Reflection Journal 1

What have you learned about instructional strategies? From the first class, I learned that instructional strategies are different from a curriculum. Instructional strategies are how you implement the lessons. I learned that there are different methods to deliver that information, for instance, direct instruction or interactive instruction. Also, many different ways to engage children, like through games, are instructional strategies as well. What would you like to learn from this class? I would like to learn what kind of instructional methods I feel more comfortable with and what skills need more developing. I need more understanding of the different types of strategies that can be used in a classroom and how I will put my personal touch to them. Also, since I will be most likely work with a variety of ages, I would like to know what strategies are best for specific grades and hearing loss in general.  Research has shown that students with hearing loss often times do not achieve higher than a third grade reading level. What are your thoughts about this and how do you plan to face this? I hope to incorporate the use of visual phonics in my classroom to help give a visual reinforcement to the phonemes and sounds. There are many different types of reading strategies that are implemented in a D/HH classroom and I hope to use many of them, however, I think visual phonics is the most will be the most important addition to my students instruction.