Classroom management was the topic I was most excited to learn about in this class. Being able to teach content to students is impossible without a successful classroom management plan. I have previously read Wong's First Days of School, and I absolutely loved it. I will be using a lot of components that I learned from this text in my blog today. I feel as if I am going to be a pro-classroom manager, but of course my belief will most likely crumble the first time I enter my classroom. I think that the most important part of classroom management is your knowledge of behavior and why a behavior is occurring, but that is another topic that Kalee and I are doing our teacher projects on.
The first necessary component in creating classroom management is deciding what rules and regulations you would like to see carried out in your classroom. The next phase is to write three or four (less is best) procedures that you would like your class to follow. For example, come prepared to class, treat other students with respect, and pay attention during instruction. The next step is to come up with the consequences for disobeying these regulations. It is best if you create a hierarchy of responses to each rule infraction such as a warning cue, verbal warning, points deducted off of conduct grade, note to parents, and write up. You also need to establish rules that result in immediate write ups if they are broken such as swearing, bullying, and destruction of property.
The next phase in classroom management is to make sure that you fully explain all of the procedures, rules, and consequences to students on the first day of school. I know that you want to dive into the material right away, but if you do not cover these fully and immediately you will be reteaching them throughout the whole year. When students walk into a classroom and immediately know what is expected of them, there is a greater chance that they will comply.
It is so important to keep the rules and consequences the same throughout the year. If you are constantly making up rules and consequences, students will not know what to expect from you day to day. I have seen this first hand in the practicum I am in right now. The teacher is constantly making up different infractions based on her mood that day. Her consequences change, as well, according to which student she is disciplining. For example, a student she likes is on his cell phone, she just tells him to put it away and ignores it; however if a student she does not like is on his phone, the phone is taken up and the student is sent to the office. Student behavior is absolutely out of control and the teacher spends more time working on their behavior than actually teaching.
Having the confidence that you can create a well-managed classroom is rather difficult, but if you keep the management plan simple and stagnant throughout the year students will respond positively.
For the CLE, I have decided to do the early education scenario about Willard the wanderer.
The first thing I would do is objectively define the behavior, what exact, observable behaviors is Willard exhibiting. The next thing I would do is collect data, and lots of it. Data collection will let you see things such as what happens immediately before the behavior, how often and for how long does the behavior occur, and what are the consequences of his behavior. After you have collected, graphed, and analyzed the behavior, you notice that Willard misbehaves when he is given seat work. You also notice that Willard is receiving positive reinforcement from his peers when they react to his behavior. This is when you, possible tier one, evaluate your own instruction. Are you providing engaging activities? After you have provided more interactive and engaging work to Willard you notice that while his behavior has decreased it is still a problem. Also during this phase, you should explain to the class that they should ignore Willard's behavior and focus on their work. The other students should soon learn to not reinforce the negative behavior. The next step is to create a behavior intervention plan. You talk with Willard and come up with a secret cue for when he needs to return to his seat and his work. If that does not ameliorate the situation, you begin a reinforcement plan with Willard. Tell him you will look up at him every ten minutes and if he is in his seat working he will receive a check mark. Tell him that if he receives ten smiley faces throughout the day, he will receive ten minutes of free time at the end of class. As he meets his goal of ten smiley faces a day, gradually increase the amount of smiley faces he will require for free time. Hopefully, his behavior will be exterminated after working through this intervention. If no progress is made throughout all of these tiers, I would recommend meeting with a special education teacher to decide on other interventions or if an evaluation needs to be made.
Creating a learning environment with minimal behavioral distractions is ideal; however, we do not live in an ideal world. I was a great student in school, but occasionally I would partake in misbehavior. As a teacher, behavior issues will always emerge, but it is your job to create a plan to deal with each individual situation.
Wednesday, September 18, 2013
Wednesday, September 11, 2013
Motivation-9/12
In the special education classroom, motivation is crucial to the success of your students. Most of these students have been ridiculed and estimated to not have the skills to achieve. As their teacher, you need to make them excited to learn and help them believe that they can learn.
Although the use of reinforcements are highly argued in the educational field, in special education instruction the use of reinforcement to motivate students is widely used. In my special education textbook, Strategies for teaching students with learning and behavior problems by Vaughn and Bos, the use of reinforcements is recommended. However, reinforcement can be as simple as giving a student positive, descriptive feedback. Programs for more tangible reinforcements are also discussed. It is important to keep your students motivated in succeeding by offering a variety of reinforcements for their choosing (reinforcer menu). Positive reinforcement will make the child feel successful when they are learning. This in turn will motivate children to keep succeeding. Extrinsic motivation can be somewhat superficial, but if used correctly a student can benefit greatly.
Children in special education usually enter the classroom with the idea that they are going to fail. Due to this thinking, it is imperative for the teacher to build up a child's self worth. This can be done by setting higher goals for the student to achieve, believing that the student will achieve these goals, and motivating children to reach your high expectations. It is very important that a child does not create a negative self fulfilling prophecy due to their disabilities. If students are taught to expect more out of themselves, intrinsic motivation will begin to rise.
