The Khan Academy bills itself as "The free classroom for the world." This useful website has video lessons and interactive exercises galore - math is highlighted, but there are lots of lessons in other disciplines (science, economics, history...) and they range from introductory to advanced. Take a look at this PBS NewsHour feature, then then go check it out yourself!
I tried out a few of the interactive math exercises - addition and multiplication. There's a helpful map on the first screen that organizes the math exercises, so students can see the progression of math concepts and select the appropriate exercise. The math exercises I investigated were all drills, so they would mainly be useful for children who just needed to bone up on their math facts. It could be that other exercises are more sophisticated, but I haven't delved deeply into the exercises section. Of course, those kids with comprehension problems can take a look at the lessons, too.
The main drawback of this site is that it requires a computer with internet access to utilize. While we assume that everyone is wired in this day and age, I have found that a lot of kids in my main placement school face significant challenges gaining access to computers. For your kids who do have computers, I'd recommend taking a look at this helpful site.
Tuesday, November 30, 2010
Monday, November 22, 2010
chunking
While we're having a great time with our second grade buddy, Lisa*, Susan's and my session with her didn't go as smoothly as it could have last week. Our buddy just doesn't seem to enjoy reading. She likes books, loves talking about books, and clearly enjoys being read to. However, when reading a book herself, she frustrates easily and doesn't make sustained attempts at decoding unknown words. After a sentence or two, she's ready to move on to something else and has an arsenal full of diversionary tactics waiting to be deployed. As a result of this, our attempt to do a running record with her wasn't successful -- even though we had selected easier books for our session than the ones we looked at the week prior. Lisa was still struggling or still reticent to read, or a little of both.
On more than a few occasions, when encouraged, Lisa would try chunking the words she didn't know. She wasn't always successful, even with words that seemed particularly amenable to a chunking strategy, like compound words. Reading Fox, and looking back at a specific instance where Lisa was trying to decode by chunking, I think I might see why she was unsuccessful. On one occasion, she wanted to decode a word by chunking it, and wanted Susan to cover one portion while she decoded the other. I can't recall the exact word, but her strategy progressed along the lines of taking a word such as "nothing" and trying to chunk it into "not" and "hing" or "no" and "hing," ignoring the "t". (Susan, if you're still reading my blog, correct me in the comments!) Fox said something that seems to make sense of what was going on here.
Fox (2008) states that using "the multiletter strategy hinges on identifying chunks" in words (p. 180). However, when using this strategy, readers have to know which letters form viable chunks and which do not. Readers, Fox tells us, "use their knowledge of letter-sound patterns to determine the letters in new words that are most likely to belong in groups" (p. 180). This is a skill that must be practiced. I had a bit of an "aha moment" when I read this, because it seemed to identify why Lisa was struggling when attempting a chunking strategy. Either she has not had enough practice honing her chunking skills, or she hasn't yet mastered letter-sound and analogy strategies.
I am curious whether Lisa receives extra reading help. It's clear she's been taught strategies to help her decode new words, and while she both tried and experienced a level of success with of some of these strategies during our time together, her stamina is low. I am not sure if offering an even easier book to read will spark a desire to read more, but I'm hoping so, and will try some easier books when we meet tomorrow.
*pseudonym
On more than a few occasions, when encouraged, Lisa would try chunking the words she didn't know. She wasn't always successful, even with words that seemed particularly amenable to a chunking strategy, like compound words. Reading Fox, and looking back at a specific instance where Lisa was trying to decode by chunking, I think I might see why she was unsuccessful. On one occasion, she wanted to decode a word by chunking it, and wanted Susan to cover one portion while she decoded the other. I can't recall the exact word, but her strategy progressed along the lines of taking a word such as "nothing" and trying to chunk it into "not" and "hing" or "no" and "hing," ignoring the "t". (Susan, if you're still reading my blog, correct me in the comments!) Fox said something that seems to make sense of what was going on here.
Fox (2008) states that using "the multiletter strategy hinges on identifying chunks" in words (p. 180). However, when using this strategy, readers have to know which letters form viable chunks and which do not. Readers, Fox tells us, "use their knowledge of letter-sound patterns to determine the letters in new words that are most likely to belong in groups" (p. 180). This is a skill that must be practiced. I had a bit of an "aha moment" when I read this, because it seemed to identify why Lisa was struggling when attempting a chunking strategy. Either she has not had enough practice honing her chunking skills, or she hasn't yet mastered letter-sound and analogy strategies.
I am curious whether Lisa receives extra reading help. It's clear she's been taught strategies to help her decode new words, and while she both tried and experienced a level of success with of some of these strategies during our time together, her stamina is low. I am not sure if offering an even easier book to read will spark a desire to read more, but I'm hoping so, and will try some easier books when we meet tomorrow.
