I posted my video and I think it came out O.K. The video shows me explaining my lesson with my rubric and talking about how some students didn't participate like they should have from the class before. I also explain exactly what I expect from the students. The next part of my video shows the students working in their groups and making their posters.
The posters came out great and the students really used their imaginations to come up with persuasive posters.
Monday, April 5, 2010
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
Video
The video of my implementation plan is complete, I just need to put two parts of it togetter. My kids did great having a rubric and my posters were wonderful. If I find out how to shrink a file I will try to post the pictures of my student posters. I set high expectations and they rose to the occation. I'm so excited, I will continue to use rubric as much as I can. I will say that in my larger class I had some students who allowed other student to do the work on a project and with my rubric I was able to score students evenly, allowing the students who worked hard to get a better grade on the same poster.
Monday, March 22, 2010
Implementation plan
I have written the lesson plan that I am goint to use for the lesson where I video tape. I hope to video tape on Wednesday of this week. I designed a rubric to go with this project and I do believe that it sets high expectaions which was my plan. We will see as I document hos my students do on this project. I also had a pre-assessment that I will do tomorrow to compare to my grades for the project rubric. I will keep everyone posted on how it goes on Wednesday.
Monday, February 22, 2010
Task Five
Well it is late and I am going to start this blog but will probably have to add to it tomorrow. I'm afraid I will forget some of the things that I read and watched. I loved the blog that I read about motivating students because most of the people agreed that a lot of it is in forming relationships to each student. This can be hard with 30 students in a class but if you take the time it will pay off. Sometimes it is as simple as knowing what sport they play or a hobby that they like and asking them about it. I am very lucky because I teach a reading intervention and I have my students for at least two years and maybe three, so I really know them well. Some of the bloggers mentioned a peer reward where some students were asked to sit back and watch the class and give rewards to deserving students. This sounded like a great idea. It might even work in the high school setting, I would just have to tweak it slightly.
The video I watched was about project based learning. They talked about throwing away curriculum maps and using the projects to drive curriculum. It was an interesting idea and I do like projects for students and working in groups is good for them. All of the projects they showed on the video were related to real world experiences. They said that it is easier for students to learn in the real world theatre than in the abstract of a classroom. This is interesting and I believe I will use a lot of what they talked about next year as we are starting a new class for students who still struggle with reading and are probably not headed to college. We want this class to be based on real world experiences that students will encounter when they leave high school. We thought about resumes and having students do community based projects with local businesses that will help them with finding jobs when they graduate.
Well I'm not finished but I will be back tomorrow night.
I'm back. The video about project base learning deepens my the interest in my domain by showing high expectations for learning. Students doing the projects were engaged in what they were doing and all in the group were working hard together. Students knew that the outcome of their learning was very important. This is the area that I want to focus for my inquiry plan. I want to show a culture for learning, a classroom where students have high expectations and know that the outcome of their learning is important. I also plan to show the environment of respect and rapport through my interactions with my students. I'm not sure how I will show this but I have time to think about it yet. If you have any ideas they would be greatly appreciated.
The video I watched was about project based learning. They talked about throwing away curriculum maps and using the projects to drive curriculum. It was an interesting idea and I do like projects for students and working in groups is good for them. All of the projects they showed on the video were related to real world experiences. They said that it is easier for students to learn in the real world theatre than in the abstract of a classroom. This is interesting and I believe I will use a lot of what they talked about next year as we are starting a new class for students who still struggle with reading and are probably not headed to college. We want this class to be based on real world experiences that students will encounter when they leave high school. We thought about resumes and having students do community based projects with local businesses that will help them with finding jobs when they graduate.
Well I'm not finished but I will be back tomorrow night.
I'm back. The video about project base learning deepens my the interest in my domain by showing high expectations for learning. Students doing the projects were engaged in what they were doing and all in the group were working hard together. Students knew that the outcome of their learning was very important. This is the area that I want to focus for my inquiry plan. I want to show a culture for learning, a classroom where students have high expectations and know that the outcome of their learning is important. I also plan to show the environment of respect and rapport through my interactions with my students. I'm not sure how I will show this but I have time to think about it yet. If you have any ideas they would be greatly appreciated.
Sunday, February 21, 2010
Task Four
The component that I am most comfortable with is 2a - Creating an Environment of respect and rapport. I really try to get to know my students and their hobbies at and away from school. I also try to come to see them perform in sports and in plays. I will often use as examples something about a particular student that they are proud of. For instance to teach inference I will say that even though we have never seen Johnny outside of school, because he wears a football jersey in every Friday we can infer that Johnny plays football.
2b - Establishing a culture for learning which means that the atmosphere in the classroom reflects the atmosphere for the importance of the work undertaken. I took this to mean that both the students and the teacher are fully invested in the classroom work and believe in its importance. This is very important that the students buy in to the importance of the work they are doing. Students know when they are doing busy work and do not see what they are learning form it.
