Literacy and Special Education Showcase
In order to truly understand and get to know someone, you need to know where they have been. Vague answers about completing a Masters program isn’t always enough. Here, you will find a glimpse into the past five years of my life. I have had many opportunities to explore the educational system, instruction, individual learning styles, and what it means to be a “teacher” primarily in the areas of literacy and learners with additional needs. Feel free to contact me with questions or if you would like to see additional samples.
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Confidence Analysis
TE848
TE848
Anne*, a former student, was incredibly motivated and always strived to succeed. Despite her best effort, she struggled academically. She was confident in her writing and shared often with teachers and peers. Anne seemed unaware of her struggles. I evaluated Anne’s behaviors and progress to develop possible theories about what appeared to be disconnection between her positive mentality and writing struggles.
Motivational Struggles
CEP802
Jason*, a former student, struggled with morning journal completion. I took an opportunity to dig in deeper to examine the motivational aspect of his incomplete work. Initially, I compiled my findings in paper form for consolidation purposes. Following paper completion, I created a more concise presentation to share with my cohort.
Literacy Struggles
CEP804a
I had the opportunity to work with a former student who struggled in reading and writing. There were many different strategies we worked through together. I tried to use acronyms as much as possible to provide him with visuals to think back to. I created a lesson about P.O.W. to help him with writing, primarily prompts. I also created A.P.P.L.E.S. to help him self-evaluate his reading. I created a visual reference page to help him find the main idea in a reading passage or story. Over time, these strategies helped to build his confidence and independence.
Literacy Inconsistencies
TE846
Ethan*, a former student, preformed inconsistently with his reading and writing. I had the opportunity to closely evaluate his literacy skills and based on my findings, I created lessons for Ethan to work on to help develop his literacy strengths. Through many individualized instructional experiences, Ethan developed an independence and confidence toward his reading success.
Cohesive Reading and Writing Instruction
TE842
As a new teacher, I felt very passionate about creating a cohesive reading and writing workshop. I was fortunate to work with a great group of colleagues and we created a closely knit writing workshop with grammar, but I strived for overlap among all of the aspects of my literacy instruction. I created a scope and sequence for reading and writing workshops and themes based on research and yearly schedules. Once implemented, I loved the conversations that developed from mentor texts analysis with both reading and writing considerations.
Independent Studies and Differentiated Instruction vs. Standards
ED800
The educational world is filled with various debates about best practices, effectiveness, and efficiency, some of these tension areas seem to change with the season and some seem to alter but essentially feel never ending. I decided to tackle the ongoing battle whether educators should teach to pre-established standards or if individualized and varied instruction is most beneficial. This is especially interesting to me because I teach Montessori (highly individualized method of teaching) in a public school environment (curriculum standards are expected to be met).
Dyslexia
TE803
Everyone is different. Everyone has gifts to share. Everyone has things to work on. Everyone learns differently. Teachers need to understand different learning struggles and disabilities. I researched dyslexia and shared my findings with a group of peers. I didn't feel simply speaking about the topic was enough, so I enhanced the discussion with a handout of simple reminders that can be used as a reference sheet for classroom use.
Reading Lesson Plans
TE802
When I had a classroom placement in a first grade classroom, I created a unit based on The Grouchy Ladybug by Eric Carle. Through activities, discussions, writing, reading, and creating, students were able to evaluate the story and build their knowledge base in various ways that were connected to the story. A lot of planning and effort went into developing these weeks of learning, however, I also scripted out three of the lessons to help myself better prepare with exact wordings and differentiation needs.
*Please note that all names have been changed.