Chapter 7 Questions to Consider

Chapter 7 QtC:  

Describe a constructivist lesson you would teach.  

 

The lesson I have in mind for this would be for a tenth-grade English class. Most tenth graders (at least at my high school) were required to read Night or The Diary of Anne Frank as an introduction to a Holocaust unit. I think that this is an excellent place for some cross-curricular learning, but it is also a good time to expand students' knowledge and their conceptual understanding through the use of project-based learning. 

 

According to Ormrod's text, project-based learning is a "classroom activity in which students acquire new knowledge and skills while working on a complex, multifaceted project that yields a concrete end product."

 

The project would include a mini-research paper/reflection (2-3 pages total) covering an article found on the United States Holocaust Memorial website (<-- link). After researching and writing (probably the following week), students will begin reading the chosen, related novel. This will help to build the conceptual understanding (a constructivist notion) students have of the Holocaust and how it relates to the literature. Plenty of class discussion time would happen during the course of the unit and the novel. 

 

 

Chp. 6 Questions to Consider: Learning and Cognitive Processes

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?

One of the "basic assumptions" of cognitive learning that is mentioned in the text is that students should be able to construct meanings and understandings. The book then states that the "eduational implication" is that students should be able to make sense of learned topics. To me, this means that as a teacher, I should guide my students as they form their own meanings and understanding of themes in literature (for example). I want my students to be able to identify a theme, but then take that to a new level in their cognitive learning process by analyzing that theme, figuring out how it fits into the work as a whole, and then make recognitions about how that theme applies to their own lives and, on a larger scale, to our society.

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

I think that in getting students to analyze and apply learned material through constructing meanings and understandings, it is important to implement "meaningful learning" (recognizing relationships between new and preexisting information) as well as "hot cognition" (when thoughts and memories become emotionally charged). If I can make instructional decisions that promote these strategies and are conducive to students making connections, then hopefully my students will better learn the material. For example, if I can get students to make a connection between what they already know about Puritan culture and newly presented information about the themes of hypocrisy in Scarlett Letter, then they will better understand the text as a whole. Within that same lesson, if I can channel hot cognition by stimulating student memories of a time when they were publicly embarrassed or ridiculed, then they will be able to relate more with the character of Hester Prynne, and thus, become more interested in her outcome.

Definitions of Teaching and Learning

When one is asked to define teaching and learning, reaching for good old Mr. Webster won't do the trick. There is so much more to these concepts than part of speech and word origin. Actually, there is so much more to teaching and learning than their listed definitions provide.
The definitions of teaching and learning will surely vary depending on who you ask. In fact, here is an article from Education Week: Teacher Professional Development Sourcebook containing the thoughts of various leaders in today's education system about their beliefs on the definitions of teaching and learning:

"How Do You Define 21st-Century Learning?"

Personally, my definitions of teaching and learning are tightly interwoven, and they are as follows:

Teaching: Teaching is the opportunity to deliver information in such a way that students are able to process the information clearly and then synthesize that basic information into a living, working knowledge. Teaching is creating an environment that is stimulating while implementing the available tools for learning, as well as creating or bringing new tools to the environment. Teaching is recognizing potential, fostering its growth, and leading the learner to achieve his or her fullest potential. 

Learning: Learning is taking in facts, cues, stimuli, ideas, and symbols and then synthesizing, evaluating, and applying those gained materials to new problems. Learning is the process of thinking critically and utilizing skills those new problems. Learning is a process of exploration, inquiry, and discovery. Learning is using available, shared technology and resources to seek out new perspective. Learning is doing all these things in order to reach a more fulfilled and realized potential, and thus achieve.

Chp. 14 Questions to Consider

Questions to Consider:

(14.1) Think of a lesson plan from your licensure area (feel free to use the same topic you used for Chapter 6, 9 & 10). Knowing that assessment is an integral part of teaching, explain at least four informal and formal assessments that you will use in your lesson plan to provide you with feedback and involve the students in assessing their own learning.

(14.2) Consider norm referenced assessment and criterion referenced assessment. Are there advantages to both? Are there disadvantages?

 

14. 1

*Side note, starting off:

I found this interesting article from Scholastic.com that explains formal vs. informal assessments, particularly with Language Arts/English in mind:

 http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/article/formal-versus-informal-assessments

In my example lesson, I will be assessing students' comprehension of Act 5 of Macbeth, and the "Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow..." speech in particular. 

For English classes, I think that there should be more emphasis placed on informal assessment rather than formal assessment, at least where reading comprehension/application is concerned. That being said, for my form of (1)formal assessment in this lesson, I would probably give a pencil-paper quiz over vocabulary from the reading selection. This would let me know which of my students are really understanding the language of Shakespeare and what they are reading. A score of 80% correct (8 out of 10 questions) would be considered "competent." The vocab quiz would also demonstrate which of my students are reading at their grade level's average (12th grade reading level in this case).

For informal assessment, (2)I would like to have my students perform some type of activity involving memorization of the "Tomorrow" speech. That could be by having them individually recite the monologue. This assessment might require more than one class session due to time limitations. (3) Another assessment could be to have a "fishbowl" session with discussion from the assigned reading. This method generates discussion that will give me as the mediator an idea of how well students comprehended and thought about their reading. (4) Finally, I'd like to end the class with a fun, group activity. I think it would be good to do a game of Jeopardy with cumulative questions from the entire play. Since the 5th act of Macbeth is at the end, it would be likely that the following class would contain an exam over the play. This way the students can see what type of questions they need to review and study for the exam. That will also give them an idea of how much they personally need to study, which is a good form of self-evaluation. 

14.2

Since norm referenced assessments are used to compare a student's progress to that of his peers, they can be useful for placement. This type of assessment is advantageous in the case of a struggling student who may need to taken out of an honors English class and placed in the "basic" English class. One disadvantage is that if you're comparing a student to the rest of his class, and the rest of the class is performing at the same level, you may not see that there is a need for improvement.

As for criterion referenced assessments, the student is being tested based on his/her mastery of a particular subject. These are more specific and are not comparative to his/her peers. This type of assessment is much more practical than norm referenced assessments, which is probably the reason why teachers use criterion referenced assessments much more often than norm referenced. They are also much better at measuring individual improvement in an area.