EDLD+5364+Week+4

The week 4 readings and videos were very informative and exciting for me to learn! I have been put on a "Differentiated Instruction" team at my campus. As a part of this team, we attend regular training and professional development sessions, (including the National DI conference held this summer), we try to put concepts into practice in the classroom, and we then use what we have learned to train fellow teachers in the practice. Up until this class, and specifically this week, I had not been able to conceptualize many of the big ideas of DI in terms of actual teaching practices that are recommended for recognition, strategic,and affective components of learning. The UDL lesson planner template and models were awesome and provided me with support in the lesson planning process that was extremely helpful in thinking through the best ways to differentiate for a variety of learning styles, interests, and readiness or ability levels. The modeled lessons were great for me as well because they were well organized, had great ideas, and informative notes as to the "why" certain activities or modifications had been made and the targeted group of students. I also loved the Book Builder site because it was very intuitive, provided a wide variety of support options for struggleing readers, and would be a great tool to let my fifth grade students use as a learning activity in the curriculum. I love the implications for communicating with a wider audience (through sharing or publishing to the Public Library site) as well. I was able to "co-author" my book with my second grade son, and he was completely engaged with the process and was so proud of the final product! He has already asked to make another book about his spelling words (VERY exciting)!

The other part of this week's readings that I found interesting was the chapter in "Using Technology with Classroom Instruction that Works," by Howard Pitler, Elizabeth Hubbell, Matt Kuhn, and Kim Malenoski on feedback. I liked the quote, "The simplest prescription for improving education must be 'dollops' of feedback. I have struggled with providing timely and relevant feedback to my students, and liked the suggested methods of providing feedback through the use of technology. I have started using the Microsoft Word application features of "tracking changes" and "inserting changes." My students have not gotten the process totally down yet, but I love (and they have enjoyed) being able to edit each other's work online and make suggestions to each other. As a teacher, I am able to review the comments and changes made to their writing as well as the collaboration that has taken place between my students. I also like the clicker response systems for whole class questioning. The implications for generating reports and student study guides is great and an easy way to provide more timely feedback. In the past, I have fallen into the routine of just using graded papers to provide feedback to my students. As every teacher knows, it is not always easy to grade papers every evening. There have been times that a week flies by and I have not graded papers much less give them back to the students for feedback! I am so glad to have a few more tools now in my attempt to improve in this critical area!