Bridging The Gap

Strategies For Creating Equitable Learning Opportunities

 

"As a diverse school district serving more than 27,000 students, our challenge is to understand the needs of each student as an individual with unique goals, needs, and dreams" (Hall, D.). 

 

They created a new choice program Technology Magnet Academy, in which they randomly selected a  percentage from each area in the district to fill slots. This was their way of equally representing everyone and their diversity as a whole in this district. I like this technique because it allows everyone to try out a new program, without the separation factor due to distance from the main school site. They make it their mission to make sure their students are not only benefiting from this program, but that they are the messengers of the program and technology as a whole.

 

"The goal of the program was to extend the learning experience from our classroom into the homes of these families, thereby providing those students another opportunity to compete with our more affluent students" (Hall, D.). 'Competing with our more affluent students' meant that they are giving the 'underprivileged' students an equal chance, same as those who may have computers or extra help at home. Technology is becoming more and more evident in schools and homes as a tool to better our learning. But, the downside to technology is that it is costly. 

A major part of this whole program was that of the "Accommodations" they put into place for the adults to be part of the students' learning program:

 

• As we designed many of our training programs, we invited the adults to attend along with the students.
• We translated many of our documents because we knew the adults were usually the ones with the more limited English skills.
• We provided child care for younger siblings.
• We held events off-site, at places they were more comfortable with because the school buildings often intimidate the adults.

All of these accommodations have helped bring their community together and again "bridge the gap" between home and classroom learning, which is a major factor to students' thriving.

 

"To extend learning opportune- ties and deal with the digital divide, we have built strong relationships with the African-American Cultural Center and the Ukrainian Cultural Group (which happens to be one of our largest ELL student populations) by supplying them with a computer lab from our surplus computer equipment" (Hall, D.). This is great that they are catering to multiple diversities within their area. It is key to make each diverse group to feel as if there isn't a diversity issue or an uneven playing field for their learning. The worst feeling a young student can have is to feel as if they are an outsider in their own community or classroom. It is our jobs as educators, to "bridge that gap" and level the learning opportunities and create a fair and equal education system for our future youth. 

 

I hope to start a program similar to this, especially in culturally diverse areas in order to 'Bridge The Gap" in my community as well.

Thank you, 

Brianna Adair

 

 

 

 

 

Hall, D (2006). Bridging The Gap: Strategies for Creating Equitable Learning Opportunities. retrieved November 3, 2013, from ISTE Web Site: http://www.iste.org/store/attachmentdownload?ID=1439. 

 

High School Students Succeed Using Networked Laptops

Migrant ESL:

High School Students Succeed Using Networked Laptops

"The article discusses the results of the first three years of federally funded research using wirelessly networked note taking to enrich the regular classrooms in Oregon secondary schools to support Hispanic migrant students who speak English as a second language 'ESL'" (Knox). The article is geared towards current and future teachers, and implemented in grade levels nine through twelve (ages fourteen through eighteen). Oregon's elementary schools focus on teaching their students speaking and listening skills. As part of this focus, they are also expected to be fluent in reading and writing even though English is not their first language.

From 1998-1999, students in the Oregon Migrant Education Service Center were over 4% of the state's public school population. This program is overseen by the Office of Student Services of the Oregon Department of Education received federal funding under Section 1308 in 1997 of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act to develop and demonstrate the uses of technology to improve the academic achievement of migrant children in Oregon. In order for these ESL students must take required courses such as English, science, history, mathematics, health, amongst other electives.

Students in Oregon schools are said to have a higher dropout rate that is more than doubled the overall state average, at 16% Hispanic students. Today, Oregon migrant students in their schools, there are still very few ESL students attending most classes, but because of these programs set into play they are thriving and becoming proficient in the English language. This program has five main points in which is evaluated: Student Success in School for Higher Grades, Individual Migrant Student Lifestyles, Student Acquisition of Bilingual Literacy Skills, Teachers in the Classroom, and Student Acquisition of Technology Skills.

