Differentiation and Technology

This chapter is full of information on how to differentiate instruction, group students appropriately, and use technology for the classroom. First, I have to start by stating that I learned so much about technology! There are a lot of technology names that have always intimidated me. Although, I am pretty young and new to teaching, I can be a little traditional when it comes to technology. I finally found out what RSS stands for as stated in Slavin (2012), “Real Simple Syndication or Rich Site Summary. RSS lets users know when something new is posted on the blog” (p.276). Another topic that I read more about in this chapter was how students can use technology to benefit them academically. Towards the end of the school year I started getting more comfortable with my students using technology. My students used a website called e-class to communicate with each other. I would post a discussion topic and the students would then start a thread in response to that discussion topic. In addition, my students would respond to each other in a kind and open way. I underestimated my students at first because I thought that they were too young to do such a task. Those second graders sure proved me wrong!

Differentiated instruction and appropriate grouping of students is super important to be able to help students reach their maximum potential. Akeyla Peele mentioned in her discussion post the importance of making connections with the students in your classroom. Making connections allows for children to realize that we care about them and their success. It also helps them realize that we care about things that are also important to them. I believe that appropriately grouping students helps them feed off of each other in a way that is encouraging and beneficial to the child. Slavin (2012) states, “Regrouping is a form of ability grouping often used in the elementary grades. Students stay in mixed-ability classes most of the day but are assigned to reading and or math classes based on performance” (p.257).  I have not seen this used that much in the past but I do think that the idea could be beneficial for our students. This idea will help students feel comfortable around other students which will in return deepen their motivation to succeed.

Something that I found negative in this chapter is the idea of pull-outs under title one.   This does not benefit our students as much as we think it does. I know from first-hand experience that communication between the general teacher and the pull out teacher is not always the best which can negatively impact the child.

I love how this chapter integrated the ideas of differentiation and technology that help our at-risk students succeed. This is definitely a chapter that I will reference back to in the future.

References

Slavin, R.E. (2012). Educational psychology: Theory and practice (10^th ed.). Boston:Pearson. 

Student-Centered Instruction

            Slavin (2012) stated, “ Students must construct knowledge in their own minds” (p.218). I chose to start with this quote for my reflection because it summarizes the whole concept of this chapter. This chapter emphasizes many influential topics of learning such as cooperative learning, critical thinking, and constructivist views.

            Students must be able to explore information, test knowns and unknowns, and eventually apply the learned information to their own lives (Slavin, 2012, p. 218). Something new that I learned in this chapter is that the constructivist theory is when individuals discover and transform information to make it their own. The Constructivism Theory was guided by the works of Piaget and Vygotsky. One thing that Vygotsky emphasized that I currently use in my classroom is scaffolding. Scaffolding helps my students think more critically and it deepens their learning.

I loved this chapter and agree pretty much with the whole chapter but one topic in particular that makes me excited to talk about is cooperative learning groups. I absolutely love cooperative learning groups and I utilize them in my classroom. In this week’s discussion post Ian Lyle mentions that choosing the most appropriate learning strategy when allowing for cooperative learning groups can be very challenging. I have to admit that utilizing the best strategies for a particular activity that is student-centered instruction driven, was very challenging for me because I usually have the gifted students and lower students in my classroom. Given that I am fairly new to teaching, a lot of times I have to just think of what I think is best and go with it! Mixing the groups with different academic levels of students has seemed to work well. I usually reflect back to what worked and what didn’t’ work with a particular student-centered instruction activity.

As mentioned in the readings for this week, I use a lot of group investigation, jigsaw, and learning together. The models that I would like to start using in my classroom are peer-assisted learning strategies and cooperative scripting. Slavin (2012) stated, “PALS is a structured cooperative learning method in which students work in pairs, taking turns as teacher and learner using specific metacognitive strategies” (p.234). One way that I can see PALS being beneficial in my classroom is to pair my lower students with my higher students. The important idea to remember is that when pairing them, I must create scenarios that allow for both students to show their strengths. PALS will also help my students learn how to problem-solve with each other if given the appropriate activity. I think that PALS is a great way to build confidence, especially with my lower learning students.

   Reference

Slavin, R.E. (2012). Educational psychology: Theory and practice (10^th ed.). Boston:Pearson.

Direct Instruction

            This chapter talks about direct instruction. Slavin (2012) states, “Direct Instruction is a teaching approach that emphasizes teacher control of most classroom events and the presentation of structures lessons” (p.211). There are many parts of a direct instruction lesson; stating learning objectives and orienting students to the lesson, review prerequisites, presenting new material, conducting learning probes, providing independent practice, assessing performance, and providing distributed practice and review.

