Week 6- Toni Self

Learning happens...

 

Big Idea: Humans learn through a process of different interactions from listening, observing, and participating in activities.

I changed my big idea of learning from “Humans learn through listening, observing and interacting” because humans learn through different interactions and experiences.  These do not just happen through school, but also from home, friends, etc.  Maximum learning however will occur with challenging tasks and assistance because students will be introduced to a hard concepts and the confirmation of another will increase cognitive growth (Sociocultural Theories Powerpoints, Vygotsky, Slide 6)

Activity: Last week while I was in my 2^nd grade classroom the teacher had the students do an activity to practice adding 9s, before they took a timed math quiz.  Before she had them start the activity she reviewed some rules adding 9s and practiced adding some 9s to ensure the students would be prepared.  Then she randomly paired each student and gave one student a paper that had two game boards on it and the other student a bag of colored chips and one dice.  The goal of the game was to cover your game board first with chips.  One player roles the dice and then adds 9 in their head (working on mental math) to that number.  The answer is the number that you would cover on your game board.  For example, a student roles a 5 and adds 9, so they are to cover a 14 on their game board.  When you get to the end of the game if you only have a 10 on your game board left to cover, you have to keep playing until you get a 1. 

This activity allowed students to work on their mental math accompanied by another student who is doing the same activity.  This activity was challenging through quick mental ability and partner cooperation.  Each student was to help their partner if they needed help discovering the answer. 

The zone of proximal development is the idea that students achieve at a higher level when supported by someone who has more knowledge than when unsupported and therefore development is more likely (Theories of Cognitive Development, Chapter 4, Page 164).  These students reviewed and were reinforced by the teacher before they played the game.  They were more confident playing the game after reviewing. 

Week 6- Piaget Model

After reading about Paiget’s theories, one aspect of his thinking really jumped out at me. This had to deal with his “constructivist” (as it is often labeled) view. Piaget had an assumption that explained how children were mentally and physically active from the very beginning-birth. He explains that children go through three stages: hypothesis, performing experiments, and forming conclusions. I think that this model has a lot to do with children’s’ natural curiosity and the way they go about satisfying their undying need to figure things out.

In my above model, first there is a boy scratching his head to resemble the hypothesis part of this three-step system. In this instance he would be thinking about what would happen if he put the match in a candle or some form of fire. The second picture is of a little boy looking at the match as it is lit on fire because this is the part where children perform the experiment. Lastly, the picture of the boy writing in a notebook symbolizes the conclusion being formed about what happens when a match is put in fire.

I believe in this theory too because I watched it happen with my own little cousin. He would be extremely curious about everything and my family would joke around about the fact that we could see Joey (my cousin) thinking about what he was about to do to get himself in trouble before he did it. After he actually “performed the experiment”, while Joey was being scolded, he would be staring at what he had just made happen. One example of this was when my aunt was pregnant and was painting a canvas that was going to be put in the new baby’s room. I was at their house and was supposed to be watching Joey. He stared at the paint can for a very long time and, in an instant, pushed over the paint can. As my aunt was yelling at him and trying to clean it up, Joey was just staring at the paint running down the table and dripping onto the carpet. I believe that this was Joey’s way of forming a conclusion. 

Week 6 Post-Sarah Isaacson

Activity:

The teacher is working with the class on reading with the correct inflections.  The teacher will discuss with the class the importance of reading with the correct inflection and the students will participate fully and answer all of the questions.  The teacher will let the students know that they have already experienced as they read, and they have already witnessed it when their parents read to them and when she reads them stories.  The teacher will then give an example of this by reading a short story.  She will then give another example of this by inviting a local artist (not Morgan Freeman) to talk about the significance of reading with inflection and why it is important to do it.  The students will then read to each other and get input and then get input from the teacher and the local artist.  The student will be assessed by reading aloud to the class and showing that they can read with inflection. 

Explanation:

I kept my model almost the same, except I decided to add a local actor to come visit the class, because the local actor can show the students a real life reason why they want to be able to read aloud with accurate inflection.  This activity has some aspects of it that are supported by Vygotsky’s Sociocultural Theory.  One aspect that coincides is the fact that I am recognizing that children are “social beings, intertwined with other people who are eager to help them gain skills and understanding” (161).  I am doing this by letting the students discuss with their teacher, a local actor, and their fellow classmates.  This way, they actually have an opportunity to discuss what they are learning and determine if they understand everything that the teacher and local actor discussed.  This also allows children to be the teacher as well, and this “inclination to teach and to learn from teaching is what enables children to be socialized into their culture and to pass it on to others” (162).   This way the children can learn from each other and understand the concepts more fully as they explain them to their fellow classmates and critique their classmates’ readings.  This will also allow students to use social scaffolding, because they will be able to see their fellow students reading at a higher level since I have my classroom organized into pods where there are varying reading levels in each pod.  This way, the students will “become capable of working at a higher level than if they had not received such help” (164).  My activity also coincides with Vygotsky’s zone of proximal development (ZPD) because the students will be exposed to a higher level of reading, but it will not be out of their reach, because the classmates are in the same grade, thus should be within a couple of reading levels, with a few outliers of course.  

Alexandra Lake week 5 revision

Big Idea:  Although lecturing is somewhat not hands-on and could be sometimes “boring,” it is necessary for children to learn.  There are many different stages in Piaget’s and Vygotsky’s theories that children learn from.  Because of this, lecture should be included in the many ways that children learn.

Activity: Last week, I added homework to the end of my blog because I felt that it reinforced children’s knowledge of the subject matter and lessons being taught.  Also, homework is a way of having children independently practice what they learned without the help of their teacher.  This week’s activity that I would add would be group work.  After the teacher teaching the lesson, I think that the students should be assigned a group to work with on a worksheet or project that is somewhat difficult.  The reason that I think it should be somewhat difficult is because it should be challenging, but with more than one student working together on it, it should be doable.

Reflection: I basically completely changed what I said in my first blog about “lecture type teaching.”  After reading about the theories, I decided that although lecturing students might be boring, it is essential to teaching if it is also paired with different types of teaching, learning and reinforcement.