This chapter talked about what we have been covering in SED a lot. The quote from this chapter that explained the hardships of differentiated instruction clearly states the big problem: “It’s nice to make such claims (about trying to differentiate to every student), but close examination of my own lessons proves otherwise. With 140 students, I often take the path of least resistance.”
This quote daunts me a little bit because I know it will be quite a challenge for me to perform to everyone’s best needs, yet I am the type of person that tries so hard to help others in any way I can. I hope I don’t end up being the type of teacher who will bend over backwards to make special tasks or go way out of my way to help each of my students. Another quote at the end of that passage in the chapter couldn’t have said it any better: “Every day I vow to do better, and each year in the classroom brings me closer to my goal. But boy, does it take work!” I can totally see myself fitting this quote! Thankfully, the accomplishment of being able to see some success will motivate me to keep getting better at differentiating and teaching to specific needs. I know that differentiated instruction means that I match the challenge to the student, helping each student stretch individually, but what if I don’t? How will I know I am successful at this? How do I do it? This chapter has helped me to begin to think more about this issue. I think I really won’t know the answers to these questions until I get to practice this in the real classrooms.
Monday, March 28, 2011
Chapter 6 - Accountability for High Standards
I liked a point that the beginning of this chapter made about classroom needing models of high success for students to see in order for them to be able to accountable for great success. I think this is really important. Students need to see exemplary examples of what I am asking them to do before they start doing their task. I want students to know what success looks like so that they are not lost in the dark and they have a firm understanding of what I am expecting their finished products to resemble. I also hope that having great models of students work around the room will spark creativity and motivation in my students to become excited as they see what other students have done and they have a positive outlook on the project as they begin doing it.
As much as I believe in holding students accountable and pushing student to take risks and go past their comfort zone, I feel the example given in the book is not quite as risky as I would dare to go. The story of the boy with Tourette’s syndrome performing major role from Romeo and Juliet in front of a large audience seems to be going above having kids step out of their comfort zone. As that teacher, I would be concerned of hurting this kid more then helping him. What if he messed up on stage, got scared or stumbled his way through the liens, forgetting some, making a fool of himself in front of everybody and getting teased or laughed at? I would feel that the boy could potentially move backwards and begin to really hate school or himself due to my decision to have him go out of his comfort zone. This is definitely a risk, yet in this instance the boy passed with flying colors and I feel that it really showed him that he can do anything he wants when he puts his mind to it. If he had come to me and asked me to perform in front of everyone, I would have given him that chance, but if I had approached him with this assignment, I would have asked him to perform it in front of the school with perhaps a character that didn’t have such a big part in the paly. I would scaffold my way up to the big role in front of a big audience so that I could see how well he does in the room first and then help him move up from there. Yet perhaps he would not have achieved such fantastic results in this case if he had not had that huge audience and role to motivate himself with. I think risk taking is a hard thing for teachers to decided when and when not to do it and how much to do. It is a very tricky line, but I hope I get to have experiences where I see it pay off, just as it did for the boy in this chapter.
As much as I believe in holding students accountable and pushing student to take risks and go past their comfort zone, I feel the example given in the book is not quite as risky as I would dare to go. The story of the boy with Tourette’s syndrome performing major role from Romeo and Juliet in front of a large audience seems to be going above having kids step out of their comfort zone. As that teacher, I would be concerned of hurting this kid more then helping him. What if he messed up on stage, got scared or stumbled his way through the liens, forgetting some, making a fool of himself in front of everybody and getting teased or laughed at? I would feel that the boy could potentially move backwards and begin to really hate school or himself due to my decision to have him go out of his comfort zone. This is definitely a risk, yet in this instance the boy passed with flying colors and I feel that it really showed him that he can do anything he wants when he puts his mind to it. If he had come to me and asked me to perform in front of everyone, I would have given him that chance, but if I had approached him with this assignment, I would have asked him to perform it in front of the school with perhaps a character that didn’t have such a big part in the paly. I would scaffold my way up to the big role in front of a big audience so that I could see how well he does in the room first and then help him move up from there. Yet perhaps he would not have achieved such fantastic results in this case if he had not had that huge audience and role to motivate himself with. I think risk taking is a hard thing for teachers to decided when and when not to do it and how much to do. It is a very tricky line, but I hope I get to have experiences where I see it pay off, just as it did for the boy in this chapter.
