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 * TEST: **

media type="file" key="learningStrategy.mp4" width="363" height="363" align="center"


 * Sunday Feb. 12 **


 * I like this colour better (if it is ok with you, I'm going to switch) I just got the email from Diane, we got 18 out of 20 - that is pretty darn good, especially considering the project wasn't very well defined, and we worked really hard. I wanted to congratulate everyone, I feel that we did the best we could, and I'm happy to be a part of this group. Talk in a week or two. Tara **


 * Sun Feb 5th **


 * No apologies necessary, I was just letting you know for your own benefit! Take care! **
 * Hello Ladies, It looks great. I think everyone did an excellent job. Sorry about the doi thing! **

**Hi girls. Thanks for all your hard work. I couldn't get internet access here yesterday as the wireless at this cabin was on the fritz. Have just been able to log in now. I really appreciate all the last minute editing you guys did. Also, Danielle, that Novak reference was mine, and I didn't know about the editor/author/chapter reference - I only cited the chapter as it was actually all I had been given from another class and that is also how that prof had cited it....ah the confusion. Sorry! Talk to you all in a couple weeks** The documents are sent, and I CC'd you all in the message. I guess I'll see you all in about two weeks. Time to catch up on my other courses...
 * Sat Feb 4th, **
 * It's fixed! I played with the vertical spacing in the "paragraph" menu. There is till double spacing throughout, but there was extra spacing before and after some lines that could be removed. If you're happy, let me know, and I'll submit both documents. **
 * OK, it is ready to be submitted, - I would suggest again that we submit both the PDF and the word doc because of the autoformatting issues. You got it! Do you want me to submit now, or wait until the time I stated earlier, so that Erin can look at it once more? If you are going to be awake you can wait, but if you haven't heard from Erin or are heading to bed - it is good, just that one nit picky thing below. **


 * I had my husband read it and he caught a lot of mistakes we missed. For example the International Baccalaureate (IB) program was mistakenly "the international Batchelorette" program, ie. the international program for single ladies - hahaha. Good thing he caught that ;-) **

**One question- On page 5 the section header is on the bottom of the page and the section starts on page 6, it looks strange to me - can we add a line space somewhere in the document or is that against the rules?**




 * I am fixing some grammatical errors, but I trust that the in text citation and references are now perfect. A HUGE THANKS! Can a reference be broken across two pages? Check that out on the last page when I upload again - soon.... **


 * I will read through it again right now. 6PM - PST. I will re-post as soon as I am done. Thank you Danielle, and everyone - really this took an enormous effort on all parts! I agree! Despite all of our outside commitments, everyone put a ton of effort into this project! **

Novak, J. D. (1998). Ausubel’s assimilation learning theory. In //Learning, creating, and using knowledge: Concept maps as facilitative tools in schools and corporations// (pp. 49-78). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
 * My internet connection died, and I actually finished this about two hours ago. I put in the change of reference in Erin's part. I also add some space between the items listed in Emily's section and the next line. It's the only way I can see to make it clear that these are different topics, and I don't think this goes against APA. As for the references, I did the best that I could. In the APA manual, the use of a URL for an article in not entirely clear If I don't hear anything back from anyone in 4 hours ( by 11:30 Eastern time, 8:30 Pacific), I'm going to submit the paper. **
 * When you cite a book, you only name the chapter if it's written by a separate person from the editor of the book, who would also have to be named. I know this is the first time for some of you (and I really don't know who used this reference, I'm not pointing fingers) to use APA. I'm just trying to let you know. **

Always double-check your DOI to make sure it leads you to the article (or as close as possible, considerng the need for access through various channels at different universities.) For Neufeld, the DOI is doi:[|10.1598/RT.59.4.1]


 * Erin, please see my comment below, responding to what you said about the Bos reference. **

This is my first paper in APA for years (if ever) when looking at examples, and reading the APA guide online the title page has a "running head" I will post the sample APA paper I used - I think it is correct as I recall Emily mentioning the running head in the past. Everything else looks pretty good right? Please post the absolute final version once done, so we can all save it. We are so so close! ** Brilliant! I'm working on the references right now. **

I really don't have much more time to s pend on this project as I have two essays to write and this week's assignments to do in ETEC 520, so don't take my next comments as mean. I'm simply getting straight to the point. Is this question regarding the reference with both the url and to doi? If so, it is for Erin I think. **This is about the Stetter and Hughes article. I think I'm the one who found it, but it's not cited correctly and I'm trying to find the right info.**

In the references, when you have no DOI, you have to indicate the website of the Journal. If you don't know the website of the Journal, doing a search in Google is usally enough to find it. You don't need the exact web address of the article in question, just the site of the article. From the APA style guide : Journal article: Retrieved online with no DOI: Give URL of the journal home page (even if retrieved from a database)

Erin, this kind of comment requires references. Who are the researchers?

"Many researchers suggest that collaborative, integrated approaches work best rather than just one strategy for teaching learning disabled students and in doing so, each student may be able to find works best suited for them." This is not a direct quote, nor was it taken from anyone article but rather from just reviewing numerous articles. It can be referenced to Bos, C. 1989. As she suggests something similar to this on page 389.

I know it's not a direct quote. When you say "Many researchers" though, you have to back it up. When I re-post the document, can you please add the reference in APA style and change the sentene to reflect that you only have one reference, or else cite the other references? I'm correcting reference format right now, and will have the document back up withinn the hour.

I'm making minor changes right now, just in case anyone might have the same idea. I'll be done soon. It's 1pm Pacific Time (4pm Eastern)

> >
 * A new colour - because I'm writing my editing questions as I go (so I don't forget) **
 * 1) **I added section headers. They can be removed, this helped in editing and I don't mind them - but I don't really care either way.**
 * 2) **I removed the first paragraph from your section Danielle, it sounded too repetitive (like you thought) on the heels of section one.**
 * 3) **Should the SECTIONS framework be capitalized as it is? Yes. **
 * 4) **Please double check the reference list against the final draft - just to make sure after all the editing we have only referenced the sources we cited in the paper I don't know if any references were removed, but any reference which is even paraphrased has to be kept. Most articles I've read didn't have a single citation, but had any where between 30 and 100 references. **
 * 5) **I deleted an entire paragraph from section 3 - it made the same point and used the same quote as a paragraph in section 2.**
 * 6) **I removed the capital from "science" in section three - is that correct?**** Yes. **
 * 7) On page 9, as Emily questioned earlier - the indent when we move from vocabulary strategies to reading comprehension strategies looks strange, like it is continuing from the previous point - suggestions?** I dunno. Gonna check it out. **
 * 1) The reference on "Vaughn, S., Klinger, J., Swanson, E., Boardman, A., Roberts, G., Mohammed, S., & ..." doesn't need a doi and a url does it? ** If it has s DOI, it absolutely has to go in. That's more important than the URL. If it doesn't have a DOI, the URL has to go in. **
 * 2) I made a title page, put our names in alphabetical order, and created a running head - you can change any of this if you wish. ** What's a running head? Is that like a working title? **

** I'll try to submit both, and mail them to Diane, just to be safe. **
 * Please review the final paper in its entirety before sumbitting, my eyes are bogging out of my head right now and I probably missed something. I am going to upload both a word document and a pdf- it is worth asking if we can submit both because the word document always reformats the urls automatically adding a blue hyperlink font and underline - I personally hate that. Do whatever you think is best. **


 * That's everything, I think ;) **



I am just working on your section now - in the order that was suggested to us but you raise a great point. I will need an hour or so and I can upload the draft complete proposal, wait for it :-) and think while I'm working. My concern is we should start strong and end strong. Not that we aren't strong throughout, my personal background in design makes me think that when reading the paper you should close and have a visual imprint of what everything will look like and of course why. Maybe we can do that if we change up the order, or maybe we should keep it the same. I will concentrate on the writing, and post again soon. Good thought however, I really don't know yet - I think we should get everything together and see.


 * I just had an idea. How about we put Emily's section right after Tara's? You know, with a bif huge note to Dian so she doesn't penalize us for going over the word count in mixed up sections. I don't know wehre Erin and my sections would go. It just seems that Emily's sectiong vies so much information about the activities, that we should present it right after the intro. What do you think? **


 * Good morning ladies, I'm having a coffee and going to start editing. I am going to work in order and start to add the sections together, read everyone while I do it and try to give the paper a full edit. I have the APA guide beside me, a sample APA paper so wish me luck! **


 * Erin - check the 510 website about the evaluation, I think you have to submit it via the dropbox, but I have to check myself to be sure. :-) **

Hello Everyone, Emily suggested some changes for my part and I have made those changes and reposted. I am wondering how we are submitting this. (Compiling together in one document and submitting?) And one more questions: Are Peer Evals to be submitted to prof directly through email?

Friday Feb. 3:

Alright, I posted the rough draft of section 2 in **Intentions and Positions - Proposal**. Its close to finished, needing only what I hope are minor revisions. The intro is a heck of a lot like the one in section 4. I have yet to read all of the parts together, but I suspect I might remove the intro from part 4, as it can stand for reduction better than my section can. But that is tomorrow’s task.

