There were two examples included that were said to encourage students to be reflective and allow them to evaluate their own strengths: blogs and online survey tool. Through the use of a blog, students are offered a space where they can reflect over time about what they are learning, as well as a place where they can go back and review what they were thinking and how they were thinking at a particular point in time. For the online survey tools, students are able to identify interests, strengths, and weaknesses that are beneficial to teachers to know that will assist in guiding learning. They can also be used to track trends and help students to see how their self-assessment compares to the larger group of students.
In this chapter, they discussed a multiple ways of getting minds ready for a project. The first concept they used was by tapping students’ prior knowledge through K-W-L charts. K-W-L stands for Know-Wonder-Learn. This is used to get students’ attention and allowing the idea to settle in their imagination. It is important for students to explore and think about the topic before the start of the project, and that the project holds so many possibilities! I enjoyed reading about how a teacher was going to start a section on biology and physics called Colonizing the Planets, and she simply brought up a poster and encouraged her students to pay attention the way of life on other planets that had been imagined over time, and also hinted that they will be having a special guest that next week. This provokes the children to search for their project concept in daily life and got them interested in who/what the “special guest” could be! I feel that this strategy allows their ideas to “run wild”.
When teaching the fundamentals, there are two concepts that must be discussed and implemented before the project is: set the stage for independent inquiry and the assessment rubric. By focusing on these two ideas, the students will be built up to the point that they are ready to begin. When setting the stage for independent inquiry, the students are able to establish a point of departure, as well as a sense of purpose. This is when the students are put in touch with their prior knowledge and helps imagine where their learning can go. The assessment rubric is their “roadmap” towards the great achievement they can gain from the project. By discussing the main learning tasks and underlying skills, the students are given the guidelines to what the intended performance looks like through a description of each possible rating.
There are four steps used in preparing students for using technology in a project: set up a technology playground, tap students expertise, introduce project-management tools, and demonstrate. When setting up a technology playground, students are encouraged to teach each other and provide an opportunity for students to explore the different technologies and applications that can be incorporated in their classroom project. In taping students expertise, students that are technically able are able to teach others, such as in small groups that rotate around the room from station to station that allow student trains to demonstrate how to use the tools. This provides students in the classroom that need more work to explore and practice with the tools, and having another student there to ask questions and show more detailed explanations to their questions.When introducing project management tools, teachers implement the use of blogs and logs that fill in as a check list where students track tasks they have completed and offer a place for reflection. This reference sheet can be used to track the progress to students’ goals and offer more insight to the teacher into where-and why- their students might be struggling or falling behind. Lastly, in demonstrating, teachers are able to use their resources around them. Whether this is through their own personal knowledge being presented to the class or by tapping into a technology specialist, another teacher, or a savvy student to demonstrate, it provides the connection between the teacher and the student to be able to learn together.
One of the primary ways to promote inquiry and deep learning to students is to look back at the wording the question(s). If the question leads the student to a one answer question and shows no other way of extending the thought processes from there, the question(s) must be reevaluated. Some types of questions that promote higher thinking are: “which one” that asks students to collect information and make informed decisions; “how” that asks students to understand problems, to weigh options, perhaps from various points of view, and to propose solutions; “what if”, or hypothetical, asks students to use the knowledge they have to pose a hypothesis and consider options; “should” that asks students to make moral or practical decisions based on evidence; and “why” that asks students to understand the cause and effect.
The biggest connection, to our class as a whole, is through the use of setting up a technology playground. When our lab section of our class is set in a computer lab, we are able to learn about technology and applications that we will be asked to work with for projects that are assigned to us. Since we have the computer(s) at our finger tips, we are able to play around and familiarize ourselves with the applications, as well as ask questions when needed to our professor during our class period.
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