Throughout last semester I have been focusing on one particular student in my inquiry and I’ve noticed that there are various other students that could also benefit from the same type of inquiry. My wondering has developed into how I can differentiate my lessons based on student interest and learning style to increase engagement and enjoyment in school. After having the student complete a learning style survey, I have seen that my three focus students are not mainly auditory learners compared with the rest of the class. My collaborating teacher’s teaching style is normally for auditory learners, so I see that my students are either not engaged what so ever or seem extremely bored. I would like to see if incorporating strategies for visual and tactile learners would benefit not only my three focus students, but the remaining students in the class as well. In order to obtain scholarly material that would suggest actions and strategies, I searched through the journal The Reading Teacher. I decided to use JSTOR because it would allow me to search within the journal itself. Additionally, using The Reading Teacher correlated with the data that I have been gathering such as ERAS, Running Records, and Yopp-Singer Phoneme Segmentation.

Interest Journals Motivate Student Writing

Interest journals, as described in this article, is when a student is able to brainstorm ideas or topics that they want to write about and basically have a social journal that their peers comment on. The purpose of the journals is to increase motivation because of the ability to chose their topic. They are to insert a persuasive entry that their peers will read and comment their agreement, disagreement, experience, etc. that pertain to the topic. The article describes how a teacher can implement this strategy by giving a detailed description of what to get, how to introduce it to the class, and what to do when the journals are filled.

I loved this strategy so much that I actually plan on incorporating it into my own classroom when I graduate. I always liked when my teachers commented on my own journals instead of just grading them, so I think that having the students comment on each others journals is genius. Additionally, having the students a chance to choose what they initially write about is a great motivator. I also liked that the students aren’t stuck with a topic every week, they comment on different topics and ideas before coming back to their own which is a great way to encourage background knowledge building in various subjects. I think that I will ask my teacher if I can implement this strategy into the classroom and have the students write in them in the morning because she doesn’t have a constant routine in the morning. They can write in the journals once a week on Thursdays while I am in class (or if my CT likes it then she can do it more often).

Facilitating Engagement by Differentiated Independent Reading

Types of readers are described within this article. After each description of the eight types of readers there is a section that depicts what a teacher can do to help this particular student. Interest inventories are encouraged for almost every reader so that teachers can have a better understanding to what kinds of books they would enjoy the most. Peer discussions, teacher conferencing, and book talks were emphasized as well. These strategies help students stay on track and enthusiastic when reading a book. The purpose of this article is to inform teachers on what each type of reader looks like and how a teacher can help them become more engaged readers. The authors want teachers to take a closer look at independent reading so that it is beneficial for the student and not just a waste of time.

After learning this article I learned that when I implement read-alouds in my lessons, I will include various topics in order to encourage students to become interested in more than one topic. Additionally, I know now that interest inventories are an extremely helpful tool for a teacher and shouldn’t be taken lightly. Every piece of information and data gathered can shine light into a student’s learning. I really liked that for each type of reader a strategy was included because all three of my focus students are different types of readers; however, many of the strategies could be used for more than one type of reader.

Learning Style and Reading Instruction

This article discussed the elements that can affect student learning in the classroom environment. It also distinguishes what the difference between learning style and cognitive style is. According to their definitions of each, teacher’s mistakenly differentiate their lessons based on students’ cognitive style when they are trying to differentiate based on learning style. The learning style involves the how someone might be affected by environmental, sociological, and physical stimuli around them. The article illustrated that there are four environmental qualities that can affect any students learning. These four things include: sound, light, design, and temperature.

From this article I’ve learned what types of things I need to begin to observe and focus on that will clarify and strengthen my knowledge of what strategy I should implement that would best benefit my students. Although it might be hard to change the environment of the classroom because it is not my own, there was a piece of information that I thought was extremely enlightening. Observing when a student performs best can allow a teacher to schedule when a student undergoes more difficult material. Additionally, I think that incorporating “peer teaching” with my students will be valuable, not only for increasing competency in the subject but also increasing their self efficacy as well.

All three of these articles analyzed how to encourage students to be more engaged and enthusiastic about learning. They also are more focused on literacy than any other subject, however, I believe that many strategies could be adjusted to fit into all types of lessons. I thought that the quote, “At the highest level [of engagement], the learner submerges in the task-mentally, emotionally, and even physically” is the exact reason for my inquiry. These articles give me suggestions and teaching tips that lead me to get students at this level of engagement (Kelly & Clausen-Grace, 2009). I think that when students are engaged in this way, their motivation and enjoyment are also increased. Additionally, it seemed as though the underlying message in each article was that understanding that each student has individual and unique characteristics can steer a teacher to access engagement. Differentiation isn’t easy or fast, it takes time; however, the students’ academic outcome is well worth it and every teacher should undergo this type of inquiry.

During the remaining of my inquiry I will be implementing as many of these strategies into my lessons as possible. I always believed that students learn best when teaching it themselves or talking about it with peers, so peer discussions and peer teaching will be one of the first actions I take. I also will observe and analyze what type of environment each student learns best in. Gaining this knowledge will then allow me to implement strategies that would benefit each individual student because they will know how they learn best. Another action that I plan on taking is the interest journals. However, in order to incorporate these effectively, I will have to take to my CT about these. I plan on talking with her the next time I see her about each of my actions and ideas that I’d like to implement into her classroom.

References

Bromley, K., & Powell, P. (1999). Interest journals motivate student writers. The Reading Teacher, 53(2), 111-112. Retrieved February 8, 2016.

Kelley, M. J., & Clausen-Grace, N. (2009). Facilitating engagement by differentiating independent reading. The Reading Teacher, 63(4), 313-318. Retrieved February 8, 2016.

White, S. (1983). Learning style and reading instruction. The Reading Teacher, 36(8), 842-845. Retrieved February 8, 2016.