Overall, I really enjoyed our group differences forum. I think all of the groups did a great job presenting their topics, and I really learned a lot about the different types of students that will be in my future classroom. The two topics that I think I learned the most about were gender and English Language Learners. Before our discussion, I did not know that most teachers generally favored the boys in their class over the girls. In the classrooms that I have observed, I have never noticed any of the teachers treating the boys better than the girls or giving them more attention, so I was surprised that gender was such a big issue in our schools. Now that I am aware that there is a gender bias in schools, I can make sure to not give special treatment to the boys in my class during my internship. The second group I learned a lot about during our discussion was ELLs. As I said in class, I have never really considered the possibility of having an ELL in my future classroom. I think this is one of the groups that tends to be overlooked a lot in our education courses, and I am really glad we talked a little about how we can help a student in our future classrooms that speaks a foreign language. Although I feel like I learned a lot about ELLs, I wish we could have spent more time talking about strategies we can use in our classroom to help children who speak a foreign language. I feel like we only spoke about ELL students for a few minutes, and I would have liked to have a longer conversation about this particular group.
Because I do not usually talk a lot in our class discussions, my goal for our group differences forum was to make at least one comment each day. In short, I accomplished my goal. On the first day, I contributed to our discussion by asking my classmates questions about children who live in poverty. I also commented on a couple of the other groups' topics. On the second day, I spoke a lot when the ELL group was presenting because I was genuinely curious if other people in the educational field felt as unprepared as I did to help ELL students. Although I do not usually speak up in class, I felt comfortable talking during our discussion because I saw how respectful all of my other classmates were being. When I was thinking about how the group difference forum could be improved, my first initial thought was that I would have liked to do it a little earlier in the semester so we could have continued talking about the different groups when we covered different topics like classroom management and the theories of development. Now that I think about it though, I am glad we waited until the end because I would not have felt as comfortable speaking up during our discussion if we had done it earlier in the semester. The only suggestion I have for improving the forum is to schedule two whole class periods for the discussion, so we do not have to cut our conversations short. Other than this one suggestion, I really did enjoy the group differences forum. I learned a lot from each of the groups, and I was glad we ended our time together on such a powerful topic.
Saturday, April 27, 2013
Tuesday, April 9, 2013
Post #10 Language
Theories
in educational psychology promote the idea that language plays a critical role
in cognitive development. Examine Table 2.2 (p. 51), paying particular
attention to the age range that you are interested in teaching. Consider how
you might incorporate or adapt the strategies presented for use with your own
students.
Although I am not sure what specific grade level I would like to teach in the future, I am currently interested in interning in either a third or fourth grade classroom. According to Table 2.2, children in this age range have unique strengths and weaknesses in language development. Specifically, children have an increasing understanding of temporal words and comparatives, have an increased awareness of when sentences are grammatically correct, can correctly pronunciate all sounds in their language, can have sustained conversations about concrete topics, can construct stories with plots and cause-and-effect relationships, and have linguistic creativity and word play. Unfortunately, students still struggle by confusing the and a and have an incomplete knowledge of irregular word forms.
