I feel that Constructionist/project based activities are the best ways to incorporate true life experiences and learning in the classroom. For world language teachers like me, the Internet has opened up an entire world for our students to truly visit and be a part of the culture that we are trying to teach. Whether the student is creating commercials using software that is readily available, or creating a PowerPoint presentation, project based learning allows the student to actually create and learn at the same time.
I think that the most important thing for teachers who plan to use project based, or a more constructionist approach in their classroom is to keep the objectives and the tasks of their projects clear and easily understood. I also think that the teacher should show examples of what they are expecting from their students and allow plenty of time for creating and collaboration (if students are working in pairs or groups).
Teachers who use this type of approach in their classrooms become a guide for students. They should have a clear idea of what the student can accomplish and the types of tech problems that can be expected. Always have a plan "B" ready just in case.
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
Thursday, January 21, 2010
Cognitive Theory
This week's reading revolved around cognitive strategies which can help our students learn information. The set of strategies were: cue, questions, and advanced organizers and summarizing and note taking. Cues and questions are important in teaching for assessing prior knowledge and to help our students make connections to what they already know. Questions help set the stage for what is to come in the lesson and once the lesson is taught, can help to assess understanding of materials presented.
Advanced organizers or concept maps help to organize the materials and visually show the connection between information that at times can be overwhelming. There are many types of organizers that we can use with our students and chapter 4 in the text, Using Technology with Classroom Instruction that Works (Pitler,Hubbell, Kuhn,&Malenoski, 2007) has many web site which offer examples.
Note taking is a skill that, I feel, should be taught early on in schooling. I teach high school and I can not tell you how many students do not take notes correctly. After struggling to get my high school students to take notes without missing important information, I now follow one of the recommendations the authors stated in this chapter and that is to provide the students with an outline of the chapter and "teacher prepared notes" (page 120) I leave space on the outline for the students to add their own interpretations and notes but I outline the major points that will be discussed in the chapter. At the beginning of the school year I explain that my outlines are just a starting point and that it is their responsibility to add notes, examples, and ideas.
Technology can help with these strategies by having web sites which offer templates for outlines, concept maps, and spreadsheets.
Pitler, H., Hubbell, E., Kuhn, M., & Malenoski, K. (2007). Using technology with classroom instruction that works. Alexandria, VA: ASCD.
Advanced organizers or concept maps help to organize the materials and visually show the connection between information that at times can be overwhelming. There are many types of organizers that we can use with our students and chapter 4 in the text, Using Technology with Classroom Instruction that Works (Pitler,Hubbell, Kuhn,&Malenoski, 2007) has many web site which offer examples.
Note taking is a skill that, I feel, should be taught early on in schooling. I teach high school and I can not tell you how many students do not take notes correctly. After struggling to get my high school students to take notes without missing important information, I now follow one of the recommendations the authors stated in this chapter and that is to provide the students with an outline of the chapter and "teacher prepared notes" (page 120) I leave space on the outline for the students to add their own interpretations and notes but I outline the major points that will be discussed in the chapter. At the beginning of the school year I explain that my outlines are just a starting point and that it is their responsibility to add notes, examples, and ideas.
Technology can help with these strategies by having web sites which offer templates for outlines, concept maps, and spreadsheets.
Pitler, H., Hubbell, E., Kuhn, M., & Malenoski, K. (2007). Using technology with classroom instruction that works. Alexandria, VA: ASCD.
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
Effort, Homework, and Behaviorism
Behaviorism is a theory which is based on rewarding desired behavior and punishing unwanted behavior. As a student accomplishes a task correctly, the student is praised and, according to this theory, the student is on his way to learning the desired task or behavior. If the student behaves inappropriately then they find themselves with an unwanted consequence.
In this week's application we were to look at two strategies: reinforcing effort and homework & practice, and discuss how these two strategies correlate with the behaviorist learning theory. As a high school teacher I have found that my students are doing less and less homework and what they are doing is done sloppily and with minimum thought and effort.
On page 188 of the text, Using Technology with Classroom Instruction that Works (Pitler,Hubbell, Kahn& Malenoski,2007) the authors share three recommendations for homework and practice: " ..communicate a homework policy, design homework assignments that clearly articulate purpose and outcome and lastly, vary approaches to providing feedback". All great things and things that I can honestly say I do with my students every day. The chapter goes on to discuss ways of using technology to help "enrich a classroom's homework program". The correlation I made with the information provided in this chapter and the behaviorist theory is pretty straight forward. Homework should provide a practice of what is being learned in class, once the homework is turned in the student receives feedback that will help reinforce the learning or help him to reach an understanding.
The second strategy we were asked to look at was reinforcing effort. Chapter eight in the text, Using Technology with Classroom Instruction that Works (Pitler,Hubbell, Kahn& Malenoski,2007) offered examples of rubrics for charts used by teachers to help track the effort their students put into their school work. These charts showed a direct correlation between effort and how their students achieved in class. The correlation to the behaviorist theory here was pretty obvious; if the student put effort into his work then his reward was better grades, if the student did not put forth the effort then his punishment was a poor grade.
The information in these two chapters is not new. As educators we see the direct correlation between effort and achievement every day; the challenge is to get our students to realize that fact.
Pitler, H., Hubbell, E., Kuhn, M., & Malenoski, K. (2007). Using technology with classroom instruction that works. Alexandria, VA: ASCD.
In this week's application we were to look at two strategies: reinforcing effort and homework & practice, and discuss how these two strategies correlate with the behaviorist learning theory. As a high school teacher I have found that my students are doing less and less homework and what they are doing is done sloppily and with minimum thought and effort.
On page 188 of the text, Using Technology with Classroom Instruction that Works (Pitler,Hubbell, Kahn& Malenoski,2007) the authors share three recommendations for homework and practice: " ..communicate a homework policy, design homework assignments that clearly articulate purpose and outcome and lastly, vary approaches to providing feedback". All great things and things that I can honestly say I do with my students every day. The chapter goes on to discuss ways of using technology to help "enrich a classroom's homework program". The correlation I made with the information provided in this chapter and the behaviorist theory is pretty straight forward. Homework should provide a practice of what is being learned in class, once the homework is turned in the student receives feedback that will help reinforce the learning or help him to reach an understanding.
The second strategy we were asked to look at was reinforcing effort. Chapter eight in the text, Using Technology with Classroom Instruction that Works (Pitler,Hubbell, Kahn& Malenoski,2007) offered examples of rubrics for charts used by teachers to help track the effort their students put into their school work. These charts showed a direct correlation between effort and how their students achieved in class. The correlation to the behaviorist theory here was pretty obvious; if the student put effort into his work then his reward was better grades, if the student did not put forth the effort then his punishment was a poor grade.
The information in these two chapters is not new. As educators we see the direct correlation between effort and achievement every day; the challenge is to get our students to realize that fact.
Pitler, H., Hubbell, E., Kuhn, M., & Malenoski, K. (2007). Using technology with classroom instruction that works. Alexandria, VA: ASCD.
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