Activity 2.3- Part 1 (Brady)

MISUNDERSTOOD MINDS

Attention:

I found the Misunderstood Minds website very interesting. I went through each part of the website. I started with the attention section. In the attention section, I did the experience first hand. The first activity was a visual one in which I read a passage while visual distractions appeared. Later a quiz was given. This activity was extremely eye opening. It really showed me how visual distractions can cause confusion and lack of focus for students. The second activity was an auditory one in which I listened to oral instructions. The task was to place certain shapes on other shapes to reveal a picture. Throughout the directions, many auditory distractions were made. This made listening to and completing the picture extremely difficult. Again, it gave me great insight into how my students feel with the noises at our school. The last section in the attention section of the website was a video on attention by Dr. Mel Levine. In this video he talks to both a second and fifth grade student and their perspective on their attention needs. In the attention section, it gave some important basic facts, difficulties, and responses regarding attention. I feel this a beneficial plethora of knowledge for both teachers and parents of students with attention difficulties.

Reading:

The second section I explored in this website was the reading portion. I started with the experience first hand in which I did a decoding activity in recognizing phonemes. This was especially interesting to try out because I teach in second grade in which a lot of phonics is used. I was frustrated trying to read the passage and basically gave up after trying to read the second line. I can imagine this is how my students feel when they read and struggle with breaking down the sounds in a word. The next exercise was a memory activity in which I was to recall and understand. This was another hard activity for me and helped me realize how difficult reading a passage and comprehending it can be for my second graders. The last exercise in this section was a reading video on remembering what I have read. This explained how difficult it is for students to comprehend long passages. Typically they don’t comprehend because they do not understand what they are reading. This tells me how important it is to model early on in my second grade class how to stop and think about each and every sentence as a reader.  This part of the website also explained the basics, difficulties and responses to reading which would also be beneficial to parents and teachers.

Writing:

The third section was on writing. The first experience first hand activity was a graphomotor activity in which I traced the letters. This was a very timing consuming and difficult activity. It really exemplified how students with graphomotor difficulties struggle in the classroom. The second activity was a composition activity in which I had to put ideas into sequence. This part of the website made me realize how challenging it is for students to write a cohesive paper. They have to remember rules, spelling, sequencing words, etc., which can be, so time consuming and cause writer’s block. The last activity in the writing section was a writing video based on making writing automatic. This video stressed how hard it is for students to not only remember the rules of grammar, but the difficulties of organizing in a logical and thematic way their pieces of writing. Students need several strategies and tips to become better writers. They also need a lot of practice and information on how to become better and more fluent writers. This section also gave some great and beneficial tips on the basics, difficulties, and responses of writing.

Math:

The last section I viewed was centered on mathematics. The first activity was an arithmetic activity that used basic facts. The second exercise was a special activity, which was based on making 3-D inferences. The third activity was a sequence activity, which used multistep problems. The last activity in this section was a math video based on mathematics and memory. All these activities help me go back in time when I was first learning math skills and information, especially the first activity that used basic facts. This was extremely helpful to me because my students are going through the process of learning their math facts. I learned from this section of the website how crucial it is to support learners, be patient, and the necessity for both math manipulatives and plenty of practice.

Summary:

Overall, I really enjoyed exploring this website. I learned valuable information in all the sections; however, what I took most from it was the feelings, thoughts, and emotions my students feel when they struggle in any or all of these areas. This website gave me a lot of empathy and understanding for not only my struggling student, but for all students as they learn new ideas and concepts in the classroom.