Published Educational Leadership
Willis, J.A. (March 2007). Toward Neuro-logical Reading Instruction. Educational Leadership, Journal of the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.
Toward Neuro-logical Reading Theory
By Judy Willis, MD, M.Ed
I appreciate the attention that Shaywitz and Shaywitz devoted to my article for Educational Leadership, The Gully in the Brain-Glitch Theory. I will address some of the items they raised in their response, but my main concern is with the topics I wrote about that they did not respond to, especially the influence of engagement and motivation on successful learning and the conflict of interests when researchers and research financers are not independent of one another.
The Shaywitz article and research refers to neuroimaging and interventions for “dyslexic readers" and not all readers or even all delayed or impaired readers have a specific dyslexia. The research also focuses on a single area of the brain that is not the only region involved in reading or even phonological processing. There is as yet no neuroimaging evidence that can be interpreted to accurately distinguish brain changes as resulting from a specific intervention versus the significant developmental plasticity that children’s brains undergo during the years they are learning to read.
In addition, gains in phonological processing are not generalizable to the other components of reading and reading comprehension. There is no supported comparison research that shows that what causes “normalization” of brain imaging and improvement in the post intervention phonics testing for dyslexic children is the best system for teaching all children or even all delayed readers. As a board certified neurologist with twenty years of clinical practice and experience in neuroscience research as well as a credentialed teacher with a Masters of Education degree with seven years of classroom teaching experience, I know, and I would hope the Shaywitz’s would know, that not all reading delays are due to a dyslexia any more than all delays in walking are due to a single neurological dysfunction.
Five main problems inherent in using the brain glitch model as a basis for reading instruction, or even remediation have not been addressed by the Shaywitz article and will be described in this response. The brain glitch research is based on dyslexic readers and not all readers or even all delayed or impaired readers are dyslexic. The research focuses on a single area of the brain that is not the only region involved in reading or even phonological processing. There is as yet no neuroimaging evidence that can be interpreted to accurately distinguish brain changes and plasticity as resulting from a specific intervention versus the major developmental plasticity that children’s brains undergo during the years they are learning to read. In addition, gains in phonological processing are not generalizable to the other components of reading and reading comprehension.
The Shaywitz and similar research interpretations support the finding of increased metabolic activity in the left posterior superior temporal cortex early in the course of reading acquisition and the modulation of developing phonological skills. However, the left posterior superior temporal cortex is not the single brain region associated with early reading. Neuroimaging also highlights an association of reading with disengagement of right inferotemporal cortex and engagement of left inferior frontal and middle temporal cortices supporting the importance of the left frontal and temporal semantic and phonological processing units as critical constituents in the neural basis of reading. (Turkeltaub, Gareau, Flowers, Zeffiro & Eden, 2003)
There are no specific regions of the brain dedicated only to reading. The complexity of reading requires multiple areas of brain function to operate together through complex networks of neurons. This means there are many potential brain dysfunctions in structure and information transfer mechanisms that can interfere with reading. The investigations into the neural correlates of reading intervention in children have emphasized single-word reading as the measurable outcome. However, this is a limited measurement likely to measure only phonological processing gains and is not generalizable to the other complex components of reading and reading comprehension. (Eden, Jones, Cappell, Gareau, Wood, Zeffiro, Dietz, Agnew & Flowers, 2004)
For example, even the dyslexic children who responded with increased accuracy following phonics-heavy intervention did not show improvement in reading rate on two year follow up. (Torgesen, Alexander, Wagner, Rashotte, Voeller & Conway, 2001) This underscores the need for research into alternative approaches to improving reading fluency and comprehension. Because these and other fMRI scans studies show variations in activation in more than one brain center as impacting phonological processing and early reading, it is not reasonable science to support one intervention model, such as the phonics-heavy program, just because it was the one tested and associated with “normalization” of the one part of the brain and the tests used that were weighted to assess predominantly phonics.
The research of Eden, Turkeltaub, and others mentioned earlier follows the scientific method of not over-extrapolating from data. They acknowledge that developmental changes specific to lexical processing have not been isolated from those associated with general maturation of the brain. More importantly they assert that the relationship between the neural basis of reading and other important reading-related skills has not been adequately examined such that a gully remains that precludes a complete rendering of a developmental process for learning to read. (Turkeltaub, Gareau, Flowers, Zeffiro & Eden, 2003) These researcher are forthcoming that in children, because the processes of learning to read are taking place during such a dynamic stage of brain development and plasticity that brain changes cannot confidently be interpreted as treatment effects as opposed to the development of cognitive and sensorimotor systems coincidental with the time span of the treatment. (Eden, Jones, Cappell, Gareau, Wood, Zeffiro, Dietz, Agnew & Flowers, 2004)
In adults, brain plasticity and maturation is not in the dynamic state of flux as is found in children. In studies of dyslexic adults Eden’s group did not find the underactivity in the left occipito-temporal region reported by the Shaywitz group. (Shaywitz, S., Shaywitz, B., Rugh, Fulbright, Constable, Mencl, Shankweiler, Liberman, Skudlarski, Fletcher, et al., 1998)
Unfortunately, the conclusions drawn from the narrow perspective of brain glitch study interpretations were used to lump the diverse reading differences and learning style diversities under a dyslexia based model emphasizing phonics and phonemic awareness. The interventions used by this group of investigators has been used to promote the one- size-fits-all phonics-heavy reading instruction in the Reading First part of NCLB
I reiterate the important point raised by education scientist, Gerald Coles, that other entry points into learning to read, be they whole language or combinations of instruction, could just as easily be brain pathways that lead into a complex integrated reading system that includes dendritic circuits through every lobe of the brain. Says Coles (2004), “Not only are explanations about ‘Brain Glitches,’ …now being applied more forcefully to ‘dyslexics,’ but they have also been reworked to explain how all children learn to read, what single method of instruction must be used to teach them, and why the single method mandated in Bush's Reading First, part of the NCLB legislation, is a wise, scientifically based choice.”