Table 2.2 gives suggested strategies for this age range that I can easily adapt or incorporate into my future classroom. The first suggestion the table gives is teaching irregular word forms such as that the past tense of ring is rang. One way I could incorporate this in my future classroom is by creating a spelling list one week with common irregular word pairs (ring, rang, begin, began, bring, brought, think, thought, etc.) .To help my students study these words, I could write all of the words on index cards and have them play a memory game where they had to turn two cards over at a time until they matched all of the irregular words. The second suggested strategy on the table is to begin instruction about parts of speech (nouns, verbs, adverbs, etc.). One way I could incorporate this strategy into my future classroom is by having students make a parts of speech book. Students would look through magazines and newspapers and cut out ten nouns for the noun section of their book, ten verbs for the verb section, and so on. Students could then find or create illustrations that went along with their words. The third suggestion from the table is to use group discussion as a way to explore academic subject matter. One way I could do this in my classroom is by placing students' desks in groups and having them discuss solutions to math problems or controversial issues in social studies before presenting their group consensus to the whole class for discussion. The fourth suggestion from our textbook is to have students create short stories that are presented orally or in writing. One day this semester, I was able to observe a classroom in an arts-integrated school, and they incorporated storytelling into their history lessons by having students create their own comic strips of historical events. I think this is a great way to incorporate the suggested strategy into my future classroom because children learn about historical events while also being creative and putting the story in their own words. The fifth suggestion from Table 2.2 is to consult with a speech-language pathologist when articulation problems are evident in upper elementary students. I think the best way to incorporate this strategy is to include a lot of discussions and questioning in my lessons so I can observe students' speech patterns and get them any help they may need for speech problems. The final suggestion made in Table 2.2 is to encourage telling jokes and reciting rhymes that capitalize on double meanings and homonyms. This is probably my favorite suggestion in the table because I think reading a joke or a rhyme out loud before class each morning would be a great way to start our school day. I think this would be a fun way to introduce children to the concept of puns and homonyms, and I think kids would really enjoy coming up with their own jokes.
I really like the website I found this week for language development, It can be found at http://www.asha.org/public/speech/development/communicationdevelopment.htm This website is broken down by grades K-5,and it tells what the average child's speech and language development is for each grade level. For example, when you click on "Third Grade" the website redirects you to a page that lists what listening, speaking, reading, and writing skills students in this grade are expected to be able to do.
Although I am not sure what specific grade level I would like to teach in the future, I am currently interested in interning in either a third or fourth grade classroom. According to Table 2.2, children in this age range have unique strengths and weaknesses in language development. Specifically, children have an increasing understanding of temporal words and comparatives, have an increased awareness of when sentences are grammatically correct, can correctly pronunciate all sounds in their language, can have sustained conversations about concrete topics, can construct stories with plots and cause-and-effect relationships, and have linguistic creativity and word play. Unfortunately, students still struggle by confusing the and a and have an incomplete knowledge of irregular word forms.
Table 2.2 gives suggested strategies for this age range that I can easily adapt or incorporate into my future classroom. The first suggestion the table gives is teaching irregular word forms such as that the past tense of ring is rang. One way I could incorporate this in my future classroom is by creating a spelling list one week with common irregular word pairs (ring, rang, begin, began, bring, brought, think, thought, etc.) .To help my students study these words, I could write all of the words on index cards and have them play a memory game where they had to turn two cards over at a time until they matched all of the irregular words. The second suggested strategy on the table is to begin instruction about parts of speech (nouns, verbs, adverbs, etc.). One way I could incorporate this strategy into my future classroom is by having students make a parts of speech book. Students would look through magazines and newspapers and cut out ten nouns for the noun section of their book, ten verbs for the verb section, and so on. Students could then find or create illustrations that went along with their words. The third suggestion from the table is to use group discussion as a way to explore academic subject matter. One way I could do this in my classroom is by placing students' desks in groups and having them discuss solutions to math problems or controversial issues in social studies before presenting their group consensus to the whole class for discussion. The fourth suggestion from our textbook is to have students create short stories that are presented orally or in writing. One day this semester, I was able to observe a classroom in an arts-integrated school, and they incorporated storytelling into their history lessons by having students create their own comic strips of historical events. I think this is a great way to incorporate the suggested strategy into my future classroom because children learn about historical events while also being creative and putting the story in their own words. The fifth suggestion from Table 2.2 is to consult with a speech-language pathologist when articulation problems are evident in upper elementary students. I think the best way to incorporate this strategy is to include a lot of discussions and questioning in my lessons so I can observe students' speech patterns and get them any help they may need for speech problems. The final suggestion made in Table 2.2 is to encourage telling jokes and reciting rhymes that capitalize on double meanings and homonyms. This is probably my favorite suggestion in the table because I think reading a joke or a rhyme out loud before class each morning would be a great way to start our school day. I think this would be a fun way to introduce children to the concept of puns and homonyms, and I think kids would really enjoy coming up with their own jokes.
