Thursday, February 21, 2013

Chapter 7 QTC

Make a list of the sequence of skills necessary for ultimate mastery of the content of your lesson through a constructivist approach. 
- Students need to open their minds to the fact their beliefs may need revision. For example, they may have an idea of what culture means, but they should reflect on this while listening to how other students or myself define and explain it.
-Social constructivism skills. I will encourage a lot of classmate collaboration during my lessons. Students can communicate their ideas with each other, and build off of what others know. This can be anything from group discussion, projects, and other activities.  

I think it is also important to consider concept generation in my lesson. For example, if my class was doing a lesson on culture, I would want them to compare and contrast different cultures. For a constructivist student, they may think about the knowledge they are consuming instead of the actual facts about each culture. For example, if they created their own Venn Diagrams on two cultures, they would recognize that they have the ability to compare and contrast. 

Which of these learning activities/skills lend themselves to student’s individual or group construction?  How might you structure learning activities that lead students to discover these skills/these principles?

   Encouraging students to collaborate is something I find to be very helpful. Even as a college student, I believe I still learn best from building off of my peer's ideas. Also, each student has a different way to interpret concepts, such as culture. I will want to encourage my students to share their individual thoughts and ideas with myself and the class so we can create a community of learning. After today's class discussion, I realized many different activities I could apply to this one, simple standard. I had so many ideas, that it would be hard to narrow it down to a single approach. One idea would be to bring in someone from a different culture, and have them talk to the students about their culture and the uniqueness of it. Students could then compare their own culture to that of the speaker and experience it firsthand. Social constructivism may come in group discussions and collaboration on group projects. For example, I could give the students the opportunity to research a culture they are interested in (in groups). The groups could create a poster or some type of visual to present to the class. Not only would students get to research and be creative, but they can also present the material to other students at a level that is easy for them to comprehend. 

Thursday, February 14, 2013

Chapter 6 QTC

What are the essential skills and/or learning outcomes you want your students to know and be able to do that relate to cognitive learning? 
   I want the students in my classroom to be able to store knowledge in the best way for them. I want them to learn through personal experiementation (hands on activities) and exploration on their own. I don't want them to rely on me to give them every peiece of information they have to know. Students will learn best if they try things on their own and learn from their mistakes and discoveries. I also wan them to be able to express how they learn with their peers in myself. It sometimes help open our minds to new learning strategies when when listen to and observe what others do. As we discussed in class today, I believe it is beneficial to be able to relate the material we teach to what students are already familiar with. If a student has a memory or thought to connect to the new learning material, they may be more opt to store it more quickly.
How might your knowledge of the memory processes guide your instructional decisions?
  
   From my experience in middle school, it was always helpful for me to use acronmyns to remember a process and information. For example, when I learned units of measurement in 6th grade, I rememberd Kangroos Hop Down Mountains Drinking Chocolate Milk. The first letter of each word represented the unit of measurement and how to "hop" to and from measurements. I will try to incorporate little things like along the way in my lesson. I know it may not help all students, but it can be useful for the time being. I also know that each person learns differently and needs tasks that will allow them to use their appropriate skills. I will make sure that each of my units have different types of activities so that students have equal opportunity to learn. We will do hands on activities, use visual aids, and also use thought-provoking questions during class discussion. Finally, I have experienced that in order to have something "stick," it has to be a memorable experience. I hope to be creative and fun in my classroom so my students remember my impact and what I have taught them.  

Monday, February 11, 2013

Teaching and Learning

Teaching: Teaching is the way educators relay important information, concepts, standards, and learning to their students. Teaching involves educator and student involvement. Teaching also includes collaboration and relationships between the school, student, and parent to help a student succeed. 

Learning: Learning is the way knowledge is acquired. People learn in a variety of ways; they can learn visually, mentally, or physically. Learning is also a process- the process of exploring and breaking down new information to be stored in our memory. 

It is difficult to give each of these a single definition. Also, it was hard to put these actions into words because they seem to just "happen." Usually the definitions found on the internet are so simple, yet no one person has the exact same thoughts about them. Teaching seems like it would only be applied to a classroom, but I also considered it as a definition in everyday life. Teaching begins at birth and is what shapes us to be the people we are.  

Thursday, February 7, 2013

Chapter 15 QTC


Turn to p. 559 in Ormrod’s text.  Now, imagine that you are meeting with Ingrid’s grandmother today to explain her scores on the recent standardized achievement test pictured at the bottom of p. 559.  What will you tell her about Ingrid’s performance? her strengths? her weaknesses? 
   I would tell Ingrid's grandmother that after being tested in multiple subjects, her tests revealed where she stood academically in terms of standard deviation units. I would explain to her what Ingrid mastered, but also what she needed to improve on. Ingrid's strengths would include reading comprehension, science, and social studies. Her weaknesses would be in spelling and math computation and that she was below average, average, and even slightly above average in those subject areas. I would also tell Ingrid's grandmother that some of Ingrid's below average scores could have to do with the amount of error that might have affected her performance on the test. Also, in a normal distribution, Ingrid was in the middle percentile where she scored average and slightly above average (displayed from the numbers being closer together at the bottom of her results).  


If grandmother asks you what she could be doing at home to help strengthen Ingrid’s skills, what will you suggest? 
   If Ingrid is well above average in reading, social studies, and science, she probably doesn't need to spend much time studying these areas, but she should briefly review them to keep the information fresh on her mind. For spelling and math, I would suggest that Ingrid's grandmother call out words to Ingrid, and have her spell them out. She could also research game sites on the internet for Ingrid to match, spell, and even sound out words. For math, it would be helpful for Ingrid to use flashcards, and maybe include some fun in the "all around the world" math game. I would tell her that it would be helpful to provide Ingrid with some type of motivation or incentive. If Ingrid knows that she has done poorly, I'm sure she wouldn't be too excited about studying for that subject, and expects to struggle when doing so. Taking practice tests, playing games, and reviewing would be a general place to start. 


http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/top-teaching/2011/03/five-ways-make-standardized-test-prep-engaging
   After today's class, I was trying to think of ideas about how to help my students feel less anxiety towards TCAP testing. This site had 5 creative ideas to use in the classroom in preparation for the test. I will want to remember the part about using the internet for games (like jeopardy), so the students won't think I am just trying to drill TCAP information into their heads. I would also like them to be more hands on with their learning and preparation, so this was a helpful site for me!