This week has been stressful to say the least, but it's almost Friday and thankfully almost the end of the semester! This week at Washington, I was able to work on a reading passage with a small group of students. The students did a picture walk through the passage and then we worked on the vocabulary words that would be included in the passage. The reading was on a 4th grade level for the 2nd grade students so I was pleasantly surprised at how well they did with the passage. I had two children in my group who also spoke Spanish. So my group had a great experience discussing one of the vocabulary words, that sounded similar to a Spanish word that meant the same thing. The students that did not know Spanish were very intrigued to see the similarities between the words plumes, large showy feathers, and plumas, a feather or a pen. I was very thankful for my small amount of Spanish knowledge during that lesson!
Connecting words in other languages is a great way to deepen student's knowledge and understanding of vocabulary. This connects to NCPTS Standard 2B, teachers embrace diversity in the school community and in the world, because it helps students that speak other languages feel included in the class and can deepen understanding. This is definitely a method I would like to include in my classroom when appropriate.
This week in my outside research I found another formative assessment tool, an app called ShowMe. This app is an interactive whiteboard that allows students to use the white board and record themselves explaining what they are doing. This would be a great tool to use in centers if you have iPads in the classroom. Students will be able to explain their thoughts as they work out a problem so you know exactly how to help them! Here is a link to the app: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/showme-interactive-whiteboard/id445066279?mt=8
The stress during this semester is...well...shall we say - - - a character building exercise. Seriously, it is good that you are learning to multi-task NOW instead of learning these lessons during student teaching!
ReplyDeleteColleen,
ReplyDeleteI know it really is a very stressful time! We will get through! Hang in there! That is so neat that you did a picture walk and use some of the same strategies I use every week in my Kindergarten classroom. Like I said on Lindsey's blog, I think it is great that you all are getting this experience working with reading groups and whole class before the semester prior to student teaching. I didn't really have that experience before this semester once I got to my placement and of coarse Washington, too! But I didn't have Washington in my previous semesters so my clinical work would consist of a few lessons and that's it, up until this semester! So that experience will be so worth it come next year, I promise! Keep pushing through, you got this!!
Caroline
Colleen, this week has been stressful for me as well! That's really cool that your Spanish knowledge came into pay this week! Also, I have used the ShowMe app before and it is very helpful in the classroom!
ReplyDelete