Salena Crosby Randy Hansen Technology 535 November 9th, 2012 Technology Video Commentary 1.

In the instruction seen in the clip(s), describe strategies you used to engage students in learning tasks to develop skills and strategies to comprehend or compose text. a. Cite examples of strategies aimed at engaging all your students and examples aimed at engaging specific individuals or subgroups. If you described any of these fully in the lesson plans or the planning commentary, just reference the relevant description. Throughout the video, the students are engaging in reading workshop; reading workshop occurs daily in my special education self-contained classroom as a way to familiarize my students with texts that are higher than their independent and instructional levels, as well as provide strategies to help them become better readers. By gradually increasing stamina, and beginning with foundational reading skills, my students learn to love reading. Moreover, the teaching point and modeling portions of reading workshop gives my students a chance to set aside reading decoding skills, and instead focus primarily on comprehension. My students have Specific Learning Disabilities in both reading decoding and reading comprehension, and thus occasionally separating the two can be useful, so that a particular area of weakness is targeted and thus strengthened. This also allows students to see an explicit example of what fluency sounds like, by watching me model my best storyteller voice, and also allows me to target a specific reading strategy depending on the day or week. b. How did these strategies reflect students academic or language development, social/emotional development, or cultural and lived experiences? My self-contained special education classroom is composed of ten students; one of my students is bilingual, three receive speech and language therapy weekly, and multiple consult with a social worker on a biweekly basis. Because we have a large range of disabilities in my classroom, reaching out to all learners is the only way to keep students motivation levels high. Additionally, when we do engage in whole class activities, partners and order of participation must be carefully monitored in order to lower frustration and anger levels. In my read aloud, I strategically chose my order of participants, thereby

Crosby 2 choosing students that I knew would be impatient or become upset first, and rotating around the circle while checking behavior management. Moreover, modeling effective reading strategies helps my students in almost all content-related strategies, by building on vocabulary learning and comprehension. Because parental involvement is not always a prominent feature in my students lives, providing them with an example helps them to have a strong reference of what to grow into as a reader. 2. Cite examples of language supports seen in the clip(s) to help your students understand that content and/or participate in literacy discourse central to the lesson. a. How did these strategies reflect students varying language proficiencies and promote their language development? After students engaged in a read aloud that modeled a specific reading workshop strategy, they were asked to individually practice the skill. This was tailored to meet varying language proficiencies, and even differentiated instruction within my self-contained special education classroom, because it helped build reading stamina by combining the effectiveness of pictures and word. Students were able to read the words, and also see an accompanying picture that displayed their verbal output, as well as work with a partner. While working in partner work, I tailored output by putting students in pairs that were close to their general Guided Reading level; this gave the students the ability to work directly in their ZPD, which is important in pushing rigor. Students both chose and explained one of their appropriately leveled books, which increased motivation and attention spans. This also ensured that it was both relatable to their academic lives, and gave them the chance to better their social skills. Because I have multiple students with Autism Spectrum Disorder or Emotional / Behavioral Disorders, this was a positive experience for students to share with the class and have the attention on them in a non-threatening environment. 3. Describe strategies for eliciting student thinking and how your ongoing responses further their learning. Cite examples from the clip(s). Student engagement looks different in a special education classroom, particularly during that of a whole class lesson, than it does in many other traditional curricular areas. The teacher is exhibiting a large amount of I Do behavior, which incorporates a connection to their lives, a teaching point surrounding reading decoding or comprehension, and modeling of what they are expected to practice during independent reading. This touches upon many important teaching strategies, because I have embraced their home life, which creates shared experiences; explicitly shared the purpose and goal of todays lesson in student-friendly language; and finally allowed them to visually and auditorally examine me engage in the reading strategy. Throughout the I Do, I aim to incorporate We Do by stopping and asking

