Jennifer Hauser

Jennifer is a fifth grade student that has a visual perception problem or VPP.  She has difficulties reading and writing because she mixes up the orders of the letters.  She also has a directional problem, meaning that she cannot distinguish her right from left easily or immediately.  I chose to read about Jennifer because I have never seen any students with these severe problems and feel that it may be seen in a future classroom. 

Social – students with a visual perception problem do not experience a different social relationship within their classroom and school.  Jennifer is actually a very social person who likes to hang out with friends and play on sports team.  A student that has VPP may experience some “social outcast” if they get left out because they attend the resource room.  However, Jennifer’s resource teacher, Ms. Ricci encourages and allows students to invite friends or classmates into for activities.  This eliminates the frequency for teasing students that attend resource rooms.  I feel that this strategy helps students feel included in their classroom, and their activities can be brought back into the entire classroom because multiple students have participated in them. 

Academic – those with VPP, Jennifer in particular, have fully functioning academic capabilities.  However, since they experience problems, like mixing up letter orders, they must learn at different paces, with different strategies.  I feel that Jennifer says it best, “Some things I learn slowly and some things I learn quickly, but I am able to learn just about anything.  I just learn in a different way.  Ms. Ricci teaches me the way I learn best.”  Having a resource teacher will ultimately help the student the most, however, I feel that as their usual teacher, it would be beneficial to incorporate some of their learning strategies into your normal lesson plan so your students with VPP can feel incorporated. 

Linguistic – helping a student with visual perception problems can be through simple things that can be done within the integrated classroom.  I would suggest using lots of visual aids with words and directions written out, so the student can visually see how to read and write words correctly often.  Using larger print would also be beneficial for these students so that the focal point of the letters and words is easier for them to focus on. 

This website I found explains the learning disability visual perception problem and how it occurs in children.  These are some tactics that it highlights to use with students to help them progress. 

For readings:  Enlarged print for books, papers, worksheets or other materials which the child is expected to use can often make tasks much more manageable.

For writing:  Adding more structure to the paper a child is using can often help him/her use the paper more effectively. This can be done in a number of ways. For example, lines can be made darker and more distinct. Paper with raised lines to provide kinesthetic feedback is available.  

Teaching Style: If the teacher is referring to writing on a chalkboard or chart paper, s/he can read aloud what is being read or written, providing an additional means for obtaining the information.

http://www.ldonline.org/article/6390/

Student Portfolio Diane Delaney

I chose to look at the student portfolio of Diane Delaney. Diane is being treated with ALL or acute lymphocytric leukemia. After some treatment's she went into remission and returned to school. This allows her the opportunity to be apart of school life again but she still has to do check ups throughout the year. The treatment can have several side affects so she will miss out on school sometimes. Her biggest concern is that children won't treat her like everyone else. The reason I selected to read about Diane was because my mom had a child in her 2nd grade classroom two years ago that passed away from cancer. I was able to see how she made sure other children didn't look at him differently and kept him apart of the classroom activities and lessons, even though he wasn't there. I think this portfolio is different than what we always talk about in class and gave me to opportunity to look at something that could at any point happen to us as a teacher.

When my mom had a student like Diane in her class she made sure the class understood what type of cancer he had. This gave the children time to sit at circle time and discuss what the student was going through. They were able to ask questions and clear the air before the student came back. I even think that a teacher could talk to Diane and see if she would like to explain it to the class. This may depend on the age level but it would Diane the time to sit down with the class and the other students to see she still is the same Diane. Children have lots of "Why, How, When, etc." type of questions and these would come up in this type of situation. A discussion would be very beneficial---or even incorporating a children's story about this.

Since Diane may miss out on school, it will be important to make her still feel included and not "different". One strategy my mom used was making the class (figuratively speaking) "come to the hospital or home" and have the student (Diane) "come to the classroom environment". When my mom would send home homework for the student she attached other things the children made. My mom would go into the hospital or home when her student was out for a check-up and set up the room filled with things the class made (this would be things the student liked; sponge bob, spider man's etc.) For Diane this could be animals since that is her big interest. To make Diane feel apart of the classroom she would be connected through a telephone device. Technology is huge now so this would work :) my mom did this as well. She could listen in on classroom lessons and feel apart of the classroom. These students want nothing more than to be treated the same and seen just as who they were like Diane expressed...so we as teachers need to do that.

