My father taught me two valuable lessons in life early on: 1) never "one up" anyone and 2) admit it when you have made a mistake no matter who the other person is. The first lesson I consider not to be too difficult. If someone is telling me a story, I have learned to keep quiet and not compare their story with a similar or greater one of my own. However, the second lesson is the one that I struggle with. When I read Dr. Richard Curwin's article, It's a Mistake Not to Use Mistakes as Part of the Learning Process, in Edutopia, it struck a cord with me.
Dr. Curwin suggests that the mistakes we learn from and the mistakes we learn from and share the knowledge with others have the greatest potential to increase learning and teaching. When teachers build relationships with other teachers or with a mentor teacher, there is often a sharing of advice and learning from each other. "An important side effect of discussing mistakes might be to change the perception of mistakes..for teachers...and students as well." Teachers share their mistakes with other peers but what about sharing with students? Dr. Curwin suggests that changing perceptions about student's mistakes is the second way the mistakes can improve learning. Since mistakes are typically indicative of poor performance, students get a low grade and are encouraged in report cards and conferences with the teacher not to make mistakes. Dr. Curwin believes that this system is ridiculous. Learning from past mistakes was invaluable to him, while what he learned from his successes was not as meaningful.
The problem is not that student make mistakes but that teachers don't use those mistakes to promote learning. Rather than put shame on the mistakes and have students fearful of taking chances or thinking for themselves, teachers should take mistakes as opportunities so that students take risks and solve mysteries. This reminds me of Mrs. Frizzle and the Magic School Bus when she challenged her students to "Take chances, make mistakes and get messy!"
Here are 9 suggestions by Dr. Curwin to change the way teachers think and evaluate:
1) Stop marking errors on tests and papers without explaining why they're wrong.
2) Give students a chance to correct their mistake and redo their work so that mistakes become learning opportunities.
3) Improvement needs to be the focus. Nothing shows more learning than student improvement.
4) When a student makes a mistake in a class discussion ask refocusing questions like "Why do you think so? Can you give an example?"
5) Don't say "You're wrong" when a student gives an incorrect answer. Instead focus on the positive and find a positive connection to make to the student's answer and then ask another question to lead the student in the right direction.
6) If a student needs help with an answer, suggest asking a classmate or "Ask 3, than me".
7) Rather than fill the walls with student achievements, have students brag about their mistakes and what they learned from them.
8) Host bi-weekly meetings where students can share mistakes, what happened after and what they learned.
9) Most importantly, tell the students about your own mistakes, especially the funny ones of the past and if you make a mistake in class, admit that you made a mistake.
Teachers should want learning not to be about being afraid to make mistakes but to think that producing a mistakes makes something to be learned from, improved upon and feel good about.
Curwin, Dr. Richard. "It's a Mistake Not to Use Mistakes as Part of the Learning Process." Edutopia. N.p., 28 Oct. 2014. Web. 29 Oct. 2014.
Wednesday, October 29, 2014
Tips for Helping Students Find Books
Working in a Media Center, I am surrounded by books and computers. I tell my students that they have to keep a big secret from the principal that all I do all day is play (on the computers) and read (the library books) all day long. Kindergartens look at me with longing for my job and Middle School students look at me with a smile on their faces as they imagine what it would be like to play video games or read the latest dystopian novel all day long.
As a teacher, of books and technology, I help my students everyday learning how to make choices on the internet and how to choose books.
Rebecca Alber in her article 5 Tips for Helping a Student Find the Right Book does a great job of summing up tips to keep in mind as one helps students find the right book.
#1 Get to Know the Student - make it a personal mission to get to know the students interests and previous book choices. Knowing the student's reading level is also key in getting to know the student.
#2 Experiment - You need to experiment and try different genre and your students will too. " Ms. Alber suggests that you share your own story or another student's story of genre switching. Middle school students especially relates to the personal testimonies.
#3 Exposure - Scavenger hunts, Book Talks, Middle School Book Trailers, and Book Speed Dating or Author visits or Authors who Skype are all great ideas to give students a taste or glimpse of a book. Ms. Alber suggests a "read and tease" by reading aloud the middle of the book where there's action.
#4 Permission to Abandon a Book - I suggest books with the disclaimer that "if you don't like reading it tonight, come back tomorrow and we'll find something better." You don't want a student to keep trying to read a book that they don't enjoy.