As a result of this program implemented in Oregon State schools, the first three years have shown a boom in the effectiveness of technology in schools whom support migrant and ESL students. I have recently observed in a fourth grade ELD classroom in San Marcos, where I was able to see first hand how Spanish speaking students are learning English. They seem to be 'behind' the 'average' fourth grade levels, but it is understandable because I could not imagine learning two languages and trying to be fluent at such a young age. I applaud Oregon schools for creating such programs in order to ease these students learning into the general English learning schools.


'Tata' for now,


Brianna



Knox, C., & Anderson-Inman, Lynne. (2012).  Migrant ESL: High School Students Succeed Using Networked Laptops. Oregon: Learning and Leading Technology. (Retrieved Oct. 24, 2013).

Teaching Students with Special Needs through Technology

Image taken from actual article (ISTE).

Hello there fellow bloggers!


This week I researched One Size Never Fits All by Jennifer Courduff. The article is about technical integration in schools for students with special needs. "What teachers really need is to learn to match specific curricular tasks with technology resources that engage students, increase understanding, and enhance learning" (ISTE).

 

I agree that technology can be a great tool to teaching students, if it used properly. Technology can help those of us who are more of visual learners, need to see the words, or simply learn better by doing rather than just listening. I happen to learn better by seeing, doing, and listening all combined. This does not mean I have a learning disability, but that I have a different way of retaining material. In this article, they are conveying a new approach to teaching students with special needs. Teachers are trying to find new ways to improve our programs and came to the realization that schools were not offering enough tech integration training or focusing on students with special needs.

Creative Tech Integration is just one way this program can be integrated. "We recognized that formal, standalone training does not—and never will—meet the needs of teachers of students who are exceptional. The spectrum of curricular, social, emotional, and physiological needs is much too broad. What teachers really need is to learn to match specific curricular tasks with technology resources that engage students, increase understanding, and enhance learning" (ISTE). This program was designed as a Community of Practice model allowing for change to be made as each individual teacher/school sees fit. Assistance in learning about the technology was given in 'toolkits' that include: Fusion writers for extra help, resource binders, headset microphones for individual and uninteruppted learning, and interactive technology tools for all of the special education teachers using this program.

 

Some students who have a fear of writing or speaking infront of other students, due to learning disabilities or fear, have an equal opportunity to shine and be confident with their work while using technology. The computers and software today have become so advanced that they can correct entire essays and help students correctly type, learn, read, and write. Giving our students confidence is key to their learning success...

In order to gage whether this strategy is working in the schools integrating it, they studied real results.

"Students who have great difficulty organizing their thoughts and put-
ting them into words are not motivated to write. By using programs such as the speech-to-text feature in MS Word, word prediction, and text-to-speech programs in the Fusion writers, students’ attitudes toward writing have changed. Reluctant writers have become enthusiastic about using the computer to speak their stories into existence. Because of this, students read and write daily and are improving their grades and scoring better on district assessments. Some students were able to meet academic growth goals for the first time in their lives!" (ISTE).

Face-to-face support was key to this programs success. Online collaboration is their largest component said to be integrated into this program. Because of our current climb in technological networking such as texting, typing, online research, television, etc. we are becoming more and more technological every year. For students to be behind in this trend can only hurt them. It is smart to start our students learning technology and integrating it into their lesson plans. This will not only help special needs students but also 'core' curriculum and overall school lesson plans better teach our youth and provide them with tools to succeed in their futures. 

 

 

One Size Never Fits All: Technology Integration for Special Needs. Courduff, J. Learning & Leading with Technology. June/July 2011. Retrieved from ISTE October 15, 2013.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



First Graders With iPads?

Hey all fellow bloggers!

