Daily 5 - Chapter 3

I'm linking up with "Thinking Out Loud" and "Mrs.Freshwater's Class" for chapter 3.

Gathering Place

I have always used a gathering place in my classroom.  I use this as the place that we meet for lessons, meeting and at all transition times.  This fall I finally received a Smart Board.  I love my Smart Board!  It is on a height adjustable wall mount, so it goes up and down so each kiddo has full access to the board.  My meeting spot is in front of the Smart Board.  I have my student's jobs and visual schedule in this gathering place as well as their token economy systems.  I don't have a carpet for my kiddos to sit on.  I actually very much dislike carpets (I think they are super gross and dirty!!!).  All of my kiddos have some sort of special needs.  I have cube chairs for some of my students to sit on, therapy balls and specialized seating chairs.  I need to have a rather large gathering place for my kiddos!!!

Cube Chair

Therapy Balls

Rifton Chairs

Picking Appropriate Books

Picking appropriate books in something my kiddos struggle with.  As the majority of my kiddos have autism, they are often great a reading sight words but their comprehension is often lacking (not always, but more often than not).  We have worked this year at picking appropriate books.  I love the idea of "IPICK"!  I think this will help me with teaching my kiddos that a book is only appropriate if they can read the words and if they UNDERSTAND what they are reading!!!! Because of the large range in student abilities, I use a lot of digital books for my students!  My kiddos love reading books on "Bookflix" and on the iPad!

Rituals and Routines

I believe rituals and routines are so important - probably the most important thing you do in your classroom.  I alway tell beginning teachers that the actual lesson planning will come but think about your routines - how you want your students to arrive in your class in the morning, how you want them to line up to transition in the hallway, how you want them to ask to use the washroom, etc... So IMPORTANT!!!  Because my kiddos all have special needs, and the majority of the students have Autism I use visual schedules and social stories to teach almost all of my routines.  I use these all year long.  I love the program Boardmaker because it is super easy to create visual schedules.  I alway have a large daily visual schedule (4X4) posted in my gathering place.  Then some of my students often need personalized schedules.  These are often smaller 1X1 or 2X2.  These are sometime carried on a velcro strip attached to their belt loop or on their desks.  Some of my kiddos need even more for visuals they have activities broken down into a "3 step" visual (i.e. colour, cut, paste).  In my world visuals and routine go together like salt and pepper.  You need both!!!!  Last January I went to ATIA Orlando and a presenter said a very smart thing, "We often take visuals away from our kiddos.  They seem to be doing great, so the first thing most people do is take away their visuals.  Then the kiddos isn't doing as great.  If they need it keep it in place!!  People don't expect you to be a good teacher with out your lesson plans.  If you had your lesson plan book taken away you wouldn't be the best teacher you could be.  Same is true for their visuals!!!"

Boardmaker Software

Class Visual Schedule

 (I use a very similar to the one here from "My First Grade Backpack")

Personalized Visual Schedule

(I use a very similar to the one here from "Mama of Many Blessings")

Favorite Quote

I don't have a favorite quote yet, but I am loving reading this book.  I love the framework!!!

Last Day of School

Hi everyone... I am running behind in reading chapter 3... This last week has been CRAZY, but I am now officially on Summer Vacation!!!!  Stay tuned for my post on chapter 3 after the Canada Day Long Weekend!!!

Yesterday was our last day of school!  It was so bitter sweet!  I had a great year with my kiddos.  Next year I will be moving rooms and classes so I was super sad as I packed up my room.  As a class, my kiddos decided that they wanted a Fruit Ninja themed year end party.  We made a "pin-the-sword-on the-fruit" game (think pin the tail on the donkey), fruit bowling, fruit ninja on the xbox kinetic and a slide show.  We had so much fun!!

Here are a couple of pictures:

My decorate classroom:

The cake I made:

Happy Thursday everyone!!