#5 Time to Look - The books in our Media Center are in 2 conditions - very worn because they have been lovingly read a lot or brand new because I have just purchased and cataloged the book and I don't expect that book to stay in that condition. Our collection of books is for the students and I have displays everywhere that are seasonal or genre related. Our students know that they can check out whatever book is in the collection even the display copies. I take it as a good thing if I have to redo my displays because there are open places where the books have been removed and checked out.
I believe that Rebecca Alber's best point is when she says that we need to provide the students with time to read. As Ms. Alber's quoted from author Kylene Beers, "the single best way to improve reading interest and reading ability is to read."
Alber, Rebecca. "5 Tips for Helping a Student Find the Right Book." Edutopia. N.p., 28 Oct. 2014. Web. 29 Oct. 2014.
As a teacher, of books and technology, I help my students everyday learning how to make choices on the internet and how to choose books.
Rebecca Alber in her article 5 Tips for Helping a Student Find the Right Book does a great job of summing up tips to keep in mind as one helps students find the right book.
#1 Get to Know the Student - make it a personal mission to get to know the students interests and previous book choices. Knowing the student's reading level is also key in getting to know the student.
#2 Experiment - You need to experiment and try different genre and your students will too. " Ms. Alber suggests that you share your own story or another student's story of genre switching. Middle school students especially relates to the personal testimonies.
#3 Exposure - Scavenger hunts, Book Talks, Middle School Book Trailers, and Book Speed Dating or Author visits or Authors who Skype are all great ideas to give students a taste or glimpse of a book. Ms. Alber suggests a "read and tease" by reading aloud the middle of the book where there's action.
#4 Permission to Abandon a Book - I suggest books with the disclaimer that "if you don't like reading it tonight, come back tomorrow and we'll find something better." You don't want a student to keep trying to read a book that they don't enjoy.
#5 Time to Look - The books in our Media Center are in 2 conditions - very worn because they have been lovingly read a lot or brand new because I have just purchased and cataloged the book and I don't expect that book to stay in that condition. Our collection of books is for the students and I have displays everywhere that are seasonal or genre related. Our students know that they can check out whatever book is in the collection even the display copies. I take it as a good thing if I have to redo my displays because there are open places where the books have been removed and checked out.
I believe that Rebecca Alber's best point is when she says that we need to provide the students with time to read. As Ms. Alber's quoted from author Kylene Beers, "the single best way to improve reading interest and reading ability is to read."
Alber, Rebecca. "5 Tips for Helping a Student Find the Right Book." Edutopia. N.p., 28 Oct. 2014. Web. 29 Oct. 2014.
Monday, October 27, 2014
Thursday, October 23, 2014
Sunday, October 19, 2014
Project Based Learning Myths
Most of my teaching centers around PBL or Project Based Learning. When teaching technology it really is the best way and most of my teaching peers agree. However, during a grade level planning meeting when I tried to suggest that they do something similar with their social studies curriculum on Central America, I got a lot of "oh that works well for you but not with what we teach".
In fact many of the excuses or myths that my co-workers have are very similar to the article by Suzie Boss Time to Debunk Those PBL Myths in a recent Edutopia article. According to Ms. Boss, one of the most common misconceptions about PBL's are that they are not 'academically rigorous' because most of us remembering doing projects in gradeschool like making paper-mache or styrofoam planets. Those projects really did not involve much critical thinking but were very hands-on says Suzie Boss and she is right.
We cannot "expect students to gain the full benefits of PBL unless you give them time and instructional support needed for an extended, in-depth, inquiry experience." So it really depends on what teachers put into before, during and after the PBL. A PBL cannot be just an extra activity rather teachers need to utilize a whole design process and begin with their content standards and objectives, design assessments and/or rubric to meet the objectives. Suzie Boss links in her article to an Edutopia video 5 Keys to Rigorous Project-Based Learning that she says sets the "record straight by focusing on PBL as a route to rigorous learning.
I have already sent links to Suzie Boss' article to my teacher friends who I met with the other day during their planning time. I can't wait to meet up with them this week and begin planning and creating a great PBL for their 6th grade students.
In fact many of the excuses or myths that my co-workers have are very similar to the article by Suzie Boss Time to Debunk Those PBL Myths in a recent Edutopia article. According to Ms. Boss, one of the most common misconceptions about PBL's are that they are not 'academically rigorous' because most of us remembering doing projects in gradeschool like making paper-mache or styrofoam planets. Those projects really did not involve much critical thinking but were very hands-on says Suzie Boss and she is right.
