Literacy is the way that all other subjects are learned and it is important to create a strong foundation in literacy for all other academic learning. In this course we looked through five inquiries to learn about teaching literacy to all types of learners. I looked at my beliefs about teaching literacy, looked at specific skills needed to learn them, and how to assess students to see who has learned the skill and who needs additional intervention. I planned, assessed for, and taught a 2 week lesson on a certain set of writing standards. I then took a sample of students that were high, medium, and low in terms of academic skills and evaluated what they had learned from the lessons. I learned about differentiating my teaching for all students needs, and collecting important and accurate data from student work to assess not only their learning but my teaching.
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Click here for: Handout for Presentation
* The handout is a summary of my project |
In this course I learned about integrating different subject matter together through one unit. I created a 2 week unit revolving around economics and incorporated first grade reading, writing, social studies and math standards. The lessons were hands on and got students involved in social studies. This course taught me the importance of making learning connected and relevant to learners. The more that students are able to connect what they are learning in their different subjects the better they are able to truly understand the information they are learning.
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In this course I created a unit for my first grade students on life cycles. I learned about using science to give students first hand experiences in inquiry. I learned about preassessing and post assessing data not only to assess student learning, but also to assess my teaching practices. This course helped me to think through and plan lessons thinking about all the different things that might happen and preparing for them. It also taught me the importance of giving students first hand experiences especially in science.
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Click here for: Life Cycles Unit
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In this course I learned the characteristics of children with ASD and interventions for working with these students. This course offered me a lot of information for working with a population of students that are being mainstreamed in my class. After working in this course I feel that I am more prepared to work with students with ASD in my classroom especially in the areas of, identifying students who exhibit the characteristics of students with ASD, preparing social skills interventions, and transition planning.
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Click here for: Social Skills Intervention Presentation
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In this course I took a journey through education and what is meant in the past and today. I journeyed through what education meant for other educators and this allowed me to take a more in depth look at what education means for me. I studeid the ideas of educational philosophers such as John Dewey, E.D. Hirsh, and Chaterine Bateson. I learned about teacher inquiry in the classroom and how to reflect upon your own teaching through Vivian Paley. Studying the ways other view education and reflecting upon their ideas and my own helped me to become more aware of myself as an educator.
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Click here for: An Essay on Vivian Paley
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In this course I learned more about working with students with learning disabilities and how to help them succeed in the classroom. I learned a great deal of techniques and ideas for working with different students with different behaviors in the classroom. I was able to learn about techniques for "hard to teach students", from school wide interventions, like PBiS, to individual interventions for students, like self-regulation. These things will help me with students that might challenge the traditional classroom management techniques in the furute.
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In this course I explored the different policies in special education in inclusive classrooms and in special education classrooms. I learned about the different types of disabilities and learned more about characteristics, accommodations, modifications, and ways to help these students. In this course I worked in a group to create an informational Wiki for parents on ADHD and a presentation for others about Special Education.
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This course was designed to learn more about teaching the basics of reading. It taught me how to assess and create interventions for struggling literacy learners based on best practice in literacy and evidence based interventions. I completed a case study on one struggling learner and I developed lessons and assessment pieces to interpret the data. I saw the way that a struggling learner can improve with the right interventions.
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Click here: Developing a Struggling Reader Case Study
Click Here for: Pre and Post Assessment from Study Click Here for: Lessons and Artifacts from Case Study |
This course was about the characteristics of different students with challenging behaviors and interventions for teaching these students. I completed a project based on the challenging behaviors of a student I currently teach. I devised an intervention plan for this student, collected data, and evaluated the effectiveness of this intervention plan.
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This course was designed to create a portfolio of all of the work I have done in my masters program. It is to showcase what I have done, reflect on what I have learned, and to show others what I learned on my journey through my Master's program. It involved working with new web site tools and learning new technologies.
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Click here for: Ashley Mellor's Professional Portfolio
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