Brady- 5.3

ACTIVITY 5. 3

a.   Two Articles Applicable in the Classroom

The first article I read was Teaching Time Management to Students with Learning Disabilities (2008) by Patricia W. Newhall.  This article suggests teaching students with disabilities time management skills to increase classroom success. To teach this skill, one must start with task analysis. Students need to understand how to adequately break down an assignment and estimate the length of time it takes to accomplish this task. Task analysis is an essential element to accomplishing time management effectively.

Specifically from this article I learned about using a Task Analysis and Time Estimation sheet. This sheet makes students conscience of the numerous steps involved in completing a task. Teachers can use these sheets throughout a given week and should allow students  class time to use them. If this is not possible, teachers should get parents involved in this process. Sending home these sheets and having parents assist students in completing them is a way to accomplish this. I definitely could use this in my classroom to help build and improve time management skills.

In addition to using time sheets, teachers should also use either a kitchen timer or stopwatch concurrently. Both provide a visual and auditory clue to students trying to improve time management. I currently use a timer with several of my students to improve their work pace. It is extremely helpful in getting them to finish work in the allotted time period.

In teaching students time management, teachers must break time down with simple task first. For example, a teacher could ask a student how long it takes to tie his or her shoe, write their name, etc. After a student understands how long this takes, a teacher can next challenge a student to estimate time with a lengthier activity like a homework assignment or journal essay. Once a student appropriately understands time needed for certain tasks, teachers can have students start using their sheets.

To begin task analysis sheets, students first estimate how long it takes them to do a given assignment. Next, they actually do the assignment starting and stopping their timers. From this activity students understand that depending on the complexity of assignment, time necessary for tasks changes. Explicit instruction, guided practice and extra opportunities to use this time management skill are essential.

The next article I read was The Keys to Remembering What You Read (2010)

by Ann Dolin. This article gives students strategies to improve reading comprehension. It recommends having student use selective highlighting and two or three column notes.

With highlighting, teachers should first teach children to read the text first and then go back and find key pieces of information to highlight. Teachers must also instruct students how to accurately highlight being selective with key words. Another tip I read in this article was if students cannot highlight textbooks to use highlighting tape. I definitely will use this in my classroom. Currently, we are going through cutbacks in cost at my school and will not be able to reorder certain books. I am a huge fan of highlighting, especially reading material. Thus, learning not only about highlighting tape but also where to purchase it was beneficial to me.

In addition to highlighting, two column and three column notes are also very helpful for improving comprehension. Two column notes are typically used for older students in which they divide their paper in half and write a key idea on the left and a couple words or sentences on the right. This organizes note taking and improves story recall in reading.

Another version of these notes is three column notes, which take on the same structure as two column notes, yet include an illustration. These are extremely beneficial to younger aged students and visual learners. I currently use a lot of three column notes in my second grade classroom for writing; however, thanks to this article I will be using three column notes more in my reading lessons. Doing so will help improve my students’ reading comprehension skills and note taking skills.

References

Dolin, Ann (2010). The Keys to Remembering What You Read. Retrieved from the website http://www.ldonline.org/article/The_Keys_to_Remembering_What_You_Read.

Newhall, Patricia (2008). Teaching Time Management to Students with Learning Disabilities. Retrieved from the website http://www.ldonline.org/article/Teaching_Time_Management_to_Students_with_Learning_Disabilities.