I would like to work on 2c - Managing classroom procedure. I struggle with controlling a discussion well. I do not like it when students shout out an answers, I like them to raise their hands so that everyone can be part of the conversation. I also like students to wait at their desks for the bell to ring but it seems that everyday they get up and crowd the door and everyday I have to tell them to sit back down until the bell rings. I need to figure out how to make these things part of classroom procedure that does not get challenged everyday.
How do you handle your classroom procedures, are they posted rules or do you practice the procedure with the students?
2b - Establishing a culture for learning which means that the atmosphere in the classroom reflects the atmosphere for the importance of the work undertaken. I took this to mean that both the students and the teacher are fully invested in the classroom work and believe in its importance. This is very important that the students buy in to the importance of the work they are doing. Students know when they are doing busy work and do not see what they are learning form it.
I would like to work on 2c - Managing classroom procedure. I struggle with controlling a discussion well. I do not like it when students shout out an answers, I like them to raise their hands so that everyone can be part of the conversation. I also like students to wait at their desks for the bell to ring but it seems that everyday they get up and crowd the door and everyday I have to tell them to sit back down until the bell rings. I need to figure out how to make these things part of classroom procedure that does not get challenged everyday.
How do you handle your classroom procedures, are they posted rules or do you practice the procedure with the students?
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
Task Two
Thanks to some snow and a day home from work I was able to get through both task one and task two. It was a lot of reading!!! Now I will have some time to finish my KTIP!!
The purpose of curriculum is to organize student learning. I really liked the Backward Design approach to writing curriculum. This approach was designed to benefit all students but it seemed to be a great way for students with disabilities to learn. This approach had teachers creating an essential question, know their students prior knowledge, develop assessment and then design your activities. I belive that knowing students prior knowledge is one of the key elements that I liked about this approach. I also thought that developing assessment first before designing activities would allow teachers to know what they expected of the students before they created the activity.
Curriculum is designed for the teachers and the students. In Morey Schwartz's article it states that curriculum is designed for the students but must be designed to engage. This article talked about disjuncture that would leave the students wanting to fix the disjuncture through learning and discussion. I believe that all teachers want some control of curriculum. We like to be creative with our lessons and we also know our students better than anyone else.
For me currently I have very little control of curriculum because I teach an intervention that is designed for me. Whenever I get the chance I enjoy doing some things on my own. My students also enjoy a break for the workbook and reading that we do. We have done some writing and the students really enjoyed the change.
The purpose of curriculum is to organize student learning. I really liked the Backward Design approach to writing curriculum. This approach was designed to benefit all students but it seemed to be a great way for students with disabilities to learn. This approach had teachers creating an essential question, know their students prior knowledge, develop assessment and then design your activities. I belive that knowing students prior knowledge is one of the key elements that I liked about this approach. I also thought that developing assessment first before designing activities would allow teachers to know what they expected of the students before they created the activity.
Curriculum is designed for the teachers and the students. In Morey Schwartz's article it states that curriculum is designed for the students but must be designed to engage. This article talked about disjuncture that would leave the students wanting to fix the disjuncture through learning and discussion. I believe that all teachers want some control of curriculum. We like to be creative with our lessons and we also know our students better than anyone else.
For me currently I have very little control of curriculum because I teach an intervention that is designed for me. Whenever I get the chance I enjoy doing some things on my own. My students also enjoy a break for the workbook and reading that we do. We have done some writing and the students really enjoyed the change.
Task One
Although long, I really enjoyed the Applebee article. The goal of curriculum is to align materials to best benefit the students in their learning. Curriculum gives us the ability to look what is being taught, how it is being taught and the structure at which it is being taught. Applebee's five features of curriculum was the most relevant of the readings. The first feature, ownership and the last feature, transfer of control were the most important to me. Applebee says that students need to take ownership of their activities, this is a great idea but I wonder how to incorporate it. When I teach I get a lot of, "do we have to do this?" The other feature was transfer of control back to the students where they feel they accomplished something useful. This feature I liked the most and it made sense to me.
The role of knowledge in curriculum I took from the Wiggins article. The role of knowledge is the ability to teach students to continue to question and seek more knowledge. How do you teach that, by making curriculum relevant to the real world experiences. Wiggins explained that teachers need to not always be the only answer that students need to continue to question and explore the truth. Teaching from authority with all the answers stops students from seeking more knowledge.
The goal of education is to teach and prepare students for a life of questioning, seeking truths and exploring what they have learned in the real world experiences that they will have when they leave high school.
The role of knowledge in curriculum I took from the Wiggins article. The role of knowledge is the ability to teach students to continue to question and seek more knowledge. How do you teach that, by making curriculum relevant to the real world experiences. Wiggins explained that teachers need to not always be the only answer that students need to continue to question and explore the truth. Teaching from authority with all the answers stops students from seeking more knowledge.
The goal of education is to teach and prepare students for a life of questioning, seeking truths and exploring what they have learned in the real world experiences that they will have when they leave high school.
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