The website I found was http://www.childhoodcancer.ca/educators-guide/practical-strategies this website gives strategies to teachers who have children like Diane in their classroom. Some of the strategies they mention are;
Communication: This not only makes them feel included but the teacher will "get to know" the students and their strengths and weaknesses at that time.
*Contact the Support Team
*Visit the child at their hospital and school (like my example above)
*With parent permission let the school and classroom know about the child's condition (also like my example)
The website also shows what could be things that could happen when they return to school what to do, how to handle it, and technology or ways to keep them connected at all times.

Check it out :)

Student: Anna Perry-Millford: Julia Parzyck

Anna has ADHD and which makes it difficult for her to concentrate and she has a lot of energy. She takes medication to help treat her ADHD but that does not eliminate her disability. I decided to choose Anna because I also have ADHD and can easily relate to her and come up with ideas that would have helped me in grade school.

Social- Students with attentional problems like ADHD experience many difficulties in the social area, especially with peer relationships. They tend to experience great difficulty picking up other's social cues, act impulsively, and have limited self-awareness of their effect on others. I would suggest that she be paired with a student with good social awareness and likes to be helpful because this can help form bonds within the classroom and the students. Also having groups be smaller can be less intimidating and can be easier to form better social skills for Anna.

Linguistic-A suggestion for this area would be to use audio visual aids while teaching abstract concepts. Using non-linguistic methods like visuals, pictures and graphs can be used as aids to improve the memory as it creates a concrete mental image. This helped me a lot during school because I would go back to my memory and see this image and I would remember instead of trying to remember what exactly my teacher said because I often forgot.

Academic-I found that communicating with my teacher helped me the most academically. If my teacher knew what was going on and what I was struggling with then she/he could accommodate to my needs and deepen my learning. I suggest that this teacher be patient and look for instances where the child might need assistance or more explanation in directions. I found this website that had some great ideas for how teachers can help students with ADHD and these were some suggestions:

• Plan ahead. You can arrange to speak with school officials or teachers before the school year even begins. If the year has started, plan to speak with a teacher or counselor on at least a monthly basis.
• Make meetings happen. Agree on a time that works for both you and your child’s teacher and stick to it. Avoid cancelling. If it is convenient, meet in your child’s classroom so you can get a sense of your child’s physical learning environment.
• Create goals together. Discuss your hopes for your child’s school success. Together, write down specific and realistic goals and talk about how they can be reached.
• Listen carefully. Like you, your child’s teacher wants to see your child succeed at school. Listen to what he or she has to say—even if it is sometimes hard to hear. Avoid interrupting. Understanding your child’s challenges in school is the key to finding solutions that work.
• Share information. You know your child’s history, and your child’s teacher sees him or her every day: together you have a lot of information that can lead to better understanding of your child’s hardships. Share your observations freely, and encourage your child’s teachers to do the same.
• Ask the hard questions and give a complete picture. Communication can only work effectively if it is honest. Be sure to list any medications your child takes and explain any other treatments. Share with your child’s teacher what tactics work well—and which don’t—for your child at home. Ask if your child is having any problems in school, including on the playground. Find out if your child can get any special services to help with learning.

http://helpguide.org/mental/adhd_add_teaching_strategies.htm

What do you think case response

As I was reading the case about Mrs. Potter's 2nd grade classroom and how there are similar students that struggle with the same issues in my classroom, even the number of students in the classroom is exactly the same. I think Mrs. Potter needs to focus more on the students strengths and special talents and see where each student succeeds and this is seen int he Marcus case article. If there is a certain way something is being taught and the child is showing improvement continue to teach things in that way. I am by no means saying disregard the students struggles but focus on where they do well in the classroom and try to apply that to where the student is struggling. One thing I think Mrs. Potter needs to do is be flexible, "Flexibility helps a lot. I know there's a lot of pressure on teachers to cover curriculum, and the easiest way to do that is to keep everybody on the same page all the time and all marching together so teachers have control," (Kostelnick, Onaga, Rhode, Whiren, 2002, pg. 72) but having everybody doing the same thing all the time does not work because everyone is different and learns in different ways.

As for what Mrs. Potter can do to help out her students is I think she needs to explore literacy centers and also learn about disorders such as ADHD. Students with autism, ADD/ADHD, developmental disabilities, and students with a learning disability can benefit from visual aids and hands-on activities and literacy centers would help improve their learning, "placing visual supports in an can have: eased transitions, feeling of empowerment by having visual choices, clearly defined expectations through the use of pictures, longer attention span, reduced anxiety, concepts become more concrete, and the ability to help express his or her thoughts,"(Breitfelder, 2008, pg. 3) and I wish a lot of my teachers knew this while I was in elementary school because I would have benefited if my teachers had this knowledge.

