Constructivist Lesson

For my lesson I will do second grade vocabulary. Let’s say the students have ten vocabulary words in their unit that they need to know. One activity I would have them do is play charades with the words. They would break up into small groups, have one player choose a card with a vocab word on it, have the player act it out while others guess, and then take turns doing this game of charades. Before I broke them up into groups, I would first go over the vocabulary words, such as how to pronounce them and what the definition is to make sure they didn't come across any words they had no clue what they were. I think it is good for the teacher to give a brief introduction first. After they acted in groups, they would, as a group, write the word, draw a picture, and write a sentence using the vocab word. This may not be as much of a constructivist approach, but I feel it would be help to see that they mastered the content. Another option would be to have students explain why they chose to act a word out a certain way or what made the guesser guess the word in order to check for understanding.

These activities are social activities where students would work in a group. The student does have to work individually to think of a way to act out a word. If they cannot act it out, it might mean they do not know the word. I think charades allows for guessing and conversation about what the actor is doing which is a good way to structure activities. Conversation about the content and verbalizing it is a good way to help learn it. If they practice, they will learn these skills and do them automatically over time.

Check out the following website for additional ways to incorporate constructivist lessons in the classroom. It might also clarify or reinforce the ideas you have about it. There are several additional links on the website to learn more. Click here to go to Classroom Applications of Constructivism.

Memory Process

Knowing how your students’ memories work and the memory process can help a teacher plan her lessons and teaching. She can understand why students may not understand or remember something they learned.  With the information process model, a teacher can understand that students have multiple stimuli going into their brain throughout the day and some of it may get weeded out. In order remember it students must encode it or rehearse it. Teachers can help give meaning to what students are learning, rather than just lecturing and presenting information. If a student does an activity that relates to what they are talking about, it will give the subject meaning.

Also, teachers can help students remember certain things through repeating it, mnemonics, organization, elaboration or through visual imagery. Students will learn different and some strategies may work better for certain students than others. Anytime you can create an analogy or help organize information, this could possibly help students remember it. It is important to make sure to encourage kids to be creative with their memory devices because it is whatever works for them…there is not right or wrong answer.

This is a great website called Let Kids Lead where students have shared their favorite mnemonics devices. They are pretty clever!

Cognitive Learning

One important concept in cognitive learning is how information is processed. While the diagram showed in class may be advanced for students, I believe it applies to them and still have valuable information they should know. Students, and teachers, need to know why they remember certain things and why they forget others. It is important for teachers to recognize what information students might remember better and what information needs more work. One main thing about this process is that encoding or rehearsal must take place in order for the information to be readily retrieved. This means that whatever the teacher is teaching or whatever the students are learning must have meaning.  As a teacher, I want to know how to help my students remember important material that will be built upon, such as in math, and other important concepts in all areas that will help them as they continue. 

This may be using a certain learning strategy to help them remember “I before e except after c” or using an acronym. This could look like the teacher having students create projects that will help ingrain the information in their memory rather than having them memorize for a test and forget. Students may practice and rehearse a passage they have to memorize over and over until they have said it so many times and practiced it that they will never forget. Teachers can help students by telling students how the information is used in the real world or how it will benefit them. Many times math may seem pointless an useless, and after that class students will forget. A teacher could connect the importance of math to how it could be used in the real world and how it is built upon in 

additional classes.

In a different class, we learned about a great website that has a bunch of learning strategies for all subject areas. I believe this tool would be helpful to a teacher in helping give acronyms to difficult concepts or showing them the importance of a subject. The website is called The Learning Toolbox and it is a great resource to check out.

Assessment

One lesson third grade students learn is multiplication facts. Many students struggle to learn math facts. This is one area where it is easier to assess where students are at and really calculate the growth.  After studying these facts for a little while, I would give a standard test to all students with a certain number of math facts, say around 25 and give them five minutes to do it. This would be a formal assessment to see how much they know, what we need to work on specifically, and can track progress. I would also give this same test at the end to see how much they improved. These are two formal assessments I would use. I could also use a different math test to mix things up, but then I would not see how much they improved on the same test.

 As we work on the facts, I would use two informal assessments. I heard an idea from a teacher called “Number Talks.” In Number Talks, the teacher puts a math fact on the board, and students calculate it in their head mentally. They try to work the problems different ways until the teacher calls time. For each way they solve the problem, the hold up a finger next to their chest. Then, students share all answers out loud and then explain how they came to the answer.  This method helps students see how students come up with answers and see why they may get wrong answers. Teachers can see who knows their facts and who struggles. Many times when students are explaining their answers, they realize where they messed up and got the wrong answer.

Another informal assessment strategy is to play a math facts game. The teacher could have math facts or numbers on index cards or on the board. Students have to use a fly swatter to slap the correct answer to the question. This will help the teacher see what they students know. I could also see the assessment being stressful on some students because it is a race. Another informal assessment would be to give students an “exit slip” or “ticket out the door” problem or space to write questions to see where they are at and how they feel about the facts.

This is a link to a great blog by a third grade teacher in Colorado. She has many posts about assessments she has done to help her and her students. One great idea she had was to have a bookmark with different levels so students can monitor where they are at, and if they need extra help to learn something. 

Creating a Learning Environment

There are so many ways that a teacher can help create a learning environment that is conducive to learning, and to go along with that there are many ways where a teacher can, unknowingly at times, detract from a conducive learning environment. One of the ways we talked about creating a successful learning environment is having good classroom management. When I am a teacher, I believe one of the number one things to help towards this is organization. This is organization in many areas: teacher’s desk, papers, students seating, class materials, books, etc. If you are organized, then you know where things are and the day will go a lot smoother when you can find everything you need. Also, students will see this and it is a great way to teach them organization skills. At my placement in a third grade class, the teacher bought a binder with dividers for every student. She teaches them how to set up a binder and keep it organized. At the end of the year they have all the important materials needed to study for the TCAP as well as a great resource for the future. She said that she believes it is important to teach them these skills, especially before middle school, because no one else may teach them.