Crosby 3 students higher-order questions in order to engage in critical thinking. I also stop at various points throughout the text to Stop and Check comprehension, which can take the form of jotting a quick sketch, writing down key words, or doing a combination of both. In the clip, the students help generate a list of what portions of the strategy was modeled, which helps students that need to refer back during the You Do portion. By asking the students to be involved in as high a percentage as possible, it pushes rigor, motivation, and personal strengths. The predominant way that special education looks different from general education is directly within levels of rigor. Because processing deficits may be eminent, offering two options instead of a free response, or modifying multiple choice to have three choices instead of four pushes my students towards success while being mindful of their IEPs. In my video clip, I outline and then detail specific skills and strategies that are going to prompt their memory and overall retention during independent work time. My students require a higher level of scaffolding, and learning to fit into a strategic structure has become the focus of my lessons. 4. Reflection a. Reflect on students learning of concepts and academic language as featured in the video clip(s). Identify both successes and missed opportunities for monitoring all students learning and for building their own understanding of skills and strategies for comprehending and/or composing text. Because this was a portion of reading workshop, concepts being taught pertaining to literacy could range from reading, listening, writing, viewing and speaking; I wanted to merge a variety of aspects in order to meet multiple learning styles, and give students a chance to both celebrate strengths and grow stronger in their area of weakness. This was a major area of success in the lesson because all students were given the opportunity to showcase success. Throughout the video you can see the students beaming after they have presented their thoughts in front of their peers. Because they are working in pairs or small groups of three, it allows my students with social anxiety to still engage successfully. I scaffolded appropriately by stopping the students to allow them to switch back and forth between Partners A and B, and also share findings from their independent reading. I made this portion of the lesson engaging by providing a paper ear on a Popsicle stick to symbolize the listener, and paper lips on a Popsicle stick to symbolize the talker. It helps both members of the group adhere to their group role, and also serves as a visual and tangible reminder of the task at hand. Also included at the end of the lesson, but not shown in the video, is the students participation in their daily Reading Workshop Parking Lot, which asked them to share the days strategy in word or picture form. Because this is routine to the workshop model, the students complete the task in minimal time while still showing mastery of the days skill, and thus it is both time effective and informative for reading IEP goals and curriculum-based

Crosby 4 measurements. By checking for comprehension and understanding at multiple points throughout the lesson, I can breakdown the teaching point into a task analysis, which allows me to see where students success was diminished and needs to be circled around to re-teaching or small group intervention time. At the same time, however, there were areas of growth that would have helped me strengthen my Reading Workshop model. Upon reevaluation of my teaching and the strategies used, I felt that it would have been more beneficial had the students that were not participating been engaged in something other than just listening. Attention spans and motivation levels are already a struggle in a self-contained special education classroom, but when working without direct teacher instruction, this can become increasingly difficult. Perhaps writing down ways to use the strategy, or even jotting down a related picture, while their partner had been talking would have incorporated the writing literacy strand and helped keep the students interested in their peers verbal contributions. Always keeping students minds occupied and working is what we as teachers aim to do, and had I incorporated yet another literacy strand would have helped me push rigor even further. Aside from that form of scaffolding, I felt it also would have been appropriate had the students had more time to engage in the actual strategy usage. Independent reading requires a large portion of the reading workshop model, but perhaps splitting it into two portions would have also allowed them to engage in discussions with peers both in-between the two blocks of independent reading, as well as at the end of the reading workshop model as a whole. Maximize instruction time can be done many different ways, and although the way I taught definitely worked in my classroom, managing a different way might have been even more effective. b. If you could do it over, what might you have done to take advantage of missed opportunities or to improve the learning of students with diverse learning needs and characteristics? The students really enjoyed watching me model the reading strategy because it incorporated a read aloud, which is their favorite portion of the day. Because of the overall excitement, attention was great for the first half of the class; however, by time the students had to practice their strategy during independent reading time, which was not shown in the video clip, attention span began to wane. If I implemented this exact lesson again, I would have considered having the students sit around the rug in a circle, similar to that of a Writing Workshop Publishing Party, and encourage them to support one another with the strategy before moving to independent reading. This would have functioned as a Think-Pair-Share style strategy; by giving them a reason to stay engaged, they would have been more apt to continue pushing stamina for the entire hour of reading workshop. Moreover, this would have included visual learning through the interaction with a book, visual learning by speaking with a partner, and tactile learning by moving around the classroom. Touching upon all learning styles

Crosby 5 would have helped my students refocus continuously, and thus would have maximized instructional time. Reading Workshop also includes a large amount of independent reading time, and I realized that scaffolding the material is of utmost importance. On a TchAUSL video, a former resident suggested that a visual timer be posted so students can track their own stamina. My students would be able to see how long they have been reading long and strong, and would encourage pushing ahead even further. In future lessons, I am going to try using that strategy as an accommodation to their learning model. Learning from the professionals around me, and continuously monitoring my own successes and areas of growth makes me a more effective teacher every day!