All posts tagged: Writing

The Lights

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The lights I close my eyes and see the lights Twinkling reflections off the snow The cold air pressing against my body My breath visible in the sky Your arm wrapped in mine The sound of your laughter in my ear The warmth of your love Like a fire in a hearth The lights shining brightly in rows of ribbons Floating on the air like ships at sea Bobbing up and down with the wind Gently in the breeze The sound of snow beneath our feet The colors change with every step The effect is the same Dazzling  Dazed Dreamy  I close my eyes and I feel that night I close my eyes and I see those lights In those lights there you are. 

Item Analysis

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One thing that I have learned from doing this project on tracking student data for ELLs is that there are many layers to understanding data that is collected. I think that each of the layers are equally important and have been the cause of much of my confusion about how I wanted to track the data. While I previously thought that my issue was the collection of data itself and marking whether or not mastery was achieved on one cohesive document, I was lacking a critical detail in in my understanding of testing for mastery: item analysis. What I was not aware of was that item analysis is needed in order to determine whether or not a student has achieved mastery. While I was intuitively doing this, I was not formally performing this action in an explicit way. This is what I have realized that I need in order to fully implement the tracking system. However, there is one last obstacle that I need to overcome. My brain. Having ADHD means having difficulty focusing on one thing at …

Happy Halloween

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Modeling, modeling, modeling. I know. I am getting repetitive. But I don’t care. One thing that I see as being most helpful in almost any situation is modeling. Think about it. If you want to fix your car but don’t know what to do, you go to YouTube. You may even find yourself watching several videos prior to beginning a task. Even modeling your thinking has benefits. In fact, I should probably model my thinking while trying to say something in another language. This may help my students be more willing to make mistakes and try words they have only heard up until this point.  Today, I was reminded that everything needs to be modeled. I know that seems obvious. But when you have students who aren’t even organizing their binders, you suddenly realize that you even have to model how to organize handouts. Mostly, I am seeing that my students need more modeling in writing, especially thinking before writing. I need to model taking notes and keeping my story organized.  Tomorrow, I am going …