We cannot "expect students to gain the full benefits of PBL unless you give them time and instructional support needed for an extended, in-depth, inquiry experience." So it really depends on what teachers put into before, during and after the PBL. A PBL cannot be just an extra activity rather teachers need to utilize a whole design process and begin with their content standards and objectives, design assessments and/or rubric to meet the objectives. Suzie Boss links in her article to an Edutopia video 5 Keys to Rigorous Project-Based Learning that she says sets the "record straight by focusing on PBL as a route to rigorous learning.
I have already sent links to Suzie Boss' article to my teacher friends who I met with the other day during their planning time. I can't wait to meet up with them this week and begin planning and creating a great PBL for their 6th grade students.
Chapter 1 - The Read/Write Web
On Saturday, my husband and I had friends over for lunch that we had not seen in over 15 years. Before kids we had been able to travel to each other's homes in different states for a weekend and spend time going to ball games, dinners out and late nights. Once we started having children, all that free "play" time was over while we spent weekends watching our kids sports games or other parenting things. But now that all of us are empty nesters we are able to get together again and the topic at Saturday lunch was how different our kids from what we were like in college and how they envision their future jobs versus what we wanted to do after graduation.
We all agreed that our college-aged kids grew up so different than us with having instant information and technology at hand and that our kids are more culturally aware than we ever were at their age. While we rolled our eyes at our parents that they did not know much about us, our children roll their eyes at us that we really don't know what's going in in the world. In the textbook, Blogs,Wikis, Podcasts..., the author says, "There is a growing gap between how this digital generation defines privacy and the way most adults do. To our kids, making their lives come alive online is a part of the way they live. Communicating and collaborating with peers using instant or text messaging....allows them to be "always on" and always connected." (Richardson, 2010, p. 5)
My oldest son is a college senior and regularly communicates with students on the other side of the world in video game enclaves and in political or environmental discussions. When I graduated from college, my focus was to get a good teaching job and have a family. However, my son's focus is to be aware and focused on the world around him and getting an engineering job is not really a concern as much as doing something that he will enjoy and be a part of in the world around him. Our expectations are completely different for what life out of college will be for him. He is more 'plugged in' to the world around him and he wants to experience and focus on more than just getting a job.
I agree with the author, Will Richardson, in the first chapter when his says that "our students' realities in terms of the way they communicate and learn are very different from our own". (Richardson, 2010, p.6) From my own children to the middle school students in the school I teach, I can see vast differences. The first thing I might have turned on when I got home from school would have been the radio to listen to rock music but my students turn on their smart phone to see what social news they need to be updated on or to update their friends on about themselves. My students want to seek and find answers rather than be told how to find or what the answer is. Teachers and schools need to change their pedagogy in the classroom and rethink what changes we need to make in our teaching and become learners of this new Web. (Richardson, 2010, p. 6)
We all agreed that our college-aged kids grew up so different than us with having instant information and technology at hand and that our kids are more culturally aware than we ever were at their age. While we rolled our eyes at our parents that they did not know much about us, our children roll their eyes at us that we really don't know what's going in in the world. In the textbook, Blogs,Wikis, Podcasts..., the author says, "There is a growing gap between how this digital generation defines privacy and the way most adults do. To our kids, making their lives come alive online is a part of the way they live. Communicating and collaborating with peers using instant or text messaging....allows them to be "always on" and always connected." (Richardson, 2010, p. 5)
My oldest son is a college senior and regularly communicates with students on the other side of the world in video game enclaves and in political or environmental discussions. When I graduated from college, my focus was to get a good teaching job and have a family. However, my son's focus is to be aware and focused on the world around him and getting an engineering job is not really a concern as much as doing something that he will enjoy and be a part of in the world around him. Our expectations are completely different for what life out of college will be for him. He is more 'plugged in' to the world around him and he wants to experience and focus on more than just getting a job.
I agree with the author, Will Richardson, in the first chapter when his says that "our students' realities in terms of the way they communicate and learn are very different from our own". (Richardson, 2010, p.6) From my own children to the middle school students in the school I teach, I can see vast differences. The first thing I might have turned on when I got home from school would have been the radio to listen to rock music but my students turn on their smart phone to see what social news they need to be updated on or to update their friends on about themselves. My students want to seek and find answers rather than be told how to find or what the answer is. Teachers and schools need to change their pedagogy in the classroom and rethink what changes we need to make in our teaching and become learners of this new Web. (Richardson, 2010, p. 6)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)