It is hard to believe PME 843: Effective Intervention has come to an end already. This course has truly been one of the most enjoyable yet meaningful courses I have taken so far in my PME journey. It has allowed me to gain an understanding of the various exceptionalities in literacy and ways in which we can support these exceptionalities through effective intervention strategies. Throughout this course I have kept a research reflection journal, noting connections made throughout our readings. Please see my reflections on my website: https://chelseyabrahamson.weebly.com
Looking back through the modules, it is amazing the amount of information we covered in such a short time. Module 1 focused largely on the brain and cognitive processing. Sometimes in the classroom, I get so caught up in the teaching that I end up forgetting about the learning. What is going on in students’ brains when I am explaining something new? When we teach a thorough and explicit lesson, it can be frustrating when students still do not understand the concept. Teachers must consider the students’ working memories and realize working memory does have a capacity. Teacher need students to strengthen their working memory, their ability to store information into long-term memory. I will use this information regarding the brain and memory to expand my understanding of learning exceptionalities. Before this course I would not have considered a struggling decoder to have a literacy exceptionality. I would recognize this student as struggling or challenged but I do not believe I would have used the term exceptionality. I now realize that literacy exceptionalities come in many shapes and sizes and all for different reasons. Two students with ADHD or Dyslexia, for example, may exhibit different behaviours and their exceptionality may be caused by different factors. Some behaviours, such as poor phonological awareness or lack of attention, are more common than others. Through intensive instruction, progress monitoring, and assessment the teacher must determine the exceptionality and implement strategies to support these students. It was interesting to me to learn about exceptionalities I have not personally experienced in my classroom. I have not yet had the opportunity to work with a dyslexic student or a English Language Learner (ELL). As a result, it was difficult for me to connect these research articles to my professional practice. However, through readings and reflections I believe I have developed an understanding of these exceptionalities and have a few intervention strategies in mind to support their literacy needs. One thing I will keep in mind as we move forward is that an exceptionality does not define overall intelligence. Students with learning exceptionalities are still capable of achieving success in the classroom. These students require the support of a high-quality classroom teacher and effective intervention strategies. Perhaps my favourite module for this course was Module 4: Response to Intervention. The IRIS Center website and overall RTI Framework outlined what an effective literacy block should look like. Students with literacy exceptionalities should not be taken out during the reading block, but instead during specials or Social Studies/Science. This is one change I have made to my practice since September. At the beginning of the year, my struggling decoders would meet with me in a small-group centre and then leave during the independent station for their Tier 2 Intervention (we call it Reading Club). Since exploring the RTI framework, we have now changed their Reading Club intervention to a time in the afternoon so these students can participate in the full classroom literacy block. I also enjoyed reading about the RTI framework as it puts such a strong emphasis on the classroom teacher. I was reminded that an effective, high-quality classroom teacher is the most important factor for students who struggle with literacy. I want to help students learn to read and the best way I can do that is together in our classroom. Executive skills were focused on in another meaningful module. Executive skills allow us to plan and organize activities and manage the time needed to complete a task or reach our goal. When students have strong executive skills, they can manage multiple assignments with different requirements and due dates. To help students develop their executive skills, teachers can utilize class schedules, organize supplies, explain tasks one step at a time, and provide picture queues along with instructions. These are strategies I am currently using in my Grade 1 classroom to help my students manage their bodies, time, and materials. Students may also need help managing their emotions. Self-regulation is the ability to calm oneself and and stay in a “ready-to-learn” zone. We cannot expect students to learn if they are unsettled and unregulated. To help students develop self-regulation skills, teachers may need to act as the brain. Teachers can model self-regulating activities such as deep breathing or they can explicitly tell students to squeeze a stress ball in a quiet corner for one minute. Students must develop these skills to adjust their mood, energy, and emotions along with the various activities done throughout the school day. Throughout these modules and our final group project, there are a few strategies that stand out to me as necessary for effective intervention. Students need explicit, high-quality classroom instruction, school-wide use of the RTI framework (especially small group instruction within the classroom), and a safe, supportive environment. Teachers should not overlook the setup of their classroom and how they interact with students throughout the day. I truly believe teachers are able to make a difference in the lives and learning experience of all students. I leave this course inspired to help my students gain the literacy skills necessary for future success. Thank you, it has been a pleasure taking this course with you. All the best, Chelsey Abrahamson
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Collaboration to me has always been a scary word. It brings back visions of high school and university group projects where one person does all the work and actual collaboration is minimal. However, since starting my PME journey 18 months ago, I have found collaboration to be completely different.
