Over the course of the semester I have been completing fieldwork that is required for the class.
For this, I observed a 5th grade classroom.
The first thing I noticed when I began my observations was the classroom setup.
For a class with 27 students in it, it was a rather small classroom. The teacher whom I was observing discussed this issue with me.
She noted how while this was the classroom the 5th graders were placed in, the 2nd graders had a much larger room and a considerably smaller class enrollment.
When it came to arranging the classroom before the school year began, she was required to have a certain arrangement, however, when it came to the small stuff like materials, storage, mailboxes, etc. it all came down to where she could find the space.
Desks were arranged in three large groups of nine, making a 'U' shape. In the center of the 'U' was a space for students to gather on the floor, or the meeting area, where they sit in front of the Smart board and receive direct instruction before being sent back to their desks to work on an activity.
Materials (i.e. pencils, paper, pencil sharpener, etc.) are located on the counter by the window. Alongside these materials is the class library. Here, students may check out a book from a number of genres including realistic fiction, nonfiction, fiction, etc.
The teacher's desk was located in the back of the room near the window. Again, this was because that was where it could fit.
Next to the Smart board were five computers for the students to use.
Above the computers was a bulletin board where the students' work was displayed. During the time I was observing, the bulletin board was used to display book reports the class had recently completed.
Coat racks are located along the wall where the door is located. So are the students' mailboxes.
In this classroom, as with most other classrooms I have been in, the traditional blackboard and whiteboard are no longer needed, thanks in part to the Smart board. Therefore, these boards are now used to hang up posters, rules, pocket charts, and student work.
During ELA and math, the class is usually broken up into learning centers. When this happens, one group usually is assigned to the computers, and the rest are split up into two or three groups.
The teacher explained that the district was a Fountas and Pinnell district. This means that the classrooms were required to have a guided reading area and a meeting area. The meeting area is used to bring the students closer together and helps the students to pay attention.
The classroom was essentially set up for ELA purposes, or to create a literacy rich environment.
Saturday, May 1, 2010
Sunday, April 25, 2010
Unit Plan Is Almost Done!
It has been a while since I last wrote. I have been busy, busy, busy working on this unit plan.
It's all starting to come together slowly, but surely.
Thankfully, we have been spending most of our class time working on our units.
I'm currently working on putting together my possible activities in my unit. I have a total of seven activities.
I have been having a hard time writing up these activities though, and I'm not sure why.
The part of the activity I'm having the hardest time with is the development.
In the development, you are supposed to write out what kind of strategy, model, and method you are going to use for that particular activity.
After this past week's class, however, I feel like I'm starting to get what I need to include.
I need to be very specific in this section.
For example, if my activity has students working in groups, I need to write how I will create the groups.
Once my activities are completed, I can then write up my culminating project and evaluations. After that I should be done!
Wish me luck!
It's all starting to come together slowly, but surely.
Thankfully, we have been spending most of our class time working on our units.
I'm currently working on putting together my possible activities in my unit. I have a total of seven activities.
I have been having a hard time writing up these activities though, and I'm not sure why.
The part of the activity I'm having the hardest time with is the development.
In the development, you are supposed to write out what kind of strategy, model, and method you are going to use for that particular activity.
After this past week's class, however, I feel like I'm starting to get what I need to include.
I need to be very specific in this section.
For example, if my activity has students working in groups, I need to write how I will create the groups.
Once my activities are completed, I can then write up my culminating project and evaluations. After that I should be done!
Wish me luck!
Sunday, April 4, 2010
Putting It All Together
Now that we are getting toward the end of the semester, we have to think, how does all of this information we learned go together?
Amazingly, it all fits perfectly.
Take Bruner's Structure of Knowledge.
How would one tie together the different levels of his pyramid with other learning theories.
Meta-Cognition -- Re-Constructionism -- Social-Cognitive Theory.
Generalizations -- Existentialism-Humanism -- Multiple Intelligences/Brain Research Theory.
Concepts -- Progressivism -- Constructivist/Cognitive Theory.
Facts -- Perennialism/Essentialism -- Behaviorist Theory.
Before I continue with making connections, I must write the definitions for strategies, models, and methods.
Strategies are direct or indirect forms of instruction.
Direct instruction involves the teacher lecturing to students. This type of instruction can be done in the beginning of a unit when the teacher wants the students to learn basic information. It is also the easiest form of instruction to plan.
For indirect instruction, the role of the teacher changes. In this type of instruction, the teacher becomes more of a facilitator. The students actively participate through interactive, experiential, or independent ways.
Models are the broadest level of instructional practice and are philosophical.
There are four types of models; personal (develop self-esteem), Social Interaction (develop social skills), Information Processing (finding, organizing, processing information), and Behavioral (develop basic skills/knowledge).
Methods are the most specific ways of reaching goals.
There are hundreds of methods.
Now back to putting all of this information together.
