.

Interested in hearing about what lies ahead for your future teaching career if you decide to stick around in Indiana?  I found a reliable and up to date website that does an outstanding job summarizing many of the important decisions that have and will affect standardized testing in Indiana.  Seriously, everyone should check out this website and see what is actually going on right now in the profession!  You will not be disappointed!  For example, the link below gives us the “Ultimate” guide to Indiana’s standardized tests.

The Ultimate Guide to Indiana's Standardized Tests

I originally started my searching by trying to figure out exactly how assessments affect school funding.  Since we talked about how standardized test affect teacher pay and how schools are funded, I wanted to actually get down to the bottom of it and share it with the rest of you.  However, I stumbled across indianapublicmedia.org and found and article that struck me.

The article dealt with Indiana’s decision to withdraw from the Common Core Standards and create their own state standards; therefore, having to create an entirely new test for schools.  The article can be viewed by Clicking Here.  Questions immediately popped into my mind such as, what are the Common Core standards?  What all was the state replacing?  Was ISTEP+ to be thrown out completely?  To fully comprehend what exactly this all meant I had to do some digging.  Before 2010 each state had its own set of standards.  There was such a wide disparity between state standards that the federal government pushed to nationalize standards with the Common Core.  States that implemented the Common Core would then be given extra points towards Obama’s Race to The Top program.  You can obviously see a money trail being strung about but that is a whole other story.  Indiana along with 45 other states adopted the Common Core standards.  The idea was to measure student progress from state to state from a similar set of standards and a similar nationalized standardized test. It is kind of like having every state take the ISTEP+ test.  However, Indiana’s general public spoke out against the Common Core in early 2014.  In fact, Indiana went so far as to be the first state to drop the Common Core and decide to write its own standards.  Which is good news right?  Not necessarily.  Read the article to discover Indiana’s race against time to not only draw up its own standards (that in large part were made to resemble the Common Core by the federal government), but also to create and implement its own standardized test all by the end of the current 2014-2015 school year.  The part I found most absurd in the article was the fact that the federal government required the state to implement its test the first year and base scores off of that!  Not only were teachers given seven months to adopt yet again a new set of standards but seven months to try and figure out what they had to cover for the new test.  Seven months is barely any time at all.  It has been proven that when you switch a test that test scores dramatically will decrease.  Fortunately, State Superintendent of Education Glenda Ritz decided to freeze scores.  In other words, teacher evaluations and state funding would not be based off of the test scores for the current year because of the drastically lower scores that were expected.  Ritz’s original plan was to use the old ISTEP+ to determine performance while phasing in the new test a little at a time during the spring of 2015.  However, the federal government did not have any of that.  What all do you think?  Did Indiana make the right decision in creating its own standards?  Should the federal government have given more time in allowing the state to implement its new test?

Another great article by the same organization depicts Indiana’s indecision on accepting the federal governments offer in allowing states to delay incorporating student test scores into teacher evaluations until the end of the current school year.   You can find that article by clicking here.