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
Chapter 4: Active Learning – Abstract and Synthesis
Abstract:
Active learning can easily be incorporated into any type of classroom and really should, due to the research that proves it increases students’ learning capabilities and improves their performance within school. This chapter starts by explaining the benefits to including active learning within the classroom, and the benefits it can produce for students. The chapter then goes on to provide a personal example of active learning from the speaker’s experiences. This example not only showed the benefit of active learning, but also was a great example of how this teacher was getting his student with a learning disability actively involved and learning with the rest of the class. This chapter provides readers with tons of possibilities for how to get students actively learning, from creating room sized graphic organizers, making rap songs about the lesson, to having a relay race in math. This chapter has shown that the possibilities from active learning are endless.
Synthesis:
Our whole class felt that active learning was a positive way of learning and hope to use some of the ideas mentioned. It was agreed that we want to help students release their energy and not have to sit in a chair all day long. More than once Geoff’s link about physical activity and improved testing scores was mentioned in the responses and how it can relate to what this chapter was mentioning.
Lots of us loved how this chapter gave many examples for all subjects and that active learning can really help info click for students. Most responses commented on the fact that by bringing the lessons outside, this chapter demonstrated on how lessons can come to life, and how more movement in the class period can really help kinesthetic and visual learners learn better.
On the whole, we all agreed that there are lots of benefits to active learning and our kids will be less likely to forget what we are teaching them if we find hands-on ways to create movement in the classroom.
Active learning can easily be incorporated into any type of classroom and really should, due to the research that proves it increases students’ learning capabilities and improves their performance within school. This chapter starts by explaining the benefits to including active learning within the classroom, and the benefits it can produce for students. The chapter then goes on to provide a personal example of active learning from the speaker’s experiences. This example not only showed the benefit of active learning, but also was a great example of how this teacher was getting his student with a learning disability actively involved and learning with the rest of the class. This chapter provides readers with tons of possibilities for how to get students actively learning, from creating room sized graphic organizers, making rap songs about the lesson, to having a relay race in math. This chapter has shown that the possibilities from active learning are endless.
Synthesis:
Our whole class felt that active learning was a positive way of learning and hope to use some of the ideas mentioned. It was agreed that we want to help students release their energy and not have to sit in a chair all day long. More than once Geoff’s link about physical activity and improved testing scores was mentioned in the responses and how it can relate to what this chapter was mentioning.
Lots of us loved how this chapter gave many examples for all subjects and that active learning can really help info click for students. Most responses commented on the fact that by bringing the lessons outside, this chapter demonstrated on how lessons can come to life, and how more movement in the class period can really help kinesthetic and visual learners learn better.
On the whole, we all agreed that there are lots of benefits to active learning and our kids will be less likely to forget what we are teaching them if we find hands-on ways to create movement in the classroom.
Monday, March 21, 2011
Chapter 3- Brain Research Applied to Middle School
Chunking is a word I have never heard before. I understand the concept that this section was speaking of, but I had never heard anyone call storing information “chunking”. I really like the idea of trying to attach as many ideas to a single word as possible in order to store all that information. I would like to learn more ways that chunking is successfully used in a classroom and how a teacher knows that this way of teaching is effective and working on the students.
I loved the note about water in this chapter. Having a water cooler in my classroom is such a good idea. I think it would allow for quick and easy access to something that is good for you, helps you learn, and it will prevent those students that use getting a drink an excuses for roaming the halls to have to leave my room.
I really loved the section about teaching students to reason. I understand both sides of the argument that this section is making about how to teach kids to learn, yet I really like the point that John Roe made about there is new information all the time, we must teach students how to learn as well as the information we want them to know. I think this is so important because about half of my students are going to view English as useless no matter how much I give reasons for why we are learning each unit. By teaching kids teaching skills as well as content, I can assure myself that all of my students are taking something form my class, even if it is just life skills for other classes and life in general.
I loved the note about water in this chapter. Having a water cooler in my classroom is such a good idea. I think it would allow for quick and easy access to something that is good for you, helps you learn, and it will prevent those students that use getting a drink an excuses for roaming the halls to have to leave my room.
