-How do we support students who did not master “breaking the code”?
Context clues are the main strategy in my classroom. I have had to move away from the way that I was taught. We always used "key words" for solving math problems. The way that state test questions are written, key words can mean other things. I encourage my students to ask themselves what is happening in the question to assist them in using context clues to arrive at that answer.
-What did you learn in this chapter and how will you apply it to your instruction?
Knowing that different students will respond to different strategies is half the battle. Having a student verbally explain what they know may be just as effective as having them draw a picture and use a visual aid to show what they know.
-Small group instruction is most useful for remediation.
My curriculum is already designed for partner work and small group instruction. I love grouping students for hands on activities and for reflection.
Do you incorporate these into your teaching? How could you?
I incorporate these every day into my teaching. It is where the most learning takes place (for them and for me!).
-Name & Summarize (a few sentences) about the “other” chapter you read.
The other chapter that I read was "Chapter 11: Preteaching Vocabulary". The main ideas were in deciding which words to preteach and the scaffolds to use to do this. I particularly like the use of word clusters to help students discover relationships among words. This could lead to finding other common words that mean the same thing or to new vocabulary exposure for those students who are at a lower level.