Just because the reading strategy favored by the brain glitch researchers enters through phonics strategy, it does not mean that other strategies could not be more efficient in disseminating reading and comprehension skills to the complex, brainwide circuitry that represents the multicentric, dynamic process of reading.
With regard to the influence of stress, comfort, engagement, motivation, and emotion on all types of learning and memory, there was minimal response from the Shaywitz’s. Their article mentioned my reference to animal studies. Animal research is appropriate as a first avenue of investigation, especially before children are test subjects. Now the supporting evidence is also available through neuroimaging research on humans. Comprehensible sensory input, transport, and memory are disrupted and neural processing is impacted by subjects’ emotional states. (Wang, Rao, Wetmore, Furlan, Korczykowski, Dinges & Detre, 2005) (Perlstein, Elbert & Stenger, 2002)
Superior learning taking place when classroom experiences are enjoyable and relevant to students’ lives, interests, and experiences. Unfortunately, enjoyable reading materials that induce pleasurable states in the brain, pacing of lessons at comfortable speeds, and giving students opportunities for self-satisfaction are not intrinsic priorities of most phonics-heavy reading curriculum. For example, in the Put Reading First parent guide, parents are told that “If your child is just beginning to read at school you should see teachers systematically teaching phonics and giving children the opportunity to practice the letter-sound relationships they are learning. Children have the chance to practice sounds and letters by reading easy books that use words with the letter-sound relationships they are learning.” In other words put phonics first, and hope that children remain interested enough after all the drill and forced, unnatural style and unengaging or irrelevant topics of many phonics- heavy, unmotivating decodables, to even want to be readers. While I concur that phonics instruction (alphabetic principle and phonemic awareness) is a critical part of learning to ready, my concern is about the over-emphasis on the phonics-heavy drills without a simultaneous balanced program of engaging reading activities.
The stated goal of much education legislation is for all students to learn to read. The goal of most educators extends beyond that – for students to learn not only the mechanics of reading and reading comprehension, but to also to develop a love of reading. The achievement of these goals begins when students receive instruction in the process of reading in a non-threatening, engaging, and effective way.
Most teachers are highly motivated to empower their students to become successful readers who take pleasure from the printed word. Some of the standardized curriculum that has resulted from partisan NCLB politization of education has made it more of a challenge for teachers to use differentiated techniques to best reach students with varied learning styles.
It is critical in this pioneering age of opportunity for the collaboration of neuroimaging research scientists with educators for the benefit of all students that valid research remains pure and without even the potential for bias. It is discouraging, but a call to action I cannot ignore when I see that a vested interest group that stands to gain when a curriculum is purchased or implemented can similarly misrepresent data. Over generalization of the reading difficulties of dyslexic children to prescribe reading interventions and curriculum for all children has been one of the toxic flaws in the NCLB program.
In the Shaywitz response article there was no mention from Sally Shaywitz about the potential compromise resulting from the fact that her reading research received federal funding yet she served on the panel that promoted government funding of the NCLB legislation and as a reviewer of Reading First grants.
As I said in my original article, neuroimaging for education and learning research is still largely suggestive, rather than completely empirical, in establishing a solid link between how the brain learns and how it metabolizes oxygen or glucose. Strategies can be evaluated as being compatible with objectively evaluated, double-blind research studies, but it would be premature and against my training as a medical doctor to claim that any strategies are as yet firmly validated by the complete meshing of simultaneous cognitive studies, neuroimaging, and educational classroom research. It is for now a combination of the art of teaching and the science of how the brain responds metabolically and electrically to stimuli that should best guide educators in finding the best neuro-logical ways to present information in such ways as to potentiate learning.
Research interpretations pertaining to teaching children to read and enjoy the wisdom and pleasure of the printed word is too important to be left unscrutinized. I have been privileged to spend the past seven years as a professional classroom teacher and am awed by the resilience of children. I cannot stand by and watch the joy of learning extinguished in any of these children. I have repeatedly seen children break down in tears or scribble over their books and papers in frustration during prescribed lessons using phonics-heavy curriculum with minimal opportunity for creative teacher input that could motivate the negative emotional impact of this curriculum and engage these discouraged children. Those tears may not be visible on fMRI scans, but it is a great disservice to our children to have researchers with political ties to these phonics-heavy programs, over interpret neuroimaging studies beyond the honorable scientific standards of the medical profession of which I am proud to be a part.
References
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Note: Over a year after the article above, a government investigative study supports the validity of my concerns.
