Capstone final presentation

My 21 Capstone Project

M. S. Ed. Candidate - University of Nebraska at Omaha Certified Elementary/ESL Teacher – Omaha Public Schools

Fall 2014

Yates Educational Community Partnership (ECP) Omaha Public School District

3260 Davenport Street Omaha, Ne 68131

www.facebook/YatesECP

About Me: Theodora Kyle

  Have been an Early Childhood Educator for 13 years at the PK-2 level - Currently in my 4th year teaching Pre-K with Migrant/Refugee 3-4-5 year-old children

  Married with 2 children (13 and 10 years old), a dog, 2 cats, and a rabbit

  Will be receiving a Masters in Education with an emphasis in English as a Second Language

About My Student: Say Moo Reh

  4-year-old Karenni Refugee from Burma through Thailand – arrived in the U.S. in 2011 – arrived in Omaha in 2013

  Is the youngest of 4 children – his siblings are in 4th, 8th, and 12th grades – parents both work in meat-packing

  Struggles with Receptive and Verbal Communication in both his native home language and in English

MISSION STATEMENTS:  

Omaha Public Schools prepares all students to excel in college, career, and life.

The Yates Community Center mission is to teach refugees, immigrants, and other community members skills that will help them be successful in the Omaha Community.   

21st Century Skills: Reading and Critical Thinking

Objectives as they relate to the State of Nebraska Early Learning Guidelines –

  Students will listen to the story of The Rainbow Fish several times They will relate their own experiences to the events and characters in the story as they are asked questions that promote comprehension and critical thinking. Language and Literacy: LL.04. Book knowledge and appreciation.

  Students will be able to demonstrate an understanding of the concept of sharing, either verbally and/or through the act of sharing goldfish crackers to other children during a small group activity. Social Emotional: SE.03. Cooperation

  Students will practice taking turns as they evaluate and respond to feelings that result from the act of sharing/not sharing. Social-Emotional: SE02. Self Control

The Lesson: Fishy Sharing

  We read the book several times in large/small group setting

  Each student got a cup with one kind of goldfish cracker - Teacher got a cup of M&M’s

  We discussed feelings and decided that the teacher should share her M&M’s

  We discussed feelings again after teacher shared and decided that each student should share with the teacher

  We discussed feelings again when saw that the teacher now had a variety of every kind of goldfish and decided that each student could share with everyone – students took turns sharing with peers

  We celebrated by eating our mixture of goldfish/M&M’s

21st Century Skills: Communication/Writing

and Collaboration Objectives as they relate to the State of Nebraska Early Learning

Guidelines –

  Students will listen to the story of Leaf Man several times They will relate their own experiences to the events in the story as they are asked questions that promote comprehension and critical thinking. Language and Literacy: LL.04. Book knowledge and appreciation.

  Students will collaborate with peers to brainstorm a list of possible places that the wind can blow a leaf man. Social Emotional: SE.03. Cooperation

  Students will choose a place from the list or create a new place of where the wind can blow a leaf man and draw (write) a picture to represent his/her ideas. Students will verbally complete the sentence frame “The wind blew the leaf man to ________. Early Writing and Alphabet Knowledge: LL.05. Uses scribbles, shapes, or pictures to represent specific thoughts, ideas, stories

The Lesson: The Places a Leaf Man Can Go

  We read the book several times in large/small group settings

  In a large group setting, we brainstormed a list (using a circle map) of places that the wind could blow a leaf man to.

  In a small group setting, each child was asked to choose a place from the circle map (or think of another place) that the wind could blow the leaf man to and draw (write) a picture about it.

  Each child drew a picture. When they were finished, the teacher wrote and read the sentence frame: The wind blew the leaf man to _________.

  Students were given the opportunity to verbally finish the sentence frame and to elaborate on it by describing their picture.

  We stapled the students pages together to make a class book that was placed in the classroom library for the students to explore during choice time. The wind blew the leaf man to the

school. (Say Moo Reh)

21st Century Skills: Digital Literacy and Creativity

Objectives as they relate to the State of Nebraska Early Learning Guidelines –

  Students will create their own leaf man using a variety of leaves and nature items in the collage/creative art area. Creative Arts: CA.02. Art; Approaches to Learning: AL.01. Initiative and curiosity; Approaches to Learning: AL.02. Reasoning and problem solving.

  With the teacher’s assistance, students will use the IPad to take photographs of both their leaf man and the writing page that they did in the previous lesson. Social Emotional: SE.03. Cooperation

  Students will collaborate with the teacher to create a digital book using the Little Story Maker app on the IPad using the photographs that they took of their work. Approaches to Learning: AL.01. Initiative and curiosity; Language and Literacy: LL.04. Book knowledge and appreciation; Language and Literacy: LL.05. Print awareness and concepts.

The Lesson: The Places a Leaf Man Can Go – Part 2

  We read the book several times in large/small group setting – paying close attention to the body parts of the leaf man in the book.

  During outside time, we collected leaves and other nature items and then sorted them into like groups.

  In a small group setting, each child used leaves and other nature items to create their own unique leaf person. The teacher assisted in gluing the items down.

  With the assistance of the teacher, each student took a photograph of their leaf person collage and a picture of their drawing from the previous lesson.

  Students were called one at a time to assist the teacher in cropping their photos and making a digital book on the IPad using the app called Little Story Maker. Students were to complete the sentence frame when the teacher read and recorded it.

  The digital story was to be placed in the class library via the IPads for students to explore during choice time.

My 21 Reflection:

ALL STUDENTS HAVE THE CAPABILITY TO LEARN – it is our job as teachers to provide multiple opportunities and a safe space for students to take risks AND TO GROW.

Reading and Writing (Literacy) and Listening and Speaking (Communication) are necessary skills for critical thinking and collaboration, which build the foundation for creativity. Technology provides the avenue for moving that creativity toward innovation to improve our world in the 21st Century.

Literacy & Communication

Critical Thinking

Collaboration

Creativity

Innovation

Final Thoughts

Some Other Famous Refugees

Andy Garcia – actor

Henry Kissinger – former Secretary of State

Madeline Albright – former Secretary of State

Nadia Comaneci – Olympic gymnast

Luol Deng – basketball player Chicago Bulls

References:

  Ceron, C. N. (2014). The effect of story read-alouds on children’s foreign language development. Gist Education and Learning Research Journal, 8, 83-98.

  Echevarria, J., Vogt, M. and Short, D. J. (2013) Making content comprehensible for English learners: The SIOP model (4th ed). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, Inc.

  Ehlert, L. (2005). Leaf man

  Flynn, K. S. (2011). Developing children’s oral language skills through dialogic reading. Teaching Exceptional Children, 44(2), 8-16.

  Heroman, C., & Jones, C. (2010) The Creative Curriculum for Preschool. (Vol. 3, pp. 561) Washington, D.C: Teaching Strategies, Inc.

  King, K. A. (2012). Writing workshop in preschool: Acknowledging children as writers. The Reading Teacher 65(6), 392-401.

  Nebraska early learning guidelines. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.education.ne.gov/oec/pubs/ELG/3_5_English.pdf

  Pfister, M. (1992). The rainbow fish. New York: North-South Books.