Reflection for 11/1
Trick or Treat!
When we attend class, I will probably be coming down from a week-long sugar high. And, to top it off, I was at a workshop all day today – and have another day long workshop stint planned for Thursday. Maybe I should make some good points in this reflection, since I may be useless by the time Thursday afternoon rolls around. 
To start, I am feeling a little more positive than last week. I suspect bloggin’ my feelings out may have helped. (I also suspect that the ten pounds of Halloween candy lurking on every counter has significantly helped my mood while have having the opposite effect on my waistline.) I think I am at the point now where I just have to do what I can, and always be willing to improve my teaching practices.
Cynthia – Your comments on last week’s reflection entry made me feel much better, too. It’s nice to know I’m not alone in my frustration. It’s also nice to hear that UD is one of those teaching components that gets easier to implement over time and practice.
In other news… I was really glad to work with my group last week and start to hammer out our objectives. We have tried several times to meet outside of Thursday’s class, but we are all so busy that we only find a few minutes at lunch to really collaborate. So, having a uninterrupted block of time to work together was priceless. I think we now have an idea of what we want the kids to be able to do – it is just wording the objectives (and making them measurable) that we need to focus on. That is sometimes a challenge.
Issue: We are a planning to do a reading/writing unit. Determining quantifiable objectives that makes sense and are not arbitrary has proved to be easier-said-than-done. For example, one of our desired outcomes is for the kids to be able to “create an introduction that catches a reader’s attention”. I am stuck on how to quantify the idea of “interest-catching”. I suppose this could be quite subjective. However, determining exactly how to define “interest-catching” is beyond me. I suppose if I were hard-pressed to encapsulate that idea – I would say it uses descriptive language, one of our five story-starting methods (opening with a questions, phrase explosion, etc.), and relates to the topic at hand. Will we limit the students if we specify the terminology so rigidly? I don’t want to have the kids become writing-robots, but rather, I want them to use the tools we’ll be giving them and enhance their own writing styles. Any advice?
Issue: Is there a master list of all UD technologies for teaching available? There seems to be so many powerful tools – but fitting the right ones into the right lessons is a tall order. This may be more of a problem for us now than it will be down the line. I think the more we learn about UD, the more ideas we amass. But in the meantime, is there a site I could visit to inspire our group?
Otherwise, I think we are working our way into the right direction. I look forward to sharing out work with the other groups in the class. I hope that they, and our Fearless Professor, will be able to help us sort through our confusion. It was very helpful to listen to the process and outcomes of the 5th grade group last week.
Another quick note… (Sorry about the jumbled information discussed in this blog entry.)… I am feeling better about RTI. I have done some research lately and looked into the successes some western states (Colorado & Oregon among them) are having after the implementation of RTI. I am also glad that our district will not have to reinvent the wheel and can adopt and adapt a working model from another district that has already done the footwork. Here are a couple of interesting sites I found with a wealth of information on RTI:
http://www.cde.state.co.us/cdesped/RTI.asp
http://www.ode.state.or.us/search/page/?id=315
I also found this site, which seems to offer a technological information collection method to help school districts track RTI data:
http://www.autoskill.com/intervention/access_rti_wp.php
I’m sure there are many other CBM-like programs out there. I think technology may be our best friend in the implementation of RTI – and in the interventions we propose for kids in need of assistance.
See you Thursday night!
Reflection | Comment (1)One Response to “Reflection for 11/1”
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I’m glad things are looking up. I realize that the frustration will eventually settle back in (it’s a cycle), but you are a teacher who will be able to work through it and get to the other side each time.
You wrote, “…determining exactly how to define “interest-catching” is beyond me. I suppose if I were hard-pressed to encapsulate that idea – I would say it uses descriptive language, one of our five story-starting methods (opening with a questions, phrase explosion, etc.), and relates to the topic at hand. Will we limit the students if we specify the terminology so rigidly?” I obviously have but a wee bit of the full intent of your unit here, but I don’t see those criteria as “rigid.” To the contrary, I see them as the much-needed description/definition of students “…will be able to create an introduction that catches a reader’s attention.” If we don’t tell kids what we mean by success, they won’t reach it. You might define your objectives for this unit and decide during or after implementation that you need to revise them, but you need to begin with criteria that you and your students can understand and measure.
No, there is no master list of UD technologies. In fact, I would have to say that no such category of technology really exists. Some technologies are inherently aligned with the concept of universal design (e.g., a word processor with text-to-speech), but others need to be adapted (e.g., accompanying a podcast with a text transcript). It is really curriculum and instruction that is universally designed; the technology simply complements and enhances it. In some cases, it can support transformation.
Thanks for sharing your research on RTI! I will check those out.
Cynthia