Since a lot of our material is described in detail in section 4, I kept some things more general in section 2. In the last paragraph, I made use of the SECTIONS framework by Bates and Poole (a reference I have to add to the list). If you are at all familiar with this framework, please check out the last paragraph and see if it needs more content.

Some of my greatest weaknesses in writing are the repeated use of the same connectors, a lack of flow and a vocabulary that is not varied enough in general.

BTW, I am currently at about 730 words, in case you feel the need to add anything. I kept the text in a format that is more readable than APA style. I’ll change that later.

Cheers, and good night!

Hi Emily, I just made changes to your document. I added a line of space where text was yellow and simply removed the yellow bit where my stuff was incomprehensible. Tara, Ì cropped your image and remvoved the text. I called it Figure 1 and gave it the caption you provided. I'll have to double-check APA standards. I'm going to need at least one more person to look at this once it's done. I'll be posting in about an hour and I'll check back tomorrow afternoon. Hi Girls. I will be on the computer for about an hour starting now. Is there anything I can do for anyone?

Hey Danielle, I'll cut out the text in the site map, can you email me the final copy of the proposal, or the interactivity section and I will make the change, insert the map and send it back? I can email it to you. I've changed my plans and will be working on school work all day tomorrow (dam critique and work was just so busy today) so I will update the map tomorrow morning and you can email me some time tomorrow so I can make that change. No problem. My email is "taraavenia@gmail.com"

The yellow highlighter is not supposed to be there, I think Emily was asking for clarification. See if you can answer her notes on the interactivity page.

All good? Time to read and critique an article, and I promise to comment on your notes in ETEC500 Danielle as soon as I formulate my own :) Talk tomorrow.

Thursday Feb. Hey there, Is the yellow highlighting supposed to be in the document on interactivities? Tara, now that we're really close, to the word limit, would it be okay if the bottom part of the map is cut out? I think the activities are desccribed elsewhere anyway. And the map looks great! It's simple to read and the colours are great!

Hi Ladies, the site map is on the last page of the Interactivity Section, I also don't know if we should be formatting it in any specific way for APA - I can make changes tomorrow if it turns out that would help. Danielle, and Erin - have a look. Thanks again!

Hello! I just added your material (some of it was similar to what was written), I am over the word limit so was trying to be very careful!

Tara, I just finished editing your section and it is down to about 550 words. The references are still in, and I think that's a good thing, because that paragraph is strong and necessary. I know I sometimes don't like it when others heavily modify my work, so I tried to preserve your wording (which I liked a lot!) and ideas as much as possible. Let me know if you have any questions. Now on to ETEC 565...

Erin, I guess you don't need more material, but I just added my part. Sorry, I really couldn't get around to it until now.

Hello! So, I just uploaded the latest references, I added mine in. Are we to submit our Peer Evaluations directly to the prof via email? Hey Erin, check the blackboard site and look under the proposal assignment - there are instructions for the evaluation there. It shouldn't take very long, and I'm under the impression it is also due by the 5th. Not a big deal really. :-) I am just wrapping up the Key Concepts and Contexts section, I am at 600 words (maybe a few over....) and will upload it in the next 1/2 hour.  Thanks,  Erin

Also ladies, don't forget to submit your peer evaluation. For the record, I think you are all wonderful.

I am at the Library all day today working on this project - I was called into work last night and was unable to participate in the skype call. :)

I have updated my references - posted v4 in the Key Frameworks Notes page. My reference from the BC Ministry of Education is the only one I'm not 100% sure about. I found an online APA guide that includes a curriculum reference on page 2. I don't know if the guide is outdated? I copied my reference exactly and it includes the date twice (in case you are wondering) The files is attached for those who are curious.

Wed, Feb 1st


 * uggg. think I'm finally finished. Here's what I've done: **


 * 1. Posted the final interactivites draft on the PROPOSAL page. 1300 words. A few formatting questions. Please see if you can help or advise. **


 * 2. Posted my references in the third version of the word document on Key frameworks notes pages. Made a bunch of changes and suggestions. Please see that page. **

Erin, please check your Vista mail for a summary of tionight's call.
 * Let me know if there is anything else I can do:) **

Quick question - are we included all references read or only those cited? The references you've read, but not cited are really only necessary if they've shaped your approach, or if you're using ideas they've proposed.

I just uploaded my first draft to "Key Frameworks - Proposal" it is in a word doc. Please read it and if you make any changes upload the latest version labelled as such (instructions are on the page)

Emily - I used the Wenzel doc, and actually highlighted it in my proposal as I need to know who the et al are. I also mentioned Howard Gardner's theory of multiple intelligences and noticed that there wasn't a citation for this. Ok, will include it in my references. Thanks.

Emily, I got the article in the Online UBC library. Try the next two links. The third link below is the journal's site http://gw2jh3xr2c.search.serialssolutions.com.ezproxy.library.ubc.ca/?genre=article&issn=00144029&title=Exceptional+Children&volume=78&issue=1&date=20111015&atitle=Efficacy+of+a+Reading+Intervention+for+Middle+School+Students+With+Learning+Disabilities.&spage=73&pages=73-87&sid=EBSCO:Education+Full+Text+%28H.W.+Wilson%29&aulast=Wanzek%2c+Jeanne

http://web.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.library.ubc.ca/ehost/results?sid=123eec0a-192b-4824-9f9a-d37a09f27639%40sessionmgr15&vid=2&hid=19&bquery=%28JN+%26quot%3bExceptional+Children%26quot%3b+AND+DT+20111015%29&bdata=JmRiPWVmdCZ0eXBlPTEmc2l0ZT1laG9zdC1saXZl

http://www.questia.com/library/jp-exceptional-children.jsp

Danielle, in order to submit my references, I need to know where you got the Wenzel et. al document please or have you already included the citation of this in your list? Thanks.

If anyone else is using references I put in on their drafts, could they please let me know, so I can make up the apa reference for that citation. Thx 6pm is good here too! 6 pm Pacific time works for me. I'd like the call not to start much later than that as I'm still not feeling well. I'm assuming that I'll be the one to initiate the call on Skype unless someone else wants to try. I'll make the call out to you guys at 6pm. Are there specific issues to address? I can make any real time changes to the site map, if anyone has a request. We should decide who is submitting the assignment as well. I know that the APA style is still a problem, so I'd like to take a few minutes during the call to go over the details of one journal reference and one book reference. I know I've brought this up a lot, but I just finished a group assignment in another class, and I was the one to submit it, and had to correct a ton of formating mistakes in the references. I have the APA Manual, so there shouldn't be any issues with my formatting or references.

What time are we skyping tonite? I'd prefer after 6pm Pacific time if that is ok.

I've added two in-text references. One is already listed in **Key Frameworks - Notes**, and the other is added to my Word document of references in that same section.

To make compilation of the sections and especially the __references__ easier, I suggest that you include **ALL** your references in APA style in the Word document titled **References_proposal** that I attached in **Key Frameworks - Notes**, placing them in alphabetical order. Otherwise, whoever is left to compile the final document, likely me or Erin, will have a lot of work to do. This will require downlaoding the document, including your info, and removing the old document before saving and re-uploaing the updated one. Can you please indicate whether you agree with this idea or not? Sounds good. Will add my references tonite. I will also add my references tonight

OK, my rough draft of INTERACTIVITES is on the PROPOSAL page. PLEASE READ IT!!! I have some requests...please do the following:

1. Ignore the formatting. Will fix to APA style in word - wiki won't keep any formatting here.

2. We need more REFERENCES. I have put in three of my own, but that's all we got. Please add text and citation INTO the document where you see fit

3. Please comment on anything by writing directly into the document with a DIFFERENT COLOUR Ah crap, I'm just reading this now. I made minor corrections and re-worded some parts for flow.

4. The TEXT COMPREHENSION INTERACTIVITES section is a bit weak. I think we need MORE INFO here. If Danielle and Tara could insert more specifics into their sections that I have written, that would be great. I thin Vocabulary Comprehension Interactivities is good to go. I have some key steps involved in both written and visual summarizes, I will look that up and post once I finish my proposal

5. The ending is a bit weak, any suggestions...

6. It is about 1100 + words...Is everyone ok with this? (anything over 3500 words doesn't get marked, beyond that - I don't care :) I've added text and shortened some parts, but the section is now at 1200. I have more to add in the description of theself-monitoring activities, but someone is editing in there right now, and I don't want to over-write anything. I'll work in Word instead until I know the coast is clear! If we max out each of our sections #1 - 600 words, #2 - 900 words, #3 - 600 words, that brings us to 3300 words, that would bring us to 3300 words. I will have to add the text comprehension strategy - I am working on my proposal, will try to keep part one under 600 - or close and hopefully get away with just a sentence or two added to interactivity. (FYI)

Thanks girls!!!!!!

The site map is up - take a look in the interactivity page - and I can make any changes you like, you can email me or let me know on skype later. I have to run to pick up my husband from work but I am available 3:30pm (PST) onwards. I will be leaving in a half hour. :-)

Hello, I am just finishing my notes for interactivities, I will have it up shortly! Also, did we decided on a time for skype tonight? Thanks!