One example of connecting Bruner's Structure of Knowledge, Bloom's Taxonomy, and strategies, models, and methods is this:
Meta-Cognition -- Creative Thinking/Evaluation/Synthesis -- Personal/Independent Study/Experiential.
It's been a lot to take in this semester, but it's all finally starting to come together.
Amazingly, it all fits perfectly.
Take Bruner's Structure of Knowledge.
How would one tie together the different levels of his pyramid with other learning theories.
Meta-Cognition -- Re-Constructionism -- Social-Cognitive Theory.
Generalizations -- Existentialism-Humanism -- Multiple Intelligences/Brain Research Theory.
Concepts -- Progressivism -- Constructivist/Cognitive Theory.
Facts -- Perennialism/Essentialism -- Behaviorist Theory.
Before I continue with making connections, I must write the definitions for strategies, models, and methods.
Strategies are direct or indirect forms of instruction.
Direct instruction involves the teacher lecturing to students. This type of instruction can be done in the beginning of a unit when the teacher wants the students to learn basic information. It is also the easiest form of instruction to plan.
For indirect instruction, the role of the teacher changes. In this type of instruction, the teacher becomes more of a facilitator. The students actively participate through interactive, experiential, or independent ways.
Models are the broadest level of instructional practice and are philosophical.
There are four types of models; personal (develop self-esteem), Social Interaction (develop social skills), Information Processing (finding, organizing, processing information), and Behavioral (develop basic skills/knowledge).
Methods are the most specific ways of reaching goals.
There are hundreds of methods.
Now back to putting all of this information together.
One example of connecting Bruner's Structure of Knowledge, Bloom's Taxonomy, and strategies, models, and methods is this:
Meta-Cognition -- Creative Thinking/Evaluation/Synthesis -- Personal/Independent Study/Experiential.
It's been a lot to take in this semester, but it's all finally starting to come together.
Review Time
Well, it's that time of the semester. Time to start looking back at previous weeks topics and reviewing.
We have covered a lot of material this semester and thanks to Jessica and her micro-teaching, I was able to review a good amount of our class topics.
What I liked about the review was that we weren't just fed all of the information all over again.
Instead, we were forced to THINK.
Given a couple of minutes, we had to make a list of all the concepts, skills, experiences, and theories learned during the course.
At first, I had a hard time. I could not think of a lot of the material we had previously covered. Eventually, it started to come back to me.
Under concepts I wrote content analysis, task analysis, aims, goals and objectives, learning standards, and the pedagogical system.
For skills I had creating a wiki, writing objectives, Webspiration, creating graphic organizers, and blogging.
Experiences included fieldwork, micro-teaching, group presentations, and designing a unit plan.
Finally, for theories, I wrote Bloom's Taxonomy, Gardner's Multiple Intelligences, and Cognitive Theory.
After making my own list and then listening to others share theirs, it was amazing to see how much we really went over so far this semester.
We have covered a lot of material this semester and thanks to Jessica and her micro-teaching, I was able to review a good amount of our class topics.
What I liked about the review was that we weren't just fed all of the information all over again.
Instead, we were forced to THINK.
Given a couple of minutes, we had to make a list of all the concepts, skills, experiences, and theories learned during the course.
At first, I had a hard time. I could not think of a lot of the material we had previously covered. Eventually, it started to come back to me.
Under concepts I wrote content analysis, task analysis, aims, goals and objectives, learning standards, and the pedagogical system.
For skills I had creating a wiki, writing objectives, Webspiration, creating graphic organizers, and blogging.
Experiences included fieldwork, micro-teaching, group presentations, and designing a unit plan.
Finally, for theories, I wrote Bloom's Taxonomy, Gardner's Multiple Intelligences, and Cognitive Theory.
After making my own list and then listening to others share theirs, it was amazing to see how much we really went over so far this semester.
Sunday, March 28, 2010
Bloom's Changing Taxonomy
This week, we talked about Bloom's Taxonomy, and Bloom's three learning domains.
Bloom's original taxonomy was in the order of knowledge, comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis, and evaluation. Imagine a pyramid, with knowledge being the base and working your way up to evaluation at the top.
Bloom's Taxonomy, however, has been revised, using new terminology.
It now looks like this...remembering, understanding, applying, analyzing, evaluating, and creating (creating now takes the place of synthesis).
With this revised taxonomy, there are also verbs to go along with each level.
Bloom's Taxonomy can be thought of as a ladder. Each step brings the learner higher and higher.
As for Bloom's three learning domains, they are cognitive, affective, and psychomotor.
Cognitive is the learner's mental skills (knowledge). Affective covers the growth in feelings/emotional areas (attitude). Psychomotor is the learner's manual/physical skills.
There are three domains simply because there is more than one factor the teacher should take into consideration when dealing with a student.
Aims, Goals, and Objectives...What's The Difference?
What is the difference between aims, goals, and objectives?
Aims are general statements that express learning targets. Examples of aims are national learning standards.
Goals are statements of the teachers intentions. Goals are expressed in state standards.
Objectives are specific statements of outcomes. Objectives are created by the teacher and can be measured through activities.