I really like the website I found this week for language development, It can be found at http://www.asha.org/public/speech/development/communicationdevelopment.htm This website is broken down by grades K-5,and it tells what the average child's speech and language development is for each grade level. For example, when you click on "Third Grade" the website redirects you to a page that lists what listening, speaking, reading, and writing skills students in this grade are expected to be able to do.
Tuesday, March 19, 2013
PLE Post #9
How
might self-efficacy and self-regulation contribute to the intervention plans you
use in your case study?
My case study is about Lisa, a third grade student who is disruptive and uncooperative when working in heterogenous small groups that meet at least twice a day. Although the group composition changes about every four weeks, Lisa does not seem to get along with any of her peers. The group that Lisa is currently working with is having a hard time grasping the material and completing their project in an acceptable manner because Lisa is so disruptive. She gets angry with her group mates when she does not get the job she wants and refuses to complete her section of the project. She also constantly interrupts other group members and does not pay attention when her group prepares for class presentations.
Self-efficacy is very important for elementary students to have because it is their self-constructed believe about whether they feel competent enough to perform tasks. One way I would incorporate self-efficacy into Lisa's intervention plan is to include a lot of verbal encouragement to help build her confidence. When Lisa actively participates in her group I will say things such as, "That is a great idea Lisa!" or "I really like how Lisa is participating in her group!" Another way I will help improve Lisa's self-efficacy is by working with her to create small attainable goals. My hope is that once Lisa realizes she can achieve these goals, her self-efficacy will increase and she will start setting higher goals for herself including fully participating in group projects. The final way I will help improve Lisa's self-efficacy after I get her participating in a group is by putting her in a group with my highest achieveing students. One way students can gain self-efficacy is by succeeding in a group setting. I think putting Lisa in a successful group and having her experience success will help improve her confidence and will hopefully motivate her to participate more in a group setting.
Self-regulation is another very important skill for elementary students to have. Self-regulation involves setting goals, monitoring and evaluating our own cognitive processes, and imposing consequences for our successes and failures. One way I would incorporate self-regulation into Lisa's intervention plan is by having her set small attainable goals for herself. As I stated earlier, this will help Lisa's self-efficacy. Surprisingly, it will also help improve her self-regulation because a large part of regulating our behaviors is making sure we know what our goals for the behavior are. The second way I would help improve Lisa's self-regulation is by having her think metacognitively about her work. I would schedule a conference with Lisa and ask her to explain how she views group work and how she thinks through her sections of the group work. I think this will help with Lisa's self-regulation because it will give her a chance to evaluate her cognitive processes and become more aware of why she struggles with group work. The final way I will try to improve Lisa's self-regulation is by having her write down a list of consequences for herself. These consequences will outline what happens if Lisa does her group work efficiently and what happens if she does not. My hope is that Lisa will internalize these consequences and will one day no longer need to write out consequences for herself.
The website that I found for this week's post is found at http://serc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops/affective/efficacy.html. This website describes self-efficacy, tells how students can improve their self-efficacy, lists pedogogical strategies for improving self-efficacy from some of the most well-known psychologists like Bandura, lists teaching practices to avoid, includes tips for improving self-efficacy for struggling students, explains the importance of teacher self-efficacy, and gives websites and journals for further reading. I really like this website because it includes a lot of information about self-efficacy and it is scholarly. I also think this could be a useful resource for our CSEL.
My case study is about Lisa, a third grade student who is disruptive and uncooperative when working in heterogenous small groups that meet at least twice a day. Although the group composition changes about every four weeks, Lisa does not seem to get along with any of her peers. The group that Lisa is currently working with is having a hard time grasping the material and completing their project in an acceptable manner because Lisa is so disruptive. She gets angry with her group mates when she does not get the job she wants and refuses to complete her section of the project. She also constantly interrupts other group members and does not pay attention when her group prepares for class presentations.