I was hoping to get to starting my interactivities proposal in the next hour or so as I have the day off and my baby is at daycare. We're still missing some notes there, but I am going to get started anyways. I plan on finishing tomorrow and posting by friday, as I mentioned I'll be away all weekend. So if you haven't got your notes up yet for interactivities, and are able to do it in the next bit, I would really appreciate it. thx. ** Hey Emily, you said that you need specific examples near the bottom of answer 1 (that last paragraph above #2) in interactivities. What exactly do you need? I put up my suggestions in the interactivities - Notes. I posted this at 11:40 PST. I'm around if you need suggestions ** ** on Skype or whatever. Hey Danielle. I think its ok. I saw you put a couple of specific websites/software in there and exactly what the students would do with those. That's what I need. Should be finished INTERACTIVITIES PROPOSAL this afternoon. Will post it and you can let me know if there is anything you want me to add... Ok! **

Tuesday Jan 31

If everyone is available tomorrow night I think a skype conversation could be useful. It shouldn't take very long .. Sounds good. What time?

Ok - Great thank you!!!!!

I will update the chart tomorrow (probably using another piece of software so we can embed it into our word application - hmmm) Danielle - The descriptions are great, I can make those changes Emily - I have to make some further changes to your section as I know that you aren't mindmapping (nope, visual dictionaries, mindmapping etc) / the entire time, or maybe you are? Erin, last but not least, I can take your specifics from the interactivity section and create a short sentence in the map - no prob, or you can post it here.

What are the chapter titles? That could help (hehe)
 * Chapter 1: The cell is the basic unit of life
 * Chapter 2: Human body systems work independently and together
 * Chapter 3: The Immune System protects the human body

Emily - I changed the interactivities section. I added about 5 note taking programs and took your advice, we will only use one, and may end up using another application that is better upon further tests but any of these serve our purpose, and essentially do the same thing. Danielle - How would you like your description wrote in the site map - just one sentence and I will copy it exactly? I will take out the reference to writing notes, my apologies. Will this work: "Stage 3: Concept Drawing: Students will read a short passage from a web link and using //insert name of software//will draw the concepts to further their understanding." That works! The site I'll be using is slimber.com (Thank you Erin for finding this!!) As for the description of the self-monitoring activities, this is a suggestion: "The student will record targeted and measureable behaviours using a graph after an activity has been completed." The monitored behaviour changes according to the strategy, and can really only be used for strategies that are repeated enough to see a progression. For example, if one type of activity is only used once or twice, like the comic strip (if I understand correctly that's the intended frequency) the student wouldn't self-monitor. The benefit there would be that he's got one less step to carry out, so it's a bit of a break for him. I haven't found a program or site for this application yet, but I'll let you know as soon as I do, and I'll be posting it in the interactivities section for Emily too.

As for the diagram, it really looks great. If you want to save yourself space, you could put only the bold titlers (Vocabulary and so on) int the diagram. The descriptions, which, for the most part, repeat, could go below the diagram. As for the title of each column, I'm not sure if the intention is to use the chapter or the section, because "Observing living things" is the title of a section (1.1), not a chapter. Besides that, the diagram looks very well laid out and indicates succintly the structure of the course.

If you want me to create a fourth stage to every chapter I can do that, but I really don't think that it is necessary - thoughts? Any specific notes about the site map?

Tara, this is from a part of my posting in Key frameworks- Notes:


 * I will be providing spaces for students to draw images that represent concepts in biology. For example, after reading about a cell organelle, the student will draw it using a painting application.(There is no note-taking involved. This is a purely visual task.)
 * Early on in this course, the student will be taught how to self-monitor behaviours related to learning disabilities in reading. Self-monitoring involves recording targeted and measureable behaviours using a graph after an activity has been completed. This method helps the student to manage his own time and to set his own goals. For example, a student who has read 2 pages or has correctly spelled 6 out of 10 specific vocabulary terms, would indicate this on some sort of graph. The goal for that week may be to increase to reading 3 pages of text per science lesson, or to crrectly spell 8 out of 10 vocabulary terms. The skills and the type of measurement are chosen with the teacher's help. skills that will be monitored will be based on the reading activities that the student performs

Right, Danielle - I didn't include a summary in Chapter 1 - I called it Concept Drawing because I haven't heard from you very specifically about the drawing strategy other than the fact that it is different from a summary, so I made sure not to call it a summary. Emily is still going to write a page about our design in the interactivity section and I imagine that she will have more room for specifics. We have to plan the site so we can illustrate what it will look like and we have to stop generalizing. I also mentioned that I would make all the changes necessary, so please offer constructive criticism. I'm sorry to say, but are we working as a team? Because some times it doesn't feel like it.

Tara, it has to be clear that the drawing based on a paragraph description is completely separate from the written summary. Otherwise, it goes completely against what I've written based on the literature. Also, the step of drawing a diagram doesn't really build on anything. It's simply complimentary to other methods. I will very likely be using it more than once in each chapter. For a 35-minute lesson, it was actually used 7 times, in the article that I read. I'm just stating that as an example; that's not necessarily what I will do.

Ok as promised, I went to one of my free online sites and created a really fast (not complete) site map. I am not sure if it is easier to cover one topic per chapter, or if they are so related that it doesn't matter. I really like the idea of scaffolding, and building on a topic as we go. I'm not the science person, so for all I know we are doing that. Danielle, for ease (because I worry that the site is getting too big) I created one stage for the "concept drawing" and one for "summarization" - I have only charted two chapters, and will make tons of changes, no problem :)

Take a look (holy cow it's huge - I will fix that as well!) :-)



I can still create a site map, that will look a lot nicer than the diagram I did and post it on the wiki as soon as tomorrow. What I need to know is:

Chapter 1: Topic 1, Chapter 2: Topic 2, Chapter 3: Topic 3 (what are they exactly?)

Chapter 1 Topics
 * Topic 1.1 Observing living things
 * 1.2 Cells -
 * 1.3 Diffusion, Osmosis and Cell Membrane

Chapter 2 topics
 * 2.1 Body Systems
 * 2.2. Digestive and Excretory Systems
 * 2.3 Circulatory and Digestive Systems

Chapter 3 topics
 * 3.1 Immune System
 * 3.2 Factors affecting the Immune System

I thought we were covering only "Biology" and three topics that are found within the biology unit - or is a topic the same as a chapter? Nope. 2 or three topics per chapter. See above. Again I am going to cover the vocab for EACH chapter, but I suggest that those of you working on text comprehension that you decide which topics (maybe one per chapter) you want to design activities around.

Hey Tara (and everyone). Just looking at one of your comments below ...I don't think you are going to be able to use text directly from the textbook - it is copyrighted and they will not take kindly to you positing any of their text on our website. But perhaps you could link the students to many of the websites listed on the the BC Science Website, have them read a passage from that website and then summarize using your strategy. Does that make sense?

i.e. here is a website off bcscience.com listed (under Unit 1 Fluids - Chapter 1 resources) for studenst to examine "cell differences". [] Once students went here, they could read a couple paragraphs and then summarize...

Also, I wasn't planning on doing anything fancy (sorry no time and little expertise) on the delivery of the interactivites proposal. I am basically going to: 1.describe our goal 2.list the activities and associated technologies 3. describe the technologies 4. back it up with some research

Let me know if you think I should approach it another way.

Hi Tara. Your diagram looks good! A few corrections/suggestions

1. your heading on the right top hand box should say Module 3: Topic 3. I think the word module should be changed to chapter throughout.

2. the students would be progressing thorugh 3 chapters, not 4 as outlined in your description.

3. Also to clarify, I don't think we are doing lessons per say, but more actitivities to insert into already developed teacher lesson.

4. Lastly, also, do you think the second line in the first paragraph should read "four different vocabulary and text comprehension strategies"?

Thanks for doing that diagram!

Hi guys. Lots going on today on the wiki. Just to clarify a few things: 1. Our interativities section should mention specific technologies, not hypotheticals. I.e. I will be using Mindmeister software to have the students do mindmapping! Please find the name of the software, application/technology/ you will be using for your strategies and list them there with brief descriptions, and related citations! 2. I was going to do vocab for each chapter, not for individual lesson. That is, I would create three activities (one for each chapter) on the vocab for that chapter. I can change this is we don't want to do it that way, but I will need to know from you guys. Gone for most of the evening but back later tonite To be clear, when a student draws a picture to show understanding, it's after reading a brief passage, not after an entire section. That means that this strategy can be used just about anywhere in a section, and many times. If it's only goint to be used once per secion of this course, so be it.

I'm not sure this answers your question Danielle - I offered to create little animations to begin each lesson, the animation would include a stick man (or something primitive) and an audio track that describes the activity - the learning strategy - and the steps that the students will have to take to complete the activity. I can do this for each lesson and stage if we create a script early enough. It should take about 10 hours per video (that's a guess but I think that should do it) I completely agree that we shouldn't have a lot of writing on cell biology. I thought the reading/summary section would be at most 100 words per lesson. I was hoping the passage could be taken right from a textbook and relate to the vocab and relationship chart - so I never actually planned on creative writing. We could also minimize our lesson scope (to 2 instead of 4, or even 1) if everyone thinks we are still doing too much - thoughts?