Mount Saint Mary College requires that our objectives consist of CBC (Condition, behavior, criteria).
The condition is the setting. The setting is expressed through the words, "Given a task/material..."
Behavior is the action verb used. Action verbs are words such as apply, outline, create, define, explain, etc. Action verbs are NOT the words know, learn, comprehend, etc. These words are not measurable.
The third part of the objective, criteria, refers to the level of performance expected from the student.
An example of an objective I wrote in class using the CBC model was, "Given two illustrations depicting the Boston Massacre, the student will complete a Venn diagram providing two similarities and five differences."
The condition is "Given two illustrations." The behavior, or action verb, is complete, and the criteria is providing examples on a Venn diagram.
While it may sound easy writing objectives using CBC, it's not. The example I provided came after a couple of attempts and discussion with my professor.
Hopefully, with a little practice it will get better.
Aims are general statements that express learning targets. Examples of aims are national learning standards.
Goals are statements of the teachers intentions. Goals are expressed in state standards.
Objectives are specific statements of outcomes. Objectives are created by the teacher and can be measured through activities.
Mount Saint Mary College requires that our objectives consist of CBC (Condition, behavior, criteria).
The condition is the setting. The setting is expressed through the words, "Given a task/material..."
Behavior is the action verb used. Action verbs are words such as apply, outline, create, define, explain, etc. Action verbs are NOT the words know, learn, comprehend, etc. These words are not measurable.
The third part of the objective, criteria, refers to the level of performance expected from the student.
An example of an objective I wrote in class using the CBC model was, "Given two illustrations depicting the Boston Massacre, the student will complete a Venn diagram providing two similarities and five differences."
The condition is "Given two illustrations." The behavior, or action verb, is complete, and the criteria is providing examples on a Venn diagram.
While it may sound easy writing objectives using CBC, it's not. The example I provided came after a couple of attempts and discussion with my professor.
Hopefully, with a little practice it will get better.
What is Content Analysis?
Content analysis is the breaking down, or structuring, the kind of learning experience the teacher expects students to know/perform.
Content analysis covers what is most important to know and also what skills are required to learn the content.
One way to do this in an organized fashion is through a subject matter outline.
There are five different types of content analysis; information processing analysis, concept analysis, task analysis, learning analysis, and activity analysis.
Information processing analysis is laid out through a subject matter outline. In concept analysis, the definition, key parts, and examples must be provided to students. The teacher should provide good AND bad examples to students. Task analysis is the skill required. Task analysis can be procedural or hierarchical.
Learning analysis examines the students prior skills and knowledge, as well as the best way the content can be learned. Finally, there is activity analysis. This examines how the information will be delivered. It should show how students will be engaged in the learning.
Why should you use content analysis?
For starters, it can help you classify information, and align that information with learning standards.
Second, it helps to decompose, or sequence, the information. You can identify the components, order of instruction, and select appropriate media, learning context,and methods of teaching.
How can you conduct a content analysis? There are a number of ways.
You can explore learning standards, whether they be state of national. You may interview colleagues. Talking to an experienced teacher can be extremely helpful, especially when you are just starting out in this profession.
You can also visit Internet sites to research your unit theme. You should be an expert on whatever you are teaching.
To show the importance of content analysis, and breaking down knowledge, a woman in my class asked us to tell her how to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.
While this sounds like a simple task, it involves a lot of steps, and that was the point she was trying to get across.
When we introduce a topic in our classes, we need to be able to break down all of the facts and present them in a logical order so that our students can complete a task.
Content analysis covers what is most important to know and also what skills are required to learn the content.
One way to do this in an organized fashion is through a subject matter outline.
There are five different types of content analysis; information processing analysis, concept analysis, task analysis, learning analysis, and activity analysis.
Information processing analysis is laid out through a subject matter outline. In concept analysis, the definition, key parts, and examples must be provided to students. The teacher should provide good AND bad examples to students. Task analysis is the skill required. Task analysis can be procedural or hierarchical.
Learning analysis examines the students prior skills and knowledge, as well as the best way the content can be learned. Finally, there is activity analysis. This examines how the information will be delivered. It should show how students will be engaged in the learning.
Why should you use content analysis?
For starters, it can help you classify information, and align that information with learning standards.
Second, it helps to decompose, or sequence, the information. You can identify the components, order of instruction, and select appropriate media, learning context,and methods of teaching.
How can you conduct a content analysis? There are a number of ways.
You can explore learning standards, whether they be state of national. You may interview colleagues. Talking to an experienced teacher can be extremely helpful, especially when you are just starting out in this profession.
You can also visit Internet sites to research your unit theme. You should be an expert on whatever you are teaching.
To show the importance of content analysis, and breaking down knowledge, a woman in my class asked us to tell her how to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.
While this sounds like a simple task, it involves a lot of steps, and that was the point she was trying to get across.
When we introduce a topic in our classes, we need to be able to break down all of the facts and present them in a logical order so that our students can complete a task.
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