Another way to help create a great learning environment is to have limits and rules but not too many. If there are a bunch of strict rules that are heavily enforced, they will not be able to remember them and will be so worried about messing up that they won’t feel comfortable to take risks and make a mistake. This is one thing my placement teacher is really good at. Her class has simple rules such as respect one another. She can share stories with her class and be silly, but when it is time to focus, they listen to her. At one point during the day, the students were at centers working in groups. The room was noisy but the teacher said she didn’t care because they were working together and learning. They were doing what they were supposed to so why should she get onto them for not always whispering. I thought this was a great way to manage the class. I could go on and on about ways to create a learning environment that is conducive to learning, but these are my big top two ways.

This is a great website of classroom management ideas. If you explore on the site, you will find so many organization ideas, team management, and other classroom management ideas.

My CSEL case study is for elementary education where Lisa is causing a disturbance in her group. At this point, the behavior does not seem to go away and just ignoring it would not be a good thing to do. I believe that I would being with giving Lisa cues that I am watching what she is doing whether it is by staring at her to let her know I am aware or by going over to her group and standing by them. If the behavior continues, I would pull her aside and address the situation. I would ask her what is going on, is there a problem I am not aware of, and remind her of her role and duty as a group member. I would tell her that I need her to do this job and explain we have to rotate jobs. I would explain to Lisa why it is important to be a member of a group and how it is something you will always have to do, even when you are a grown-up. I might even include a mini lesson for the whole class about group work and participation and conflict resolution within a group.

 At this point, I might send her parent an e-mail just making them aware of the situation if behavior had not improved. If after this Lisa was still not cooperating, I would find a form of discipline that would work for her by telling her I need her to do this or you will/will not have….. (silent lunch, independent work, recess, behavior marks, etc.).  If a discipline was not effective enough and the behavior kept continuing, I would call a parent and see if her parent might be able to come in for a conference with the student and we would be able to talk about her behavior and the reasoning behind it. 

Mighty Motivation

In class, we discussed intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. Intrinsic motivation is when the student is self-motivated and is doing it in order to satisfy an internal goal. Extrinsic motivation is when a student is motivated by outside sources such as a reward.

For me, it depends on the subject and class on whether I am intrinsically motivated or extrinsically motivated. In a class I really enjoy and see the benefit of learning the material, I am intrinsically motivated. For example, in my education classes, I am very intrinsically motivated because I want to learn how to be a great teacher and am interested in doing well. I am motivated to learn because I know the material covered in these classes will be to my benefit in my future teaching career. The teacher doesn’t have to give me any kind of reward because I am motivated by internal means.

On the other hand, if I do not enjoy a class and do not see how the material covered will benefit me, then I am not motivated to learn at all or may be extrinsically motivated depending on the circumstance.  If I am rewarded for the effort and work I do, such as a good grade or an extra credit opportunity, then I am more likely to be motivated. This has occurred in many of my General Education classes and Spanish classes. In my Spanish classes, I did not see the point of learning old age poetry and did not see how it would benefit me.  I was not at all intrinsically motivated. The only reason I was motivated was to pass the class and receive at least the C that I needed to pass.

Having experienced both of these types of motivation helps me better understand my future students. There may be some subjects that students are really interested in and are motivated on their own, while other subjects or material may require some type of extrinsic reward.  As teachers, we need to learn how to make students intrinsically motivated by sparking their interest and keeping the curiosity alive. In addition, letting students have some control over their learning, as in choosing project topics or help create classroom rules will help students be intrinsically motivated. For the times when students are not, a reward may need to be given. As we discussed, the teacher needs to make sure these are unexpected and help keep the students motivated.

There are many ways to motivate children, whether it is intrinsically or extrinsically. As teachers, we need to find the balance and find out what works for each student. We need to know our students and figure out what motivates them and what makes them unmotivated. If children seem unmotivated, maybe the teacher needs to come up with a way to make the material more interesting. Students who are more motivated will learn better.

This article from Vanderbilt is a great resource for an overview of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. It  details some of the advantages as well as disadvantages for each type of motivation. Also, you can check out this short video that helps you see the difference between intrinsic and extrinsic motivation and how to help children become intrinsically motivated.

Welcome to Ed Psych 401!

Today was the first day of Educational Psychology 401 and it was great! I was very nervous going into the class since we had homework before the first day of class, but once I went all my worries went away! Anne seems like she is going to be a great teacher and really has a passion for this class and teaching. I am so excited to learn more about all the topics.

My personal objectives for this class are to learn how to better help my students. I see that we will be talking about classroom management, classroom assessments, personal and social development as well as many other topics. These are the topics that interest me the most. I hope to gain more insight to how my students will grow, learn, and process and why they may have certain behaviors. In some previous psychology classes, I have found the topics difficult, but I have a feeling this class will be able to provide me with practical use in my classroom. 

As I mentioned above,  classroom management, classroom assessments, personal and social development are the topics that catch my interest at first glance of the syllabus. I want to have a comfortable, and safe classroom environment and will strive to learn all I can to help create it. At this point, I don't have too many concerns. It always takes a week or so to get into the swing of things and learn each teacher's routine. I think once I get a handle on how everything works, I will be just fine! I am very excited for this class and am happy to know now that it is nothing like Ed. Psych 210!

In class, we learned about quantitative and qualitative research. Quantitative can be easily converted into numbers where as qualitative cannot. We also touched on action research which includes finding out how you can work more effectively in your school.

If you want to find out more about what makes quantitative different from qualitative research, visit this website.