UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT ARLINGTONDEPT. OF CURRICULUM AND INSTRUCTIONNEW TEACHER WEBINAR 4Advice for New TeachersSATURDAY, MARCH 1, 2014 1-2 PM, CST

"Personalizing while Differentiating: Remembering that Learners are Looking Back and Looking AheadWITH DR. MARK CONLEY

*Recordings will be available of webinars. No names will be visible in the recordings.

The recording will be available on our YouTube channel: http://www.youtube.com/utanewteachers

Dr. Mark Conley

These are our opinions and suggestions! The opinions of each of the panelists are their own individual

viewpoints.

Our goal is for you to hear a variety of viewpoints to help support you in your first years of teaching! We have been down the road you are going!

GOALS/GUIDELINES Support Respect Dialogue Sharing

Mission Statement [WORKING] MISSION STATEMENT

Teacher Induction Project: Building Digital Community:

The purpose of the Teacher Induction Project is to begin to build "digital community" for current students and alumni of the department as well as new teachers beyond UT Arlington in the global community. The focus is primarily on creating and disseminating open-access resources that support new teachers in their early career stages. The focus will be on digital interactivity and participation around essential topics to new teachers. Monthly webinars present information from UT Arlington faculty as well as prominent national speakers in the field. The blog houses updated tips and advice for new teachers. We also have an ongoing podcast series where UTA Education faculty share advice on topics related to the webinars!   http://blog.uta.edu/utanewteachers/

Recordings are accessible via the blog and dept. Facebook page

Archive of Resources and Social Media:

YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/utanewteachers MixCloud: http://www.mixcloud.com/UTANewTeachers/UTA New Teacher Blog: http://blog.uta.edu/utanewteachers/

Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/UTANewTeacherProject

Logistical & technical tipsAsk questions along the way. Main Q/A at the end.

Make a list of “Things to Google” later.Use chat window often. We will check it throughout it and respond in “real time” .

Please do not press the talk button during the webinar.

Spring Webinar Topics!Join us!

Webinar Information Spring, 2014

Saturday, March 29; 11:00 AMTeaching Bilingual/ESL students; speaker(s): TBA

Saturday, April 19; 11:00 AM Technology ; speaker(s): TBA

UTA New Teachers Bloghttp://blog.uta.edu/utanewteachers/

*We will post webinar recordings here.

Recorded webinars are also archived on the UTA New Teachers YouTube page:

http://www.youtube.com/utanewteachers

Where we are now:

Building Digital Community

Thanks for joining us! Please use the marker/pen tool to mark a small x below where you are at. You can also type your location in the chat window:

Poll question: Where are you in your teaching

career? Select A-E Voting is optional! We will display the results! The drop down polling area is in the participants window next to the “hand” tool.

I am currently a:

A. Pre-service teacherB. 1st-3rd year teacher & UTA graduateC. 1st-3rd year teacher & non-UTA graduateD. 4th year+ teacherE. Faculty or none of the above

"Personalizing while Differentiating: Remembering that Learners are Looking Back and Looking AheadMark Conley, University of Memphis

Bio Mark W. Conley Bio

Mark W. Conley is a professor of literacy at the University of Memphis. He specializes in human and technology-based tutoring and assessment in literacy, mathematics and science. He designed the Memphis Literacy Corps, the largest literacy tutoring effort implemented in the United States. Currently, he is designing tutoring programs for adult learners in community-based tutoring programs, including a program for potentially incarcerated youth. He has published numerous articles about literacy, disciplinary literacy, teacher education and assessment in journals like the Harvard Educational Review, Theory Into Practice and the Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy. He has published several books about disciplinary literacy, curriculum standards and assessment. He has also advised officials at state, national and international levels on curriculum standards and assessment. He holds a Certified Flight Instructor certificate with an instrument rating and teaches and practices guitar building as part of his passion for teaching and learning.

Differentiating

Meeting students where they are

Personalizing

Understanding that each child individually is looking back at you, is a lot like us, and looking forward to a possible future

Dilemmas in Differentiating

Difficult to agree on effective practices Tends to lead to categorizing kids – special needs, ESL,

ADHD, etc. Creates a likelihood of creating categories of instruction –

aiming for the middle, reaching the “low” kids, setting up stations, etc.

