Evaluating My GAME Plan Progress

Both of my goals fall under Standard 2. Design and Develop Digital-Age Learning Experiences and Assessments (assessment and differentiated learning)

ASSESSMENT GOALS

As for my goals about assessment, I have had little opportunity to apply any of what I have read in our texts due to this class being during the summer months. Even though I am teaching summer school, the classes are only twice a week for 3 hours and aside from doing some running records to make sure we are, at a minimum, maintaining reading levels (the reason for this class is to try to avoid backwards growth during the summer months), I have had little opportunity to work with assessing students and no contact with colleagues or mentor. So far, I have learned that my students will mainly be using performance based assessment as a means of demonstrating what they have learned. Many of the other methods our text has outlined will not be appropriate for my students based on their needs. Many students have accommodations for assessments such as the forced-option and open-ended response formats. Understanding how to implement these accommodations is a skill that I need as well as skills my support staff (such as associates) need to accurately measure growth. I feel that there is much that I still need to learn, but I feel that this may be less to do with my own skills and more to do with my confidence. As I gain experience and move throughout the year, I feel I will have a better idea of what I still need to learn and how to adjust my plan to fit my needs.

DIFFERENTIATING LEARNING GOALS

I have had a bit more experience this summer in learning how to differentiate learning, as my students range (in reading alone) from pre-K to reading level F. Some of my students don't even know all the alphabet or letter sounds while others are able to read at level F (about grade 2). This has made it interesting how to set up learning centers (such as a writing center) that meets all their needs. As for individualizing work, I do use small groups and group them according to ability. However, independent work with students is a bit more challenging. Some of my students have never experiences working independently in a center and I have very little time with them to teach this skill during the summer. I rely heavily on my associate to make sure students are engaging in centers appropriately while I work with small groups. I know that once fall is here and we are at regular school days this will be different, but I see this as an opportunity to learn how to effectively differentiate learning. As in my progress with my assessment goals, the majority of my learning and questions will be formed once our fall school year begins, at which time I will monitor/reflect on student and my own learning and how I will need to adjust my plan.

Monitoring My GAME Plan Progress

As I monitor my progress of my GAME plan, I can say that at this point I am unsatisfied with how things are going and I know that it is mainly due to the fact that I have not had any time to commit to actually make progress on my goals.

INFORMATION AND RESOURCES

I have done a little research into how to differentiate lessons for my students with special needs. I have found a few blogs that give me some ideas. Right now, most of what I have learned has been from my own experience; trial and error then reflecting on the process. I am teaching Summer School and I have students that are academically at both ends of the spectrum and being able to take a lesson, such as teaching money identification and counting, and differentiate learning so that all students are engaged has been difficult. I am learning how to create lessons that all students can engage with and how to manage support staff (my associate) and use them to help in this process.

MODIFY

At this point, I don’t see the need to modify my plan. I want to give my first plan a chance to work. Because it is summer, and the program is moving into a new school, I think that I will have to actually have to experience the new school setting as well as get to know my students in order to determine if I need to modify my action plan.

LEARNING SO FAR

From my experience as a long-term sub and summer school teacher of this program, I can that what I have learned so far is the need to constantly reflect on lessons, make sure that I am organized to collect data for IEPs on time and accurately, and reflect on my personal GAME plan so I can make necessary modifications when needed.

QUESTIONS

Being a first year teacher, I feel like I am going into this blind, not knowing what to expect, but I have had the opportunity to know some of my students before I begin my new journey. I am full of all kinds of questions, but they are mostly to do with the unknowns of being a new teacher. I am both excited and nervous. I am sure that I will have questions as I begin this new journey, which I will refer to as I reflect on my lessons and through data collection and analyzing data for IEPs.

Carrying Out My GAME Plan

I apologize to my group about not doing any postings. I was out of town without access to the Internet and then when I returned home, we had a power outage that damaged my computer and left me without access for another week. I am now trying to catch up and become a contributing group member.

Beginning this fall, I will be a new Special Education Teacher. This is my first full-time job, so my goals that I chose are about assessment and differentiation.

RESOURCES

The resources that will be needed in order to carry out my GAME plan for both of my goals will be the expertise or advice from my colleagues and mentor. I believe this will be one of the greatest sources of feedback that I will have close at hand. Aside from this, reading journals about assessment and differentiating lessons, and the knowledge I receive from classes I am taking to get my endorsement (I was hired with an emergency licenses which is dependent on my obtaining an endorsement for an Instructional Strategist with focus on Mental Disabilities.)

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

I am not sure what other additional information I need at this time. This will be my first year teaching and I am not sure what to expect yet. I think that one thing I need to understand is about how students grades will be reported: Will they receive a report card or are their learning achievements only reported through their IEPs?

STEPS TAKEN SO FAR

I have done a small amount of research through blogs about differentiating lessons with special needs students. I have also done some running records and letter/number identification as sort of a pre-assessment because I have a few students in my Summer School class that will be in my classroom in the fall. This gives me an idea of where they are at coming to me and where I will need to go with them throughout the year. Summer school is done the first week of August and between the time I finish with the class and I can move into my room for this fall, I plan to look in our library to find some journal articles related to assessment and differentiation of special need students.