*pseudonym
Monday, November 15, 2010
darius goes west
I've been hearing a lot about the documentary Darius Goes West lately, a documentary about a young man with Duchenne's Muscular Dystrophy named Darius Weems. This film has been highly recommended (by Oprah, for instance) for use in middle to high school classrooms - to both raise awareness about the disease (which is the number one genetic killer of youth worldwide) and to "propel the positive & empowering message of Darius Goes West as far and as wide as possible." (from dariusgoeswest.org) To achieve this goal, The Darius Goes West website will ship out a free DVD to educators and has made available a "standards based curriculum" to accompany the film. Arrangements can also be made for Darius Weems to attend a video-conference Q&A in your classroom.
Admittedly, I hadn't given a lot of additional thought to what I'd heard about Darius Goes West - for one thing, if I land in middle school, I'll be teaching middle level science (although an interdisciplinary approach that investigated the cause of Duchenne's, research like gene mapping, treatments, and potential cures could be very interesting). However, while channel surfing the other night, there it was, being shown on the Halogen channel. I decided to watch it, and it was a very touching movie about a 15 year old young man who knew his life would be cut short (his brother died as a result of Duchenne's at 19) and wanted only to go west and get his wheelchair "pimped" on MTV's "Pimp my Ride." It definitely evoked sympathy for Darius (especially since MTV wouldn't touch his wheelchair or invite him on the show) and inspired you to also pay attention to issues of inclusion and difference. Of course, it also encouraged you to support Duchenne's research. Overall, I thought that the documentary was good.
As I watched, though, thoughts expressed in one of the readings from our special needs class kept springing to mind. I can't recall the title of that article, but it contained a section decrying the "poster child" method of raising awareness of (and funds for) diseases and/or disabilities. One danger, we were told, is that the emphasis becomes the generation of revenue, with the poster child simply shilling for disease research. A good treatment of this issue can be found in another article, "From Poster Child to Protestor". Author Laura Hershey's particular beef is with the Jerry Lewis telethon, and she expresses the following complaint about manufacturing poster children:
Admittedly, I hadn't given a lot of additional thought to what I'd heard about Darius Goes West - for one thing, if I land in middle school, I'll be teaching middle level science (although an interdisciplinary approach that investigated the cause of Duchenne's, research like gene mapping, treatments, and potential cures could be very interesting). However, while channel surfing the other night, there it was, being shown on the Halogen channel. I decided to watch it, and it was a very touching movie about a 15 year old young man who knew his life would be cut short (his brother died as a result of Duchenne's at 19) and wanted only to go west and get his wheelchair "pimped" on MTV's "Pimp my Ride." It definitely evoked sympathy for Darius (especially since MTV wouldn't touch his wheelchair or invite him on the show) and inspired you to also pay attention to issues of inclusion and difference. Of course, it also encouraged you to support Duchenne's research. Overall, I thought that the documentary was good.
As I watched, though, thoughts expressed in one of the readings from our special needs class kept springing to mind. I can't recall the title of that article, but it contained a section decrying the "poster child" method of raising awareness of (and funds for) diseases and/or disabilities. One danger, we were told, is that the emphasis becomes the generation of revenue, with the poster child simply shilling for disease research. A good treatment of this issue can be found in another article, "From Poster Child to Protestor". Author Laura Hershey's particular beef is with the Jerry Lewis telethon, and she expresses the following complaint about manufacturing poster children:
- Now we were taking on one of the biggest barriers of all: the paternalistic attitudes which prevail in our society, and which are reflected so dramatically in the annual telethon.
Saturday, November 6, 2010
the zombie zapped the zebra's head
One of activities we chose for our kindergarten buddy was Silly Sentences, found in chapter four of Fox's Word Identification Strategies. When we administered the emergent literacy profile to our buddy, there was some confusion around the beginning sounds section. When we asked him to identify the beginning sounds of the listed words, he named the beginning letters rather than the sounds. For example, when given the word "more" and asked "What sound does more begin with?," he answered "m". He even offered the letters "c-h" instead of naming the beginning sound for the word children.
Given his responses, we thought that Silly Sentences exercise could help reinforce the concept of beginning sounds. We came up with a half dozen or so silly sentences, crafted with his interests in mind - like many meerkats munch on millipedes - and wrote them on index cards. We had our buddy read each card and identify the common beginning sound. He caught on quickly and enjoyed the exercise, which also included illustrating each silly sentence. After we went through the prepared cards, we encouraged him to craft his own silly sentences on blank cards. This is when he really showed us that he "got it." One of his silly sentences was "The zombie zapped the zebra's head." Wow!