This weeks blog is all about First grade students, by Sara Getting and Karin Swainey, learning in the classroom with the help of iPads. "Find out how two teachers took on the challenge of improving elementary reading, achieved surprising success with their youngest at-risk readers, and learned some things along the way" (Getting, Swainey). At first, they were not sure of exactly how they were going to utilize iPads, or even if the students would be able to handle such technology. But, with a lot of faith and perserverance, these strong teachers began what is now a technology trend in schools. Because of their delicate nature, the iPads would first be brought to the students whom are already sitting down. This was to ensure the safety of the technology to avoid breaking them. Teachers seemed surpised at how quickly their students were able to absorb the material and how much they loved using this technology.

I love the idea of using iPads in classrooms, or any technology for that matter, because it gives the students a sense of fun and something different rather than daily lectures or homework. I believe this 'trend' is a great idea, and one I would like to test in my future classes as well. 

Areas in which these teachers wanted to use the iPads for help were subjects such as: sight words, vocabulary, fluency, comprehension, and literacy. "Although we understood the need for Apple’s volume purchasing plan, it increased the cost of our project. We received U.S. stimulus funding, which allowed our district to shift money to its capital fund for iPad purchases" (Getting, Swainey). I understand the cost of such technology, I recently bought an iPad of my own, and they are very expensive. I would hope the initial cost of purchasing enough iPads for an entire class would be able to last multiple years and be reused every year until they were no longer working. 

The results were recorded and measured various ways, I feel the most accurate was that of their variable data taken when looking at each group of children. These groups were divided up by their levels/abilities in subjects. Examples were group five and six versus group one and two, both of which were on opposite sides of their learning outcome spectrum. After the integration of iPads, the teachers went back and reviewed their placement scoring tests/data again and noticed large improvements in all subjects where the technology was used.

The integration of iPads into not only first grade, but all grade levels, is a wonderful idea and I hope to see more of this in the future.

I hope you enjoyed this week's blog!
Thank you,

Brianna Adair


Getting, S. & Swainey, K. (August 2012). First Graders with iPads? Learning & Leading with Technology. 40(1): 24-27. Retrieved from ISTE website, October 10, 2013. 

Don't Feed The Trolls

Hey there!

This week I read the article Don't Feed The Trolls by Karen Work Richardson. This article is about actions and their consequences. Specifically referring to teachers disiplining and standing behind their words in the classroom for their students. We also want to encourage self-monitoring so the students can engage in self-regulation. "Incorporating blogs into classroom discourse and curriculum-based learning offers opportunities for students to evaluate and engage in civil discourse" (DFTT). 

The author of Don't Feed The Trolls is embracing blogs for a variety of teaching methods. These teaching methods include eliminating notebooks and linking more relevant material to their lessons rather than just citing it. As always, the educators who created this idea are wary because like anything else, this can be abused. Students are learning more and more about the internet and how to explore. This is great, but letting them 'loose' could allow for the students to go into social media sites and chat rooms rather than the designated material they are supposed to be working on. 

I like the 'Review the Rules' section of the article because this program is designed for students ages nine to thirteen to help them create writing and programming skills: "Most of the rules are just like rules for how to behave in the real world" (DFTT). This article is helpful because the thought of teaching students about technology is frightening because there is so much to learn. I feel that I am not an expert with computers and hope to learn more before I begin teaching students. ISTE is a helpful site that encourages us as educators to learn more while we teach. I feel there is always more to learn and because of programs like this, the possibilities are endless.

The section of the article 'Provide Opportunities' is very helpful because it explains how teachers can focus on these lessons and apply civil discourse to our current methods. "Helping our students come to a clear understanding of what kind of conversation sounds like will help them become more productive citizens who practice and promote civil discourse throughout the various communities-both real and virtual- in which they participate" (DFTT). Preparing students for 'real-world' events is a challenge in itself. We are not only their teacher, but their supervisor, counselor, and parent for most of the day. It is our responsibility to give our students examples of things that can happen in life after school, and hope they take the information and learn from us rather than have to see for themselves. I hope to be able to help my students with technology and prevent civil discourse and "...help students understand and implement the rules of the road for appropriate online interaction" (DFTT). 