Self-efficacy is very important for elementary students to have because it is their self-constructed believe about whether they feel competent enough to perform tasks. One way I would incorporate self-efficacy into Lisa's intervention plan is to include a lot of verbal encouragement to help build her confidence. When Lisa actively participates in her group I will say things such as, "That is a great idea Lisa!" or "I really like how Lisa is participating in her group!" Another way I will help improve Lisa's self-efficacy is by working with her to create small attainable goals. My hope is that once Lisa realizes she can achieve these goals, her self-efficacy will increase and she will start setting higher goals for herself including fully participating in group projects. The final way I will help improve Lisa's self-efficacy after I get her participating in a group is by putting her in a group with my highest achieveing students. One way students can gain self-efficacy is by succeeding in a group setting. I think putting Lisa in a successful group and having her experience success will help improve her confidence and will hopefully motivate her to participate more in a group setting.
Self-regulation is another very important skill for elementary students to have. Self-regulation involves setting goals, monitoring and evaluating our own cognitive processes, and imposing consequences for our successes and failures. One way I would incorporate self-regulation into Lisa's intervention plan is by having her set small attainable goals for herself. As I stated earlier, this will help Lisa's self-efficacy. Surprisingly, it will also help improve her self-regulation because a large part of regulating our behaviors is making sure we know what our goals for the behavior are. The second way I would help improve Lisa's self-regulation is by having her think metacognitively about her work. I would schedule a conference with Lisa and ask her to explain how she views group work and how she thinks through her sections of the group work. I think this will help with Lisa's self-regulation because it will give her a chance to evaluate her cognitive processes and become more aware of why she struggles with group work. The final way I will try to improve Lisa's self-regulation is by having her write down a list of consequences for herself. These consequences will outline what happens if Lisa does her group work efficiently and what happens if she does not. My hope is that Lisa will internalize these consequences and will one day no longer need to write out consequences for herself.
The website that I found for this week's post is found at http://serc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops/affective/efficacy.html. This website describes self-efficacy, tells how students can improve their self-efficacy, lists pedogogical strategies for improving self-efficacy from some of the most well-known psychologists like Bandura, lists teaching practices to avoid, includes tips for improving self-efficacy for struggling students, explains the importance of teacher self-efficacy, and gives websites and journals for further reading. I really like this website because it includes a lot of information about self-efficacy and it is scholarly. I also think this could be a useful resource for our CSEL.
Saturday, March 16, 2013
Barb Rentenbach Presentation
This past Friday I went to the lecture by Barb Rentenbach. When I went into the presentation, I thought it was going to be like every other lecture that I have gone to: informative yet mostly expository. Once the presentation began, I was absolutely fascinated. Barb Rentenbach has a severe form of autism but she has not let it negatively impact her life. Even though she is almost completely mute and needs an assistant to help her overcome her apraxia, she has spent the past ten years writing a full-length book about her thoughts and experiences as a person with autism. Although I am now ashamed to admit it, I was surprised to see how intelligent and witty Rentenbach is despite her disability. She helped me realize that, even though I do not mean to, I do have certain preconceived notions about people with disabilities. In my special education class, we always talk about seeing the individual and not the disability. This presentation helped me see who Rentenbach truly is and helped me realize that I need to work on not judging people because of their disabilities, even if it is unintentional.
During the presentation I kept thinking, "What would Retenbach's life be like if there were no computers or iPads?" The image in my head was really disheartening because without these mediums, Retenbach would never be able to communicate with other people or express herself. This would be unfortunate for Retenbach as well as the rest of the world because we would never be able to experience how insightful and comical she truly is.
