Blog #3 (FS18)

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Gloria Payne on November 17, 2018 at 1:25pm

You and Maria’s lesson centered on teaching students with special physical needs was wonderful. Your advanced understanding of students with physical needs as well as accommodations they must have for a productive learning environment was apparent not only to me but to the rest of the class as well. Your idea of creating two one day lessons: one for general education students and one for hearing-impaired students was inspired and well executed. Your use of visual aids paired with specific vocabulary words was a great way for students who were hearing-impaired to follow easily along with the lesson while making them feel included in the lesson. If I had to make one critique, it would be to add more visual aid options throughout the presentation. Other than that nice job! (word count 130)

Permalink Reply by Margarita Mejia-Ramos on November 19, 2018 at 2:32pm

Hello Briana,

One must say that the accommodations that were done for students with hearing impairment was excellently done. One was able to show lots of images for especially for students who need them, especially before showing a video. As one knows that before demonstrating a video to students, there is a pre-listening activity and it was well done. As you stated, using the activities that were done for the general education class, was a good idea to continue using them to create differentiation for hearing impairment students.  One must not forget that students with hearing impairment need more repetition, and therefore will need a little bit more time when doing each activity. (111 words)

Permalink Reply by Oscar Bustamante on November 15, 2018 at 9:57pm

The lesson that Margarita and I presented in the class was for Spanish 2 level and addressed to both general education (GE) and gifted and talented (GAT) students. The lesson shows how to differentiate between these two groups. The objective of the lesson was to identify different foods and meals of our Hispanic cuisine using the verbs gustar, ser, and tener in the simple present tense. My peer coach and I agreed to show the activity of the small hook for both groups altogether in the presentation phase. In the practice phase we divided the activity in two blocks, the first one for the GE students and the second one for the GAT students. For the GE students the questions consisted of five true and false statements and five multiple choice questions. For the GAT ones the questions were more challenging because they consisted of descriptive and meaning questions. For them we decided to give them these type of questions because they are more advanced learners. Let us clarify that these gifted students are not HLL. In the production phase, my partner and I divided this section again in two blocks: the first one for the GE students and the second one for the GAT ones. For the former the questions were simple looking for short answers such as ¿Qué postre te gusta? ¿Cuál es tu fruta favorita? ¿Qué comida prefieres?, etc. For the GAT however we ask them to write a recipe to make a delicious Mexican taco using six ingredients. The questions for them are more challenging. In this lesson we look for an equity and to balance the strengths and challenges of the students.  The GAT are exceptional students who need the special assistance of the teacher. The teacher should channels their high achievement capabilities such as  intellectual, creative, artistic, or leadership and use those capabilities to help other students and make the class more interactive and communicative. Gthe exceptionality of these gifted students is an asset for the classroom. Our presentation went well and we received a good feedback from everyone. Thank you Margarita for your willingness and your support.

(354 words)

Permalink Reply by Gloria Payne on November 17, 2018 at 12:57pm

You and Margarita did a fantastic job creating a lesson centered around teaching generally educated students and gifted/ talented students. It was apparent to me that you both had a vast understanding of the material. Your lesson was easy to understand and also fascinating. Your visual aid was lively and increased the overall value of your presentation. It was obvious that you both worked well together on the lesson and that this excellent teamwork was displayed positively in your final lesson. I hope that for future lessons related to this topic you do not forget to help the GE students feel appreciated and wanted in the classroom and not give all the attention solely to the GAT students. Nice work! (word Count 121)

Permalink Reply by Maria Sciortino on November 18, 2018 at 10:51am

The lesson which you and Margarita presented was perfect in every aspect. In particular, the activities chosen were clearly adequate for the two distinct situations. For the general education class the activities were indirect assessment, hence it created an easier task for students to develop. For the gifted and talented, the activities were open questions, direct assessment, hence more difficult compared to the general education tasks. The choice was a good demonstration since it was your targeted focus to address gifted and talented students who needed more challenges compared to general students. Each activity proposed reached the target for both students. The gifted and talented had the possibility to use creativity to respond to different questions posed and certainly it was a good experience since the gifted and talented can get bored if the activity level is not high enough to peak their interest. Simple activities such as fill the blanks or true/false would have been too bland for their expertise. (162) 

Permalink Reply by Margarita Mejia-Ramos on November 15, 2018 at 10:08pm

Creating a lesson plan for gifted and talented students is not as easy, as one might think. Shrum and Glisan (2016) identify gifted and talented students as possessing demonstrated or potential abilities that give evidence of high-performance capability in areas such as intellectual functioning; creativity; specific academic abilities; leadership and performing or visual arts. While my peer coach and I focused on creating an activity that allows gifted students to process important ideas at a higher level. One believes that this is an appropriate way to challenge students, as well as making them be critical thinkers. One believes that our main goal of creating an appropriate lesson plan for gifted students was well done, this is due to the excellent collaboration and communication that my peer coach and I have.

Having a collaborative relationship with a co-teacher is essential, in this case, my peer coach and I were able to design two lesson plans for both general education and gifted and talented student. Oscar expressed his concerns and ideas comfortably when creating both the practice phase and the production phase. However, one may say that we had difficulty when creating the presentation phase. One was not sure how to approach a perfect presentation phase to the gifted students. None the less Oscar made good points as to why the general education and gifted students should have the same activity. It was suggested that gifted and talented students should not be left out from the general education students, which was an excellent recommendation.

There are many ways that the topic of food could have been approached, especially during the practice phase. Shrum and Glisan (2016) highlight that gusted and talented students need some opportunities where they will take leadership roles. One believed that creating a more active activity, where gifted and talented students would fulfill the role as leaders, could have been an excellent way to involve the students in the classroom. However, since two peer coaches designed the lesson plan, it was a bit chaotic. Oscar and I both had the idea of creating a bingo game, where students would have been assessed based on the vocabulary that students had already learned. Although both of us had many ideas, one believes that we were able to make the appropriate accommodations for gifted and talented students. (387 words)

Permalink Reply by Briana Lopez on November 19, 2018 at 6:41pm

Hi Margarita, you and your peer coach Oscar did a terrific job with this teaching slice. One believes you had a challenging topic; however, you and Oscar were able to come up with the perfect activities that were differentiated for your gifted students. One appreciated the fact all the activities were different, especially since you focused on using direct assessment within your activities rather than indirect assessment. This promoted critical thinking which will help challenge your gifted students and give them the chance to be creative with their answers. Additionally, one was able to see the amount of effort and teamwork both you and your peer coach Oscar did. Keep up the good work! (114)

• ‹ Previous
• 1
• 2
• Next ›
• Page