Learning Goals
Goal One: Increase my personal knowledge and bank of skills in order to construct a framework for teaching students with diverse learning needs based on current research and best practice.
Along with Level B testing experience as seen in the photo, I completed assignments and coursework covering social emotional learning, autism, giftedness, and positive behaviour support. Artifacts listed below include examples of how I incorporated research and theories encountered throughout the Master's program into parent brochures, lesson plans, and planning for gifted student's IEP's. While Lev Vygotsky's name is not front and center in these examples, his theory of teaching in a child's 'Zone of Proximal Development' is. The questionnaire's and Level B testing can both be used to identify areas of optimal learning (where student's can learn independently and where they learn with the help of a more capable peer or adult) in students who have diverse learning needs. Vygotsky's theories have provided a framework for adding research based best practices to my teaching repertoire.
Tools of the Mind Brochure
Lesson: Adding Choice to a Student's Schedule
Gifted Website Reviews
Gifted Questionnaire Rationale
Gifted Student IEP Notes
Goal Two: Gain a deeper understanding of both the role social interaction plays in learning, and how to use teaching strategies that incorporate social interactions effectively.
Providing a rationale for the importance of social interaction in learning is not difficult to do. Lev Vygotsky theorized that social interaction while learning plays a big part in the development of metacognition which in turn is the most important determiner of school success (Whitebread 2011). Butler and Schnellert (2013) propose that ideal learning environments include opportunities for students to interact with others in order to construct positive self-perceptions and beliefs which in turn will energize and sustain student's motivation. Whitebread conducted research exploring how children's needs of self-worth, relatedness, and self-determination have all been demonstrated to effect positive learning outcomes. And finally, studies by Koenig (2011), outline social skills such as communication, group problem-solving, and collaboration as skills considered essential for success in the 21st. century. These are just a sample of the wide array of theories and research covered in our Master's program. Other evidence for why social interactions are importance as well as how to incorporate social interactions in the classroom is explored in the two essays I have attached below.
The Inquiry Horse project was a unit plan I designed around one of my student's passions. This particular student has special needs, no friends, and few social skills, and this project provided a perfect opportunity for me to bring a multiage group of students together who shared the same passion. I learned that when student's share interests, engagement in learning deepens, communication is in the student's zone of proximal development, the classroom is abuzz and there are lots of smiles. It also gave me the opportunity to target and directly teach social skills in context.
The Self-Regulation presentation is a project I was very proud of and have presented to the Educational Assistants in our school. In this presentation I looked for ways to support self-regulation in academic areas. I included this project under this goal because of the importance social language has in developing metacognitive skills (Whitebread 2012). I would like to use this presentation on Pro-D as part of a learning strategies workshop.
Lastly, I have included a page from the Real Math handbook for tutors that I co-designed. This page is studied as part of the course that we teach tutors for the Learning Disabilities Association. An essential understanding we try to teach the tutors and parents is the impact that perceiving an activity as play can have on the engagement of our students in practicing basic math skills.
(References for the above citations can be found in the Importance of Playa and the Collaboration Essay attachments)
Inquiry Horse Unit
Collaboration Essay
Self-Regulation Strategies - Part 1
Self-Regulation Strategies - Part 2
Self-Regulation Strategies - Part 3
Self-Regulation Strategies - Part 4
Self-Regulation Strategies - Part 5
Importance of Play Essay
Play in Real Math
Goal Three: Explore and extend my knowledge and application of teaching mathematics to elementary students using a developmental model, and promote effective strategies for supporting students’ mathematical learning to tutors, parents, and school personnel.
During the second year of our master's program I was asked by the Learning Disabilities Association Fraser South to recommend a math program they could use to teach tutors in order to run a math support program. I decided to create one and along with Alison D. and Julia H. we created a twenty four hour course for tutors and a binder that could be used by the tutors to teach students in a developmentally appropriate way. I chose number sense and operations as the two math strands that we would focus on. Based on much of the research and theory we covered in our courses we were able to address metacognition, self-regulation, motivation and engagement, self-determination, choice, and positive self-beliefs. We created four levels of games. We also created a diagnostic which indicated which developmental level of games the students were at, based on provincial learning outcomes. Using this diagnostic we taught the tutors to offer choices of games at the student's level. The tutors were also taught to create word problems based on a Cognitive Guided Instruction (CGI) model. This program has been offered three sessions and each time we have taught it we have refined the lesson plans according to the tutors and the student's needs. We created presentations based on our program which we have shown to: the learning disabilities executive, parents, tutors, SEA's, and at resource in-services in the Langley School District. Anecdotally and through the surveys we have received positive feedback regarding how student's attitudes towards math and seeing themselves as successful learners has changed as a result of being enrolled in this program.
Real Math - Table of Contents
Real Math - Parent letter
Real Math - Survey
SEA Real Math PowerPoint
SEA Real Math Lesson Plan