            I believe that orienting the lesson is one of the most important parts of a lesson. When orienting a lesson the teacher must help the student get prepared to start the lesson. I always knew that when beginning a lesson or introducing a new topic the teacher should begin by catching the students’ attention. I never thought about supplying a positive mental set for the class. When students are ready to begin a lesson and exhibit that with a positive attitude then that is called a positive mental set (Slavin, 2012, p.189). Another extremely important part of the lesson in which I will be sure to use more in my classroom would be structuring my lessons. Of course I structure my lessons using models provided by the county that I work in but now that I have experienced second grade in the last school year, I have already started to think about how I can adapt them to my style of teaching. I really feel that the lesson structure is so important because it helps the teacher stay on track.

            Checking for understanding and questioning are two extremely important components of conducting learning probes. It is always great to check for understanding during a lesson to see if you should slow down or move on in a lesson. Questioning may seem like a task that just requires common sense, but in actuality it is a bit more complex. One thing that I learned in undergrad that I actually do great with in my class is wait time. Slavin (2012) says, “The length of time that a teacher waits for a student to answer a question is the wait time” (p.197). Teacher should wait at least three second to let a student gather his or her thoughts to respond to a given question. Of course it depends on what type of question is asked to determine the appropriate length, but all questions should be allowed at least three seconds to respond.

            With the education world being in the mist of the Race to the Top Program and No Child Left Behind, I could not complete this reflection without highlighting the importance of teaching for the transfer of learning. Slavin (2012), “Students often get so wrapped up in preparing for tests, and teachers in preparing students to take tests, that both forget the primary purpose of school: to give students the skills and knowledge necessary for them to function effectively as adults” (p.204). With that being said, I learned that the process of transferring learning is a great way of knowing that a child really understands information and can use information properly when put in a new situation.

            In this week’s class discussion, Jordan Little states, “When I break my students up into small groups, student’s participation is much higher and I see other students helping others in their group. The students end up teaching the lesson to each other more so, than myself.” I chose to reference her quote simply because this is much of what I saw in my classroom last year and what I hope to see in it next year. I think that this quote is a positive reflection on a classroom because it shows the caring and learning community that the class has become. I believe that direct instruction should be set up in a way that it can be followed with students helping each other with the lesson.  

Reference

Slavin, R.E. (2012). Educational psychology: Theory and practice (10^th ed.). Boston:Pearson.

Information Processing

         This chapter is all about how students process information. There are three main sections of memory, sensory register, long-term memory, and short-term memory. I have to say that I have learned the most from this chapter thus far. I have honestly never heard of working memory, a memory portion associated with long-term memory. I found it fascinating to read about because having the knowledge about it can help me in my day to day teaching activities. Slavin (2012) says, “Working memory is believed to have a capacity of five to nine bits of information” (p. 147). Another important thing to remember when dealing with the working memory is that everyone’s working memory holds a different amount of information. I can apply the knowledge that I learned about the working memory to my classroom because I cannot expect all of my students to remember the same way and pace. It is evident in the reading that students need to see teachers use a variety of ways to teach information so that each student is given the opportunity to fully grasp the concept being taught. Meagan Kuck mentions in her discussion post, “It is also very important that teachers use various strategies because each student is different.”

            Another memory that I have never heard about until now is the episodic memory. Slavin (2012) says, “Episodic memory is our memory of personal experiences, a mental movie of things we saw or heard” (p.149). I try to create a lot of episodic memories in my classroom to help my students remember information better. An example would be the fact that I use a lot of hands on experiences in my class so that the child can actually remember content based on their personal experience. Another concept that I can use in my classroom is the verbal learning concept, serial learning in particular. Serial learning is about recalling a list of items in a specific order (Slavin, 2012, p.163). I love teaching social studies and one thing that I would like to do different next year in teaching social studies is to use more timelines. I believe that I will be able to help my students better understand the importance and significance of history by letting them serial learn and complete timelines.

            In all, using various learning strategies combined with knowledge of memory types and memory importance will be overall beneficial to a teacher because it helps us plan our lessons more appropriately. We have to think about what we want to accomplish out of the lesson and then work backwards. In addition, all information taught or explored should be organized. It is the job of the teacher to create structured yet creative and engaging activities for the students.

References

Slavin, R.E. (2012). Educational psychology: Theory and practice (10^th ed.). Boston:Pearson.