Another strategy identified by Fox that really struck me was that of using rimes to sidestep exceptions. For example, in a short word with one vowel followed by a consonant, the vowel is usually short. We can teach it this way and then start addressing all the exceptions, one of which is the word "find." Fox points out that given the vowel/consonant rule, the i in find should be pronounced like the i in dish, but isn't. It certainly seems like this could be a point of serious confusion for kids, hence Fox's assertion that teaching rimes is preferable. It seems much clearer to teach a child that -ind makes the sound found in find, kind, and rind and that -ish makes the sound found in dish, wish, and fish. I really liked this strategy and the way Fox described it.
I'm a little sad our time with our kindergarten buddy is at an end for now, but I'm excited to meet our second grade buddy next week.
PS Please think twice about using plastic baggies for the "Baggie Book" activity on page 165. There has to be another way to accomplish the desired effect without using a large quantity of environmentally un-friendly ziploc plastic bags. It's just wasteful.
Given his responses, we thought that Silly Sentences exercise could help reinforce the concept of beginning sounds. We came up with a half dozen or so silly sentences, crafted with his interests in mind - like many meerkats munch on millipedes - and wrote them on index cards. We had our buddy read each card and identify the common beginning sound. He caught on quickly and enjoyed the exercise, which also included illustrating each silly sentence. After we went through the prepared cards, we encouraged him to craft his own silly sentences on blank cards. This is when he really showed us that he "got it." One of his silly sentences was "The zombie zapped the zebra's head." Wow!
Another strategy identified by Fox that really struck me was that of using rimes to sidestep exceptions. For example, in a short word with one vowel followed by a consonant, the vowel is usually short. We can teach it this way and then start addressing all the exceptions, one of which is the word "find." Fox points out that given the vowel/consonant rule, the i in find should be pronounced like the i in dish, but isn't. It certainly seems like this could be a point of serious confusion for kids, hence Fox's assertion that teaching rimes is preferable. It seems much clearer to teach a child that -ind makes the sound found in find, kind, and rind and that -ish makes the sound found in dish, wish, and fish. I really liked this strategy and the way Fox described it.
I'm a little sad our time with our kindergarten buddy is at an end for now, but I'm excited to meet our second grade buddy next week.
PS Please think twice about using plastic baggies for the "Baggie Book" activity on page 165. There has to be another way to accomplish the desired effect without using a large quantity of environmentally un-friendly ziploc plastic bags. It's just wasteful.
Monday, November 1, 2010
curriki
Curriki, a play on the words 'curriculum' and 'wiki', is a not-for-profit organization that is building the first and only Internet site for Open Source Curriculum (OSC), which will provide universal access to free curricula and instructional materials for grades K-12.
I recently received an email about Curriki -- we all know what wikis are now, and Curriki operates on the same principle as our cohort wiki, but is specifically for curriculum development. With Texas loudly exerting its political will by demanding changes such the removal of a so-called "pro-Islamic" slant from textbooks -- and the sheer size of their textbook order means that what Texas asks for is what we all get -- an "open source" alternative is like a breath of fresh air. Curriki states a goal of a "complete curricula solution." You can search for lesson plans and units, revise them, upload your own stuff, join a project, find a teacher to collaborate with, or read their blog. When you sign on for this endeavor, its best to leave your increasingly obsolete (for better or worse) notion of intellectual property at the doorstep. Curriki embodies what we know and have learned about web 2.0. It's an interactive virtual educational community built around resource sharing, content building, and meaning making. Pretty cool.
Curriki has an excellent guided tour of their site. Check it out and let me know what you think of this idea!
The Curriki Blog's Wordle -- the collaborative vision of Curriki
Never heard of a Wordle? They're pretty neat creations, take a look! Try Wall Wisher, too, while you're at it...
I recently received an email about Curriki -- we all know what wikis are now, and Curriki operates on the same principle as our cohort wiki, but is specifically for curriculum development. With Texas loudly exerting its political will by demanding changes such the removal of a so-called "pro-Islamic" slant from textbooks -- and the sheer size of their textbook order means that what Texas asks for is what we all get -- an "open source" alternative is like a breath of fresh air. Curriki states a goal of a "complete curricula solution." You can search for lesson plans and units, revise them, upload your own stuff, join a project, find a teacher to collaborate with, or read their blog. When you sign on for this endeavor, its best to leave your increasingly obsolete (for better or worse) notion of intellectual property at the doorstep. Curriki embodies what we know and have learned about web 2.0. It's an interactive virtual educational community built around resource sharing, content building, and meaning making. Pretty cool.
Curriki has an excellent guided tour of their site. Check it out and let me know what you think of this idea!
The Curriki Blog's Wordle -- the collaborative vision of Curriki
Never heard of a Wordle? They're pretty neat creations, take a look! Try Wall Wisher, too, while you're at it...
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