One thing I need clarification on is how much content we will be writing. I don't think it's possible or worth it to write all the cell biology content PLUS do the activities. I think our activities have way more value anyway. It seems necessary, though, to provide just enough content for the student and our classmates to understand the use of each activity, and where it fits within th structure of this course. Thoughts? That is what I was envisioning. Basically explaining the strategy. Giving a bit of detail into why it is good for LD students. Explain the activity. Give an example of the activity. Maybe a follow up after that? Done.

It was me, thanks Erin! I think the suggested stages that I drew up in the "interactivities section" could work- do you girls? Emily introduces the vocabularly, Erin uses that vocularly to build a relationship chart, Danielle and I, summarize a reading that further uses the vocabularly and relationships both visually and through written form. And the students practice self monitoring throughout. Perhaps in a discussion room? Lesson one, leads to lesson 2, to lesson 3, and finally to lesson 4. Do I understand it correctly?

Hello Everyone! So, it looks like there is lots on the go....! I just wanted to clarify the following list (for each of us to edit before Friday)? Section 1: Key Frameworks (Tara) Section 2: Intentions & Positions (Danielle) Section 3: Key Concepts and Contexts (Erin) Section 4: Interactivities (Emily) Tara, I think it was you who wrote that you did not understand my strategy... it is Semantic Feature Analysis (SFA) and looks at reading comprehension through the use of relationship charts (which includes developing the main concepts and ideas of a passage and than identifying the associated vocabulary) thus trying to improve reading comprehension and vocabulary retention for LD in science/social science fields. Also, I checked out the diagram that Tara posted under key concepts/contexts.... I think that we are on the right track!!! I do think that you should not worry and we should continue to go forth as is. For the 3 Modules, we need to choose the topics so we can work ahead if we want to. :) Any ideas? Also, I did note that I would be interested in using word press (but of course and flexible).  Erin

Good morning ladies. I was up late last night trying to sort out my own confusion with this project and I think I have. Please consider this, we have done an excellent job of proving our understanding and justifying our selected instructional strategies and target learners. We have not done an excellent job at visualizing the wik/web space. I honestly think that even the most fantastic scholarly paper will not get us the marks we want and deserve if Diane finishes reading and thinks, so what does it look like?

I have a suggestion: Please look at the diagram I quickly made last night (it is in the key concepts and contexts link on the right, no.3). Comment today on the very general structure and we can improve it together until it is correct. If you didn't envision the site this way, don't worry - we can fix it. And using one of the online charting software programs that I found, I will create a site map that we can include in the Interactivity Section. For me, a picture explains everything and that should help us become a lot more productive with our back and forth.


 * Emily - I just re-read the proposal, seeing how I lost everything yesterday, and the Interactivity section appears to be the place where we not only discuss our design environment but show what it will look like, the notes say that page length is not a correct account for this section where the content could take the form of a webpage, or flash animation (for example). The rubric also includes a section called "Design Plans for Interactivity." **

Once we sort out the general structure of our site. We can list the topic of each lesson (I called them modules, but that could change.) Once we decide on the topics we can be a little more specific about each strategy and describe how each link on the wiki/web site will work in a brief sentence, and thus show how our site will be interactive. We can still discuss the interactivity in written form, but it serve us all a lot better to include a diagram. I am more than willing to help if this is bigger then we originally thought. We need to decide as a group what specific topics we will cover in our site, and how we will break those topics up. The diagram will be easy once this is done.

What does everyone think? P.S. - check out the interactivity section as well - this will become a lot easier to understand once you think about the answers to the three questions in relation to your strategy

Monday Jan 30

I too am supposed to go away Saturday evening, but I'm willing to juggle my plans because I can - I would love to finish this in good copy by Friday (if possible.) Just a heads up that I am going away this weekend. I would love to have my INTERACTIVITIES page done by Thurs nite, so i can post it for review (proposal due Sunday). I will not have much time or ability to do work this weekend, so if you can post interactive notes by tomorrow night, that would be great;) Thanks!

I've added my parts to section #1. I have to add my references tomorrow. I just spent an hour dealing with my computer freezing. I've added a document on the APA style. Please be sure to check it and make sure that the in-text citations are properly formatted as well as the referenceces at the end of the text (the year should only appear once, the month and season aren't normally included in a journal article reference, "et al" has very specific uses...) And I have to look up how to cite a citation found within another reference. Thank you, will do!

I will write a draft proposal for part 1 tomorrow after work, and I will mention every strategy that everyone has included (albeit briefly) - I will keep the proposal to 600 words and concentrate most on the overarching goal - to teach verbal and text comprehension through a variety of instructional strategies. Everyone can look at the key frameworks notes that I can not fit and use these in their sections and I would suggest that we all keep an open mind. Instead of doing the same strategy twice in each module and each stage (for example) we can include it in one of the modules - still teach it - but not 4 times, only if we are seriously overlapping. At least this way we can help each other to make each module, and each stage better. That's assuming I understand everything. I sure hope so, but I'm not entirely sure ...

Tara, if you're talking about visual organizers, then your reference to Leopold & Leutner (2011) isn't relevant. They're talking about having the students create drawings that represent scientific concepts. I saw that it's among your references in section #1. I maintain what I said at the start of this conversation this evening that I'll be using drawing & self-monitoring as my strategies.

I was thinking that students would read a paragraph, or two. Once they have read the paragraph they would be asked to find the main ideas. In the visual organizers (mentioned below) students might be asked to visually chart each step that has taken place, this would be an example of an 'Enumeration' chart. Labelling steps 1,2,3,4. and in their own words describe what has happened. Alternatively, students could be asked to read a paragraph from the wiki/webpage. I would design some questions for them to answer that would require students to retell the main events in the passage they have just read, students would record the answers to these questions (in their own words) and could use these as a script for a comic book. The example I used below was about osmosis - students might drag and drop a picture of a healthy flower and a flower wilting and describe (using the answers they have already recorded) what is happening in the comic, and thus retell the passage of text in their own words. If you want to look at visual organizers for summarizing a text please open the pdf I attached below and look at page 5. I also tried to describe this below, sorry if it wasn't clear.

On another note, I lost a huge working file tonight and have just re-created the Key Concepts Notes, Emily I will look at Interactive notes tomorrow - My eyes are blurry.

Tara, can you specifically describe your visual summary activity? It doesn't look like anyone is working on written summaries, but it might be worth it for you to describe that too. We need to chat again, I don't know how to be any clearer about my strategy on this wiki. I am making use of the summarization strategy using both visual and written summaries.

I can't believe my terrible luck, Word just crashed on me as I was creating a diagram to answer one of the proposal questions and I have lost at least 3 hours of work. I still have the answers online for part one and part two. Please read them. Thanks!

Hi Emily, I just re-read what you said about the structure of the project, and it sounds great.

Nothing anyone has said appears to overlap with my topic. When I talked about visual summary, I meant that the student would summarize by drawing something based on a description. This relates to reading comprehension. As for self-monitoring, the student can monitor whatever we want. So the student can measure his reading pace. If I can find an online timer, that would help. I'm not sure that everone has a strategy that is linked to the four that you listed Emily. As for the charts I plan on using in self-monitoring, I'm talking about scientific charts, like the type that are made in Excel. That's not how the student with Learning disabilities would create them. I'm just saying that'sd the style he would use. I'm clear on what Emily is doing. Perhaps it would be helpful for all of us if Erin and Tara gave a short description too.

As for the platform, WikiSpace or Wordpress is fine. We should probably decide by Wednesday what exactly we're going to use.

As for structure of the project, did anyone take a look at my idea below? (under Monday). Danielle, I've only worked with Wikis and wordpress. Don't like Google docs that much...but that is just my personal preference.

Hi Emily, I thought I would answer your post on the top, hopefully you will see it. Written and Visual Summarization will address text comprehension.

This has to be one of the most confusing ways to communicate. Anyway, I am glad to hear we haven't totally stepped on each others feet Danielle. As for the comic strip idea, I found a website that is free, that allows you to drag and drop your cartoon into a field and add text if you want to. There is no requirement to create a long comic strip, but I thought it would be a fun project for visual learners to connect the dots. Maybe a little comic strip on osmosis (for example) wouldn't involve instruction because that would be included on the wiki page.

Regarding the charts, I am looking at using "Visual Organizers" that aid in summarizing a text. The topic of an organizer may be: "Compare/Contrast" and the students would have to compare and contrast the main ideas into two separate areas on a chart. Other topics include "Enumeration", "Cause and Effect", "Problem and Solution", "Description." All of the of the "Visual Organizers" I have found are circular, in that each student fills in a circle with the main ideas from the text. I hope that's clearer now too, is it? Hi Tara...the only problem with that is that I was going to do Graphic Organizers as my strategy, which are the same as visual organizers....For example the Cause and Effect chart is a graphic organizer...Is that what you mean? I will upload the pdf, quickly look at page 5 and let me know if it is the same. There are quite a few strategies for the visual summary so we can change them as we get into it:

Hi Tara, I'm here, but I have to go soon. self-monitoring is a way for students to document their progress at the end of the lesson. They use the language-learning strategies within the lesson, and the self-monitoring comes after. It serves to build independence and instrinsic motivation, and it has been shown to work well. So the three of you would be working on strategies related to language that are applied DURING the lesson, and mine would come afterward. The results of the self-monitoring are very important for the teacher too, who absolutely must log the student's progress to respect the IEP.

