Special+Ed

=Welcome to the Special Ed Page!=

Jessica McAllister Amy Howlett Christine Leuzzi

__//**Guided Reading **//__

"Guided reading is reading with children. The goal of Guided Reading is to teach students to independently use reading strategies at their instructional level. It is a bridge between shared reading and independent reading. Guided Reading provides opportunitites for teachers to work with small groups of children on text that closely matches the children's needs, abilities, and interests. The teacher acts as a facilitator, using prompts and questioning strategies to guide children to comprehension. Using a book introduction, the teacher sets the scene, arouses student interest and engages children in discussion. In Guided Reading everything is learned within the context of a book. The teacher uses this time for ongoing observation and assessment. This assessment is important because Guided Reading is done in flexible groups that reflect changing abilities and needs. The children are grouped and regrouped in a dynamic process."--http://www.oe.k12.mi.us/balanced_literacy/guided_reading.htm

(n.d.). Retrieved from personal.psu.edu

__//**Self-selected Independent Reading **//__  || **Purpose:** To develop reading fluency **Time:**  30 minutes Children should be using this period of time reading books on their independent reading level. It is necessary to have a variety of genre and reading levels available in the classroom to meet the needs and interests of the children. The teacher has a primary role in motivating the students to read, and to ensure they are reading books that are instructionally appropriate. Several tools are available to assure that will happen. **__Books in the Classroom__** Books, books, books! We can't expect students to get excited about reading if there are not an adequate number of books in the classroom. Five hundred plus is a recommended number. how do you get that many books in each classroom? You may need to start with fewer and build. I began with only 50 books. Books can be checked out of the school library. Budget money for books rather than paper since it will no longer be necessary to do all those worksheets. Some teachers check out books from the public library, others shop at garage sales. The manner in which the books are displayed also impacts reading during this block. Students must be able to see the covers of the books if we want them to read. Remember, during self-selected reading the teacher is selling the concept of reading books. **__Conferencing__** Conferencing is the accountability factor in self-selected reading. The students will be more attentive to their books if they know they will be discussing the books with the teacher. The classroom teacher usually conferences with approximately 4-5 students daily. The teacher does conference more frequently with the less fluent reader(s). The reading conference is three-pronged: The book used during the conference does not have to be finished, but the student should have completed enough text to do a "retell" and answer specific questions. **__Management__** Students should maintain a folder containing their book and a reading log. The students should record pages read and a brief summary daily. Literary Element bookmarks are also kept in this folder. Teachers should maintain a reading portfolio for each student. It should contain a record of the conferences as well as Reading Logs as they are completed. A self-selected Reading Assessment Rubric for grading purposes should also be kept in the portfolio. **__Materials Needed__** __//**[] **//__ 
 * [[image:http://www.connieprevatte.com/self-selected_reading/defaul1.gif width="20" height="20" align="right" link="http://www.connieprevatte.com/teacher_literature/default.htm"]][[image:http://www.connieprevatte.com/leftoff.gif width="20" height="20" link="http://www.connieprevatte.com/default.htm"]] ||
 * 1) A focus on comprehension. Questions should be high level and based upon the literary elements.
 * 2) A focus is on the student's ability to support comprehension using text or illustrations. Te students use literary bookmarks to indicate specific literary elements of text as they read.
 * 3) A focus is on the student's ability to use the reading cueing systems. A student who is having difficulty receives immediate instruction.
 * 500-3,000 Books
 * Self-selected Reading Folders - //one per student//
 * Portfolio Folders - //one per student//
 * Reading Conference Forms
 * Reading Log Forms
 * Sets of Literary Book Marks
 * Self-Selected Reading Assessment Rubric
 * []
 * []

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//__**Working with Words **__//

In this block of time, students learn more about the "word level" of reading. Students learn that reading can be so much easier if they learn the high-frequency words that comprise the greatest percentage of text that is read. In fact, there is a list of 100 high-frequency words that research has proven makes up 50% of all printed materials! Four Blocks teachers work first with these words, teaching children 110-120 words per year. There is a routine involved with these words that taps learning modalities of all of the children in the class-those who are visual learners, those who are auditory, and those who are tactile and kinesthetic. Classrooms exude some "health noise" during this time of clapping, snapping, and chanting letters and words. The second segment of this block is devoted to further exploration of words, letters, sounds, and patterns. On some days, students work at their desks, manipulating letter tiles at the direction of the teacher who leads them through constructing words and word patterns. On some days, the class helps the teacher "Round Up the Rhymes" in a poem, and then they decide which of the words that sound alike also have the same spelling pattern. On other days students apply decoding strategies to guess words in sentences which they teacher has covered. So many different ways-dozens and dozens-to explore and learn more about the word level of reading!