Universal Design for Learning

Since starting my masters in special education, I have been trying to decide what I would like to do for my research capping project.  I knew that I wanted my research to be in the area of assistive technology but I wasn't sure exactly what that would look like.  After my last class, I knew that I wanted to do my research in Universal Design for Learning (UDL).  I have now written a few shorter papers on UDL.  I am currently teaching in a self-contained classroom, so I thought I should give UDL a try in this environment!!!  I loved it and so did my kiddos!!!  I love all the choice that students have!!  I thought I would share a few UDL resources and links!!

CAST UDL Lesson Planner

http://lessonbuilder.cast.org/

I wrote my animal life cycles unit plan using CAST's lesson builder.  They have great sample lesson plans as a starting point!  

Does anyone else use the UDL framework in their classroom?  How do you like it?  Have you found any negative sides to it?

Daily 5 - Chapter 2

This week has been crazy at school!!  My kiddos are SOOO ready for summer and so am I!!!  Only 5 more days till summer vacation!  I've been super tired, so reading chapter 2 took some effort to get through (even though it only 10 pages long!).

Anyways, here are the questions for chapter 2:

1 .What goals do you have for your classroom as you work to implement the principles and foundations of the Daily 5 discussed in chapter 2? What support do you need to do this? 
Goals:

1. develop as much independence as possible
2. develop as sense of community that fosters literacy experiences
3. allow students to have as much choice as possible 

For me to implement Daily 5 in my classroom next year, I think it really important for me to first look at the needs in my classroom.  Most of my students next year are going to be non-verbal (or with severe expressive language delays) and are functioning at the pre-k level.  I guess for me I will need to look at what is developmentally appropriate for each student and modify Daily 5 to work with my population.    For my classroom the supports I think that I will need to use include lots of visuals, choice boards, and programming of student communication devices to allow students to have a voice in there choices.  I will also need to look at the stamina of my students.  Most of my students will have between a 30 sec to 5 minute attention spans.  How can I incorporate technology (iPads, computer programs and SMART Board) to help increase my students attention to task.  Most importantly I will need to use my EA's to support my students!  For special ed teachers out there, what supports do you use to implement Daily 5?

2. What stands out as the most significant aspects of this chapter? 

I love how much choice the students are given in Daily 5.  This is something that I'm super excited about!!  I know that in my experience as a special education teacher, that my students need to be given choice within a specific structure!  However, next year my students are going to have more complex needs.  I'm excited to offer them choice in their own learn endeavors, but to do I will need many visuals, and technology supports!

3. How do the foundational principles of the Daily 5 structure (trust, choice, community, sense of urgency, and stamina), align with your beliefs that support your teaching strategies and the decisions that you make about student learning?
 I believe that all children can learn literacy.  One of my favorite pieces of literature is the "Literacy Bill of Rights".   I believe that all children have the right to be included in literacy experiences.

 

I also believe that students can surprise you each and everyday with what they can accomplish.  I always like to try new things and see if they will work... it might not always work, but at least you tried!  I'm excited to try Daily 5.. I do have my concerns though.. For my class is word work developmentally appropriate?  Many of my kiddos will just be at the word level (as in the hierarchy of words->compound words -> onset and rhyming ->syllables - >individual sounds ->letters).  Also, most of my students will be at the pre-reading level, so how will my guys be successful at read to self?  Will looking and reading the pictures be where my class is at?  Time will tell, but I'm excited for the challenge!

Happy Father's Day

Happy Father's Day to all the dads out there and especially to my dad!  I'm a terrible daughter... I knew it was Father's Day this week.  I had my kiddos create gifts for their dads, but I didn't get my own dad's gift in the mail on time:(  Hopefully it will arrive at his house tomorrow or Tuesday!

Anyways... I found a super cute craft for my kiddos to make on pinterest.  They made paper weights for their dads.

From "Crafts by Amanda"

 

We then made super cute Father's Day Cards.

 

 Happy Father's Day to all the Dad's out there!!!