Week 6 - Olivia Shouse

My Theory is that students learn best when a teacher lectures them on a subject and then the students are able to work work with their peers doing an activity so they can experience an activity on multiple levels to reach different types of learning.

 I have changed my model slightly based on the Vygotsky reading. One of his ideas is that students like to be teachers, therefore by allowing them to work together on an activity the students can teach each other and hopefully learn and remember the material better.

My activity: The teacher would lecture the students over an introduction to fractions. She would give examples on the boards and the students would emulate him/her, either on paper or on white boards. By doing this the students would hopefully stay engaged in the lesson and have a good grasp of the concepts being taught. After the teacher has completed her lesson, they will divide the class into pairs and each pair will receive a bag full of m&ms. The students will then have to work in pairs to complete a worksheet that asks them to determine the fraction of a whole with each different color. Each student would have to fill out their own worksheet but they would be completing the activity as a pair, allowing them to learn and teach off of each other. This would also allow the teacher to walk around the classroom and observe how the students were doing and answer any questions if necessary. After everyone is finished, the class would go over the worksheet and each pair would have to talk about what they found, because all of the answers would be different.

Reflection: I based the changes to my model and activity design this week on the Vygotsky reading, because I really liked the idea of children wanting to be teachers. Just from babysitting I can see that children are always wanting to show you what they know, and that's no different in a classroom. By being in a classroom and through my own experiences, I have also seen that concepts can be easier to learn and remember if you are working with someone. By explaining what you know, it helps yourself remember it, and your partner may be able to answer something that you don't know. The students are remaining engaged in the lesson by responding to and following the teacher, and then are showing what they know by completing the following activity and working with their peers.