Retenbach’s lecture also made me think a lot about my future students with autism. First, it helped me realize that I do not need to assume that a child has a cognitive delay just because they have a disability. Before I met Retenbach, I had always assumed children with autism also had mental impairments. Seeing how intelligent and insightful Retenbach is forever changed the way I see autism, and I will not make the same assumptions ever again. The second thing from Retenbach’s lecture that really affected me was when she said that autism is her prism, not her prison. This helped me understand that I do not need to treat my student’s autism as a disability that holds them back, but instead as their unique way of seeing the world. I think Retenbach was saying that it is important for me to respect my student’s viewpoints instead of pitying them for being different. As she said in her presentation, neurodiversity is a good thing and I need to respect it. Finally, Retenbach’s lecture made me realize that I need to make sure all of my future students with autism are given the chance to try using computers or iPads to see if they too can better express themselves with technology. Retenbach’s life was drastically changed with the invention of the iPad, and I want to make sure all of my students with autisms are given opportunities to see how they can best express themselves.
Tuesday, March 12, 2013
PLE Post 8
My CSEL intervention case study is about Lisa, a third grade student who is disruptive and uncooperative when working in small groups. These groups are heterogeneous and usually meet at least twice a day. Although the group composition changes about every four weeks, Lisa does not seem to get along with any of her peers. The group that Lisa is currently working with is having a hard time grasping the material and completing their project in an acceptable manner because Lisa is so disruptive. She gets angry with her group mates when she does not get the job she wants and refuses to complete her section of the project. She also constantly interrupts other group members and does not pay attention when her group prepares for class presentations.
Fortunately, there are tools from a behaviorist view that can encourage Lisa's productive behaviors. The first tool I could use to help encourage Lisa's productive behaviors is positive reinforcement. During small groups, I would monitor Lisa's participation and reward her when she is on task and working well with the other members. For example, if Lisa contributes to her group's discussion, I could verbally reward her by saying, "That's a great idea Lisa! Keep up the good work!" If Lisa does not respond to this type of reinforcement, I could try giving her stickers or some other reward to help get her motivated to work in her group. The second tool I could use to help encourage Lisa's productive behaviors is negative reinforcement. For example, I could make an agreement with Lisa that if she cooperates and does her part of the project, she can skip any five math problems she wants on her homework. Although this seems like bribery to me personally, behaviorists do support this type of approach.
There are also tools from a behaviorist view that can discourage Lisa's undesirable behaviors. The first tool I could use to stop Lisa's disruptive behaviors is negative punishment. For example, I would tell Lisa that for every day she refuses to be a productive member of her group, she will have to sit out for recess. The second tool I could use to discourage Lisa's current behaviors is presentation punishment. For example, I could make Lisa sit in the front of the class right next to my desk every time she refuses to work with her group.
From what we have learned in our Educational Psychology class so far, from a constructivist view, Lisa has not yet constructed her own understanding of why group work is important. One way to help this is by having a meeting with her where the two of you can talk about it one-on-one. I think it is important to ask her why she does not value group work, and why she does not want to cooperate in a group. One possible answer is that she had a bad experience with group work in her second grade classroom and individually constructed the view that group work is not beneficial for her. Once Lisa has explained her view, it is then my job as a teacher to help her socially construct a new view on cooperative learning groups. We can do this by brainstorming how small groups help students learn and what the best ways are to interact in a group so everyone can benefit.
Constructivist and behaviorist tools differ greatly. I think the biggest difference between the two is that the behaviorist tools focus more on changing the environment and giving the student rewards or punishments, whereas the constructivist tools focus more on the student and how they see the world. I think the benefits of behaviorist tools are that they work with most students so they are easy to think of. I think the benefits of constructivist tools, on the other hand, are that they are child-centered and are unique for each student's needs. These benefits can also be seen as deficits for the theories because one of the greatest drawbacks of the behaviorist tools are that they do not focus on each unique student, whereas one of the biggest drawbacks of constructivist tools is that they can be more time-consuming because you have to figure out what specific tools you need to use for each unique child in each unique situation. In my future classroom, I will probably handle the everyday problems using the behaviorist tools because they are fast and effective. If my class is being too loud in the hallways, I am not going to analyze how each student constructs their knowledge about hallway etiquette but will instead give my class silent lunch. Conversely, if I have one student who is consistently difficult, like Lisa, I think I would like to sit down and talk with them about why they are misbehaving. In my future classroom, I would like to use the constructivist tools when I am trying to work with students individually.