Self-monitoring was shown to do very well when it was combined with summarizing/finding the main idea, but if you're covering that, I'll do the self-monitoring alone and indicate in my proposal comments that the combined method is recommended. Let me get the reference for the article I found about visual summarising. I can't post the PDF here, because I can't even save it to my computer. Anyway, hopefully it's clearer now that our topics are separate but can be used in combination. Hey Danielle, are you online? We can chat via skype if you are. I am confused - are you working on self-monitoring and if so is that different then summarizing and finding the main idea?

Hi Tara, the idea was to summarize what was learned, let's say the description of a cell and its components, by drawing a picture of a cell and labelling the components. If you've already covered this, then take it away. I would really like to work on self-monitoring.

Hi Tara, I'm not sure that asking students to draw comic strips for a science class is the best way to go. That requires a whole set of skills in itself. If this were an English class, that might work, but I don't think the student or teach can spend a huge proportion of time dealing with language.

As for charts, I was planning on using them for the self-monitoring becaue it's a quick way for a student to indicate their progress. What exact visual methods were you planning on using?

Hey Danielle

I hope I haven't been doing the same thing as you as I have spent the day working on a strategy that incorporates written and visual summarizing. I thought that you were focusing on pictures, and looking for the meaning through pictures, was I wrong?

If so, we may have to amalgamate our ideas, I have finished "Key Frameworks" and "Intentions and Positions." Because I have been focusing on both written and visual summarizing we could technically sell it as four strategies - even if we have overlapped our efforts, and we can try to take advantage of this.

One thing that comes to mind is that we could create a two projects for visual summarizations, perhaps using charts and one using a comic strips (as an example).

Tara

I'd like to stick with drawing as a way to summarize what the students learned. As I said on our call, that was proven to be more effective than summarizing with words, given a context where an image is relevant. I say we make the site for both the student and the teacher. We can do this by addressing all the instructions to the student and by writing a teacher's guide that contains screen caps. Did anyone read my previous post, where I asked about what type of platform would be good? I also addressed structural issues. Danielle

Ok, great, thanks Erin.

I have a suggestion for the structural design of our project. It is...

To frame our website/resources addressing four areas of reading comprehension (i.e. each of us showing how our strategies addresses a different facet of reading LD) within the biology unit

i.e. I would show how to use graphic organizers to help improve vocabulary comprehension i.e. perhaps another person's strategy addresses text comperhension (words and ideas) i.e. perhaps another person's strategy addresss reading pace (speed) and fluency i.e perhaps another person's stategy addresses letter and word recognition If we were able to link our strategies to these four facets, we could present one activity regarding our reading comprehension facet per chapter for our unit. Let me know if you like this idea. Was just trying to brainstorm how to set up our project design. I realize the difficult part would be linking your chosen strategy to specific facet of reading LD.....If we did structure it this way, it might give our proposal more structure as well, as we could ouline what I just mentioned. Anyways, let me know what you think. Ideas, suggestions...etc.:) Hey there!  I think after our discussion the other night, that we would be presenting a website/resources to be used in conjunction with other unit material - so a tool for students and teachers. Best wishes,  ERIN

Okay, so Diane wrote me back and it looks like all our interactivities have to be made for our perspectives students. We don't have to worry about getting our classmates involved. Of course, the links, activities and such have to work and be accessible so Diane and everyone can see them. Here's her response:

Hi Emily...the interactivity will be what your LEARNERS will be doing...the project will be directed to a set of learners defined by you (grade, level, age, etc)...and those interactive items in the project will support their learning of the content...

Hope this clears some confusion up for everyone - now we still just have to come up with the interactivities....

Also, it would help me for writing the interactivities proposal - are we presenting our website as a tool for teachers or actually an online unit for students to access or are we addressing both the teacher and the student in our site? Thanks,

Sunday Jan 29th

Hi group. I have just emailed Diane for clarification on whether our classmates have to actively participate in our interactivities or not. In all the other group projects, we we had specific tasks that our classmates had to do (like watch a video on our website and respond to a question we had posted via vista). Reading through the specifications outlined in the assignments page, I am unclear if we have to do this or not. Perhaps are interactivites are just in the website and linked for our "perspective" grade 8 students. Will let you know what I hear back.

Hi group, I'm sorry I haven't answered the proposal questions yet. After looking at Diane's instructions, the questions don't have to be answered as such. They're there to help us think about what to say, so that gives us some latitude as to the content. I think she will be very strict about our adhering to the APA style. I offer to verify the references once they're typed in, to make sure all the details are right. Anyway, I'll have my answers up within the next 24 hours. I've been extremely tired because I pulled an all-nighter earlier this week. I haven't been productive at all these last couple of days and am just starting to get back to normal.

As for the project, I think one way to unify all these lesson aids that we are each preparing would be to present them as such - activities that can be used together or separately. The way I see it, there is a lot of biology material out there that does not need to be re-written. So our goal could be to produce material that would ACCOMPANY existing course content, for the purpose of helping out kids with LD. Of course, we would probably still have to explain where each of our activities fit into a cell biology course, and make sure we have enough content. Does that make sense? We can explain to the teacher, to the student, or both how best to use each activity or type of activities. This would be a good opportunity to show teachers and students how to use technology in new ways, rather than sending them off on someone else's links.

I think we should also figure out what platform we want to use. I'm indifferent because WikiSpace, Moodle and Google Docs are all new to me, and I'm happy to discover any other platform. Danielle

Saturday Jan 28

Hi Erin. Sorry, I moved your work to the Key Frameworks NOTES page and I put them under their specific headings. I just wanted to keep things cohesive. The proposal pages are for the final written drafts. Hope you don't mind.

Hello! I just posted my answers to Key Frameworks to the side bar "Key Frameworks - Proposal" Have a great Sunday! Erin

Hi girls. Danielle, I've confirmed you on Skype. Erin, I will send you an email with my skype address and then we can be contacts. I'm just about to add Tara as well. See you at 6pm! Also, I've put up my point form notes for question 1 under the Key Framework Notes page.

Hello Danielle and Emily (Tara too)! I am around tonight. I completely agree, I feel like there needs to be some clarity - I have done research and put my sections together (all but one). I have no problem with Biology (in fact, much more comfortable with it than electricity)! Thanks, Erin

6 pm your time works for me! I'll try to figure out Skype group calls too. And I'll email Erin to make sure she gets the message, although I will be limiting my group communication to this wiki from now on.

Woo-hoo!!!!! I have just figured out how to make a group Skype call! Link to instructions:

https://support.skype.com/en-gb/faq/FA2831/Making-a-conference-call-Windows

If you want, I can initiate the call, because I've already got Erin on my contact list (and Tara too, for future calls). I'll let the rest of you exchange Skype info. (It's like phone numbers. Even though we know each other, I don't feel comfortable sharing other people's contact info.) Emily, I've sent you a contact request on Skype. My profile pic is a set of dentures (you know, because it's always smiling!) I'll need you to confirm before I can add you to the group call.

Ok, thanks for all the feedback Danielle. Very comforting:) I could talk tonite at 6pm. Does that work for you and Erin (9pm your time?) I think my husband said you actually can have group skypes up to 10 ppl for free, so I'll look it to that. Let me know. Just have to pop out for a few hours to pick up my baby from Grandma's house. Will be back in the later afternoon:)

Hey Emily, I'm here! Please stick around! I'll finish reading your post and then post my comments. With what I've read of your post so far, I agree. Danielle

Ok, I'm sorry....I'm just don't think this approach is working. I'd really like to talk to whoever is around tonite, if at all possible. Ok. Pick a time. Any time is good for me. Erin sent an email to us saying she's availble to talk tonight. And maybe at least two of us could Skype during the chat, so that it goes a bit faster, or is that just complicating things? I haven't had time to find and experiment with any web-conference tools yet. I have Adobe Connect on my XOOM tablet, but you three would need it also, for it to work. And I don't know if it costs anything to use it outside of the tablet. Tara has written her draft for question 1, and it is great (very clear and well defined), although that being said, it is nearly 400 words and we still have 3 other components and strategies to add to it! By that time we will be sifting through close to 2000 words to answer a 600 word question. I just feel like we are way to big in scope, and that we are creating way to much work for ourselves. Agreed. I really think we should just go with one strategy (if we go with Tara's, we have lots of options of sub-strategies such as graphic organizers, SFA etc....) I agree that Tara's strategy does include many sub-stragies that we can put to use. But we will have to address some issues. From Vaughn //et al//., 2011:

"Though **results were not statistically significant (p = .066)**, the effect size (g = 0.36) has considerable practical significance and future studies examining  the effects on low readers are needed."

"While we interpret the effects on a standardized reading comprehension measure as meaningful and the high feasibility of implementation replicable,  we are also aware that the effects are small. **We think it is worthwhile to ask**  **ways of influencing comprehension** or whether interventions that focus  more on vocabulary building and/or background knowledge might be  even more efficacious."
 * whether these multicomponent approaches like CSR are the most impactful **

If we're to use the CSR method, we have to justify ourselves. For my part, I've got a way that I think could improve upon the CSR method. Just let me go back to an article and make sure it's worthwhile. Remember, we can adapt this (or any) method to our liking, **as long as we can justify it**.