Thank you for reading my blog post, I hope it was helpful!

Brianna Adair

Richardson, K. (2008). Don't feed the trolls: Using Blogs to Teach Civil Discourse, 35(7), (pg. 12-15). Retrieved from October, 7, 2013.

Digital Citizenship

My article for this week is titled: Students dig up dirt to learn about internet safety by Jesse Morehouse. This article describes a lesson plan a teacher in Colorado used in his high school technology class. The lesson was designed to 'scare' students and make them aware of how harmful it is for us to release our personal information to the internet. Anyone can access this information as soon as it becomes 'virtual'. I was intrigued by this article and I believe it is a great way to not only inform students of the dangers of the internet, but also to help them become aware of who can access this information.


Cyber threats are a constant problem, because our information can be so public, we should be on the offense and think about what we are putting out there before we do it. Children do not always understand that many sites are far from being private. It is sad because some sites are great for social networking, media, or keeping in contact with friends and family. There are many easy ways to protect our information such as using the privacy settings on our accounts to limit who can see certain pieces of information about ourselves.


I think this lesson plan is a great way to teach students about the scary/negative sides to being online. It let the students find the information themselves, which is more beneficial in the end for them because I feel most students of this age group learn better while doing things themselves rather than just be told in a lecture. Hands-on experiences are my favorite way of learning and I will use techniques such as this in my future lesson plans. I am a kinesthetic and visual learner, so activities such as the one this teacher gave his students, would work great for me and my learning preferences.
 
 
It is great that there are so many social media and networking sites available for our children today, but there are many dangers that come along with it. Just like everything else in life we must stay alert and be aware of the consequences of our actions. For future events, jobs, relationships, or anything to do with your life, things put onto the internet of or about you can hurt the way people view you. Anything can be posted onto the internet and once it is, there may not be a way to change it. As teachers it is our responsibility to teach our students lesson plans, and help them succeed, and I fully agree this activity is a great way of doing this as well as helping them stay safe.


Thank you for reading and stay safe fellow internet users!

Brianna Adair



Morehouse, Jesse (Sept/Oct 2011). Students dig up dirt to learn about internet safety. Learning & Leading with Technology. Retrieved from ISTE October 5, 2013. (pg. 34-35).
 

Digital Storytelling

I am 'B' in my group, so I read Learning Connection-Digital Storytelling.

What: Digital Storytelling is basically a way to help children of all ages read and comprehend better. These strategies help students in subjects: English language arts, social studies, mathematics, science, and special needs. They represent a set of experiences that contribute to their message by explaining each and every strategy they use and how it helps the students. Some of their strategies include fluency, graphic organizers, active listening, cooperative learning, question asking, mental imagery, sequencing, summarizing, and vocabulary. 

So What: Some of the new ideas that stood out to me were Allington's Five Pillars: writing, reciprocal teaching, differentiated reading instruction, access choice and collaboration, classroom organization, and expert tutoring. These five 'pillars' hold up the structure of their teaching strategies. They are very important and one strategy cannot succeed without the other. In order to best help our students learn and retain the information we are teaching, we need to understand their individual needs, help them find their best reading/writing levels and what kind of a learner we are. It is our job as teachers to know these strategies and teach our students through their best paths. It was very informative and we can take these points and expand on them in our future teaching strategies. 

Now what: I can expand upon all of these teaching strategies in my future classrooms. Entire curriculums can be based off of their pillars and ways of teaching children. Allington's Five Pillar's are my favorite part to this article because the stategies are easy to understand and expand upon towards our own ways of teaching. Overall it was a great article and points. 

Article Found At: Richards, P., Royer, R. (Nov. 2008) Learning Connections-Digital Storytelling. Learning and Leading with Technology. Retrieved from CSUSM Cougar Courses site.