Liz's Vocabulary Entry

The vocabulary I see in my Kindergarten classroom is mostly involving the main word wall in the classroom and then a separate word bank at the writing center. The main word wall has high frequency words, such as "in", "and", and "like". It also has all the students' names. The word bank at the writing center where students do a lot of journaling consists of a group of words that relate to each other. For example, the word bank yesterday had a number of words related to Spring and then at the bottom had the phrase, "are a sign of spring." The students were to pick a word or two from above, such as "green grass" and "violets", write those words and then finish their sentence with "are a sign of spring." They finished the center by drawing a picture to represent what they wrote.

I don't see the vocabulary they are doing as building on new vocabulary, but just introducing new words for them to write in their journal. The word wall is the most useful because the students are able to move to that part of the room and find the word they are looking for instead of me spelling it for them. This has shown to be a big benefit when it comes time for assessing how many high frequency words the students know.

Liz's Thoughts on Autism Workshop

I haven't had any experience working with students with autism. The workshop presented by Josh Plavnick really opened my eyes to the trials that the students, teachers, and parents have to go through. I found the statistics very scary, in addition to the large spectrum of characteristics that chilren with autism present. I haven't had any experience working with students with autism, but had a guest speaker in my TE301 class in the summer who worked with autistic children in her special education classroom. Many of the things Josh spoke about were facts that I had already heard from the speaker last summer, such as the notion that children with autism tend to fixate on specific objects or topics, like dinosaurs for example.

If given the opportunity, I would like to continue to attend workshops that deal with the topic of special needs children. Having no background in special education, I find that I want and need extra workshops and support because I know I will have special needs students in my classroom. I want to know ways to support their learning in my classroom as opposed to hindering it. One specific suggestion I found useful from Mr. Plavnick was the idea of peer support. Mr. Plavnick also had us come up with ways to match a special needs student with a peer and how important it truly was to make such a match with extra thought put in to it. I was really appreciative of Mr. Plavnick for coming to our classroom and giving us a very thoughtful presentation on Autism that really encompassed all special needs students. In fact, some of the ideas brought up during our discussion really included all students, and I found it very meaningful to me as a future teacher.

Emily's Vocabulary Entry

In my second grade classroom, there really isn't a strong emphasis on vocabulary building. The primary focus for learning vocabulary is through spelling tests. The students take a pretest and my CT grades them and gives it back to them. She then puts the correct spelling of the words on the board for the students to write down. She gives them a worksheet as homework so they can practice spelling the words. Then they have a test on them. The test is not just comprised of the 12 spelling words though. There are also 3 high frequency words such as there, their and they're. Then there are 3 challenge words which are words like cornea, Abraham Lincoln, and George Washington (these are just a few I remember off the top of my head). Lastly, my CT will say two sentences and the children have to write down what she said, paying attention not only to spelling but also punctuation. This is a routine and the students are all used to it by now. There is a group of about ten students who have an alternative list, which is more advanced. The only difference is the twelve spelling words. The high frequency words, challenge words and sentences are the same for the entire class.

The only other vocabulary in my classroom that I notice is a word wall. It has high frequency words that students are expected to know such as too, two, to, sat, was, saw, etc.
There is also a classroom set of dictionary's that the students know where they are at and have access to them.

Emily's Autism Entry

The presentation last week touched my heart. Frankly, the statistics scare me horribly as a future teacher but also as a future parent. I have had only one experience with an autistic child but have had a couple of learning experiences about autism.
The first time I really heard any information about autism was at a child development conference and the keynote speaker talked about it. I believe he was a doctor from U of M and his theory was that people are getting smarter and people who are smart marry people who are smart so their smartness combined causes autism. He had data to support it, but of course I don't remember it exactly. This was about 4 years ago and the statistics then were less but still high.
Then, I work at a daycare center over the summers in the school aged program. I love it and we have a blast. A couple of summers ago we had a eight year old boy with autism join us. From his appearance you would never be able to tell. He liked to play on his own for the most part and especially with his Bionacle figures. He did befriend a little girl who seemed to understand him and they got along well for the most part. His autism showed through mostly during transitional times. He needed plenty of warning that we were going to go outside or get ready for a fieldtrip so he could prepare himself. Even still it was difficult. When he got upset, he got really upset. He would scream and run out of the room. The other kids in the program often got nervous and just stared at him. They didn't understand why he did what he did. We worked with him a lot over the summer and he did somewhat improve his behavior. The thing that I keep thinking about is that we had two of us teachers and about 15-18 children in the classroom and it was during the summer so it was more laid back and academics were not strongly pursued. However, I just wonder how it is for him in the mainstream classroom where there is one teacher and about 24 other classmates. Also, the pace of the elementary school day is intense with many quick transitions. I often wondered how he handled himself and what techniques did his teachers use to help him through the day.
I talked with my CT about autism in the classroom. She has never had an autistic child in her room but she has had a little boy with Asperger's. He was incredibly smart she told me, but he struggled socially. Like the little boy I worked with, he struggled with schedules and not staying within a routine. My CT taped a schedule onto his desk so he could see exactly what they were going to do each day. I asked her if she knew the statistics within the school of how many children had autism. She did not know, but she does know there is one boy in third grade who is autistic. It is interesting that all of the children I have been mentioning are boys and Josh said last week that boys are four times as likely to be autistic than girls.
After Josh's talk last week, I actually saw a HBO documentary about autism. I don't remember the name of it but it interviewed several families of children with autism. It was incredibly interesting to see the differences between the children. There was a 14 year old girl who was very chatty but she tended to repeat what everyone said. She had a difficult time creating her own original speech. There was another little boy who had imaginary friends because he said they were the only kids who understood him. The parents talked about how difficult it is financially because a lot of insurance companies to help pay for therapy. How sad.
My biggest questions, which I have yet to find the answer to is why all of the sudden (within the last 10-20 years) has there been this outburst of autism? Is it just being diagnosed more or what is going on? Many parents, including on the video, believe it has to do with vaccines children receive as infants.