Please read Tara's proposal at the bottom of the KEY FRAMEWORKS page (sorry, Tara, I moved it. You had posted it on Intentions and Positions which is not the first question - ie. the pages links are alphabetical and not set up to follow the flow of the proposal's question). It's basically almost answered question 1 itself.

I propose Tara's strategy and we can delve into sub strategies from there. Also,I think we should post our answers point form under the headings on each of the linked pages. I think it will be easier to compile a written document from point form than from four seperate and long word documents. Yes, I agree about writing in point-form. We should do the same for questions 2-4.

I think we can beef up Tara's proposal for question #1 by a couple hundred words and it is done. Maybe Tara would like to do that, seeing as she wrote it all originally anyways... I think it might be worth it for each of us to two cents, if only to very brifly describe the sub-strategy we want to use.

I'm going to go away and start answering the questions under the headings... I'm sorry I'm being such a pain, and I am so not trying to hijack this project but I just feel overwhelmed, as I think we are heading off into too many different directions....Am I the only one? I don't get it:( Emily, you're not being a pain at all. You're reigning in the project and helping us to focus more and avoid unnecessary work and stress. This is only good.

p.s. I do think one unit is better, although most have only 2 or 3 chapters. We could go with Chemistry, although I don't think Tara was into that. As an alternative suggestion, the Biology unit for Grade 8's might be fun. Cells, Body Systems and The immune System. Let me know what you think..... I agree! Biology is fun! Two votes for biology!

I'll be checking in periodically, Emily. It sounds like you and I will be the only ones close to a computer for the next few hour. Danielle

As I wrote in my email : It seems the next step is to answer the rest of the questions in the proposal guide (sections 2-4) just like we're doing for section 1.

I don't believe it'll be necessary to chat right away, especially since Tara isn't here. We should chat Wednesday night (that's the day we agreed to submit our last section to each other, right?) to address specific questions that may still linger. --- From earlier:

Hi girls, I suggest that if you find a really good article, that you post it here or to the left to save time searching for it from a link. I suggest using up to 2 authors' names and the year as the title, just like an in-text reference is used. Examples: Jones_2011.pdf (for 1 author) Smith_Clark_2011.pdf (for two authors) Morgan_etal_2011 (for 3 authors or more)

Erin, I've coloured you blue for the moment so I know who's writing. I'm purple, as you can see, Tara is rust, and Emily is turquoise.

Hello! So I agree with you for sure.... because one strategy alone does not work anyway and in the readings I was doing it suggested collaborative strategies. So if this is what we are going to do, what is the next step. I had worked on my project and went through the design questions. I think that the material I completed could still be put together or included. Thoughts.... should I still upload the Framework? Erin

Frid Jan27

Hi, I think we are on the right track in the sense that, through all this reading, we're discovering what is practical and what's not. That's the nature of research - there's an alomost infinite amount of info out there, and we're trying to wade our way through and define a project. I've spent 5 yrs doing research on different topics, and believe me, we're okay. I don't think we're behind, and I don't think we're in a mess. Tara, I've been occupied with other projects, but now I can dedicate myself to this one, so I'll have a look at your paper. You mentioned logging and summarizing, which sounds like what I was going to do anyway. Emily, if you think we should focus on just one unit, then maybe that's the way to go. I don't care which topic we work on, and I guess it won't be chemistry. No problem! Could the rest of you choose your preference? I have an idea for how our project can go, but I'll bring it up later. For now, I think it may be worth looking at the article Tara talked about and seeing if there are topics that might interest you, just choose one and move forward. Erin, how do you feel about all of this?

Hi girls, I'm online and I don't know how long it will last as this has been to craziest day ever. Power outage all day at school, school stayed open, hydro fire and apparently unsafe air. I'm exhausted and the power is touch and go.

I will go to the "Intentions and Positions" link on the left and upload my draft answer for question 1.

I also think that four separate educational strategies can blow up into something far too big. I mentioned this yesterday in the wiki, take a look at the CSR summary below and also check your personal email. I think we should consider creating a digital learning enviroment, much like the wiki you sent Emily (it is amazing) that follows the Computer-Assisted Collaborative Strategic Reading methodology. As I mentioned yesterday, this methodology makes use of multiple strategies - graphic organizers, logging, summarizing, question creation, individual and group work - to name a few.

I'm really sorry that I'm not around this weekend. I leave tomorrow morning and will be back online Sunday night. Please read my draft answer (and take my apologies if it needs some fixing, I mentioned I was exhausted right :) and think about CSR - it could be the answer for us and everything I've read has produced favourable results for teaching LD students comrehension skills. The research results are great, and almost unbelievable. I posted a few articles yesterday on the wiki as well if you're curious.

Good night, have a great Saturday and wish me luck - I hope the power stays on!

Also it goes without saying that I trust you all and if you decide to make some changes for the better of the project I will support them, and I wouldn't take it personally. ;)

P.S. Erin, SFA is a sort of graphic organizer, so we are overlapping here in terms of strategy. We should probably chat in order to devise a plan of attack...

Hi guys. So I've been looking for a strategy and I thought it was going to be graphic organizers, but now I am struggling with parts of our project. I guess I am having difficulty visualizing what ours is going to look like. I feel like the one chapter from each unit isn't particularly cohesive - it means we can't really work together as we are all working on seperate content. And I thought it might be a bit strange to just have one chapter from each of the four units in a grade. I'm sorry to be such a bummer, but I'm really struggling with this. I think also trying to think how'd we get our audience involved i.e. we need to have interactivities for our classmates to do...like online quizzes, polls, post it walls, discussion threads, etc and wondering how we would incorporate these. Has anyone (I know you have Tara) taken a look at the website of another groups' project that I sent?

So here are some of my questions. Perhaps someone can answer them for me and I can get a better focus of our design. 1. Do you think doing just one unit between the four of us is better? We could work together more. 2. Are we designing a lesson plan for each day of the chapter? 3. If we are not designing a lesson plan for each day and using our 'strategy' somewhere in that lesson(s), what exactly are we presenting? Just the strategy and how to use it? 4. Are we looking to integrate technology into our strategy applications (i.e using apps on the ipad to increase vocab comprehension), or are we just doing things the traditional way (i.e. pen and paper, text based etc).

Thanks for any feedback. Just feeling a bit like I don't know exactly what I am doing here...

Thurs Jan 26

My last post of the night, it has been a long day.

I summarized: //Cognitive Strategy Instruction for Improving Expository Text Comprehension of Students with Learning Disabilities: The Quality of Evidence// and the article is great!

The reason for this is that the article analysed 18 group studies and 7 single-subject design studies to test the quality using the //Essential Quality Indicators// and found only 5 research studies on teaching comprehension strategies to students with learning disabilities that passed the test.

If you are short on research you could look up any of these. I am not going to read them, I have four articles already compiled for part 1 - no pressure to read them, look them up only if you need/ or want to.


 * The studies that passed the research test
 * o Group Design Studies:
 * § Boyle, J R (1996) The effects of a cognitive mapping strategy on the literal and inferential comprehension of students with mild disabilities. //Learning Disability Quarterly,//19, 86-98
 * § Jitendra, A K, Hoppes, M Y, & Xin, Y P. (2002) Enhancing main idea comprehensions for students with learning problems. The role of a summarization strategy and self-monitoring instruction. //Journal of Special Education,//34, 127-139
 * § Klinger, J K, Vaughn, S, Arguelles, M, E, Hughes, M T, & Leftwich, S A. (2004) Collaborative strategic reading “Real-world” lessons from classroom teachers. //Remedial and Special Education,//25, 291-302
 * § Malone, L D, & Mastropieri, M A. (1992) Reading comprehension instruction, Summarization and self-monitoring training for students with learning disabilities. //Exceptional Children//, 58, 270-279
 * o Single-Subject Study:
 * § Schumaker, J, B, Deshler, D, D, Alley, G R, Warner, M, M, & Denton, P H. (1982) Multipass, A learning strategy for improving reading comprehension. //Learning Disability Quarterly,// 5, 295-304

Hello, I just did some research and came across Semantic Feature Analysis (SFA), an Interactive Vocabulary Instructional Strategy. It provides opportunity for a broad teaching strategy so teachers can also incorporate active learning and activation of prior knowledge. Thanks! Erin

Hello again,

I have been researching, and summarizing for about five hours and I am confident that a CSR strategy is an effective method to improve the comprehension of special needs children. Every research report I've skimmed and read has reported favourable results, especially for LD students. (Really great!)

The CSR method is at least 4 different strategies and can be up to 6 different strategies to fully implement. There are a lot of research reports out there on this, and the beauty is that it could include story mapping, logging, and graphic organization. Don't worry, I'm not proposing you stop researching, I am thinking, however, that we could combine our efforts and do all of our projects on the CSR method. It is pretty huge, and I can't see how I could write one project on it without throwing the balance of everything else off.

Please read the summary I've included and consider how your strategy or research could fit. Or perhaps how I could simplify it to re-balance everything. I've also found a research report that was conducted on CSR in a computer learning environment, it looks promising.