Failure and Corruption Reading First now confirmed by 5/1/08 Department of Education Research Department Study Questions 'No Child' Act's Reading Plan
Lauded
Program Fails To Improve Test Scores
By Maria GlodWashington Post Staff
WriterFriday,
May 2, 2008;
A01
Students enrolled in a $6 billion federal reading program
that is at the heart of the No Child Left Behind law are
not reading any better than those who don't participate,
according to a U.S. government report.
The study released yesterday (5/1/08) by the
Department of Education's research arm found that
students in schools that use Reading First, which provides
grants to improve elementary school reading, scored about
the same on comprehension tests as their peers who attended
schools that did not receive program money.
The conclusion is likely to reignite the longstanding
"reading wars." Critics say that Reading First places too
much emphasis on explicit phonics instruction and doesn't
do enough to foster understanding.
Among Democrats on
Capitol Hill,
the report also revived allegations of conflicts of
interest and mismanagement. Federal investigators have found
that some people who helped oversee the program had
financial ties to publishers of Reading First materials.
House
Appropriations Committee Chairman
David R. Obey (D-Wis.) yesterday called Reading
First a "failure." Sen.
Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.), chairman of the Senate
education committee, said the administration "put cronyism
first and the reading skills of our children last."
Education Department officials said the study will help
them better implement Reading First and said the program
has the support of many educators across the country.
Education Secretary
Margaret Spellings recently likened the effort, aimed
at improving instruction in schools with children from
low-income families, to "the cure for cancer."
About 1.5 million children in about 5,200 schools,
including more than 140 schools in Maryland, Virginia and
the District, participate in Reading First.
Teachers in Reading First classrooms spent about 10 minutes
more each day on instruction in the five areas emphasized
by the program -- awareness of individual sounds, phonics,
vocabulary, reading fluency and comprehension -- than
colleagues in schools that didn't receive program grants,
the study concluded. There was no difference when children
were tested on how well they could read and understand
material on a widely used exam.
"There
was no statistically significant impact on reading
comprehension scores in grades one, two or three,"
Grover J. "Russ"
Whitehurst, director of the Institute of Education
Sciences, the Education Department's research arm, said in
a briefing with reporters. He said students in both groups
made gains.
"It's possible that, in implementing Reading First, there
is a greater emphasis on decoding skills and not enough
emphasis, or maybe not correctly structured emphasis, on
reading comprehension," he said. "It's one possibility."
Whitehurst said there are other possible explanations. One,
he said, is that the program "doesn't end up helping
children read." He said the program's approach could be
effective in helping students learn building-block skills
yet not "take children far enough along to have a
significant impact on comprehension."
Yesterday's report focused on Reading First instruction and
didn't address controversy over management of the program.
A 2006 report from the Education Department's inspector
general, John P. Higgins Jr., found that some program
officials steered states to certain tests and
textbooks.
Congressional testimony last year revealed that some of
those officials benefited financially because of ties to
companies that produced those products. Higgins said last year that he had
referred his findings to the
Justice Department. A spokesman for federal
prosecutors said yesterday that an inquiry is pending.
Late last year, Congress, citing concerns about
mismanagement, cut Reading First's funding for fiscal 2008
to $393 million. Researchers are continuing their work, and
a final report is expected to be released in the fall.
Strategies
Neuroscience supports individualized instruction
Studies
show every child learns differently
By Meris
Stansbury, Assistant Editor, eSchool News
Primary Topic Channel: ASCD
Distinguished
Lecture by Dr. Judy Willis
Greeted with Dr. Willis’s projected visual images that
inspired questions, like a giant egg broken in half to
reveal a sunrise on a beach, attendees of a neuroscience
session at the Association for Supervision and Curriculum
Development’s annual conference March 15 realized their
brains were in for some stimulation.
“I’m going to talk about the brain and what we are learning
about how the mind learns information. This isn’t a
handout-type session, it’s one where your brain can wander
and be inspired!” said presenter Judy Willis, M.D., an
author and researcher who has a medical degree and a
master’s degree in education.
To help attendees stay refreshed, and keep their brains in
“RAD” mode—or in a continued state of attention with the
help of visuals and different types of media—Willis showed
a clip of The Graduate with the classic scene of Dustin
Hoffman, alienated and adrift from the values of the day,
receiving the advice that “plastics” was the future. Willis
explained, “Like Dustin Hoffman, today’s students feel
alienated from the values of society they’re about to
enter. Also, educators are adrift in new technologies being
discovered every day, with structure being replaced by
creativity and open walls.” She then segued from “plastics”
into the hot topic of “neuroplasticity” and the learning
potentials we are missing in many children’s brains.
Willis said educators must consider neurological strategies
in their teaching to help students become more engaged in
the classroom, and she stressed the importance and
explained the practicality of individualization of
instruction to best suit the strengths and challenges of
each student.
“What we’re learning about the brain is that everyone
learns differently, and just because one way of learning
works for this half of the class, doesn’t mean that it
works for the other half; just because most children learn
one way, doesn’t mean this girl or that boy learns like the
rest of the class,” she explained.
In more technical terms, Willis said that as brain imaging
studies continue to give a clearer picture of how
individuals respond to sensory stimuli and perform
cognitive tasks, knowledge has been accumulating about the
brain’s neural systems. Researchers have proposed teaching
strategies to correlate with interpretations about how the
scanned brain responds to interventions. As more cognitive
and classroom testing evaluates these interventions and
strategies outside the scanners, Willis asks the question:
What can we bring to students to enhance their educational
experiences?