Due to the experiences that I have had in special education classrooms, I have concluded that reinforcement, or extrinsic motivation, needs to occur to get students motivated to work. While this is not ideal, it is much more practical to motivate children by tangible rewards than it is to mold their self worth. However, teaching students to be intrinsically motivated will still have a place in my classroom. I plan on using a token reward system. This means that a student will receive a check mark every time they show improvement or working hard. At the end of each day, students can trade in their points for a variety of reinforcement options spanning from lesson homework questions, free time, and tinker toys.
It is time to get students who have disabilities excited about school. No longer are the days where these children are told they will never achieve close to what their peers will. A lot of people in this class are general education teachers, and I hope they take the knowledge that all children can succeed in their own ways with them into their careers. Motivate them appropriately, and you will be amazed.
Although the use of reinforcements are highly argued in the educational field, in special education instruction the use of reinforcement to motivate students is widely used. In my special education textbook, Strategies for teaching students with learning and behavior problems by Vaughn and Bos, the use of reinforcements is recommended. However, reinforcement can be as simple as giving a student positive, descriptive feedback. Programs for more tangible reinforcements are also discussed. It is important to keep your students motivated in succeeding by offering a variety of reinforcements for their choosing (reinforcer menu). Positive reinforcement will make the child feel successful when they are learning. This in turn will motivate children to keep succeeding. Extrinsic motivation can be somewhat superficial, but if used correctly a student can benefit greatly.
Children in special education usually enter the classroom with the idea that they are going to fail. Due to this thinking, it is imperative for the teacher to build up a child's self worth. This can be done by setting higher goals for the student to achieve, believing that the student will achieve these goals, and motivating children to reach your high expectations. It is very important that a child does not create a negative self fulfilling prophecy due to their disabilities. If students are taught to expect more out of themselves, intrinsic motivation will begin to rise.
Due to the experiences that I have had in special education classrooms, I have concluded that reinforcement, or extrinsic motivation, needs to occur to get students motivated to work. While this is not ideal, it is much more practical to motivate children by tangible rewards than it is to mold their self worth. However, teaching students to be intrinsically motivated will still have a place in my classroom. I plan on using a token reward system. This means that a student will receive a check mark every time they show improvement or working hard. At the end of each day, students can trade in their points for a variety of reinforcement options spanning from lesson homework questions, free time, and tinker toys.
It is time to get students who have disabilities excited about school. No longer are the days where these children are told they will never achieve close to what their peers will. A lot of people in this class are general education teachers, and I hope they take the knowledge that all children can succeed in their own ways with them into their careers. Motivate them appropriately, and you will be amazed.
Monday, September 2, 2013
Assessment-9/3
We have been learning a lot about assessment the last couple of classes. I have received a lot of assessment training in my previous education courses, but it was interesting to see it from another point of view. However, I feel like high school assessments were more focused on, so in this blog I'm going to focus the assessments more on a elementary, special education stand point.
Going off of the chart in Omrod's text, I will provide an example of an assessment along with how it will be used in the classroom.
1. Informal assessment vs. formal assessment- Both of these are crucially important in the classroom in order to track the progress your student is making. In a special education environment, data is everything. Data allows for more comprehensive IEP goals and objective, provides examples of student's work to show parents, and provides a clear look into the child's abilities. An example of an informal assessment would be asking students comprehension questions about the lesson. This provides an easy way to gauge student understanding throughout your lessons in order to allow changes in planning so mastery is achieved. A informal assessment could also be as simple as tracking a student with autism's performance on discrete trial testing. An example of a formal assessment would be a portfolio of the students work at the end of the unit. Students would collect the work they have been completed, and data would be collected on the conceptual knowledge of the child. This type of assessment allows for end of unit data collection without the traditional exam that students with disabilities may struggle with.
2. Paper-pencil assessment vs. performance assessment- As a special educator, it is preferable to err on the side of performance assessments based on your students' abilities. Although this is not as practical as paper-pencil exams, it can be more a reliable assessment for students who may struggle with reading and writing. A performance assessment can be a lot simpler than it was shown to be in class. A good example of this is that students independently read an informational text, on their reading level, about a species of animal. The students then pretend to be zoologist and present what their animal eats, where they live, and interesting facts. This activity will clearly show the level of comprehension achieved.
3. Standardized test vs. teacher-developed assessment- Due to the differing levels of student mastery, teacher-developed assessment is more valid in a special education setting. Although it may more impracticable to spend time creating the assessment, it allows for greater accommodation and modification for your individual students. An example of teacher-developed assessment would be a small quiz given after a lesson on clouds. Since you have created the assessment, you can create it catering to most of your classroom while providing accommodations to individual student's quiz. This allows for greater teacher intervention in the assessment rather than giving the students the same generated quiz.
