ch 6-7

progress. Ideas are best introduced when students see a need or a reason for their use—this helps them see relevant uses of knowledge to make sense of what they are learning.” pg139

This quote reminds me of every lesson I teach because I was taught to always find ways to hook the students or buy into the lesson I am teaching. The students are constantly assessed informally and in formal situations. The teacher uses her assessments to see where the students are at and what she needs to do to improve her instruction. In my lesson, I taught my students how to measure using connecting cubes. I constantly walked around giving them feedback. I remember that I made sure to make a connection with measuring and their lives so that they understood why it was important to learn how to measure. I told them that there are many ways to measure and that they can measure objects in order to see how big or small they are. At home their parents probably measure furniture in order to see if it fit in a certain location. I made sure that they were able to fully understand why they had to learn to measure. For this lesson, I think that I would try to have the students be involved in more knowledge-centered activities in order for them to fully go into depth of understanding. During my take over I think that I did not give them enough opportunities to do so. The readings expressed that introducing ideas and concepts in ways that promote deep understanding is really important for learning new skills.

“Opportunities for feedback should occur continuously, but not intrusively, as a part of instruction. Effective teachers continually attempt to learn about their students’ thinking and understanding.” pg 140

As I mentioned before, there were several occasions in which I was giving constant feedback to my students during my take over. There are different ways to give feedback to students, however, kindergarteners are not able to read comments fluently yet. As a result, I was unable to write feedback on their paper work. However, during the times I had the students work in small groups on measuring it was easy for me to walk around to each table group and give feedback orally. The reading also mentions that giving students opportunities to work collaboratively in groups can also increase the quality of the feedback available to students (140). I think that for the assessment part of my lesson I did a good job analyzing the work my students did. I was able to collect their work and evaluate their progress effectively and figure out next steps for those students that did not understand the concepts.

Life long learning

“Preparing students to be productive workers is only one important goal of schools in democratic pluralistic societies. Schools should also prepare students to become effective citizens. Effective citizens in democratic multicultural societies have the knowledge and skills needed to live in a complex and diverse world, to participate in deliberation with other groups, and to take action to create a more just and caring world (pg 11).”

 This quote stuck out to me because as teachers it is essential to not only educate our students academically, however it is also our duty to educate them on being functional people in society. Not only teach them to become effective citizens in society but also teach them to be open minded to other multicultural societies like the quote mentions. The reason I believe I am pretty well rounded and open minded today is because I was raised in a community of predominantly multicultural ethnicities. However, there are students that do not have the opportunity to be raised in such areas. These students only get to see one perspective and view of life and us as teachers should be able to demonstrate different perspectives in our classrooms. Some teachers are afraid of teaching touchy subjects or controversial subjects because the “other perspective” is being revealed and advocated for. I believe that teachers should not be afraid and that they should stand up for the voices that are not heard. The reading discusses how there are many students that are unsuccessful in school due to social contexts that effect them such as social economic status and racial discrimination or stereotypes. These students already are exposed to diverse cultures and language. We need to give them the same opportunities and resources for success just like everyone else.

“Nevertheless, teachers who have been given little instruction on the ways that language varies often have little understanding of the relationship between power and language. This lack of understanding, in turn, leads to restrictions being placed on students’ language use. Students maybe forbidden to speak their primary language in the classroom or be corrected whenever they use nonmainstream grammar or pronunciation (22).”

The reading discusses that our students learn a significant amount outside of school. I believe this is very important for teachers to understand. I chose this quote because language is a important for communication. Our schools are filled with English learners and I am certain that they are being taught at home that learning English is very important. At home they are being taught that English is the power language and the only way they will be successful in this country. Teachers need to help these students by providing the resources for them to be successful in learning English. It is not like they do not want to learn English it is the fact that they are not given the opportunity to learn it in comfortable environments. I strongly believe that schools should educate their staff on how to instruct English learners. This way tests results will be higher and everyone will end up happy in the end. If we disregard English learners by neglecting them we are not going to get far because a high percentage of them exist in our classrooms. We are here to help them not hold them and the rest of the school down. Viewing speaking other languages in a negative way is not providing a positive environment for English learners.