My group finalized our effective intervention project today after our fourth Google Hangouts meeting. I found this project to be very exciting yet challenging. My group consisted of myself in Manitoba, Moira in Alberta, and Breanne in Egypt! The different locations and time zones required us to find a time to meet online when it wasn’t 3 in the morning for Breanne or during teaching time for Moira and myself. We found Saturday - 11:30 for me, 10:30 for Moira, and 6:30 PM for Breanne worked the best. We decided to create a Google Doc to share our ideas and build our project. We also video chatted through Google Hangouts and communicated frequently through Gmail. Our meetings were very efficient, usually about an hour and a half long. We were able to delegate tasks, share ideas, and build off of one another’s thoughts. All group members were engaged and 100% committed to the assignment. We shared responsibilities, thoroughly discussed ideas, and worked together to create a well-written finished product. There were still days where I felt nervous that pieces of the assignment wouldn’t get completed. The assignment was worth 35% of our final mark and we are trusting one another to do our best work and meet group deadlines so we can move forward together. For this assignment, my nervousness was not justified. Moira and Breanne were fantastic partners. I am truly grateful for this positive group work experience. This assignment has me thinking about technology’s role in collaboration. I think back to teaching 50 years ago. Teachers would have to rely on their school colleagues, they would have limited means of reaching out to teachers around the world. Technology now allows us to discuss, question, and share ideas with teachers we may never get the chance to meet in person. It’s a pretty amazing thing! Collaboration is much more than group work. It is gaining new information and ideas from those around you. Collaboration requires thoughtful communication and the building of knowledge. I hope I never stop collaborating and continue to learn from others. Collaboration allows our ideas to grow and hopefully develop into something real. We had a Professional Development day this morning dedicated to understanding trauma in our students. Our elementary counsellor, Kerrilyn Behrman, gave an outstanding presentation on the affects of trauma on the brain and behaviour of students. Kerrilyn received her masters recently in counselling focusing on play therapy. I feel as though her timing could not have been any better. This topic fits in perfectly with our readings this week on Self-Regulation. Kerrilyn began her presentation by explaining developmental trauma as any event leaving us feeling overwhelmed and distressed. This feeling of distress greatly affects how the brain grows in children. Kerrilyn focused on the brain stem, limbic brain, and prefrontal cortex. She explained that the brain builds from the bottom up, if you are in danger the bottom part of your brain takes over and you go into survival mode. For students who are feeling distressed and operating in survival mod, they can not do any higher order thinking until their emotions are regulated. Two parts of the limbic brain that we discussed are the amygdala and the hippocampus. Kerrilyn attempted to cover these topics in a way that teachers (and not brain researchers) could understand. She explained that the amygdala is in charge of our fight or flight decisions and our hippocampus stores our memories. When we look at students who have experienced trauma, they may display behavioural issues due to a silent or hidden trigger that affects their brain. For example, every time a student is yelled at at home they encounter physical abuse. The hippocampus holds the memory and connects yelling to hitting. At school, when the teacher yells (even if their yelling is directed at another student) that one student’s hippocampus remembers yelling = hitting and their amygdala decides fight or flight creating a behaviour issue in the classroom. As a grade one teacher, the topic of self-regulation is very interesting to me. Whether the child has been subject to trauma or not, every year I see at least one of my students struggling with ability to control their emotions and calm themselves down. This year is no different. I have one student who started the year with daily emotional outbursts. She has now limited these meltdowns to about once a week. Over the last two months I have tried to determine what her triggers are and how we can prevent the meltdowns from occurring. Through the use of scatter plots, we determined one of the biggest triggers to her outbursts was transition time. She was unable to adjust her mood and energy along with the activities. “Silent reading, group activities outdoor play, and eating lunch with friends all require different levels of arousal and pose different kinds of stress” (Tranter & Kerr, 2016). My student is currently working on responding to these changes in a more positive and emotionally controlled way. Kerrilyn touched on many of the same strategies that are discussed in the article by Tranter & Kerr, 2016. Stress looks different for every student. Some may display characteristics of hyperarousal while others experience hypoarousal. It will be difficult to identify the small stresses for each individual student which leads us into the importance of developing relationships and getting to know our students. “The more you know about the lives of your students, the more you can understand their behaviour” (Tranter & Kerr, 2016). Kerrilyn challenged us today to ask our one emotionally challenged student a question about themselves every day for the rest of the year. The questions are as simple as “how was your night?” or “what is your favourite game to play at home?”. She also suggested driving by their home, keeping professional boundaries in check, to gain a glimpse into their home life. Knowing our students and building relationships can help students overcome stress. They need to know there is one person who believes in them and they can trust. Another strategy discussed in the article and in Kerrilyn’s presentation is modelling self-regulation skills and actively teaching them in the classroom. After recess, we will often do five minutes of yoga or take ten deep breaths to cool off our imaginary cup of hot chocolate. I do these calming activities with them and talk about our brain and bodies needing to calm down to be ready to work. Students may not recognize their need to calm down and re-focus so it is up to the teacher to direct them when necessary. I will also try to use feeling words when my student is upset such as “I can see you are feeling very sad right now. Can you tell me what happened? What can we do to make you feel happy or less anxious?” We can’t always tell students to “use your words” when they are upset. Students may not have the words or ability to express how they are feeling. Kerrilyn has done so much for our school. She has started a Self-Regulation room (SRR) for students to go when they need to adjust their arousal levels or take a break from the classroom activity. Teachers may need to act as the external brain and send students there when they see unregulated behaviour developing. The goal is for students to identify when they need some regulation time instead of the teacher. I have attached a few pictures of our Self-Regulation Room. Kerrilyn has also taken the time to do four sessions with my students (and the other 1-4 classrooms) focusing on a growth mindset, the brain, and self-regulation. The final session was used to introduce a calm down kit that we have utilized in our classroom already. Parts of the kit include: - stress ball - yoga poses - colouring pages - playdough I truly believe that we have to take care of issues like emotion, stress, and even hunger before we can do any higher order thinking. Children will not be able to learn if their brain is focused on regulating and safety. Teachers must take the time to teach self-regulation strategies in their classroom before teaching academic concepts. References:
Winne, P. H. (2011). Cognitive and metacognitive analysis of self-regulated learning. In D. H. Schunk & B. Zimmerman (Eds.), Handbook of Self-Regulation of Learning and Performance (pp. 15–32). New York, NY: Routledge. Tranter, D. & Kerr, D. (2016). Understanding Self-Regulation: Why Stressed Students Struggle to Learn. What Works? Research into Practice Research monograph # 63 Literacy and Numeracy, Secretariat, Ontario. |
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November 2018
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