I worked in a number of areas for my practicum.  Completing multiple week instructional units in both 8th Grade English Language Arts and 7th Grade Ancient Cultures; I taught math in a 5th grade class and worked in resource rooms in 5th, 7th and 8th grades.  The variety of experiences required me to change gears and adapt to new environments. 

When working with students on a two week English Language Arts unit of instruction I found that the best planning in the world did not take into account the range of students in the classroom.  The class is a small group learning center class with 8^th grade students.  The goal of the unit was to complete a new vocabulary lesson, a multi-part writing lesson all the while continuing to read a novel started earlier in the term.  I was a perfect example of a teacher who thought that all of the students would just “get it.”

The unit began the students reading sentences that contained the vocabulary words to use context to find the meaning of the words.  This moved along smoothly and stayed within the time allotted for vocabulary instruction.  For homework that night all of the students were tasked with looking up unknown words.  Out of the 5 students in the class only 3 completed the homework.  The class contained 3 students who had accommodations in their IEP in relationship to homework expectations.  When class reconvened I had a problem on my hands.  Those who completed the homework still did not understand a number of the words and the 2 that did not explained that they thought understood the information.

On the second day of the lesson we had to regroup and do more review than was planned. We spent an addition 15 minutes of the 48 minute block reading over everyone’s definitions for the word list.  During this time we chose different student’s definitions and put them on the white board for peers to copy down. 

At each point in the process as a group we shared honestly about understanding the terms.  All of the students felt like they were stakeholders in their education.  When I asked if they were “ready for the reading” and 4 students felt confident raising their hand to say “Not really” I knew that we had fostered an environment where honesty was respected.  The two students that had initially not completed their homework raised their hand to be included in those that did not understand the words.  I had to make sure that I didn’t ruin that atmosphere.  As a group we made the choice to push off the reading so that we could do more vocabulary review.

The next two day progressed the same as the first two: I had grand expectations of how long things would take, and the students would make it clear that if I wanted authentic learning to happen I needed to add supports and scaffold the learning.  On day 3 we began vocabulary Bingo to help them with the terms.  The 2 rounds turned into 4 when it was clear that only half of the class could accurately match the word with the definitions.  The way that the game was played allowed for me to slowly release the support. 

The original plan was for me to read off the definition in round 1 and the students would mark off their board; next one student was then going to tell the class what s/he marked for students to check their answer.  The second round students would work independently, and at the end I would check their answers.  This original plan needed more support.  The way that they game was actually played:

Round 1: Teacher reads off the definition and ‘fill in the blank’ sentence.  Students work together and use their vocabulary list to find the correct word. 

Round 2: Teacher reads off  a ‘fill in the blank’ sentence.  Students use their vocabulary list to find the correct answers independently

Round 3: Teacher reads off the definition or ‘fill in the blank’ sentence.  Students work together (without their vocabulary lists) to find the answer

Round 4: Teacher reads off the definition or ‘fill in the blank’ sentence.  Students work independently to find the answer without the use of supports

Bingo was a success, but I knew that although the students were much more familiar with the words, they still struggled with many of them.

I left class that night realizing that I had blown my schedule because of the vocabulary.  It was time to find a new method to help the students grasp the content.  After spending time chatting with coworkers and looking online for hints to teach vocabulary, I found it: visual supports.  I had wasted a ton of time on words like sequin.  In a room of mostly boys, the definition “a small shiny disk attached to clothing,” was not resonating with them.  After 3 hours scouring the internet for images I was able to put together a visual presentation of each of the vocabulary words.  This was a high impact way to keep their attention and help them to learn.

By extending the time needed for the students to work on the vocabulary we were able to get genuine results.  Students felt confident reading the passage, and using the words.  By using a range of techniques (bingo, visual supports, and context reading) the students didn’t get bored with the vocabulary. 

The plan was to have only 10 minutes in the schedule for vocabulary each day, but that was never going to work.  Realizing when students are not able to follow a proposed lesson is extremely important. By using a range of tools, we as a class worked together and learned the vocabulary so that they could complete the reading. The multiple means of representation kept students interested in the content.