I really enjoyed watching the videos of the sheltered lesson this week. One thing I noticed right away is that some of the techniques she used are techniques I use everytime I read a story with my class. It felt good to realize that it is something I already do even though I never knew the correct term for it.
I noticed the teacher do many different things to promote comprehension in the video. I liked that she had the students relate things that were happening in the story to real life experiences that they have had. The students seemed to respond very well to this and were able to come up with experiences. I also think it was an excellent idea to discuss the vocabulary before reading and having students come with synonyms for the words. Many times unknown vocabulary in text can greatly hinder a child's comprehension, so I feel that this techniques is extremely important in promoting comprehension. I noticed that many times, as she explained the word, she would give an example, which then allowed the students to come up synonyms for the word. I think that if she hadn't given the example, she would not have had as great a response from the students. I enjoyed the fact that she read clearly and annunciated words or phrases. She also did an excellent job of using repetition to ensure that the students understood. The students were also very good about asking questions if there was something they did not understand or were unsure about. The teacher did very well at answering those questions by again using repetition or putting it back on other students who did understand it to answer it. I thought the post-it idea was such a neat idea. Students love using anything different from a regular sheet of paper and a pencil. She had so many different uses for the pos-it notes and the students seemed to have a good response to this technique. The fact that she used lots of modeling and gave the students a visual of what she sees when she reads the text is a crucial key in students understanding. Many times I have noticed that if the students see the teacher doing it, there is a much better response from them.
I thought this teacher had many excellent ideas, and I really appreciated in the introduction that she said "It doesn't meany dummying down the curriculum." I think that is a huge misconception when teachers hear the term "sheltering." This video was extremely helpful and gave me great insight as to how a well sheltered lesson should look when it takes place.
Attached is a link to another sheltered lesson that I researched. This one takes place in a special ed classroom. I thought it would be beneficial to see a regular classroom sheltered lesson looks compared to a special ed classroom sheltered lesson. I also really liked the fact that it was a much younger group of kids compared to the previous video. It was helpful to see how sheltered lessons can look with different age groups and different types of classrooms.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FsY0dVkeZSI&feature=related
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