She explained that when the brain is going through
cognitive learning, it has peaks and plateaus—meaning that
at peaks, the brain is learning something new, but at
plateaus it puts the new learning into practice. Just
because the brain is in a plateau doesn’t mean it can’t
learn new things, it just means it might take a bit longer.
Plateaus are opportunities to mentally manipulate new
learning through exploration, in-depth projects, and
multisensory practice so the learning becomes permanent.
Said Willis, “It’s just like the quote by William James in
1892: ‘We learn to swim in winter and skate in summer.’”
Other new studies have shown that the brain is not fully
“pruned” to its mature state until around 25 years of age,
meaning that the brain, through young adulthood, gets rid
of unused networks and increases the myelination (or
strength) of used networks. Therefore, in order for
students to learn well, repeated practice of newly learned
skills and thought is imperative.
Another fascinating study shows that a dopamine-7 allele,
an allele (a genetic coding sequence) that is linked to the
cause of ADHD in children, is more sensitive to high- or
low-quality parenting.
Explained Willis, “…This is not to say that all children
with this allele have ADHD. But many ADHD children have
this allele. Those who do have this gene variation exhibit
increased or diminished signs of ADHD as related to the
quality of parenting and support more than those children
who do not have this allele.”
She continued: “Eventually, we will be able to identify the
predispositions and strengths of all children based on
brain activity, and we as educators must understand what
this implies for the future—that the future will require us
to teach to the individual, not using a single approach to
teach the whole class.”
Willis recommends giving students information about how
their brains work, so they can better advance their own
learning style; practicing multisensory teaching to aid in
individualization; and using formative assessments to
provide corrective feedback.
“Every brain is unique, and every brain knows what it wants
to do and what it can do best. Since every brain is
different, we must teach to the individual learner so that
every student can master 21st century skills,” concluded
Willis.
Publication: The National Science Digital Library
Sunday, March 16th, 2008 12:49 pm
Written by: Robert Payo
Brain Games: Neuroscience and Active Participation Teaching
Methods at the ASCD Conference
Dr. Judy
Willis is a
neuroscientist who also happens to be a middle school
algebra teacher. After years in the lab, Dr. Willis decided
to apply her knowledge on brain research to the classroom.
At the Association of Supervision and Curriculum
Development (ASCD) Annual Conference in New Orleans, Dr.
Willis was a featured speaker sharing her expertise in
neuroscience research and how teachers can benefit from
greater awareness of neuroscience and apply strategies that
are (as she puts it) “neuro-logical”.
The brain possesses a greater plasticity than was
originally thought. For example, through cognitive therapy,
stroke patients have the potential to relearn functions by
creating and developing new pathways in the brain to take
the place of damaged neural pathways. Willis recounted a
case study of an individual with no measurable brain
activity until a more sensitive fMRI test was done
indicating near normal activity in the patient’s language
centers of the cortex. Through deep electrical stimulation
of the thalamus, “the patient’s speech improved, his
movement became more fluid, and he was able to chew
again—despite having survived brain damage for six months”.
When they stopped deep brain stimulation, his abilities
degraded over time and when stimulation was resumed, the
patient’s abilities improved and sustained with therapy.
Another study points to changes in blood flow in the inner
brain in an area known as the amygdala, related to the
forming and storing of emotional memories. Studies indicate
that decreases in cerebral blood flow can be found in this
area when a person is in a stressful or negative emotional
state, affecting their ability to retain information.
What implications does this have for teaching? Given that
the brain has versatile neuroplasticity, developing student
strategies to strengthen their abilities to create new
pathways, connecting new knowledge to previously learned
concepts and patterns, teaching students to look at
problems from multiple perspectives or providing periodical
shifts in attention when teaching through the use of word
puzzles or discrepant events—what Willis calls
“syn-naps”—can aid student understanding and capitalize on
the innate processes of each individual. Such strategies
are the hallmark of good teaching, but having a better
understanding and intentional focus on brain-based
strategies is a useful tool for any teacher.
Sharon Gieselmann, Assistant Professor of Education
Sharon Gieselmann is
assistant professor of education at the University of
Evansville. Students in her Strategies for Special Needs
Students in Schools, K-12 are using
Brain-Friendly
Strategies for the Inclusion Classroom
this semester. She wrote,
“I selected the book because it provided practical
strategies for the aspiring classroom teachers I teach in a
user-friendly manner. From my experience as an elementary
school principal, district staff developer, and classroom
teacher, I know the importance of preparing teachers for
the classroom. They needed a variety of strategies, more
than what is offered in a traditional textbook. My students
and I love this book! It has great ideas for classroom
use.”
Professor Gieselmann attached
responses to a Discussion Board question she had posted on
Blackboard. Students write a response to a question for
each chapter. The students came up with some great ideas,
and with Sharon’s permission, I share their answers with
you. - Judy
Discussion Board
Question.
Think about the strategies that Dr. Judy Willis describes
in chapter one (begins on page 21). Select a strategy
that will help you meet the needs of inclusion students.