My resource for this week's post is from the website http://vccslitonline.cc.va.us/usingweb/bckgrnd.htm. My favorite thing about this resource is that it has a graphic comparing behaviorism, constructivism, and cognitivism. I know a lot of us are still a little confused on the main differences between these three learning theories, and I thought this graphic would be really helpful to reference when we write our CSEL. It tells each theory's proponents, applications, instructional design focuse, the view of the learner, its assets, and its implications.
My resource for this week's post is from the website http://vccslitonline.cc.va.us/usingweb/bckgrnd.htm. My favorite thing about this resource is that it has a graphic comparing behaviorism, constructivism, and cognitivism. I know a lot of us are still a little confused on the main differences between these three learning theories, and I thought this graphic would be really helpful to reference when we write our CSEL. It tells each theory's proponents, applications, instructional design focuse, the view of the learner, its assets, and its implications.
Tuesday, March 5, 2013
PLE Post 7
Think
of an activity or lesson component that explicitly teaches one or more
metacognitive and one or more problem solving skills.
One reading lesson activity that can be used to explicitly teach both a metacognitive and a problem solving skill is summarizing. Summarizing is a really important skill for students to have because it allows them to remember what they have just read without memorizing every line. As a future teacher, I think summarizing is an important yet difficult skill to teach. Fortunately, I have learned that this skill can be taught by teaching students to think critically and use the RAP-Q heuristic.
As Sarah and I explained in our PowerPoint presentation, there are six levels of critical thinking. Summarizing is a critical thinking skill listed under "Level Two: Comprehension." To teach students how to summarize, I would have them read a short story and brainstorm what ideas or sentences from the reading they believe are the most important. While the students brainstorm, I would use a lot of questioning to help them think metacognitively about why they are including certain sentences in the summary and not others. For this discussion, my goal is for students to gain a deeper understanding of why we summarize and how this affects what information we include.
Summarizing can also be taught using the RAP-Q heuristic that I found at a website entitled "The Learning Toolbox" (http://coe.jmu.edu/Learningtoolbox/strategies.html). This heuristic is used to help students understand the main ideas of what they read, which will help them remember the main points that they need to include in their summary. For this heuristic, students simply need to remember to follow each step of RAP-Q. First, they need to Read a section of the story. Next, they Ask themselves what the main idea was and Put the main idea in their own words. Finally, students write a Question for the section and answer it on the back of an index card so they can flip through them later to see how all the main ideas are connected in the story. In my summarizing activity, I would explicitly teach students how to use the RAP-Q method and would remind them to use it whenever they are having trouble summarizing a story.
For my resource this week, I decided to share the website where I found the RAP-Q heuristic (http://coe.jmu.edu/Learningtoolbox/strategies.html). This is a great resource for us to use in our future classrooms because it has many unique and easy-to-remember heuristics that we can use to help our students problem-solve. The website contains heuristics for organization, test taking, study skills, note taking, reading, writing, math, and advanced thinking.
One reading lesson activity that can be used to explicitly teach both a metacognitive and a problem solving skill is summarizing. Summarizing is a really important skill for students to have because it allows them to remember what they have just read without memorizing every line. As a future teacher, I think summarizing is an important yet difficult skill to teach. Fortunately, I have learned that this skill can be taught by teaching students to think critically and use the RAP-Q heuristic.