I really loved the section about teaching students to reason. I understand both sides of the argument that this section is making about how to teach kids to learn, yet I really like the point that John Roe made about there is new information all the time, we must teach students how to learn as well as the information we want them to know. I think this is so important because about half of my students are going to view English as useless no matter how much I give reasons for why we are learning each unit. By teaching kids teaching skills as well as content, I can assure myself that all of my students are taking something form my class, even if it is just life skills for other classes and life in general.
Chapter 13- Outdoor Adventures
I loved this chapter so much, I couldn’t get enough of it. I grew up in the outdoors for most of my childhood. We didn’t have power, and we got our water from a faucet at the bottom of our hill. At that time I had no siblings; so it was just me, the forest, and my imagination. I have such a great appreciation for the forest and it concerns me that not enough other people do. I truly believe that the forest and wildlife could really be beneficial to our ways of life in the future if global and economic issues keep progressing the way that they are. Therefore I think that bringing students out into the forest and teaching them content outdoors is such a great idea. It can help them appreciate wildlife, especially if they have never really been in that environment before. I like how the chapter provides so many examples of subject based activities that teachers could have students doing within the forest. Basic survival skills are so important, not just for boy scouts, but fore everyone, and I think that by teaching students them, we are preparing them for events that could happen later in life. I really liked the writing ideas that the chapter presented, like interviewing a tree, or writing a story based on the animals in the forest. This chapter provided so many ideas, and different styles of writing and it is already getting me thinking of more I could use. I really hope I get to work with a team of teachers that would love to do this type of outing someday.
Chapter 4- Active Learning
I loved the possibilities that this chapter presented for ways to get students active in the classroom. I noticed that this chapter was building off from a PBS clip that a classmate showed us a few weeks ago. I really liked how this chapter began by explaining the advantages of active learning and getting oxygen and movement into the classroom. Yet what I loved most was the many examples that followed, since they helped me begin brainstorming more ideas of ways to get my students moving. I really liked the story of the teacher that brought kids outside to show them how to form ratios. Besides the active, hands-on element, this story was a subtle example of how to include special education students in our lessons, how to address them, and ways that can help them learn while still helping everyone else learn too. I loved how this story showed that, and didn’t just say it.
I also found lots of examples that I was able to circle and see how I could use active learning in my own classroom; like the example of the graphic organizers up on the walls. I feel like that would be a great way to easily incorporate movement in the classroom plan without really changing or creating any special lessons to include the active learning.
I also found lots of examples that I was able to circle and see how I could use active learning in my own classroom; like the example of the graphic organizers up on the walls. I feel like that would be a great way to easily incorporate movement in the classroom plan without really changing or creating any special lessons to include the active learning.
Thursday, March 17, 2011
Student Oriented Curriculum
I really like the ideas that this book presented and this alternative type of teaching. I think I would be not be willing to personally teach this type of way just yet. But I think I feel this way just because it is very hard for us, as teachers, to step out of our comfort zone that we experienced and are use to. I feel that if there were a few schools that were using this program and really succeeding at this type of teaching and could be great role models for others to observe and go off from, then I would be more willing to try this new system.
I really like how responsibility is being placed on the students. I feel that by doing a system this way, the students will feel that school is more important to them, and more meaningful. Just as an artist normally feels proud of their artwork, I feel that students would be proud to what they have created for units. As was said in our groups, it is about the processes, not the testing.
I think that the biggest achievement of a program like this is that students get to practice making and motivating themselves, and creating habits that will help themselves in areas that are not content based. Students can learn responsibility and leadership roles that will affect them for their whole lives. Great book, thanks for sharing it.
I really like how responsibility is being placed on the students. I feel that by doing a system this way, the students will feel that school is more important to them, and more meaningful. Just as an artist normally feels proud of their artwork, I feel that students would be proud to what they have created for units. As was said in our groups, it is about the processes, not the testing.
I think that the biggest achievement of a program like this is that students get to practice making and motivating themselves, and creating habits that will help themselves in areas that are not content based. Students can learn responsibility and leadership roles that will affect them for their whole lives. Great book, thanks for sharing it.
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