How People Learn 9 & 10
1. How does this topic fit into what I have learned already in this course?
Technology and how it is used in the classroom has an impact on how our students process, retain, and retrieve information. By providing a technology rich environment, we are offering another way to improve student learning and transfer. By scaffolding through technology, students are given the opportunity to apply what they learn and in many cases, they are using reasoning skills to solve problems.
2. What am I still not clear on in this week's reading(s)?
Once again, I am wondering how we can bypass the huge amount of material we are expected to “cover” in a year and still find a way to implement some of the technology that was discussed in chapter 9. It sounds like there are so many wonderful programs out there but many of them stated students worked on solving some of the problems and doing some of the projects for 3-4 weeks. Like last week’s discussion, changes need to be made to our educational system so that we are focusing more on developing a true understanding of the material versus just touching on things just to give exposure to our students.
3. Under what conditions would I apply this material to my own teaching/work?
I always have had love for technology. Up until reading this chapter, I thought I did a fairly good job on bringing it into my classroom. Now I realize there are many things I am missing out on. I have my students do a great deal of projects that require them to use Microsoft programs and the internet. I found myself wondering how I can better utilize technology with my students. I loved the project called Monsters, Mondrian, and Me. I do something at Christmas time where my students design a new costume for Santa. They write a description of the outfit and another student tries to recreate the costume by reading the description. Now I am wondering how I can turn this project into an online activity and participate with another third grade class somewhere.
Sunday, April 19, 2009
Monday, April 13, 2009
How People Learn 6 & 7
1. How does this topic fit into what I have learned already in this course?
Designing the learning environment has a great deal to do with how our students learn. What we are asking our students to do in class and how they perform those actions and activities all tie in with what we have been learning. Writing, speaking, thinking, problem solving, reasoning skills are all cognitive processes that students are doing and the environment in which we allow these things to take place have a huge impact on how our students learn. By finding a true balance of all of these approaches, we are fostering a cognitive playground!
2. What am I still not clear on in this week's reading(s)?
There really isn’t anything that I am not clear on after reading these two chapters. I enjoyed the examples that were presented in chapter 7. I would like to have had more of the classroom examples geared toward the elementary level, especially in science. After reading this information, I am wondering why the learning community continues to gravitate toward testing as the sole measure of how our students are progressing. Legislators should be reading material like this on a regular basis.
3. Under what conditions would I apply this material to my own teaching/work?
I would like to apply a little more of each of the learning environments presented in these chapters. I would love to present more questions to my students that would offer them the opportunity to create more of their own learning adventures. I am once again inspired to venture down the road where my students are driving the curriculum versus the curriculum driving the students.
1. How does this topic fit into what I have learned already in this course?
Designing the learning environment has a great deal to do with how our students learn. What we are asking our students to do in class and how they perform those actions and activities all tie in with what we have been learning. Writing, speaking, thinking, problem solving, reasoning skills are all cognitive processes that students are doing and the environment in which we allow these things to take place have a huge impact on how our students learn. By finding a true balance of all of these approaches, we are fostering a cognitive playground!
2. What am I still not clear on in this week's reading(s)?
There really isn’t anything that I am not clear on after reading these two chapters. I enjoyed the examples that were presented in chapter 7. I would like to have had more of the classroom examples geared toward the elementary level, especially in science. After reading this information, I am wondering why the learning community continues to gravitate toward testing as the sole measure of how our students are progressing. Legislators should be reading material like this on a regular basis.
3. Under what conditions would I apply this material to my own teaching/work?
I would like to apply a little more of each of the learning environments presented in these chapters. I would love to present more questions to my students that would offer them the opportunity to create more of their own learning adventures. I am once again inspired to venture down the road where my students are driving the curriculum versus the curriculum driving the students.
Thursday, April 9, 2009
Chapter 10 & 13
Language Production
1. How does this topic fit into what I have learned already in this course?
Language involves all or our cognitive processes. Once again everything seems to come together to allow the formation and flow of language. Speakers need to read signals from listeners to check for understanding. They also need to be cautious of ambiguous language. When writing, our working memory is hard at work along with long term memory. Over active top-down processing can affect our language and writing abilities. All themes of the text are supported in this chapter.
2. What am I still not clear on in this week's reading(s)?
I found the information in chapter 10 to be pretty basic and easy to understand. What I found interesting was reading about the studies performed with infants. It seems amazing that babies can so easily distinguish between sound patterns and types of words. It seems logical though given the fact that when we talk to babies we change our tone based on the words we want to emphasize. This information seems to reinforce what many teachers already know. Home life, including language exposure, makes a huge difference in how a child learns to read.
3. Under what conditions would I apply this material to my own teaching/work?
For the most part, I feel as if the information is material that most teachers already apply and use in their classroom. I was hoping for some light to be shed on writing. It is one of the hardest subjects to teach in my opinion. I am always trying to find material to help me help my students. It seems like students have such a difficult time expressing their thoughts with words. I agree with the text in regards to overconfidence being an issue and that you can proofread someone else’s writing easier than your own. The most important information that I plan on taking into my classroom is the benefit of using writing to help deal with life experiences. I have several students in my classroom with “baggage.” In fact, I am more than likely going to be making a call this week to DCFS. I have a student that came back to school this week acting strangely. He was instructed not to talk about it so now I am going to ask my administrator about how to incorporate a writing assignment in my class.
Language Production
1. How does this topic fit into what I have learned already in this course?
Language involves all or our cognitive processes. Once again everything seems to come together to allow the formation and flow of language. Speakers need to read signals from listeners to check for understanding. They also need to be cautious of ambiguous language. When writing, our working memory is hard at work along with long term memory. Over active top-down processing can affect our language and writing abilities. All themes of the text are supported in this chapter.
2. What am I still not clear on in this week's reading(s)?
I found the information in chapter 10 to be pretty basic and easy to understand. What I found interesting was reading about the studies performed with infants. It seems amazing that babies can so easily distinguish between sound patterns and types of words. It seems logical though given the fact that when we talk to babies we change our tone based on the words we want to emphasize. This information seems to reinforce what many teachers already know. Home life, including language exposure, makes a huge difference in how a child learns to read.
3. Under what conditions would I apply this material to my own teaching/work?
For the most part, I feel as if the information is material that most teachers already apply and use in their classroom. I was hoping for some light to be shed on writing. It is one of the hardest subjects to teach in my opinion. I am always trying to find material to help me help my students. It seems like students have such a difficult time expressing their thoughts with words. I agree with the text in regards to overconfidence being an issue and that you can proofread someone else’s writing easier than your own. The most important information that I plan on taking into my classroom is the benefit of using writing to help deal with life experiences. I have several students in my classroom with “baggage.” In fact, I am more than likely going to be making a call this week to DCFS. I have a student that came back to school this week acting strangely. He was instructed not to talk about it so now I am going to ask my administrator about how to incorporate a writing assignment in my class.
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