Visual Aides

I have found that the use of visual aides in instruction has benefited all students.  Derived from SIOP (Sheltered Instruction Observation Protocol), this practice is meant to provide scaffolding to students and  help them focus on the process of learning.  Having cards that represent materials and places in the room, I can provide the visual cues along with my written and verbal.  This practice helps many types of students, from emerging bilinguals to students of various learning styles, by lowering the stress and difficulty of understanding procedures .

Some of my visual input cards.

Every morning I write on the board what is expected of them that morning.  I try to always pair the writing with a picture referring to their task.  I have found this effective with struggling readers, since blocks of text can sometimes act as a deterrent for them.  This way the picture cues them into the subject of the sentence and helps them decode the rest.

Reading Response One

My first reading response was derived from the Common Core State Standard: 
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.2.1 Ask and answer such questions as who, what, where, when, why, andhow to demonstrate understanding of key details in a text.

I decided that a good place to start the reading responses would be to have them deconstruct a moment (an event) and ask these questions of what they have read.  It was my belief that this structured practice would then students develop and strengthen these critical thinking tools.  I had students create a graphic organizer (thought-web) to help them structure their thoughts and focus more on the deconstruction of the scene than how to present their information.

Below is the anchor chart I created for students to remember Reading Response #1:

Here are some examples of student reading responses:

Special Spots

This classroom visual creates a quick go to for distributing students throughout the classroom.  Each student has a clothespin, and the pins correspond to a different spot in the room.  This enables teachers to quickly disperse students, allowing for a change of pace while minimizing the chaos of complete choice.

The Writing Process

This classroom visual allows for students to self assess and keep track of their own writing.  This leads to a form of ownership of the process that facilitates student work.  I also love the ability to the teacher to quickly assess (formative) where the class is at any given Writer's Workshop