I has chosen B as my student for portrait of possibly. I believed that VTS could help B. He is an ELL student whom I thought was SPED but technically isn't, I just found that out. I noticed while doing the preVTS he had a really hard time writing anything, thinking of ideas to put on paper. I believe my predictions were mostly accurate. Once we started Visual Thinking Strategies I was confused about how he had such a hard time writing (like hitting a wall for him) but that he could verbally share fairly concise ideas. My plan was that I would call on him first every time so he would have the most to say, making it easier for him. His attention plan is also so short that calling in him first helped. I am impressed how I saw improvement from simple observations to inferences w/out evidence. He began by just listing simple things, I see a... By the end of the semester he was putting together ideas of what he thought was going on, his interpretations. I am very excited with his improvement over the semester. The interesting things is that when we were doing our post VTS he once again hit a wall and wouldn't write anything. He would tell me I don't know, my brain isn't working, things like that. I had to sit next to him and ask him questions, I told him to go up to the projector and look up there and repeated the questions. He said something about seeing a cat and I told him to write it down. He wrote nothing else and sat there for quite a while. Afterwards I talked to the teacher and she said he had zero comprehension in the classroom. He understands and speaks English well, so that isn't the problem. It sounds as if he's a student who has slipped though the cracks and is being failed. He may be a student who needs the type of small sped room, which my district doesn't have, the co teaching room he is in does little for him. My take away from all of this is that I believe that VTS with me in the art room could help a student like B. Even though it's only once a week, we can see improvement. This also might be a place where they are learning even if techniques used in the classroom aren't.
Saturday, December 13, 2014
Blog 14 Portrait pf possibility revisited
I has chosen B as my student for portrait of possibly. I believed that VTS could help B. He is an ELL student whom I thought was SPED but technically isn't, I just found that out. I noticed while doing the preVTS he had a really hard time writing anything, thinking of ideas to put on paper. I believe my predictions were mostly accurate. Once we started Visual Thinking Strategies I was confused about how he had such a hard time writing (like hitting a wall for him) but that he could verbally share fairly concise ideas. My plan was that I would call on him first every time so he would have the most to say, making it easier for him. His attention plan is also so short that calling in him first helped. I am impressed how I saw improvement from simple observations to inferences w/out evidence. He began by just listing simple things, I see a... By the end of the semester he was putting together ideas of what he thought was going on, his interpretations. I am very excited with his improvement over the semester. The interesting things is that when we were doing our post VTS he once again hit a wall and wouldn't write anything. He would tell me I don't know, my brain isn't working, things like that. I had to sit next to him and ask him questions, I told him to go up to the projector and look up there and repeated the questions. He said something about seeing a cat and I told him to write it down. He wrote nothing else and sat there for quite a while. Afterwards I talked to the teacher and she said he had zero comprehension in the classroom. He understands and speaks English well, so that isn't the problem. It sounds as if he's a student who has slipped though the cracks and is being failed. He may be a student who needs the type of small sped room, which my district doesn't have, the co teaching room he is in does little for him. My take away from all of this is that I believe that VTS with me in the art room could help a student like B. Even though it's only once a week, we can see improvement. This also might be a place where they are learning even if techniques used in the classroom aren't.
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ReplyDeleteI'm a little confused by your description here. It sounds like this student didn't write well either time, but you noticed growth during discussion; growth that progressed from simple listing to making inferences, although not backed by evidence. Is that correct? I'm also confused by your closing sentence. I THINK you're saying that VTS in the artroom seems to have allowed this student to learn whereas regular classroom strategies did not?
ReplyDeleteELLs, as I'm sure you know, present special challenges. I don't know what kind of training/support your district has given you for ELLs. I know that in Blue Springs, we were given little, but I did take 3 graduate courses in teaching ELLs in my attempt to fill the void. What I learned, among other things, is that there is a big difference between learning to speak a second language and learning to write a second language. It also takes 3 years of schooling or more for a student to acquire academic language which inhibits both reading and writing. An ELL may be a fluent conversational speaker, but not be able to write worth a hoot. When writing is so challenging, students will either play it safe and jot down the least they can get away with (the cat example you gave) or spend so much time trying to write something that they forget details or other things they wanted to say. In either case, the writing doesn't reveal what they actually know. I suspect that B may fall into this category. I think it would be more informative for you to assess B orally (pre and post) and either transcribe for him or video his responses. In the future and for similar students, you might use this strategy.
Here is an article, also, that you might find helpful.
http://esl.about.com/od/esleflteachingtechnique/a/difference_speaking_writing.htm
I'm sorry my thoughts are confusing. I am often confused by my own train of thought. I would say that my experiences with this student were a bit of a roller coaster. They do not give us training on ELL students although i've had them the entire time i've been teaching. And I do understand that writing would be the hardest part for them. For B it was more then just writing, it was more about gathering his thoughts to put down on paper. I have very little contact with the classroom teachers or know what is going on with students beyond the art room, there are just to many of them. He did improve during VTS, His teacher did tell me afterwards that he does have a hard time writing in the classroom too. He can read at a normal level words per minute but has very low comprehension. It does appear that oral test taking would be very beneficial to him. I am interested in the article. My other thoughts about his regular classroom and as to whether to large number of SPED students would allow him to learn and be assessed in the way that it sounds like he needs to be. I hope that time doing VTS over the years will continue to help him be able to grow regardless of other circumstances.
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