Dilemmas in Personalizing Ups the ante in terms of complexity of looking at individual

children. Consider for a moment what you are passionate about, how

you pursue goals in life, how you feel successful (or less so). Every child on some level is just like us with passions, goals

and desires for success. How do we reach every child?

So How Do We Personalize AND DifferentiateNeed to: know as much as we can about every child, in and out of

school. be aware of their goals, dreams and vision for their future. understand their sense of a possible future, along with their

ideas about how to get there.

Some Patterns: Unreasonable Expectations Many children have unreasonable or murky expectations for

their futures. In the 1990’s, kids wanted to be sports figures and

entertainers. 10 years later, many kids talk about being the lawyer for a

sports figure, or an agent for an entertainer. Children are heavily influenced by media.

Some Patterns: Not Sure How I am Going to Get There

Many children have a career choice, but few know how they will get there.

Fewer adults talking with children about future options and pathways than 20-30 years ago.

The landscape of the future in continually changing.

What Can Teachers Do?

Whenever possible, incorporate ideas about the future in lessons.

Difficult to do sometimes with the (over) emphasis on standards and assessments.

Invite community members and business people to come in and talk about their careers and daily lives.

Create instructional contexts for students’ future lives.

An Example Teaching the concept of “area” to 8th graders. Assignment: Plan and make a small model of your dream

house. Local building contractors come in and talk about their work. Students design their dream houses and revise based on a

budget and square footage expenses. Contractors return to judge the dream houses.

What Happened? The students finally learned the concept of “area” The students who did the best were the children of

contractors, who ended up talking about their parents and helping other students.

Maybe, just maybe, students gained a better idea about a possible future.

Memphis Literacy Corps

Dr. Peggy Semingson• Former bilingual/ESL

teacher and reading specialist (8 years, elementary, public schools)

• Ph.D. in Language and Literacy from UT Austin

• Sixth year as professor at UT Arlington

• YouTube Channel• peggys@uta.edu

Differentiation (my own take)Generally, responding to student’s individual learning needs

Using data to drive instruction for individuals as well as the group.

Being pro-active in locating engaging resources to scaffold and engage learners.

Seeking out information beyond test scores such as dialogue with family and the students themselves.

Build on student’s strengths

Advice from the Classroom*I had an elementary-focusWhole group vs. small group vs. individualized

instructionResources and Scaffolds:

Handouts; Word Walls; Word lists; Vocabulary lists; Vocabulary self-collection (citation)

Visual ScaffoldingDiscourse and dialogueOne of my favorite teacher books for language

arts is Revisit, Reflect, Retell by Linda Hoyt (2nd edition)

What else?

Staying Student-CenteredCreating an Engaging Curriculum

Getting to know your students on an ongoing basis:Formal data; informal data, conversations; observations, family input; body language; checking for understanding often

Books and literature for language arts and content

-High-interest text

-High-interest/low readability text

Start with the students Self-assessment techniques

How do you learn best? Interest inventories Discuss student’s interest, strengths, and goalsDiscuss challenges and hurdles to learningTeach self-regulating strategies such as breaking

learning into manageable chunks.Teach students to encourage themselves and

know when to seek help. Example: I encouraged my English Language Learners to ask when there was vocabulary they did not understand.

TechnologyHow can technology assist with differentiation?

Speech to text softwareMobile appsMulti-modal learning: video, audio, etc.What else?

What do you think?Optional-type in the chat window!

What information stood out to you from

Dr. Conley and Dr. Semingson’s presentation?

What questions do you have?

“I hope to think more about.…”“I learned….”“I want to know….”

A big THANK YOU to our panelists and faculty!

Thanks to everyone for attending!

Let’s give the panelists a virtual round of applause for taking time to share their expertise and experience with us!

Recordings are accessible via the blog and dept. Facebook page

Archive of Resources and Social Media:

YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/utanewteachers MixCloud: http://www.mixcloud.com/UTANewTeachers/UTA New Teacher Blog: http://blog.uta.edu/utanewteachers/

Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/UTANewTeacherProject

Be part of the knowledge network!

We hope to see you again on the New Teacher Webinar series! Learn more! Become a better teacher. Stay encouraged. Connect with other educators and UTA

Faculty in an informal, low key online setting! Please let others know about our webinar

series and blog!

For questions or comments, email Dr. Semingson peggys@uta.edu