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__Why is so much time spent on the Word Wall words each day?__ Many of us learned to read through an approach called the "look-say method" of reading. If you had the Dick, Jane, Sally reader years ago, you learned to read by first learning high frequency words. We still value that today, but we don't think it's the only approach we should use. But, for about 10 minutes daily, students will be exposed to high-frequency words. What a gift! What we're doing is making what we can about reading easier for our students. Then, the students will be left with less to "cope with" as they read and can turn their attention to the difficult aspects-decoding big words and gathering meaning from text. __When do I start introducing the Word Wall words?__ In first grade and some second grade classes, teachers start the year with the children's names to teach and review the letters and sounds. In those classes, it might be 5-6 weeks before you'll leave the name activity and start introducing the "formal" Word Wall words. In other classes, the year starts with the Word Wall words. Usually, we introduce about 5 per week from the beginning of the year until mid-April (when we pay our taxes). That's when we stop introducing new words and start drilling and reviewing the ones we've studied all year. __Why don't 4-Blocks teachers send home traditional lists of spelling words?__ Because having students memorize long lists of spelling words wasn't getting us where we wanted to go! Personally, my students always memorized the lists of words, aced the test on Friday, and then returned to school on Monday to misspell the same words again! What was happening was that students were memorizing the words and storing them in their short-term memories. After the test, the words were tossed from short-term memory banks. In Four Blocks, we've decided that it's far more important to teach students HOW to spell than to teach them WHAT to spell. We'd rather teach them a word chunk and how to make their knowledge of the spelling pattern of that chunk or the meaning of that chunk work for them. If you can spell best and you recognize that it has the est rime pattern, then you don't have to memorize vest, crest, test, rest, zest, etc. when you need one of those words. __Won't parents think that we're just making it easier for students when we don't have them memorize spelling lists?__ We really need to educate our parents so that they will understand what we value. We must have them realize that we're really expecting more of their children. We've raised the level from the lowest of Bloom's Taxonomy-rote recall-to the higher level of application. __How often should I do Making Words?__ Some teachers do Making Words weekly during the second segment of the Words Block. It's not necessary, though, to do it with that regularity if you and your students prefer other activities that have the same results. There are hundreds of activities that are appropriate to use during the second segment. Choose any that will help students learn more about spelling and decoding that are also consistent with the Four Blocks theory of decoding and spelling. [] Purpose: The two word strategy is used to help students synthesize information.
 * Frequently Asked Questions about Working With Words Block** - [|Go Back]
 * Two Word Strategy**

Procedures:
 * 1) Have your students read a thought provoking section.
 * 2) After reading ask your students to be silent and then write only two words (not in a phrase) that reflect their thinking about the passage.
 * 3) After selection their words, students turn to someone close and read their words, telling why they chose them and explaining how they relate to the story and/or their personal lives.
 * 4) Create a class list of these words. As each word is added and the rationale for selection is shared, a richer understanding of the selection begins to surface.

Materials needed: Books and chart paper or chalk board []

__//**Writing **//__

Interactive Journals-Emergent Writers Purpose: Interactive journals provide a wonderful opportunity for students to reflect on their reading, build on their understanding and share opinions and observations with other students. Procedures:
 * 1) Each student draws and writes about a story or learning experience using one half of the paper.
 * 2) Partners talk about their drawing, their writing, and their reflections.
 * 3) Partners trade papers.
 * 4) Using the second section on their partner's paper, each student draws and writes a response to their partner's work. This might take the form of adding information, voicing a shared thought about the story or something else.
 * 5) Partners meet in larger groups to talk about their shared drawing and writing.
 * 6) Materials needed: Piece of paper folded in half.

Interactive Journals--More Fluent Writers Purpose: Interactive journals provide a wonderful opportunity for students to reflect on their reading, build on their understanding and share opinions and observations with other students.

Procedures:


 * 1) Students gather in teams of three. Each team member has his or her own paper and pencil. They need to know that there will be an audience for their writing as other members of their group will read and respond to what they write.
 * 2) All students begin writing and reflecting in quadrant #1. Their writing might be stimulated with questions such as, "What is the most important thought to remember about the Civil War?" "What personal connections were there for you?"
 * 3) At a predetermined signal, have the students pass their papers within their group of three. They now are holding someone else's paper. The task is to read what is sritten in quadrant #1 and then respond in quadrant #2 with additional thought, reflections, or shared feelings.
 * 4) The students pass their papers one more time. This time they read #1 and #2, then respond in #3.
 * 5) All papers return to their original owners. The owner of the paper reads all responses and then reflects in quadrant #4. This self reflection might include thaought such as, "Do I still feel the same as I did in quadrant #1?" "Did I learn anything new?" "What lingering questions do I have?"

Materials needed: Each student needs a paper folded into fourths. []

(n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://media.independent.com/online_onlys/upload/2007/01/children_writing2.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.independent.com/news/2007/jan/15/without-writing-not-seen-not-h/&h=259&w=345&sz=27&tbnid=qaHp4Qof9se9mM:&tbnh=90&tbnw=120&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dchildren%2Bwriting%26tbm%3Disch%26tbo%3Du&zoom=1&q=children+writing&hl=en&usg=__fIdclwNtCEo2VXlw9IcyGiqJ1JU=&sa=X&ei=AD_UTYOAIc2_gQfSqe0t&ved=0CCcQ9QEwAQ