In Working on the Work: An Action Plan for Teachers, Principals, and Superintendents, Schlechty (2002) indicates that, "Authentically engaged students see meaning in what they are doing." Schlechty also talks about the idea of teacher as leader and inventor as opposed to teacher as performer.
What are your thoughts on these ideas, especially in the context of Bloom's? How do we engage students to ensure they find the work in the classroom meaningful and of interest to them? What do those classrooms look like (factoring our the nonnegotiable of the NC SCS)?
I loaned a book to a teacher, titled, Never Work Harder Than Your Students. The idea being, the work of the teacher should not overshadow the work of the students - what are students doing in the classroom? Give me your thoughts.
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I believe that it is important to show the students how what they are learning relates to their lives. For instance, what kid REALLY wants to learn geometry? Relate it to measuring out a football field, figuring out the angles on a baseball field, (whatever the kids are into) and they will be more interested in learning about it. Teachers never did that when I was in school and I wish that they had!!! Kids need to be moving around more and experiencing "life" in the classroom rather than simply siting in seats quietly working on a worksheet. Make the learning fun, ask them questions that they need to answer by experimenting with different items, make it eaningful to the personally and they will get it! Classrooms that work in this manner are a little more noisy, but so much more fun for the kids (and teachers). After doing all of this experimentation on a subject, let the kids do a presentation for parents at a PTO meeting or a bulletin board to show off their work to the school. Make it all about them and what achievements they are making each day.
Fifth grade thinks the dynamics of the classroom and the interaction of the students determine the classroom climate for learning.
It is up to the teacher to determine the strengths and weaknesses of his/her students in order to spark their interest to be engaged and learn. We have observed in Science that even when we do a simple demonstration of an activity the students are much more engaged. The greatest challenge is creating groups that not only work well together, but share the responibilities of completing the task at hand.
I like your feedback. What would planning for teachers look like in that setting? What would assessment look like? What would we as a staff need to do to be prepared to teach all students in this manner?
This is one of the reasons that I like teaching science. It is one of those areas that creating and exploring is a natural part of the learning process. When my kids do labs they are engaged and take charge of their learning. It does not require me to stand and "teach" them they are able to discover for themselves. Naturally after the lab they are better able to answer "Blooms" type question becuase they have a point of reference (prior knowledge) that they created. I can not tell you the times I have heard kids say "that was just like that part in the lab" (something along those lines). As to what the classroom looks like....well, sometimes it LOOKS like "controled chaos". It by no means is waiting room quiet and the studnets are not sitting on their bottoms. They are in their own learning zone and that is all that matters. It is very tiresome having to visit all these different learning zones but in the end it is worth it. I see a tremendous difference with material that is covered with a lab and material that was not.
5th grade - what are some ideas you have about address those concerns?
From Fourth Grade: Relating to real life experiences for the students is an excellent way to engage them into the lessons. By using these experiences, the students will be able to create a foundation to build new concepts. By using the five "Whys" and the creating and evaluating areas of
Bloom's students will be able to use new concepts in a student-to-world application.
Brooke - I like your feedback. So what are some things that we as teachers need to do so we can help students learn as effectively as possible?
4th grade - what would lesson planning look like if you centered all the learning to encompass student interest? What might you do with student interest data to change, not so much what we teach, but how we teach. What would assessment look like then?
First Grade says "We agree with TeacherTammy" One challenge is creating groups that will work together. If one or two students dominate, then determining if all of the students are learning can be difficult. However, we believe children learn from working with peers and the lower students build confidence as they contribute to the group. In first grade, our reading program requires students to take responsibility for their learning. This helps them to achieve higher levels in Bloom's Taxonomy. They learn to develop their own strategies for learning.
Fourth grade: We think that taking the students interests and creating thematic units will aid in student learning. If they are interested, they will want to learn more. For example, we are finding that our students are interested in the Iditarod racing that is currently taking place. Therefore, we are incorporating this idea into as much subject matter as possible. (i.e. - Math, geography/social studies, reading, etc.)
Literacy/ESL:
This reminds us of the phrase "Work Smarter, Not Harder." We spend time in planning so that we can match the appropriate books to learners. We work with teachers to align our lesson themes with the classroom themes. We feel strongly that tapping into their background knowledge and building up their background knowledge will support their learning efforts.
Eighth grade teachers try to plan lessons where we are leaders, but students are engaged in learning during activities. We like using Mangione's activities to create interest and to reinforce concepts taught. As a team we need more planning time together to develop meaningful and engaging lessons that can be used by any of us. Middle school students must have opportunities to move. We must incorporate these these opportunities into our plans in order to survive!! (and promote student learning).
In this classroom there would be multiple learning opportunities that take place in and outside of a regular classroom.For example music is used to teach concepts such as letter sounds, shapes, positional words, how to write numbers, etc. An example of an activity that takes place outside of the classroom is using sidewalk chalk to reinforce writing letters, numbers, sentences, etc. This allows them to apply their knowledge that they learned in the classroom. In this classroom the teacher uses open ended questioning to allow students to interpret information and respond. After the student has gained an understanding of the material then they will be able to apply and create a product. An example is using playdough to create a herbivore and carnivore. The student will have to explain the differences between the two types of dinosaurs. This would take place at the conclusion of the unit to check the students understanding.
