Before coming to this lecture I didn't really know what to expect. I found out that the speaker, Barb had autism only on Tuesday. I was informed that she used a typing method to communicate. I was very excited to experience this lecture because I had watched a movie called Autism is a World previously in the semester in my special education class which was a documentary about a girl who had severe autism and used the same method of communication.
It is amazing to see Barb using technology to express her ideas and also to her parts of her book that she wrote. I think that we are quick to judge people with autism and assume they are stupid or not capable of things that people without disabilities can do. This is far from the truth. It is our job to find outlets for people with autism to express themselves and also be themselves and lastly to stand up for them.
The thing that I got most from this lecture is that autism is real and it something that I will encounter in my classroom. I would really like to educate myself more about autism (when I have a little more free time...) and how to adapt my classroom and become a better teacher to a student with autism.
I did find myself having somewhat of a hard time keeping my attention on Barb's presentation because I was very intrigued with Barb herself, watching her and listening to her. I was thinking almost the whole presentation about what it would be like to have autism as severe as Barb. I feel like I would feel trapped inside of my own thoughts which would become incredibly frustrating. As I stated before, this makes me want to educate myself more about autism and become an autism advocate.
Thursday, April 25, 2013
Group Differences
I really enjoyed doing the group differences forum. I liked the article that my group read, Kill Santa, because Christmas in school has always been something that I've had mixed feelings about.
I like doing discussions in class where small groups present prompts for everyone and we can chime in whenever we feel the need to. I think that I got a new perspective on a lot of things by hearing about everyone's articles and also everyone's input. One thing that I especially liked was hearing the ESL/ELL article, because I always think of hispanic students when I hear ELL, so I liked the fact that the article was more about Asian Americans.
I think that these forums work really well in a class like ours where people are comfortable speaking up and are friends. I'm not sure if the same type of discussion would've been so thorough if we would have done this at the beginning of the semester. The only suggestion I have is that it would have been nice to have a little bit more time for discussion and that some people would self-monitor a little better and make sure everyone is getting an equal opportunity to add their comments.
I like doing discussions in class where small groups present prompts for everyone and we can chime in whenever we feel the need to. I think that I got a new perspective on a lot of things by hearing about everyone's articles and also everyone's input. One thing that I especially liked was hearing the ESL/ELL article, because I always think of hispanic students when I hear ELL, so I liked the fact that the article was more about Asian Americans.
I think that these forums work really well in a class like ours where people are comfortable speaking up and are friends. I'm not sure if the same type of discussion would've been so thorough if we would have done this at the beginning of the semester. The only suggestion I have is that it would have been nice to have a little bit more time for discussion and that some people would self-monitor a little better and make sure everyone is getting an equal opportunity to add their comments.
Thursday, April 18, 2013
PLE #10
Theories in educational psychology promote the idea that language plays a critical role in cognitive development. Examine Table 2.2 (p. 51), paying particular attention to the age range that you are interested in teaching. Consider how you might incorporate or adapt the strategies presented for use with your own students.
I think that language does play a huge role in cognitive development. I've learned this in many classes including my Reading Ed class. I think that I need to give lots of opportunities for my students to see and read words. The book gives lots of great strategies and I would like to include the ones that I found the most interesting and helpful. I am also going to be focusing on K-2 since that is where I would like to teach. I love the idea of asking students to construct narratives about their recent events. When I worked in a bilingual classroom in Spain I did a lot of this when trying students to speak English. This relates what students are writing or speaking about to their lives so they will be inclined to be more interested. I am also a very big believer in asking follow up questions. I think that students need to process what they read and use metacognition.
I think that language does play a huge role in cognitive development. I've learned this in many classes including my Reading Ed class. I think that I need to give lots of opportunities for my students to see and read words. The book gives lots of great strategies and I would like to include the ones that I found the most interesting and helpful. I am also going to be focusing on K-2 since that is where I would like to teach. I love the idea of asking students to construct narratives about their recent events. When I worked in a bilingual classroom in Spain I did a lot of this when trying students to speak English. This relates what students are writing or speaking about to their lives so they will be inclined to be more interested. I am also a very big believer in asking follow up questions. I think that students need to process what they read and use metacognition.
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