Week 6 blog!

“In short, the belief that intelligence is fixed dampened students motivation to learn, made them afraid of effort, and made them want to quit after set back. This is why so many bright students stop working when schools become hard.” This quote demonstrates that many of our students are having issues dealing with challenge. They are raised to believe that being smart is something you are born with. Therefore, when challenging problems arise in school they feel hopeless and not smart. I can relate to this way of thinking because when I was in jr high school I always struggled in math. This made me feel insecure and I never asked questions because of fear of being looked at as “dumb.” In my class I can tell that my shy students do not raise their hands or shout out answers during discussions. Even when we are working in groups these same students do not ask for help and just sit they’re doing nothing they are supposed to. I feel this ma e due to the way they were raised or fear of being looked at negatively by their peers. Speaking to other student teachers they have told me that during math their students experience the same feelings about intelligence. Some students do not ask for help even thought they need it.

Furthermore, this next quote is related to the praise given to students based upon intelligence. It may seem harmless to praise students for being smart, however this has negative effects on their self-esteem once they start making mistakes because they feel less smart. “Intelligence praise compared to effort praise, put children into a fixed mindset. Instead of giving them confidence, it made them fragile, so much that a brush of difficulty erased their confidence, their enjoyment, and their good performance, and made them ashamed of their work. In my class, I know that I always praise students for being “sooooo smart!” Now that I read the article I am realizing that this may not be the best approach. The article proves that students should be praised on effort more than intelligence. Otherwise our students become ashamed or fear being viewed as less intelligent for low performance. They may feel like maybe they are not as smart as they thought. They start doubting themselves and their potential to try hard. 

Chapter 3

Through my observations and personal experience I can conclude that students do in fact need time to put their skills into practice. Yes, people are more talented than others however, even these students needed to have learned and practice their talents in order to be advanced in the first place. The quote in the reading states, “significant learning takes major investments of time. Although many people believe that “talent” plays a role in who becomes an expert in a particular area, even seemingly talented individuals require a great deal of practice in order to develop their expertise (pg 58).” In my Physical education class we just finished reading a book that talks about this very topic. The book argued that talent can grow and is not born. The myth that people are naturally born with talent is not true because anyone can practice enough and put enough effort in order to learn. With my kindergarteners they need constant repetition and practice of letters and corresponding sounds in order to learn them. This ties into giving students enough time to practice as well other than just practice. As we can see in the reading, “learning cannot be rushed; the complex cognitive activity of information integration requires time (pg 58).” As their teacher I cannot expect them to learn all of the letters and sounds in a few weeks. It takes time and practice for them to fully conceptually understand and learn the letters.

Chapter three talked about learning through background and prior knowledge. I believe that designing lessons in which teachers make the curriculum connect with the student’s prior knowledge is very important. Students have been exposed to so much information before even setting foot on a school grounds. We can use this prior knowledge so that the students make connections and hook them to the learning. The reading mentions, “Prior knowledge is not simply the individual learning that students bring to the classroom, based on their personal and idiosyncratic experiences (pg 71).” Students have traveled, have been taught by educated parents, and have been exposed to many facts based on their upraising. These all relate to prior knowledge and the amount of knowledge our students come in with. Not only do students come in with a range of facts and misconceptions they also come in with different cultural upbringings and teachings. Like the reading states, “Prior knowledge also includes the kind of knowledge that learners acquire because of their social roles, such as those connected with race, class, gender, and their culture and ethnic affiliations (pg 72).” My students are predominantly Latin American native Spanish speakers. There are so many background facts that effect the way they learn and what they already know. My students are daily making transfer from one language to another.