Reflection 12

Notes from 2nd half of reading:
A powerful part of learning is generating pictures to go along with information. Help do this for your students.
Direct instruction on words that are critical to new content produces the most powerful learning.
SKills are most useful when learned to the level of automatically.
A variety of activities produce non-linguistic representations.
Ability grouping students should be used sparingly.
Cues and questions are ways to help students use what they already know about a topic.
Helping students think about new knowledge before experiencing it can enhance achievement.
Use cues, questions, and organizers.
Plan for distributed practice and emphasize its importance.
Students need accurate feedback!
STudents should be provided opportunities to apply organizing ideas.

Reflection 11

From teaching my STL and from teaching the 6th graders I've noticed that I don't do a very good job at assessing if my students are learning. We defined assessment as the process of documenting knowledge, skills, attitudes, and beliefs. When I'm teaching guitar this is easy because I have them play the song they are learning with me, or I have them play it by themselves so I can see if how well they are learning it. I need to always be checking with the students to see if they are paying attention and if they are understanding what I'm teaching.
Definitions:
Student Achievement: Creating something or doing an action because of what they've learned.
Student Learning: Capturing, recognizing, or understanding a new concept or idea.
Evaluation: comparing and deciding the value of something. Systematic determination of merit, worth, and significance.

There were many interesting things I noticed when we went to teach the sixth graders. The first is that it really helped to go earlier to film the other groups because I could see how that age group reacted to things. They really liked activities, movement, and hands on involvement. I think it would have been more helpful to our group if we would have had some sort of participation tool while we were doing the direct instruction part of our lesson. I really liked what the music group did. they gave the students little paper signs that had different types of emotions that come from music and the students got to hold up the sign of the emotion they felt from the music. the students loved it. I think it will be easier for me to teach when I know my students well and know how they react to certain things. then I can shape my lessons around what will engage the class best.

Another really interesting thing was that the girls of the sixth grade class were much more engaged than the boys. This was especially interesting to me because the activities we were doing were engineering activities which stereotypically are more appealing to boys. it was definitely apparent though that the girls were the fearless leaders. My group discussed this and reflected back on our early education. each of us agreed that this was contrary to what we remembered. We wondered if females being more interested and engaged in learning and creating is common in all age groups. It may have just been our teaching, or it could have just been this particular group of boys, but what if it is some sort of societal trend that boys feel like they are "cooler" or something if they aren't engaged. It would be interesting to study....

Reflection 9

The book "Classroom Instruction" talked about Note taking and how teachers should encourage students to revise their notes later when the students' understanding deepens. One thing I want to do when I start teaching is have my students take notes and then be required to read through them twice a week for ten minutes (or something like that) and add to them. In high school I always took notes but I rarely looked at them until it was time for a test. If students are periodically looking over thier notes, their recall will be a lot greater and they will remember more details about what they took notes on. then, (in an ideal world), they won't be cramming for test because they will already have most of the basics down. This will teach them good study habits as well because they will see the benefits of actually learning as the class progresses instead of trying to learn everything at the last second when their knowledge is tested.

I think these reflections that we are doing help serve this purpose for this type of class, (a class where we are not really taking notes) because we are required to reflect on what we have learned.

Reflection 8

Although most of the information in "Classroom Instruction that Works" is valuable, I think one of the most important things is the section on reinforcing effort and providing recognition. I believe that Motivation is one of the keys to student learning. The more motivated students are to learn, the more they will learn. I remember one teacher I had who would get mad whenever students complained that our assignments were boring or unimportant. He would say something like, "I'm your teacher not your entertainer. It's your responsibility to learn this so suck it up and learn it." I personally don't think that is a very effective way to teach. although the teacher shouldn't exactly be an entertainer, the teacher needs to be an engager. An engager is a motivator. Reinforcing effort and providing recognition is a very good way to motivate people. If students are acknowledged for their work they will have more confidence and they will be more likely to remember what they learned or accomplished because they will have associated it with something good. I believe that it is the teacher's responsibility to come up with a creative way to recognize and award student effort. For example, hanging students art work up in the hall for an art class, or having a mini Emmy awards ceremony in a film class where each student gets an award.

Reflection 7

Notes from 1st half of "Classroom Instruction that Works":

• Three Elements of Effective Pedegogy: 1. Instructional Strategies, 2. Managegement Techniques, 3. Cirriculum Design.
• Have students Identify Similarities and Differences of what you're teaching to something they already know.
• Students should summarize and note take.
• Teacher should encourage students to revise notes later when understanding deepens.
• Reinforce effort and provide recognition. A students attitude can have a huge effect on how hard he or she will work.
• Pause, Prompt, and Praise.
• Establish and communicate a homework Policy.
• Can be negative to have parents help students with homework. Students need to be learning it and sometimes parents will do it for them.

Reflection 6

Some notes that I took while listening to the teachers of the STL's:

• Use Proximity: this helps the visual and auditory learners see and hear you. plus it's more engaging.
• Give Reasons: People want to know why they should know what you're trying to teach them.
• Lay out exactly what the students are going to learn so that they know how to connect the information you're giving them.
• Board writing skills. Do you have what it takes?
• Building blocks of learning. Make sure you're not just bombing them with information. build upon each little part to reach the final goal.
• WHY????? Tell them why they should know it. Exaggerate if necessary.
• Make it a game. Be ENGAGING.
• Formitively evaluate. Don't ask, "any questions?" at the end. Find out if they're following you the whole time you're trying to teach them.