Provide an example of how you can use this strategy in your
classroom
As a future Spanish
teacher, the most
important strategy forme in my inclusive classroom would be
making my lessons relevant andmeaningful. Already students,
inclusive or not, have
preconceived attitudes towards learning a
secondlanguage. By
making my lessonsrelevant, students will not only be more
receptive to learning, but thematerial will also stay longer in their
memory.
To find out what my students find relevant, the first
fewactivities in my
classroom will involve me getting to learn each
students’pets, goals,
interests, jobs, favorite subjects, favorite color, sports,
andschool activities.
From there Iwould
design my lessons and activities around their interests
because wheninformation is embedded with personal
relevance from prior knowledge they wantto pay attention and can connect new
information with prior knowledge whichmakes learning things faster.
Iwould also give
students my rubric for a project but let them free to
choosetheir topic and
way in which they would complete the project. Inclusion
students with LDs wouldappreciate things that are relevant to
them because they will be able torealize that they can do it, that
learning new things is only a matter ofconnecting them with things already
learned.
Relevance will also come from activities that allow
studentsto practice
“real-world” Spanish communication in role-plays, in areas
outsidethe classroom,
or with a native speaker. These will show students why Spanish is
important in the United Statesand they themselves may develop their own
reasons for wanting to learn Spanish.
I want kids the enjoy Spanish the way I do, and I enjoy
itbecause it is
relevant to my life and our world.
The strategy that stuck out to me was "Make It Relevant and
Meaningful". I think that I could utilize this strategy in
my class to make the day-to-day activities more interesting
for the students, as well as for myself. As a future social
studies teacher, I think it is important to create dialogue
on the various events that pop up over the course of a
school year. I would like to set aside 30 minutes per week
to discuss issues related to contemporary government
policies, business ventures, and other miscellaneous issues
in which my students might have extra interest. I would set
up this time in a discussion format in which I would
require everyone to engage and contribute. I always enjoyed
talking about issues that were directly related to the
world that I was currently living in, so by developing
effective questions and being a resourceful mediator, I
hope I will be able to get my students to feel the same way
and think through current issues in the context of lessons
we have learned at another point in the class.
One of Judy Willis' strategies that will help me meet the
needs of inclusion students is setting goals. Setting goals
in the classroom is one of the best ways to incorporate
every student in a way that will help them be
more encouraged and motivated to learn. Setting goals
is essential to teaching inclusion students because you can
use personal and classroom oriental goals, as well as short
and long-term goals. Utilizing goals in the classroom can
also bring a sense of unity among students as they all
strive to meet common goals as well as their own.
Therefore, I believe setting goals is one of the best
strategies used to teach inclusion students.
An example I could use with setting goals in my
future fourth
grade classroom would be to have my students first, write
down their own goals for each subject that they would like
to achieve over the course of the school year. I would ask
them to write both short and long term goals in each
subject, a task I would help them with. Then I would ask my
students to make their goals into a chart. Next, I would
ask students to put their goal chart in a folder I had
marked for them in the classroom. Every couple of weeks, I
would then have my students take out their goal charts and
see if they had accomplished any of their goals in any
subject. If they felt they had, then I would give them
a sticker to put next to their accomplish goal. I
would continue this until the end of the year. At the end
of the year, my class would then have a goal party, in
which every student had the opportunity to express to the
class the goals they had achieved. If students did not want
to share that was okay for it was their own choice. I feel
like this would allow my students to discover how far they
had progressed over the year, as well as experience a sense
of accomplishment. Therefore, setting and achieving
personal goals would play a major role in my fourth grade
classroom.
Since we've been talking about Multiple Intelligences in
class, I have really gotten interested in the idea of
implementing the use of those in my class in the future. In
my Education 200 practicum I had a 7th grade social studies
class that was about 25% special needs students. I think
one of the biggest setbacks for them was that they were
physically taken from the class during tests and other
times and it made it awkward and obvious to the other
children that they were different but it was never actually
discussed in class what was going on. I really want to have
my whole class take a test like this and take the time to
discuss all our strengths and weaknesses. I think it would
be interesting and eye opening for the kids to take notice
of the other kids differences, especially to see that even
the gifted kids have weak spots. I believe if we put these
things out in the open and discuss our differences, then
maybe Middle School doesn’t' have to be so traumatic and
stressful for our kids. This activity would fall under the
strategy of "Watch Your Kids". By not only testing them and
taking the results into consideration myself, but also
making it a class issue we can increase class, community,
and individual growth
Each and every one of these strategies can help with the
needs of inclusion students, but the one I want to focus on
is setting goals. A reward is something that can put a
smile on every student’s face no matter what level of
ability or what age he or she may be. When I have my own
classroom I want there to be a sense of love and
encouragement that fills the air. One of the best ways to
do this is with a reward system.
Individually I want to have some sort of monthly behavioral
chart that starts off full (example: a heart shape for
Valentine's Day) but can have pieces cut off if behavior is
not where it should be. For all those who keep their entire
"heart" they will have a special treat (to be determined
each month). An example of this treat is lunch with the
teacher (ME!!).
Now something I would absolutely love to do if I had say
a first grade
classroom is have
a banking system. Each day the student would get paid a
penny if they did not have to move their name or if they
did extremely well on a paper and also would get
a penny if he/she had a special job that week (ex: line
leader). At the end of the week they could come to the
"bank" and cash in their money. They could trade five
pennies for a nickel and two nickels for a dime and so on.