Kindergarten/Speech
Dr. Sheek, The challenge of finding cohesive groups is something every teacher faces at one point or another. It is a matter of trial and error from one year to the next. You need groups who not only work well together, but can each share responsibility. You also want groups where students will help each other without taking over and wanting to tell each other what to do. It is also tough to find a mix where you don't have one or two students doing all the work while others write down answers. You don't want to keep the same groups all the time, so, essentially, it is experimenting throughout the entire year. A teacher must not only figure out styles of learning, but also personalities of students as well. And, even though trying different groups, different assignments, and different responsibilities within the groups throughout the year sometimes helps with those challenges, teachers will always encounter times when students simply do not get along. A possible solution.....TBC!
A classroom that is using higher levels of Bloom's includes kids creating, planning, designing, hypothesizing, and experimenting. Students are using rubrics to assess their own work. The teacher is more of a facilitator than an instructor. The classroom would not look like a traditional classroom. Learning would be student centered which leads to children being focused and engaged.
The biggest challenge for teachers would be to let go of traditional classroom management techniques.
In preschool, students are typically meaningfully engaged in weekly themes. All learning is hand-on and can be seen throughout the centers around the classrooms. Activities, songs we sing, fingereplays, flannelboard lessons that we do go with the theme of the week. The students are not usually seated for long periods of time and most activities include some type of movement. There is plenty of child interaction whereby the children can learn by asking questions of the teachers as well as each other. Artwork should be child-oriented and done by choice, not forced or done by the teacher so that parents can see work truly done by their own children.
.....A possible solution would be a mini-lesson on teamwork and dealing with real-world situations where we are often placed in environments where we must accomplish a goal with people who challenge our personalities and individual learning styles. Examples...ball teams, co-workers, etc.
Third Grade Thoughts: We are leaders by example....inventors by creating....and performers by necessity! :) We lead our students to higher-order thinking by modeling through think-alouds. We invent lessons that spark interest in our students, thus, leading them to creating new products based on the knowledge they have acquired. We are performers because we must command the attention of our students to ensure a disciplined learning environment.
We agree that at times a classroom such as this will not look like a "traditional" classroom where students are sitting in their seats. Students would be mobile, active, and engaged with their work and their peers. Group work is helpful in acquiring social skills and preparing students for the real world. Students must be able to work with a variety of personalities and learning styles. They must accept each other's differences and ideas. (PLC's for kids?) :)
In first grade, its model, model, model. Students need to be shown how to produce the product and then can be expected to work independently.
Planning would be centered around themes and utilize lots of group planning. You can correlate many topics and teach them in different classes. For example, in 7th grade, if you need to study the Renaissance period, then English teachers could focus on that time period of literature and the kids could write plays, make their own costumes, etc. Music class could focus on Renaissance music and instruments, etc. It is actually easier to do this than many people realize and still teach to the SCOS. Assessments would incorporate asking the students about what they are working on, having them make models of villages, draw pictures of clothing, instruments, etc. This would be fun and instructional. Teachers can work closely together and have more fun while the kids are learning.
EC PLC feels....that opportunities may come less frequently in an EC classroom to apply a less structured format due to the diversity and variety of levels and subjects taught in our limited 40-minute block. With several grade levels within one class period, we try at times to adjust activities to accomodate areas of similar weakness. The SmartBoard technology has enhanced our abilities to engage students in active learning. Utilizing hands-on manipulatives encourages our students in many ways. We have incorporated mini-lessons in math. For example,we've set up a store and/or sent a child a bill for uncooperative behavior in order to teach money skills.
We find the beauty of being in a PreK-8 school is seeing how the children progress through the different grade levels. We agree students must be engaged for meaningful learning to take place. We do want to be certain our assessments measure the necessary skills to be mastered. Many activities are engaging and interesting to the children but do not assure that all children are mastering the learning objectives. The activities need to be student centered learning activities that will produce the desired learning. We think as long as EOGs are a factor, students must also be able to perform on a paper and pencil test just as successfully as on alternative assessments.
In the sixth grade, we seriously like to discuss what we are teaching to integrate into different subjects. This way students are able to see the meaning in different areas. We are currently planning an Underground Railroad unit. The students will study quilt patterns of the Underground Railroad, make sample squares, measure, calculate area and more. In Social Studies, they will discover the history related to the Undergound Railroad. In Language Arts, they will read a related story and in Music they will sing songs of the Underground Railroad. By integrating the topic into different subjects, the students gain a deeper understanding that will bring more meaningfulness and reach an area of their interest.
Integration is my answer. Funding is my second answer.
I believe that a classroom that is operating at the highest levels in Bloom's will look different on different days. Sometimes the students will be collaborating and sometimes they will be thinking individually, but always they will be doing work that requires them to think and act at the highest levels. In order to meet the needs of the students we must have a variety of methods to spark interest and maintain enthusiasm. Today we were working on a lesson using patterns to determine function rules. After class, several students came by to say " I loved this, it was fun." and others whined about never getting it. Was is a necessary skill? Absolutely! Was it interesting? Some of us thought so. Was it difficult? Oh, yes. Will we be using this skill in other ways in the classroom? Of course. I believe that we should be challenging our students to think and helping them learn to persevere. Many of the students shut down when they do not easily see a solution. They all want an easy button! Either find something they are interested in or help them to develop a new interest! Please give your students the gift of having to struggle and feel the success of achieving something that is not easily accomplished. That is a true self-esteem builder.
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