As for each student I think Mrs. Potter needs to examine their strengths and struggles and come up with a plan for each student. I think Mrs. Potter is underestimating Lupita skills and needs to include her more in classroom activities. I have the same issue with a Hispanic student in my classroom and he is so quiet he is often forgotten but is also really great at things like puzzles. I think including Lupita will give her confidence to be more open and ready to learn skills that help with interacting with students which would in turn help with her English. For Jonathan I think Mrs. Potter would definitely benefit from literacy centers that would aid him in reading and writing. Math may come easier to him because it is a very visual subject and often has one answer where Language Arts is very abstract. With Eddie it seems as though he has ADHD and he is VERY similar to a student in my classroom; he can never sit still and is often very distracted by other things going on around him. I think Mrs. Potter needs to find a way to help Eddie keep his attention during class periods whether its using a stress ball to keep his hands busy to being able to stand up or sit on a yoga ball but it is not necessarily his academics where he struggles just the concentration to help aid in his academics. I think Mrs. Potter should consider revising her instructional strategies to help aid these students because she never knows if it is just the instruction that is causing them to struggle academically.

Venn Diagram

Concept Map

Venn Diagram

spelling development: writing samples

I collected writing samples from my kindergarten classroom and they are from their journal writings. I will refer to the students as A, B, and C. Each student is in Stage 1: Emergent Spelling but are at different levels within this. Student A can write letters clearer and has started to show he is sounded out the letters of the words. Student A also knows the distinction between drawing and writing and the direction of writing on the page. Student B shows that he understands the distinction between drawing and writings and can make some letters. They are not easy to read but it shows that they are not just scribbles and he can also match some letter sounds. Student C is in the very beginning of stage 1, he does not have any letters written on the page only a picture which indicated he does not fully understand the distinction between drawing and writing (or maybe he didn't want to write that day). He does however, have his name written so he does know how to make some letters. Also, all three students have an understanding of directionality.
A literacy center activity I would use is the "journaling" that my MT uses. These samples are from a little earlier in the school year and I can already see a lot of improvement with all three students. If I were to implement this activity I would give my students a prompt like, "Write and draw what you did this weekend," and provide time for the students to create a story or explain to me on paper what they did. I would walk around assisting in sounded out words that are difficult and steering the students to use their word walls and alphabet sheets to help them in their writing. I would then go to the carpet and hold up each story and the student explain to the class what they wrote about. I think this would support students learning because they can write about something personal to them. All the students in my classroom love telling me what they did this weekend and giving them an opportunity to write about it to the class will improve their writing skills. I would do this a couple times a week or everyday to get help them practice their site words and work on their writing skills.

Emergent Literacy

As a digital learner, I would consider myself a digital native.  I have grown up using technology at home and in school, but not to an extreme.  The basic usages of technology, like using the basic internet and word processing functions, are easy for me to use and adapt to.  However, the advanced technology devices and functions are fairly difficult for me to understand and learn how to use.  According to Tompkins, "Children gain an understanding of the communicative purpose of print and develop an interest in reading and writing during the emergent stage."  This directly relates to "emergent" digital literacy because as new and upcoming digital learners, we show an interest in the new technology source and are willing to learn about it.  Like a younger student, kindergarteners for example, are always interested in reading.  In my experience, young children love to get read to and like to attempt to "read" by flipping the pages and following the words on the page with their finger.  As a digital learner, I use these emergent strategies and concepts when using new technologies.  Although I consider myself a digital native, I still have not mastered most technological functions and devices.  Therefore, when I am being introduced to new strategies, I feel like an emergent learner.  I am always willing to learn, but still only "pretend" until I completely understand the technology being taught and all of the aspects connected to the new technology.  "Young students learning to write in their second language have even more to learn about writing" (Gibbons, 2002, 52).  Like new digital learners, ELL students must learn more of a background about English writing when learning how to write.  They must understand all of the basic elements in order to effectively write in the correct English language, which is very relevant to digital learning, especially in my opinion.  If students do not have a full working knowledge of the English language, their writing skills will struggle in various ways.  This concept allowed me to realize that ELL students must learn a deeper "why?" about how the English language works in order to effectively write because their writing may incorporate their own native language if they do not understand the differences.