4. Criterion referenced vs. norm referenced assessment- In the special education environment, criterion referenced assessments are used more frequently due to the fact that each student may be at a different level or stage in mastery than another student. It is important to use criterion referenced in order to document the students goals and successes according to the curriculum provided by the school instead. A criterion referenced assessment could be a set of questions delivered to the student after their completion of two digit addition. A student can show how they have succeeded in an area of study rather than how they are doing in comparison to their peers.
5. Traditional assessment vs. authentic assessment- Both of these assessments are important in special education. Traditional assessments are of course given to see how the student is doing academically, but authentic assessments are given frequently to help the student socially. A traditional assessment could be a student completing a performance assessment on George Washington. This assessment could be given after the student has read books and studied the historical figure. This assessment is measuring only classroom objectives and is not pertinent to the other aspects of the student's lives. An authentic assessment can be documenting the student's use of manners after a lesson of how to behave in a well mannered way. This can increase the social lives of students outside of the classroom, but their progress can be monitored in the classroom. For a summative assessment of this, students can complete a performance assessment where they use their new social skills in a mock social setting. Authentic assessments seem to be more crucial to a student with disabilities due to the fact that they may struggle with different aspects of life outside of the classroom that students without disabilities may be accustomed to already.
It is much easier to come up with assessments during the lesson planning process. It is important that you begin with the assessment and what you want the student to achieve before you begin planning the body of the assessment, this allows for a valid assessment that will truly measure your student's progress. Although my examples of assessments may seem vague and impractical, the same string of thinking can be applied to real lesson planning which will lead to more valid and reliable assessment.
Going off of the chart in Omrod's text, I will provide an example of an assessment along with how it will be used in the classroom.
1. Informal assessment vs. formal assessment- Both of these are crucially important in the classroom in order to track the progress your student is making. In a special education environment, data is everything. Data allows for more comprehensive IEP goals and objective, provides examples of student's work to show parents, and provides a clear look into the child's abilities. An example of an informal assessment would be asking students comprehension questions about the lesson. This provides an easy way to gauge student understanding throughout your lessons in order to allow changes in planning so mastery is achieved. A informal assessment could also be as simple as tracking a student with autism's performance on discrete trial testing. An example of a formal assessment would be a portfolio of the students work at the end of the unit. Students would collect the work they have been completed, and data would be collected on the conceptual knowledge of the child. This type of assessment allows for end of unit data collection without the traditional exam that students with disabilities may struggle with.
2. Paper-pencil assessment vs. performance assessment- As a special educator, it is preferable to err on the side of performance assessments based on your students' abilities. Although this is not as practical as paper-pencil exams, it can be more a reliable assessment for students who may struggle with reading and writing. A performance assessment can be a lot simpler than it was shown to be in class. A good example of this is that students independently read an informational text, on their reading level, about a species of animal. The students then pretend to be zoologist and present what their animal eats, where they live, and interesting facts. This activity will clearly show the level of comprehension achieved.
3. Standardized test vs. teacher-developed assessment- Due to the differing levels of student mastery, teacher-developed assessment is more valid in a special education setting. Although it may more impracticable to spend time creating the assessment, it allows for greater accommodation and modification for your individual students. An example of teacher-developed assessment would be a small quiz given after a lesson on clouds. Since you have created the assessment, you can create it catering to most of your classroom while providing accommodations to individual student's quiz. This allows for greater teacher intervention in the assessment rather than giving the students the same generated quiz.
4. Criterion referenced vs. norm referenced assessment- In the special education environment, criterion referenced assessments are used more frequently due to the fact that each student may be at a different level or stage in mastery than another student. It is important to use criterion referenced in order to document the students goals and successes according to the curriculum provided by the school instead. A criterion referenced assessment could be a set of questions delivered to the student after their completion of two digit addition. A student can show how they have succeeded in an area of study rather than how they are doing in comparison to their peers.
5. Traditional assessment vs. authentic assessment- Both of these assessments are important in special education. Traditional assessments are of course given to see how the student is doing academically, but authentic assessments are given frequently to help the student socially. A traditional assessment could be a student completing a performance assessment on George Washington. This assessment could be given after the student has read books and studied the historical figure. This assessment is measuring only classroom objectives and is not pertinent to the other aspects of the student's lives. An authentic assessment can be documenting the student's use of manners after a lesson of how to behave in a well mannered way. This can increase the social lives of students outside of the classroom, but their progress can be monitored in the classroom. For a summative assessment of this, students can complete a performance assessment where they use their new social skills in a mock social setting. Authentic assessments seem to be more crucial to a student with disabilities due to the fact that they may struggle with different aspects of life outside of the classroom that students without disabilities may be accustomed to already.
It is much easier to come up with assessments during the lesson planning process. It is important that you begin with the assessment and what you want the student to achieve before you begin planning the body of the assessment, this allows for a valid assessment that will truly measure your student's progress. Although my examples of assessments may seem vague and impractical, the same string of thinking can be applied to real lesson planning which will lead to more valid and reliable assessment.
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