VoiceThread - Tattling

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There is a lot of tattle tailing going on both at home and at school.  Children have a difficult time figuring out how to problem solve on their own.  They immediately point their finger at the other child and run away to tell an adult nearby.  We need to make sure our children and students have a clear understanding on what is a tattle.  There are many situations that can be solved independently.  Other situations, such as something that could be harmful or dangerous, need to be brought to an adult’s attention. 

Connectivism and Social Learning in Practice

Cooperative learning has such an incredible tie to social learning.  When students are engaged in a social learning activity, such a creating a project together, teaching each other after researching a specific topic, or even studying with one another, social learning gives students the opportunity to share their insights with their peers.  This is a positive experience for students and allows time for sharing thoughts and agreeing on a single idea when working in groups.  Using technology to present an assignment allows for more student engagement.  The students have adapted technology skills through the accessibility of technology at their student’s fingertips.  I often find that my students are able to walk me through any troubleshooting due to their exposure.  They have a natural ability to work with peers while clicking the mouse at the same time.  Students prefer and are much more engaged through a visual presentation verses reading a chapter in their textbooks. 

Cognitivism in Practice

The brain works in wonderful ways as long as we trigger our student’s interests and allow time for a greater understanding.  The cognitive learning theory states that the importance of learning new information is the ability of retaining the content into long term memory. 

One instructional strategy that enhances learning is cues, questions, and advance organizers.  Cues can be used to direct students in the correct path.  This is an imperative time to bring realia into the lesson to allow English language learners the opportunity to advance.  Questioning throughout the lesson offers safety for students.  Questioning also could spark student’s interest in wanting to research the content further.  Advance organizers are used to organize the material into categories through technology or the old fashioned paper/pencil.  Teachers have a plethora of online assistance in creating organizers appropriate for their students and subject area. 

Another instructional strategy used is summarizing and note taking.  Summarizing helps students to retell the information in their own words and focuses on the big picture.  This can be done verbally or written.  You will see summarizing is necessary in all grade levels.  Students need to be taught how to filter out the unnecessary material to find the main idea.  Note taking can be done in bullet form, outlines, sentences, or even pictures.  Students need to learn a variety of ways to note taking to find what works best for these personal needs.  By doing so, students will more likely gain long term memory with the information being taught.

Reference

Pitler, H., Hubbell, E. R., Kuhn, M., & Malenoski, K. (2007). Using technology with classroom instruction that works. Denver, Co: Mid-Continental Research for Education and Learning.

Instructional Strategies

This week I read about behavior learning theories and instructional strategies in the classroom.  One example that stood out to me was homework.  I always have found that homework is a difficult area to assign and to grade.  When assigning homework, you have to keep in mind that your students have been in school for 8 hours, 5 days per week.  Some students have support at home and others have none.  There are some parents or siblings that complete all the work for you students.  Depending on what grade level you teach, you have to consider that there is more than one subject being taught.  Many students have extracurricular activities going on outside the school day.  Keeping all this in mind, is homework really teaching our students anything?  Are students getting anything out of these assignments?  Is homework a reinforcement of what they are doing in class or is something that they are having to teach themselves?  Most of the answers to these questions would be appropriate or not depending on what grade level you are teaching.  When connecting this all to behavior learning theories, I fell that homework is necessary.  It might not be teaching our students new content or eliminating their social life, but most importantly it is teaching them responsibility.  I believe in minimal homework that reinforces what they have learned in class.  My first graders are responsible for daily homework.  It is short and simple.  I only spot-check their homework and do not make corrections if there are only a few errors.  I grade them on being responsible students and completing an assigned task.  I am trying to teach them responsibility that we all have to learn if we want to hold a job, complete a task, or have a successful future.