Let me know what you think. Thanks!

Sure Emily, I will re-attach the article again. It is already in this wiki somewhere and has been summarized in the matrix. (if that helps)



Just a note, since we are creating a digital education site I think my example CSR project will be graphic/visual - I don't know how yet but I want it to look fun and appealing to students.

Great, I think I'll stick with graphic organizers then....Tara, could you pass along any info you have on story mapping? That would be super helpful. I'll also incorporate some other types of graphic organizers as well!

I have an UPDATE: I am going to concentrate on "**Collaborative Strategic Reading"** as my teaching/learning style. It is grounded in cognitive psychology and I found an article that tested CSR in a grade 9 biology class with great success. I will start looking up ways to integrate CSR into a technology based learning environment.

Attached is an article that looks promising: "Cognitive Strategy Instruction for Improving Expository Text Comprehension of Students with Learning Disabilities." I just wanted to say I would be ok with the idea of everyone focusing on a "cognitive" teaching/learning strategy. I think we may be doing that anyway, just focusing on different projects that would technically be "cognitive" in design.

Take a read :-)

Also, if you are interested, two more articles that have sparked my interest on CSR: All of the articles are peer reviewed.

Also, just sent you all an email to your personal emails. Please check.

Hey, Thanks for the pages. I have an article on story mapping - yes. I have to do a lot more research which I am beginning now. It turns out I didn't get much of a work day today either.

I will spend an hour or two searching through ERIC - I will look for learning and teaching strategies to help improve comprehension skills in special needs students and I will log in again this afternoon to let you know what I found. I don't want to overlap either and like you I don't want to step on anyone's toes. :-)

Okay, I've added some pages to the wiki. They are all linked there on the left hand side. I have made two pages for each section of the proposal. One pages is for each of us to add our individual notes. The second (called Proposal) is for our final draft of each section. Hope this makes it a bit easier to compile our thoughts. Generally info, thoughts etc can still be added here.

As an aside, Tara, did you mention that your strategy would be storylining? I'm just wondering becuase I am becoming more interested in using graphic organizers as my strategy, but don't want to step on your toes, as I believe storylining (storymapping) is a kind of graphic organizer. Please let me know what you think.

Wednesday Jan 25-

We are each going to look for 2 to 3 references that support our selected teaching/learning style. The teaching/learning style can be anything you want, so long as you can prove through research that the teaching/learning style should help a special needs student to improve their verbal and text comprehension in grade 9 science.
 * Summary from our chat:**

Each of us will impliment our learning style using a sample project (that we create) on a topic (that we have decided)

Tara - Biology Emily - Space Danielle - Chemistry Erin - Electricity (? - if that is ok)

We are each going to answer question 1 of the proposal and post our answer to the wiki by Saturday Morning. We should also post an update as soon as we decide about our teaching/learning strategy, to ensure we do not overlap.

1. **Key Frameworks**
 * __From the Proposal:__**
 * What is the focus of your design project?
 * To create a digital learning environment that aims to improve the text and verbal comprehension of special needs students in 9 sciences.

Hey Erin, we are planing to meet at 7:45 (Pacific Time) - hope you are still around, I will log into chat room one now. Danielle, I read your notes and I have similar findings, the students need to visual map their work, the article I read called it a "Story Map" much like the self monitoring and graphic organisation you mentioned.

Hey there, I am at the chat room! I just realized though... are we all in the same time zone? I live in North Bay, ON. Anyone from Vancouver area? Because if so.... we have a two hour time difference! Erin

Hi, I just added a document here on what I've read. I'll fill out the matrix later. I wanted to touch on content that we could discuss. Danielle Hey, I just bought a microphone so I can chat - literally - if that's easier. Awesome ...

Hello to all! I have attached a word document with all the questions that we need to answer in our proposal. I was hoping we could split up the proposal into four equal parts, but I'm not sure how. We should try to answer as many questions as we can tonight, and decide how to continue.

Since everyone is a little busy - or a lot - let's all log into chat room one at 7:45pm, I know that Erin will be a little late so we can spend the first couple of minutes working out the kinks. If chat room one is not available, go to 2, and so on.

I hope you are having a great day :-) Tara



Hello everyone! It is me... ERIN! I am just learning how to use this whole thing. I am sorry I have not been on! I just started a job (casual... which means I should hardly be working but I have been doing 12 hours shifts everyday and trying to figure out ETEC 500! AHH!) I am here! And working on research as well. I can do the chat thing on Wed night anytime after 8pm - or Thursday after 5pm.

= = Tuesday Jan 24 -

Hi, I just sent Erin an email through the course forum, hopefully she gets it soon. I wanted to let you girls know. I had another afternoon off and it is a good thing, I find it so easy to get behind in one course or another, both of you are an inspiration to me, Danielle with four courses, and Emily with a baby and a full time job - keep it up girls you are motivating me (believe it or not ;)

Monday Jan 23rd -

Hi Wednesday night, 7:30pm, chat room 1 unless we hear otherwise, I'll do some research tomorrow night and look into the proposal to help speed things along. Arlene emailed me, I think she found another group - the email wasn't really clear but let's assume she is going to join another group and we will try once more to reach Erin tomorrow. Have a good night ladies, talk soon.

Ok let's try for wesnesday.I may be a couple minutes late depending on that baby but just start without me and I'll jump in as soon as I can! Hopefully we hear from the other girls tomorrow.

Can't log on to WebCT/Vista right now... If we have to postpone, that's fine. I'll have substantially more to contribute then, if we we do. Tomorrow night, I'll be having a meeting using Elluminate where people can talk. It takes a bit more preparation to set up than a chat, so not this time, but the nest time we need a meeting, I'll try to set that up. With that same groupe, we're using Google Docs. When we're done with the projects, I'll let you know how it compares with wikispaces, unless you already know. As for the chat room, I guess we take #1 if it's empty. If not, I'll go to the next higher number room.

Hi Girls, I still haven't heard from either Arlene or Erin. If we can't reach them before tomorrow, can we postpone the meeting until Wednesday? I would like to divide the tasks and it would be good to hear from everyone. If scheduling is a problem, I'm available both days. Whatever you think.

Attached is my updated literary matrix. I have an excel file if you want me to do the formatting just send the info. in a word doc and I will cut and paste. I changed a heading: "references" became "references and/or peer reviewed" :-)



A fifth is probably fine but I haven't heard from Arlene yet or got her email to invite her to the wiki. Has anyone heard from Erin yet? Send her an invite too. So 6:00 Tueday works if that's a go. Are we meeting in Chat room 1?

Hi, Can we have the meeting at 6:00? I've got another meeting scheduled at 7:30 on Tuesday. By the way, did you get Diane Janes' message? She wants to know if a fifth person can join us. I don't know who it is, but I think anyone can at least adapt easily to the reading aspect of our project. I'm for another member!

Hi, I was just going to ask about Diane's message as well, I agree - the more the merrier. I will reply to Diane if you like. I have the afternoon off (woo hoo) 6PM is good for me, but just in case we haven't heard from Erin or our potential 5th member let's tentatively keep Wednesday at 7:30PM (Pacific Time Zone) free as well. I will check the wiki again tonight and keep a look out for our new members. I'll include you both on the email to Diane. :-) T.

Sunday, Jan. 22 -

Hi, Tuesday is good for me too, I thought I had something planned with the family but I was wrong :). Let's try to meet on Tuesday evening. I have to buy a microphone for my computer if I want to speak, I'll look into it because it would be handy to have.

For Tuesday, we should each read our articles and look at the proposal ahead of time, think about which section you would feel most comfortable working on, that should help speed things along.

So, is it 6PM or 7:30PM?

Hey there, 7:30 your time isn't too late for me if we're going to meet for 1h or 1h30, although, honestly, most meetings like this last only an hour before people get tired, no matter what time zone they're in.

In another group, we might use something called Eluminate. I think it allows for speaking meetings. It's something we could try eventually.

Hi. I just sent Erin and invite. So hopefully she checks her email soon. Will email her on vista as well to let her know. I also remembered that my husband is going away on business Wed- Fri, so I am unable to meet until after 7:30pm when my little guy goes to bed. That's probably too late for you, Danielle. I would be good to chat on Tuesday this week! Anyone else?

Hi Girls,

Emily have you had any luck inviting Erin Kitchen to our wiki? Erin is our fourth (Danielle added a note yesterday and I think she sent an email to the blackboard email) We should probably see if Erin is free to chat as well.

I am looking ahead and I wanted to let you know that I am not available next weekend, Saturday January 28 or Sunday January 29. I would like to get ahead on my work because of my scheduling conflict. I obviously have lots and lots to do so no worries about speeding up our time to chat and divide the tasks, lets wait to hear from Erin and set a date to chat shortly after.

Also I checked and the Proposal is Due on February 5. :)

Good luck with everything.

Hi, Any time you want a chat is fine, all the times suggested by Tara are ok for me. I also agree with Emily's point of placing most recent posts at the top. I'll be back tonight to see if there are any updates here.

