As a special education teacher, I am forever asking myself “What I doing differently?” in direct relation to my general education teaching counterparts. With constant mindfulness, attention to student Individualized Education Plans and the knowledge that the large majority of my students experience significant deficiencies, particularly in the literary areas of reading and writing, I am forever aspiring to provide my unique student population with a variety of ways to enhance their skills, showcase their learning, and authentically utilize and apply their skills. Undoubtedly, it is the eternal question of “What am I doing differently?” that drives me to want to improve upon my instructional methods and practices, so as to provide my learners with yet another avenue in which they can excel. It is this question and my desire to be a lifelong learner, which has led to my exposure to Problem Based Learning through the Literacy Consortium. With the introduction of Problem Based Learning, in both my sixth and seventh grade ELA resource classrooms this year, I am attempting to find yet another answer to my perpetual question. For me, my exposure to the concept of Problem Based Learning reinforces the importance of providing time for student interest, self-guided student research, and student led solution making. As an educator, I recognize that Problem Based Learning has the ability to remind me that I am not the sole teacher within the classroom, but rather I too am equal parts learner. I recognize that through the implementation of PBL, I can immediately further my students’ language development and literary skills, in addition to further identifying my learners’ interests and advancing their distinct background knowledge. As a result, my self-created instructional goal for this assignment is to improve upon my students’ confidence, further their written expression and enhance their critical thinking capabilities. Furthermore, I would like to strengthen my students’ ability to provide factual evidence to support their thinking and provide all students with an authentic experience in which to showcase their own understandings. One of the most beneficial techniques that I have learned throughout my career as a special education teacher is the importance of managed choice. In this way, I have decided to provide my learners with the over-arching question of: “What does the ideal twenty-first century classroom look like in order to best support student learning?” Through the provision of this initial question, I am hoping to provide the necessary scaffolding to initiate and guide student thinking, in addition to a common problem for all learners to consider. It my hope that through the initial provision of this guided question that all of my learners will share an initial commonality, but ultimately be able to demonstrate their individuality in how they decide to showcase their answer. I once had a college professor who matter-of-factly claimed, “You are only as good as your sources.” With that thought in mind, I have attempted to provide my learners with a plethora of articles and a variety of both text and non-text sources from which to further learner understanding of the problem and better develop ideas in relation to their self-created solution(s). With the help of my Literacy Consortium counterparts, I have been able to provide several leveled and developmentally appropriate mentor text sources from which to prompt student understanding and initiate student interest and thought. It is my hope that these mentor texts will lay the basis for student understanding and further promote more individualized student research.
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AuthorChristina Iavarone is a special education teacher at Orchard Valley Middle School. ArchivesCategories |