EDU629: Module 11 Blog Post
EDU629: Module 11 Blog Post
I learned quite a bit reading about EL’s during this module. The reading reinforced a couple of things that I need to better commit to doing. The first is that I need to provide alternative or adapted texts to some of my students(Fenner, 151). While I have worked very closely professionally with EL’s, many students who are EL’s, and some students who have just come to the US my conversations with them rarely indicate a need for adapted text. Usually having key terms defined or translated is useful, but it’s never dawned on me to find an alternate text in my learners first language. I hope to do this as most of our readings are very general and related to the skills or tools we’re overviewing, and are generally articles and not books (with the exception of Every Tool’s a Hammer by Adam Savage). This past year I believe I did an okay job at pre-teaching vocabulary for each unit, but I intend on better structuring it next year in both flashcards and LMS pages for each unit. This year posting the vocabulary before a unit was appreciated by all of my students, as they had something to refer to if needed. For my freshman students final project this year I gave them the ability to simulate circuitry labs online, write an overview of the basic circuits, create an audio or video presentation, or create a visual design outlining the concepts gone over. What I found interesting as outlined in the rubrics (Fenner, 158) is the focus on how key terms are utilized in a task or assignment. This is something I hope to adopt in my courses next year to better focus my students on demonstrating their usage of knowelegde of the content as I open up a variety of processes or products to my students. Finally, I really enjoyed the examples of flash cards or vocabulary banks that include picture aids. This is something I wish to work on over the summer and throughout my teaching practice as I found them super useful this past year. My goal is to have a set of visual aids for each projects key terminology, skills utilized in projects, as well as general tools we utilize in my shops. As far as PLCs go, the handout on them was useful to me. My district started PLC cohorts this last year which we ran once a month until distance learning began. I believe one thing that I must do going forward with regards to my PLC is ask for more focused feedback from my supervisor. We have received a considerable amount of praise for our work retooling assessments, but no specific constructive feedback with regards to what is good, could use more work, etc. So while we feel that we have a safe space for the work, and are supported, we now must push for better feedback and conversation to enrich our PLC further.
Hansen, C. B. (2019). The Heart and Science of Teaching: Transformative Applications That Integrate Academic and Social–Emotional Learning. [VitalSource Bookshelf]. Retrieved from https://bookshelf.vitalsource.com/#/books/9780807777497/ Tomlinson, D.A.S.C. A. (2018). Differentiation and the Brain. [VitalSource Bookshelf]. Retrieved from https://bookshelf.vitalsource.com/#/books/9781945349539/