As Sarah and I explained in our PowerPoint presentation, there are six levels of critical thinking. Summarizing is a critical thinking skill listed under "Level Two: Comprehension." To teach students how to summarize, I would have them read a short story and brainstorm what ideas or sentences from the reading they believe are the most important. While the students brainstorm, I would use a lot of questioning to help them think metacognitively about why they are including certain sentences in the summary and not others. For this discussion, my goal is for students to gain a deeper understanding of why we summarize and how this affects what information we include.
Summarizing can also be taught using the RAP-Q heuristic that I found at a website entitled "The Learning Toolbox" (http://coe.jmu.edu/Learningtoolbox/strategies.html). This heuristic is used to help students understand the main ideas of what they read, which will help them remember the main points that they need to include in their summary. For this heuristic, students simply need to remember to follow each step of RAP-Q. First, they need to Read a section of the story. Next, they Ask themselves what the main idea was and Put the main idea in their own words. Finally, students write a Question for the section and answer it on the back of an index card so they can flip through them later to see how all the main ideas are connected in the story. In my summarizing activity, I would explicitly teach students how to use the RAP-Q method and would remind them to use it whenever they are having trouble summarizing a story.
For my resource this week, I decided to share the website where I found the RAP-Q heuristic (http://coe.jmu.edu/Learningtoolbox/strategies.html). This is a great resource for us to use in our future classrooms because it has many unique and easy-to-remember heuristics that we can use to help our students problem-solve. The website contains heuristics for organization, test taking, study skills, note taking, reading, writing, math, and advanced thinking.
Tuesday, February 26, 2013
Constructivist Lesson
My group chose to plan a second grade science lesson about weather. We thought it would be a good idea to start the lesson by leading a discussion with the students where we pre-assessed what they already knew about weather vocabulary. Because the constructivist approach focuses on how each individual learner creates their own meaning, we thought this would be a good way for students to start organizing their background knowledge and thinking about what concepts they are still confused about. This pre-assessment will also help me because I will be able to adjust my lesson if necessary. I can take out any vocabulary words the students already understand and make sure to focus on the less familiar ones during my lesson.
Although my group talked about presenting the vocabulary words to the class and discussing them in a whole-group setting, I think I would like to break my students into small groups and give them the vocabulary words without definitions. I would then tell students to discuss in their small-groups what they think each word means, research the definitions of the words in a dictionary, watch news reports on the internet to see how each of the terms is used in real life, and create their own definitions for each word. This fits nicely with the constructivist approach because students would be able to construct their own meanings by coming up with their own definitions, as opposed to simply memorizing the ones in the textbook.
Next, our group thought it would be a great idea to have the students use what they had learned during the research phase to create their own weather reports using the vocabulary words. Students could write a script and record their weather forecast using a video camera. We thought this project would fit with the constructivist approach because the students would be able to deepen their understanding of the vocabulary terms by connecting them to a real-world situation. Instead of memorizing definitions and having a superficial understanding of these vocabulary words, students would be able to make a personal connection to them, which will help them remember what they mean.
I think that each of these activities helps foster student's individual and group construction. The pre-assessment is done in a whole-group settings, so students are able to bounce ideas off of each other and start constructing meanings for each term as a class. Likewise, the research and project are done in a small-group, so students are able to collaborate with each other and create definitions based on their group's interpretations of each term. Even though the definitions are created in a group setting, there is still an opportunity for students to individually construct meaning. Because the research, and project are all done in student-directed small-groups, they allow each student an opportunity to participate. Students can construct a personal definition of what each term means to him/her based on how they interpret the research and discussion that went on in their group. The constructivist approach states that every learner's construction of meaning is unique, so even if two students work in the same group, their personal interpretation of the meanings of the vocabulary words will still differ.
I really liked my group's idea of using a weather forecast to teach vocabulary, so I wanted to include a few links this week that show how this project can be done in our future classrooms. Notice the vocabulary that these kids talk about. They cover things like blizzards, precipitation, temperature, flooding, hurricanes, and so much more! The kids look like they are having fun and you can tell they have learned a lot about weather.
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