Reflection

Developing a GAME plan has been beneficial to me. In the past, I have always said I would like to xyz for my students or in my classroom but then would become overwhelmed with the scope of the project or simply just let other requirements and stressors take priority over the goal. Having a GAME plan has allowed me to take a larger objective and break it down into smaller, manageable tasks which have moved me closer to actually incorporating new techniques and in the case of my website goal, turn it into a useful tool for my students and parents.

Through my research on technologies to assist my special education students one tool that I have learned about is virtual field trips. NASA offers great programs, where a NASA educator will interact live with the class. Unfortunately through my research I learned that we need a $50,000 piece of equipment, which obviously the district is not in a position to purchase. I have not given up on this project and hope to find grants to apply for to bring this new technology into the school. This would help not only my students, but all students, by giving them a real life, meaningful experience, which will help them learn materials more easily.

As a result of my GAME plan I will not be making any immediate changes to my instructional practices. I will continue to utilize blogs and wikis and possibly increase the use of them throughout the school year. I would like to incorporate a digital storytelling project by the end of the school year as well. As I previously wrote I will be focusing on finding grants for the virtual field trip goal.

Using the GAME plan process with students

One strategy that fits well with the GAME plan process that my co-teacher and I have incorporated into our Reading block is called the Literacy CAFE. Students meet with teachers one-one-one and first discuss what they think they do well as a reader. After that the teacher will listen to them read for a few moments. The teacher and student conference afterwards and pick a goal from the CAFE (Comprehension, Accuracy, Fluency and Expanding vocabulary).

Once a goal is chosen the teacher will help the student decide on a strategy or action(that have been previously taught) from a menu to help them work towards that goal. One example may be if the student chose accuracy has a goal, a strategy from the menu may be cross checking. The cafe menu is displayed on a class bulletin board and all students have a post it with their name placed in the appropriate section based on the chosen goal.

Then these goals are monitored staff and students through additional conferences and anecdotal notes. Depending on success new goals and actions may be chosen. The final evaluation would be the district DRA assessments to test whether the students reading level has increased.

While this strategy may not directly involve technology it can still help students meet NETS standards because it provides a strong foundation in the GAME process which will be invaluable when integrating technology. That said there are ways to incorporate technology into this process. One idea is to have students blog about their goals and actions as a way of monitoring their own progress. We are also going to incorporate a wiki for students to share interesting vocabulary they find while working on the expanding vocabulary goal.


More information on this strategy is available in "The Cafe Book" by Gail Boushey and Joan Moser. We use this to complement the Daily 5 system which is by the same authors.

Sample menu: http://www.thedailycafe.com/CAFE_Menu_New.pdf

Revising My GAME plan

I have been actively trying to make my website a valuable resource for my students and their families. Through this course wikis have been discussed many time as a useful tool to use with our students. I have recently been thinking about why couldn't a wiki be just as useful with the parents and families. I think it would take a lot of effort to make it work but I would like to set up a wiki where parents can share resources and strategies that they find helpful. During parent teacher conferences I was amazed at how many of my parents spend a lot of time researching their child's learning disabilities and things they can do to support their education. Parents are the experts on their children and why shouldn't they have somewhere where they can learn from each other.


I am still working towards achieving my first goal of finding technology proven to be successful for the diverse needs of my special education students and I will continue to work towards this goal as opposed to creating new ones. Something I would like to look into is finding grants that may be able to bring in some of the new technologies I find into our district. School districts everywhere are facing budget cuts and mine is no exception, there will be no money for new technology that doesn't already exist in the schools.