Also at the end of the week, students could have the
opportunity to buy an item from the store or save
up their money for a more expensive item.
I feel like this whole process would be a good way for
students to set goals as well as see the outcome of being a
good student with good behavior. It also gives every
student a chance to feel proud of him/herself despite
his/her level of ability.
Strategy: Offer
Choice
As a high school English teacher, I will be assigning different
works of literature for my kids to read. Some of these
works we will read together as a class, but others will be
assigned as independent reading and homework. With these
independent reading assignments, I can allow students the
freedom to choose something from a preapproved list that
will best suit their interests and reading ability.
In an American Literature class, for example, I may want
them to learn a little more about slavery. They could
choose to read excerpts from Uncle Tom's Cabin by
Harriet Beecher Stowe, part of The Narrative of the
Life of Frederick Douglass by Frederick Douglass,
or Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl by Harriet
Jacobs.
Strategy: Make
Adaptations for Participation
As a future elementary school
teacher, I like
the idea of offering many levels of participation.
Expecting all students, regardless of level or disability,
to learn and respond in the same way is unreasonable. It is
possible to strive for a specific learning goal with all
students while giving a little extra support to those
who may need it.
In a previous internship, I had several students who needed
extra help. One student had speech problems and was very
shy. Because of this, she would not participate in
discussions. I found that by telling her ahead of time that
I would be asking a specific question during a
lesson and giving her time to plan her answer, I received
much better results from her. She also felt more
comfortable participating.
I also had a student
who experienced trouble in math. Each day, I
gave him a copy of the outline I would follow the next day.
He and his grandmother previewed the outline and
material every night. During the lesson, he followed along
much better when he could see where we were on the outline
and connect it to what he had seen the night before.
Both of these strategies were successful, and I plan to use
them in my own classroom in the future.
Strategy: Make it
Relevant and Meaningful
As a
P.E.
teacher, I know
from personal experiences that it will be hard to get all
students to participate and enjoy the activities that I
plan for them; many students either feel like it is not
important or that they aren't and will never be good enough
to succeed in the subject of physical education. If my
lessons are relevant and meaningful, I will have a much
higher percentage of students that both enjoy the activity
and learn from the lesson. One example of making an activity/lesson
relevant and meaningful is to focus a little less attention
on athletic skills in sports, and to focus more on physical
activities that the students who don't consider themselves
athletes will participate in outside of the class. Things
such as Dance Revolution, Yoga, Swimming, and Cycling are
all activities that are fun, beneficial to health, and more
likely to be used by students. These activities are
meaningful and relevant because students know that
everyone, not just athletes, participate in activities like
this.
I feel that this
is particularly important for all teachers to do. By simply
watching your kids working in the classroom you will be
able to see where particular students may need additional
help or simply what they are struggling with. From this you
will then be able to use several of the other strategies
including: making physical accommodations, providing
realistic challenge, set goals, offering choice, making
adaptations for participation, teaching organizational
skills, providing feedback, and planning developmentally
appropriate lessons.
One example of how I would use this strategy is say I have
a student who is new to the school. There is no information
about the student provided prior to that student entering
my classroom. By simply watching the student interact with
the other students in the classroom I will be able to
determine what I need to do to make the transition of being
in a new school easiest for that child. I will also be able
to determine what other accommodations may need to be made.
Until other testing or other information from previous
schools is available, simply watching the student will
provide me with the information I need to make sure that
things go as smoothly as possible.
In elementary school, I always enjoyed the hands on
activities and projects we performed together as a class.
The projects made the information more real for me and
definitely more interesting. For example, in second grade
while studying plants, one assignment was to pick ten
different leaves, research what kind of plant it was from,
and then present it to the class. To do this homework, I
got to go outside and be creative instead of sitting at the
kitchen table filling in a worksheet.
Also, in fourth grade, my teacher hatched chicken and goose
eggs from an incubator as part of a class science project.
As students, we were active in the process and helped
decide which eggs were duds, and were responsible for
feeding the babies when they finally hatched. Some of us
even got to take one home (with a parent's permission) and
continue to care for them at home!
As a teacher, I hope to perform these same types of
projects with my kids to make the topics more interesting
and applicable to them!
As an elementary teacher, I would use the start slowly and
build for the younger elementary classrooms. By building on
past knowledge, students can improve their vocabulary,
phonic skills, math skills, etc. Slowly building also
allows each student to work at their own pace to meet the
class goals. In my special
education internship this semester, the five
kindergarteners work on handwriting and phonics. Each week
we add a word or two to the list of sight words and slowly
work to say and understand them. In addition to learning
new words, we review over the past words in order to build
their vocabulary. In handwriting, we use the basic shapes
of big curve, little curve, and big line, little line to
create each letter and number. The students see before
their eyes the creation of numbers and letters from simple
shapes. I would most likely use a similar strategy for my
elementary classroom, because the students seem to be
grasping the ideas and using them for the new material.
As a high school U.S. history
teacher, it is
always vital to teach certain lesson plans that will
require students to be knowledgeable to certain time
periods, dates, and people. With this knowledge, students
are more prepared to enter the college level with a strong
background in America’s early foundation and its
progression throughout time.
