This week, we read about constructivist strategies.
I was most interested to read the section of the online textbook by Michael
Orey that discusses the instructional model set forth by Kayla Johnson. It was
obvious that she as using the constructivist theory. Her presentation was
completely learner centered, rather than teacher centered. The learners were
actively constructing meaning, instead of her just lecturing them on what they
needed to know. I was impressed that she was so prepared that she was able to
anticipate her students’ needs and behavior. She already knew that her
participants might be tired after lunch, so she started the afternoon out as an
interesting activity to re-engage her learners. The text mentions that Kayla
received good feedback from her students: they were happy to do their own
projects instead of having a project forced upon them by a teacher.
The reading from this week in the Pitler book is
about generating and testing hypotheses. I feel that the activities described
in this chapter fall under the category of constructionism. The best of which is
the one by Mrs. Omar. I really like how she created an interactive spreadsheet
for her students to use. Having the formulas already in place makes the
assignment easier, and allows the students to see the differences certain
changes make in the final outcome. This assignment takes the focus from the
actual computation of the formulas, and places it on the outcome. This makes
the whole project more meaningful to the students, because they are able to see
a real-world application of their math skills, without being bogged down by
calculation. I was, however, a little disappointed with this chapter, because I
did not learn how to implement generating and testing hypotheses in my English
classroom. Does anyone have any ideas?
Resources
Orey,
M. (Ed.). (2001). Emerging perspectives on learning, teaching, and technology.
Retrieved from http://projects.coe.uga.edu/epltt/index.php?title=Main_Page
Pitler, H., Hubbell, E. R., & Kuhn, M.
(2012). Using technology with classroom instruction that works (2nd
ed.). Alexandria, VA: ASCD.
Leslie,
ReplyDeleteI struggled with using hypotheses in my English classroom as well this week. I feel like I fairly regularly have students use construcitivism, but when it comes to PBL and creating hypotheses, I am not as strong. What I came up with was using the idea of having students contruct their own background knowledge on a an author (such as William Shakespeare) and collaborating on group presentations but reversing the process. Instead, my idea is to use a short story and use the setting, plot, and theme to make a hypothesis about the author, and then have students research that author to see if the assumptions they made could be proven with facts from the author's background. For instance, after reading "Annabel Lee" by Poe, what conclusions could a reader make about the author? Was there a woman in his life? Did she die? Why such a dark tone? That was what I have come up with so far. What are you thinking of?
Erin,
DeleteI like that idea! I tend to listen to lyrics and attempt to figure out what made the songwriter say those things. I haven't really done that with authors though. I like the idea of planting the seed of wonder within the students.
Thanks
Sarah
Thank you for the suggestion! I hadnt thought about hypothesising about an author based on his writing. Like Sarah, I have thought about things like this with songs but not prose. I think this would work well with poems.
Delete