112: Pre-Assessment and Observation Reflection

In my self-assessment at that start of 112, I mentioned that direct vocabulary instruction occurs in my classroom but that it could occur more frequently. The observation notes from my coach essentially echo the concerns I had for myself in regards to direct vocabulary instruction. Often times I assume that a particular phrase or word is understood without delving into its meaning. Then that word is used contextually without providing the students meaning before hand, essentially leaving it up to the students to determine the word’s meaning.

I also need to use more explicit forms of academic English. Words like justify and evidence rarely appear through the course of instruction in my classroom, although other words such as compare, or estimate may.

I could also grow by attempting to find more ways to tie home culture and language into mathematics. I attempt to make those connections fairly infrequently and I believe the students would benefit from such connections being made.

I feel generally fairly strong by activating prior knowledge at least in terms of math and also in the area of using models and visuals to assist students throughout their learning. Both of these happens frequently through the course of my instructional time.

110: Assignment 2

Culture for kids has numerous multicultural and language resources for students. Their materials range from information on peoples in American (eg: Vietnamese Americans) to a wide range of materials on what life is like in a variety of different countries spanning over all of the continents. They have other sources of information for students that focus on varying elements of culture including food, music, martial arts, zodiac stories and holidays. They also have multilingual materials for well over 30 languages including many languages that we would rarely encounter on a day-to-day basis. Many of the materials include story books in both languages, and different activities to practice the language such as picture cards.

Many of the resources would be great to help students really grasps the idea that there truly are a number of cultures that make up the world. This would even be helpful in planning the current UBD unit that my second graders are working on. The unit is on culture and immigration.