One strategy that I found very helpful in my classroom was,
“Lower the barrier, not the bar.” This strategy will allow
my students to work to their potential without getting
discouraged with the material. I gave the example in class,
if I asked my students to memorize all 43 presidents of the
United States for the next school day; most would shrug the
assignment off as “unobtainable.” Therefore, if I asked my
students to memorize only the first five presidents for the
next school day, and continued this pattern until all 43
presidents had been memorized, I have lowered the barriers
to learning all of the U.S. presidents but not the bar.
As a physical
education and health major, I feel that lowering the barriers and
not the bar will apply to the area that will teach. For
athletic children, gym class is usually an enjoyable
time where these kids feel in their element. However,
for those kids that are not as athletic, showing no effort
in gym class may be a reasonable alternative to trying and
failing where other kids succeed. As a gym teacher, I could
lower the barrier and not the bar for all children by
basing their grade more on the effort that they show then
their natural athletic ability. By doing this, gym class
will focus more on participation, which will in help
improve the quality of health for all students.
Strategy: Teach
Organizational Skills
As an elementary
school teacher, I
believe that organizational skills are extremely
important. If students are not organized it can cause a
lack of focus. When students are organized, they can focus
on the task at hand rather than their messy desk.
Organizational skills are important life skills as well.
When people are organized it creates less stress and
promotes a better work environment.
In elementary school, our teacher would make us clean out
our desks every Friday and organize our books and school supplies, so that on
Monday everything was ready to go and we could dive
straight into the lesson. I remember that it made
everything go smoother on Monday and the rest of the week
because things were neat and organized.
As a teacher, it is also good to be organized. Teachers
have so much paperwork that needs to be kept track of, so
it is imperative to have everything organized. I believe
that an organized teacher will be a prepared teacher. I
hope I will be able to teach these important organizational
skills to my students when I become a teacher.
Community (math book?)
Each and every one of these strategies can help with the
needs of inclusion students, but the one I want to focus on
is setting goals. A reward is something that can put a
smile on every student’s face no matter what level of
ability or what age he or she may be. When I have my own
classroom I want there to be a sense of love and
encouragement that fills the air. One of the best ways to
do this is with a reward system.
Individually I want to have some sort of monthly behavioral
chart that starts off full (example: a heart shape for
Valentine's Day) but can have pieces cut off if behavior is
not where it should be. For all those who keep their entire
"heart" they will have a special treat (to be determined
each month). An example of this treat is lunch with the
teacher (ME!!).
Now something I would absolutely love to do if I had say a
first grade classroom is have a banking system. Each day
the student would get paid a penny if they did not have to
move their name or if they did extremely well on
a paper and also would get a penny if he/she had
a special job that week (ex: line leader). At the end of
the week they could come to the "bank" and cash in their
money. They could trade five pennies for a nickel and two
nickels for a dime and so on. Also at the end of the week,
students could have the opportunity to buy an
item from the store or save up their money for a more
expensive item.
I feel like this whole process would be a good way for
students to set goals as well as see the outcome of being a
good student with good behavior. It also gives every
student a chance to feel proud of him/herself despite
his/her level of ability.
Each and every one of these strategies can help with the
needs of inclusion students, but the one I want to focus on
is setting goals. A reward is something that can put a
smile on every student’s face no matter what level of
ability or what age he or she may be. When I have my own
classroom I want there to be a sense of love and
encouragement that fills the air. One of the best ways to
do this is with a reward system.
Individually I want to have some sort of monthly behavioral
chart that starts off full (example: a heart shape for
Valentine's Day) but can have pieces cut off if behavior is
not where it should be. For all those who keep their entire
"heart" they will have a special treat (to be determined
each month). An example of this treat is lunch with the
teacher (ME!!).
Now something I would absolutely love to do if I had say a
first grade classroom is have a banking system. Each day
the student would get paid a penny if they did not have to
move their name or if they did extremely well on
a paper and also would get a penny if he/she had
a special job that week (ex: line leader). At the end of
the week they could come to the "bank" and cash in their
money. They could trade five pennies for a nickel and two
nickels for a dime and so on. Also at the end of the week,
students could have the opportunity to buy an
item from the store or save up their money for a more
expensive item.
I feel like this whole process would be a good way for
students to set goals as well as see the outcome of being a
good student with good behavior. It also gives every
student a chance to feel proud of him/herself despite
his/her level of ability.
Offer
Choice:
I will be teaching high school biology
and by offering choice I
believe it will help keep kids' interests peaked. Some of
the material I will be covering during class will allow me
to form multiple choices for students to choose from. For
example, if we were covering diffusion and osmosis I could
offer the kids a choice of doing a lab designed to help the
students better understand what actually occurs or just do
a worksheet and save the lab for another time when we are
covering something a little more interesting. Either way we
would end up doing a lab but by giving them a choice it may
help keep them a little more focused and hopefully they
would end up with a better grade.
As a future elementary school
teacher, I think
it is very important to offer my students the opportunity
to choose certain activities that they would like to do.
Judy Willis' idea about offering choice to the students
really resonated with me, because I think it would give the
students the motivation to continue to work on a project.