Good idea, all edits will now be placed at the top. Thanks and Happy Reading. :)

Saturday, Jan. 21. Check the bottom of the wiki for a few updates - talk soon :)

Friday, Jan 20

***Hi Danielle and Tara! I've put some info under question 3 - take a look and let me know what you think.... I have been doing a bit of reading and I think it would be good if we clearly defined what we mean by "at risk". I don't know if we should use the word at risk in our proposal as there seem to be many conflicting defintions out there, including students that are at risk of failing, are "disengaged in school", have learning disabilities, are from a low socio-economic background, ESL, students not achieving on par with others in the same grade level....I think we should really narrow it down. If we are going to be discussing students with learning disabilities regarding reading comprehension, we should probably be as specific as possible. I don't know a whole lot on the range of this but I am sure there are a lot of learning disabilities that affect reading comprehension. Danielle, you probably have more expertise in this area. Thoughts?

Emily - Hi Girls! Here is our wiki!. I think as we post, we should do it by day. i.e if you are the first to post on Sat, pls put a header at the top of your content saying the date. It's just easier to keep track as this will be a long project. Also, if everyone picks a colour (under T in the menu bar by the underline U) to represent their text, it is easier to see who has posted what. I'll be this colour from now on! Let's carry on:)

Hi, Danielle here. Here is a start on the answers to the questions for the post. Hi, Tara here. I will look over the questions below and add my two cents. Thanks for organizing this, and for getting us started Emily and Danielle.


 * 1) Here is what we know about the three different facets of our topic:

- Technology

Emily - I have taught a range of online and blended courses which can be adapted and modified and paced for a variety of learners. I have also used technology such as iclickers in the classroom, which can be used as formative or summative assessments for and of a broad range of learners. Tara - I have worked in television and film production, mostly on the business side and have experience with basic spreasheet management software, project management software and the entire Adobe Creative Suite. I usually teach (when I'm not a TOC) photography, photo editing, web design, graphic design, computer animation and film/audio production. I know a lot of web sites with great tutorials and can be trusted to created graphics. I have the Adobe Master collection on my home computer. With respect to online learning environments, I have taught a lot of classes using blackboard, and have taken some college and university level courses that use moodle. Danielle has produced e-learning for CD-ROMs and online courses using a variety of authoring tools and assessments

- Science Emily - I have eight years experience teaching various levels of junior and senior sciences. I have taught both academic and non-academic areas of science (Biology 11 vs. Science and Tech 11). Tara - I don't have a science background. I'm resourceful however, my brother in-law is a science teacher and a very close friend is currently teaching grade 8 science at Croften House in Vancouver. I would feel comfortable creating some of the modules because the age and academic level of our target audience is such that I can learn the material relatively fast. Danielle has several years of experience teaching science and writing material for science e-learning

- Special education/Reading comprehension Emily...I don't have anything here - don't really know what to put down:( Tara - I have a minor in English, and have had to write and present television proposals on a number of occasions. I have been getting a lot of calls lately to work in Resource rooms at Middle Schools and have noticed that the students are for the most part a little depressed, they don't want to feel stupid and want to fit it. If you are patient, and if you set your expectations at their level, you can make a difference in just one day. Celebrate every success. (my two cents) Danielle has qualifications and experience is Special Ed and experience in teaching reading comprehension using various methods.

2. Here is what we know about our target learners. Emily - These students often need various degrees of support and adaptations (sometimes even modifications). Students I have taught have required: SEA's (Special Education Assistants), close proximity to teacher, photocopied notes, more time on assessments, scribes, and adaptations to workload (i.e. less homework, fewer questions on test, multiple choice only). Tara - I agree with you, and would add that students need more one on one time (it was implied) because when you sit down and work through a problem with the student, and celebrate their success upon completion, they are far more likely to try another problem and to continue to focus. Maybe more rewards and small tasks would provide the recognition that students crave in an online environment. (?) Danielle has taught students in grades 7 and 8 for two years, covering science and Special Ed and wrote remedial and regular science material for science e-learning.

Number 3, 4, and 5 are from the assignment outline. I will copy the questions above each.

This type of learner often responds to a developmental or constructivist learning environment. Hands-on activities and discovery learning are often used with students of this type, as these approaches can be more engaging, relevant and less-overwhelming than traditional methods. Students learn through experimentation, often making predictions, and coming to the conclusions on their own (some teacher guidance may be necessary) as opposed to being told the information directly. Knowledge can be obtained and built upon from experience, and learning should be an active process.
 * 3**. **What are the major theories that describe this kind of learner? (e.g., developmental, cognitive, and/or second language acquisition theories)**


 * 4. How much do you already know about the kinds of learning environments typically used in relation to this kind of educational activity, and with this particular group of students? ( e.g., games, computer-based tutorial, online learning environment) **

Here is what we know about Special Education of students in grades 7-9.

These students need help in different ways, according to specific challenges. It is often necessary for a teacher to experiment with different materials before finding a strategy that is effective. That is why we want to offer different learning methods. Also, it’s often necessary for teachers to adapt their material for their students’ special needs. This is why we intend to provide tools and templates that would allow teachers to modify our content as needed, following our examples for guidance, or to create entirely new material to suit the subject matter and student needs.

Our scope can’t be infinite, so we would like to cover one topic per grade level, and offer about three strategies for teaching. The material-creation tools leave it up to future teachers to personalize and expand the scope of our work, and hopefully share it as well.


 * 5. What are the instructional constraints that will delimit your design activities? (e.g., time, economic, technological) **

The instructional constraints that may pose a restriction on the design activities include the rapidly changing nature of technology, funding constraints, and the cooperation as well as availability of professional development activities to train teachers and administrators. Studies have shown that the majority of school funding has been on purchasing a great number of computers, and not on training teachers on the software. This leads to the misconception that often the software programs are too complex for students with disabilities to operate.

Saturday Jan 21st Hey ladies, the answers to the questions are great! I think they'll be too long to post in the forum, which is what I was I was writing for. That's why I kept it brief and wrote in the third person. If you need moreinfo about anything, please let me know. Anyway, I've just posted an update on the forum inviting more people to join. Erin Kitchen has shown interest, and I asked her to send us a mail message with her email address so that we can send her the invitation to this page. I'm working on a project for ETEC 565 right now, but I'll be doing a lit search for this project in a couple of hours. Also, it won' be necessary to deal with Endnote. It appears that UBC offers a reference-sorting program that we just have to download. That said, it seems safest to have one person attach the final list of references to the finished assignment. If you want, I can do that, but if you've never done it, it's worth at least practising. I've never used the reference programs that UBC is offering, so I'll be learning too. I'll send a link to the page where you can download the programs later. Bye for now! Danielle

Hi, I've just done a search through ERIC and found 7 articles that I have to finish reading through. I skimmed through one that was useful and gave me a simple idea about a student keeping track of his reading progress using a sort of e-journal where he could maybe add reference material and a glossary. Let me develop the idea and I'll describe it more later.

One thing that I think we need to ask ourselves is, if we want to focus on reading in **science**, how are we going to create materials that are more relevant to science than to any other topic? I believe we need to identify the aspects of science reading (like the technical terminology, the need for scientific critical reading and so on) that make our project separate from others that address reading more generally. I think we need to have a discussion about this!

After I've gone through more articles, I'll send you an updated copy of Tara's matrix. That's all for me tonight. I have to work on a different project now.

Hi Girls,

Sorry for the late reply. Thanks for looking into ERIC for us Danielle, and the answer to #3 looks good Emily. Thanks to both of you.

I would suggest that you send me two articles Danielle, and send Emily two articles and let us summarize them for you. We'd like to help and you are really busy, so if it isn't too late feel free to send some work our way. ;-)

I think we should chat again soon and once we decide about the exact topics we are going to cover as well as the learning styles we should each take a portion of the proposal away and work on it for a little while. We can distribute the work evenly and talk again once we finish.

Why don't we summarize the articles tomorrow (if it isn't too late to help) and jump online again on Monday evening to distribute the work. Sound good? If you are busy or have another suggestion that is great, just send it this way and I'll be sure to check the wiki again tomorrow.

Have a great evening.

Hi Tara, I suggest these articles for you, since the focus is more on the tech side.





Emily, I suggest these articles for you. While Wanzek et al don't seem to discuss tech applications, the learning method may inspire an idea for an e-learning method. The Leko & Brownell article is less related, but still potentially useful in that it can shape how we suggest to use the e-learning methods we develop.



Ladies, I'm really sorry, but I have a lot on my plate today and can't contribute again until tomorrow. I have a big deadline to meet and have been putting off a contract assignment to work on my courses. I can't put it off anymore. See you soon, Danielle

Good morning ladies.

Danielle, work on your project and don't worry about a thing we all get busy. Check the wiki again tonight or as soon as you can and vote on a good time to chat again. We really should distribute the proposal among all four of us and set a date. The proposal is due in about two weeks - FYI.

I am free Monday evening after 6pm, and again on Wednesday as well as Thursday. The chat room could work for a quick discussion. Let me know your thoughts, thanks Tara :-)

Hi. Will read the articles and summarize. I am free after 6pm as well most nights! Do we have a fourth yet? Also just as a suggestion, could we put our most current posts at the top of the page? This page will get super long and that way the most recent stuff will be right at the top and we won't have to scroll down through everything:)