Chapter 7

Make a list of the sequence of skills necessary for ultimate mastery of the content of your lesson through a constructivist approach.

Which of these learning activities/skills lend themselves to student’s individual or group construction? How might you structure learning activities that lead students to discover these skills/these principles?

 

The lesson that my group and I created in class involved Reading Comprehension for first graders. We said we would have students read a certain short story and follow up with an activity to assess comprehension. Before reading the story, the teacher will introduce the text with the aid of visuals, props, or videos with closed captioning (that relate to the story). Next the teacher will do a picture walk and ask students if any of the pictures look farmilar thus, activating student prior knowledge. Activating students prior knowledge will allow students to construct their understanding of the text and build on their existing knowledge.

 

Students will collaborate in groups to talk about the story, and give different view points and ideas about the text. This group construction will help other students construct more knowledge based on their peers views and understandings of the story. The students will then do an activity where they create a comic strip about the story they just read, illustrating main points and ideas.

 

 Making this comic strip will allow the teacher to see if students are really comprehending the story, and understanding what a main point vs background point is within texts. After collaborating, the students will work individually on their comic strips which will allow them to construct their own knowledge and answers based on their prior knowledge, the text, and group construction.

Chapter 6

What are the essential skills and/or learning outcomes you want your students to know and be able to do that relate to cognitive learning?
A major concept when it comes to cognitive learning is making deeper connections. I think it is an essential skill for students to try and make connections with the topic at hand, and for teachers to provide them with examples of connections and related real life situations. Instead of just teaching lessons on new topics I believe it is very important to set up connections prior to the lesson, and to ask students what they already know about the topic for the day. Talking about connections is important because students may not realize they know a little bit about the new topic unless we talk about prior knowledge, or show examples for the students who do not have prior knowledge. Prior knowledge leads to making connections which leads to keeping those connections and the new content in ones memory. I want my students to be able to relate topics back to real life situations. Most anything can be related to something else, and even if one student does not have a relatable situation to the topic another student in the class will. When we get our students to share their prior knowledge they can help other students who have no background information of their own to grasp the concept better. This stems from a  lot of cognitive theory being based off of learning and observing one another. To me the most important thing is connections! In an article it lists developmental cognitive milestones elementary school students can reach at each grade level. I thought this was interesting, but I do not think that there is a specific time for every developmental milestone.

Morin, Amanda. "Developmental Milestones for Elementary School".
http://childparenting.about.com/od/schoollearning/tp/developmental-milestones-elementary-school.htm

How might your knowledge of the memory processes guide your instructional decisions?

 

Again, I believe that prior knowledge is key especially when it comes to memory processes. The book says memory is the ability to mentally save something that has been previously learned; also, the mental "location" where such information is saved. In the article "Working Memory and Academic Learning: Assessment and Intervention" by Milton J. Dehn, It is important to remember that "the key to successfully educating and retraining the brain for memory is enrichment and treatment at critical developmental stages". In my instructional strategies and cognitive lesson plans I will be sure to activate prior knowledge, set objectives, and build connections. I think it is important to train students with different thinking and memory strategies to enhance long term memory storage.

 

Dehn, Milton J. "Working Memory and Academic Learning: Assessment and Intervention". John Wiley & Sons Inc. New Jersey. 2008

Chapter 14

Assessment is such an important part in the classroom. Does it all have to be formal? I think that formal assessment is needed in the classroom, but I don't believe that is the only type of assessment that should be present. Reading is such an important part of our students education. It is something that individuals can struggle with for the rest of their life if the right teaching methods are not there to help them. I took Reading Ed 430 last semester, and absolutely loved it. We learned so much that we could use in the classroom! There are many different types of assessments that can be used for Reading. I think it is important to include formal assessment even if they aren't any fun. I would some short story or text for my students to read, and then answer questions on it to turn in. These question can be asking to analyze the story to see if they really understand it, comprehension questions, or even sequencing questions. Another formal assessment I would use would could involve something like the Accelerated reader program, or a group presentation or project about a story where each student is assigned a different task. Another formal task I would use for reading would be running records. When I first got into education I was not aware of all of the great ideas there are out there for informal assessments. For reading there are many different assessments that can be done in centers, or small group activities. Assessments can be based on fluency, comprehension, vocabulary, phonics, and so much more. There are many websites that can be used for informal assessment for example, storylineonline.com where celebirties read stories online. Students can listen to the stories and listen to each readers fluency to help practice their own. For comprehension a great informal assessment for students would be asking them to draw a picture or a comic strip of they main and key ideas within the story. For things like vocabulary and spelling students can be at centers or in small group where they are asked to put like words together, or draw pictures for what vocab words mean and then turn them in for assessment. There are so many resources that teachers can choose from to help enhance assessments in the classroom. I'm sure most of us are more farmiliar with the formal reading assessments out there so I found an article from Scholastic.com that talks about informal reading and writing assessments. This article talks about the importance of informal assessment "Informal measures are best results are specific as to what you need to teach instead of just one solid score" (Scholastic). This article includes ideas for assessment for grades K-5. For example a suggestion for K-2 comprehension is " present the student with a cloze passage (words are left out of the passage) as the student to pick out words that can fit in the sentences and relate what is happening in the story" (Scholastic).

Weaver, Brenda. "Informal Reading and Writing Assessment Ideas". 2013
http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/article/informal-reading-and-writing-assessment-ideas