For example in a first grade classroom, if we were working
on an addition lesson, I would offer the students the
opportunity to do a hands-on activity, to do a partner
activity, or to use technology equipment to complete
the assignment. I believe that by allowing the
students to choose how they will accomplish a task,
they will be more likely to retain much more from the
lesson.
Perhaps one of
the greatest strategies that I can use in an
English
classroom to
foster a learning opportunity for an inclusion student is
that of setting realistic goals. By setting said goals,
especially in areas of reading comprehension, my students
and I will be able to collaborate on where they need to be
and where they would like to see themselves throughout the
course of the year. Ultimately, by setting
benchmarks--either as one focused one or a series of
smaller ones--my students will be a part of their learning
process and be able to make choices concerning it.
Ultimately, of course, the
main point is the goal itself. Once we know where we want
to end up, we can start focusing on effective strategies to
get there.
I think that it is vital to offer choice within the
classroom. I would apply this to my middle school English
class. One example in which I would offer choice would be
with reading. It is important to get students interested,
and offering choice is one way to do so. I would have my
students right down their favorite genres, and then split
them into groups accordingly. I would allow students to
within their groups to pick a novel from a set list of
books of their favorite genre. This is providing
choice, but keeping structure. Students would read the
novels independently, but discuss and work on activities as
a group. All groups would be doing the same activities, but
read different books.
One strategy
that is highly important for student learning in inclusion
classes (and all classes) is for the teacher to watch
his/her kids. By watching, I would like to emphasize
knowledge, monitoring, and the observing aspects.
If you are to teach someone, you must first know about that
person: his/her background (past education, treatment),
his/her strengths/weaknesses, and his/her learning
styles/multiple intelligences. In order to find this
information, I plan to access my students' records, analyze
what they have the least/most problems with, and give them
the appropriate assessments.
It is also crucial to actually monitor the students'
progress in class, understanding of the material, and
overall well-being. Once, I know what levels my students
are on, it is very important to keep track of their
progress in order to help them reach the next level. Just
as important, if not more, than paying attention to a
student's academic well-being, is to look out for signs of
physical/mental/sexual abuse.
Lastly, watching the students insinuates that a teacher
actually observe the students. Students need to be watched
in order to ensure that they stay on task, do not get into
fights and other disruptive behavior. More simply, students
get a sense that the teacher cares when he/she just looks
at them.
With these elements combined, I can figure out where my
students are academically as they enter my classroom,
construct appropriate lesson plans and set goals according
to their level, monitor their progress and help them along,
and simply observe to make sure that the classroom is a
safe and productive place. These aspects will help meet the
individual needs of each student and will therefore; better
the class on a whole.
One of the strategies that I find extremely important in
inclusion classrooms is “Start Slowly and Build”. I believe
that this strategy alongside setting goals for the students
provides a strong foundation for learning.
As a future Spanish
teacher, I know
how extremely difficult it can be when trying to learn a
foreign language. When student take there very first
Spanish class, in either high school or middle school, most
come into the class knowing virtually nothing about the
language. Students will react to this with a variety of
emotions; they may be scared, nervous, or even
excited.
In my future classroom, I plan to slowly adjust my
students to the language. For example, I will start with
small amounts of information that is easy for the students
to pick up on and remember, such as the alphabet, numbers,
days, months, etc. Then, I will incorporate the things that
they have learned into more difficult tasks such as asking
and answering questions and keep building on what they
know.
Also, I believe that it is really important for a
teacher to set goals for not only the entire class but also
for the individual students. These goals can be as simple
as a B for the class average on a test, or something more
complex like each student knowing a certain amount on
information by a certain time. Setting up a reward system
can also reinforce these goals for the students who do
achieve their goals.
Starting slowly and building while also setting goals for
students will inspire the student to want to learn. Also,
each student has a different level of learning, and these
strategies will help make all students feel comfortable in
the classroom.
As an elementary
and middle school social studies
teacher, I
believe that making the material I teach relevant and
meaningful to the students is very important.
There are several ways to implement this idea when
working with the students. When working with younger
students, it is easier to relate material to their
surroundings. For example, if I was teaching at a school
located in rural, southern Indiana, near the corn fields, I
would probably teach a science lesson on seeds, teaching
the students the parts of a corn kernel. The students would
probably be excited about the familiar material and would
therefore be more likely to remember it than if it were a
type of seed that was not found around southern Indiana.
This teaching method would allow the students to apply the
lesson to their lives and remember the information more
easily because it would pertain to them personally.
Making new material relevant to the real world is
another way to carry out this teaching strategy. Social
Studies is an excellent subject to relate material to the
real world. For example, you can always pull current events
from the newspaper in order to start a discussion about
current world issues. Discussing disasters, such as an
earthquake in Japan or fires in Greece, would be beneficial
in teaching a lesson because the locations of these
international news stories would be a great transition into
geography.
Teaching high
school English, I
would use the method of offering choice often. I would do
this because my students will most likely not like English
in the way I do. Offering choice would allow them to
express themselves in the way they are most comfortable and
in a way I can easily assess.
For example, I am teaching a unit on Shakespeare. What
student does not love Shakespeare? Since there are students
like this, and it's a shame, I would allow them to read the
play in a variety of ways.
I would give the option of reading an act in the textbook
then writing a summary followed by the movie. OR I would
allow my students to read the "No Fear Shakespeare" version
of the text in which the students would be tested on both
texts.