Sarah's Entry: Working with students with autism

          Before I entered college I knew very little about working with students with disabilities.  I had very little experience interacting with these students and did not feel comfortable doing so, as I knew very little about how to do so and about these disabilities in general.  I was originally majoring in elementary education, but after speaking with some peers and spending a little time working with students with disabilities I became very interested in these students and in learning about different strategies for teaching them.  There is never a dull day working with these children and finding out what makes them tick, some can be a challenge but its amazing how simple techniques and strategies can be used to turn their behavior around.   

         Personally I have never had the opportunity to work closely with a student with autism.  I have seen students with autism, but autism is a very complex disability in that no two cases are the same.  Some children with autism are nonverbal while others are constantly talking and repeating.  I listened to another guest speaking in a CEP class talk about her son who has autism and is nonverbal.  His case was pretty severe, and so many strategies that other children with autism found beneficial only frustrated her son.  I think the speaker that came in on thursday gave some great techniques to try out with students with autism and with learning disabilities in general, but it is important to remember that no two children are the same so what works for one may not work for another.  I would definitely like to learn more about autism and different strategies for teaching students with autism, so I hope in the near future I am given the opportunity to do so. 

Emily's New Literacy Reflection

When I first began this class, I knew deep down that literacy was more than just reading out of a book and writing with paper and pencil. However, I did not know how extensive the definition of literacy really is. When I thought about literacy class, I thought about reading books silently, in groups or teacher read aloud and having discussions about a given book, poem or article. I also thought about writing in response to prompts or writing a book report or even answering questions from books in all subjects. As the semester progressed, reading the articles, Gibbons and Tompkins started to open the creative literacy box in my brain.
This project, however, has been a real turning point for me. I am a visual learner so when I saw the list of different types of literacy a light bulb went on. Just seeing the words gave me a mental image of all the types of literacy’s and the possibilities they elicit. I realized that there was numerous ways literacy can be classified besides merely ‘literacy.’ These types include cultural, digital, emotional, environmental, print, social and visual. I immediately was drawn to digital literacy just because I enjoy technology and know that children are fascinated with technology as well. I went to the Technology Conference this past fall here at MSU and was introduced briefly to ePals. I knew I wanted to learn more about the website, but I had not sat down and taken the time to learn about it, until now. This project was a great excuse to dive right in and get my feet wet with ePals. This technology has really showed me that even under the umbrella of digital literacy, there are countless ways to use digital literacy in a classroom. Even with ePals you can use emails, blogs, papers, research projects, etc that is all done online in some form.
I would use this technology without hesitation in my classroom. I think it is especially great for middle elementary grades, middle school and high school. I am not saying I would not use it with lower elementary grades, but I think they will need a lot more support than higher-level grades. I think they can still benefit from the experience though by learning about other cultures through interaction with peers their own age in another part of the world via email. The teacher would probably need to spend at least one lesson getting the students acquainted with the website and how to navigate it. The students would each get their own email but share a class password. I think the most sufficient and efficient way to teach students is to use a computer lab where each student has a computer to work with or at least in partners. I would also do this because if a student has a computer in front of them that they can follow along the steps as the teacher does them it seems they will have a better understanding of what they are doing. If I were working with the older grades, I would most definitely contact a classroom from another country to correspond with. I would collaborate with that teacher and discuss how we can develop a cultural project for our students. I learned that ePals will automatically translate emails into English if we are conversing with a non English speaking classroom. Another possibility is to use ePals to learn another language. Students can practice writing in another language through emails. The ideas are endless!
I remember writing to pen pals in elementary school and it would take several weeks to hear a response from them. ePals introduced me to the virtual world of pen pals. I think it is fantastic because students can interact more frequently with their ePal because it takes a matter of seconds to send an email halfway across the world. This technology allows all types all learners to have access to literacy in some form. Some students would rather type on the keyboard than write on paper while some students prefer to write to an audience member compared to writing research or answering questions. ePals also teaches students how to compose and edit an email, which is a highly used form of communication. All students, in my opinion, should be knowledgeable and familiar with emailing. I personally was very impressed with ePals and literacy possibilities it possesses for all learners. It is a true demonstration of not only digital literacy but literacy in general.