Chapter 7

Make a list of the sequence of skills necessary for ultimate mastery of the content of your lesson through a constructivist approach. Which of these learning activities/skills lend themselves to student's individual or group construction? How might you structure learning activities that lead students to discover these skills/these principles? 

For my example, I am going to use a math lesson on capacity. In order to achieve ultimate mastery of the content in this lesson, the students must be able to correctly identify which cup has the largest capacity and explain why. Below I will outline a list of skills needed to achieve ultimate mastery of the content.

• First, I am going to activate my students' prior knowledge of capacity by showing them two different sized cups and saying, "Ms. Hallock is thirsty! Which cup should she use? Why?" I would then listen to what my students say about which cup I should use and why. (The obvious answer to the question is that I would use the blue cup because it holds a smaller amount of water.) This part of the lesson involves whole class discussion and exploration of the concept of capacity therefore lending itself to group construction. 

• After discussing which cup they think I should use, I am going to add in another cup to challenge their previous answer. I will then ask them which cup they think holds more water and will ask them to discuss it with a partner. I will then have us discuss as a whole group which cup holds more and why and will listen to my students' answers in order to identify any misconceptions they may have about capacity. Having students discuss with a partner promotes individual construction and discussing as a whole group promotes group construction. (Students will more than likely answer that the green cup holds more because it is taller...this answer demonstrates a misconception) 

• Next, rather than telling my students the correct answer of which cup holds more, I want them to explore for themselves with a partner. I will provide each group with a green cup, a red cup, some small dixie cups, an empty container, and a bucket of water. (this way they can explore with a variety of materials different ways to solve the problem) I will then tell my students that they can use whatever they want to try and figure out which cup holds more water. In addition, I will encourage them to discuss various ideas with their partner about how they should approach this problem. Working together with a partner and discussing their individual ideas promotes individual construction. It is important to remember that children learn a lot from one another maybe even more than they do from us. In addition, having the students explore their own way to solve the problem also promotes individual construction. Furthermore, I am pushing them in the direction of conceptual change by allowing them to see hands-on that their existing belief that "the green cup holds more water because it is taller" is incorrect therefore addressing their misconception about capacity. 

• While the students are working together, I will walk around to each group and act as a guide to push them in the right direction, if needed. I will ask questions such as "Tell me what you are doing?" "Why did you decide to do that?" "What are you going to do next?" and if I see that they are stuck I will ask "What would happen if...?". This lends itself to the student's individual construction. 

• After my students have had plenty of time to test which cup they think holds more water, we will come back together as a group for a whole class discussion about the results they found. We will first talk about what each group did to find out which cup holds more water and what method they think worked best and what method they think did not work the best. We will discuss what their prediction was and then discuss what they learned through this lesson about capacity. This will once again address their misconception about capacity and then show how their existing belief about capacity was reconstructed through what they learned. Discussing as a whole group promotes group construction. 

• At the end of the lesson, the students should be able to see that the red cup have the largest capacity and explain that this is because it is wider than the blue and green cup. 
• At the end of the day, I will have students right what they learned about capacity in today's math lesson. This will promote individual construction and provide me with a formative assessment on how well my students understood the lesson. 

This is a great website on how to apply constructivism in the classroom. It provides detailed steps on how to implement constructivism in your classroom environment. In addition, it discusses challenges that you might face, how you can assess your students' progress using this approach, how constructivism aligns with state and national standards, and how to use technology to complement constructivism. You should check it out!

Constructivism in the Classroom 

PLE #5

How might your knowledge of the memory processes guide your instructional decisions?

     First off, it is important for me to know as a teacher how my students' retrieve and process memories and information. My students will be most likely to retrieve information when they have multiple connections to it. Therefore, I will make sure that my instruction allows for my students to make multiple connections to the concepts we are learning. This can be done through emotional connections like excitement, anger, and sadness. By making an emotional connection to my instruction, it will be easier for my students to retrieve information. In addition, we have learned that wait time during instruction is important. By waiting three-four seconds after I ask my class a question, I am allowing my students enough time to process the question and retrieve information from their memory. Furthermore, by providing wait time I am making it more likely that students who typically don't speak up will (females and minority students). I also know that it is important for me to make learning meaningful because students are more likely to remember information when it is relevant to them and their prior knowledge. To do this, I will make sure what I'm teaching makes sense and I will ask my students to explain their reasoning for their answers and relate it to their lives or tell how it is relevant to their lives. This will cause them to retrieve prior knowledge and make multiple connections to what they are explaining. I will also make sure that my instruction is distinctive and fun. We have learned that we are more likely to remember things that are unique, new, or bizarre. Therefore, I will make my instruction hands-on and engaging so that it sticks out in the minds of my students. I will also use mnemonic devices to make learning concepts fun through the use of songs, rhymes, verbal cues, etc. I know that this trick is effective because I still to this day remember the different mnemonic devices I learned throughout elementary school. Most importantly, I know that practice makes perfect and that students put skills to their long-term memory by practicing them. For instance, during science experiments I will walk my students through the experiment by explaining it while they practice doing it rather than me standing in front of the class and just showing it to them. There are many more ways I will adapt my instruction based on what we have learned about the memory processes, but these are just a few.

     Below is an article on 10 ways to enhance students' memory so that they might develop a more efficient and effective memory. It provides excellent information on ways to adapt your instructional decisions and it also provides information you can tell your students to increase their memory. For instance, you can remind your students that information is better remembered when they review materials before they go to sleep at night.
http://www.cdl.org/resource-library/articles/memory_strategies_May06.php

PLE #4

What are the essential skills and/or learning outcomes you want your students to know and be able to do that relate to cognitive learning?

     There are several skills I want my students to be able to do that relate to cognitive learning. The first skill is that I want my students to be able to construct their own meaning and understanding. In addition, I want my students to be able to assimilate and accommodate new information in order to construct a better understanding of what they are learning. One of the more essential skills I want my students to be able to do is the process of equilibration due to the fact that this promotes more complex understanding and thoughts. Furthermore, I want my students to be able to take their constructed meaning and understanding of concepts and store it in their long-term memory. I think it is important for students to figure out what kind of learner they are and experiment with different strategies in order to find out what helps them to learn and understand most affectively. The earlier students start to do these essential skills, the better.
     In addition to wanting my students to be able to do skills that relate to cognitive learning, I also want them to know certain things about cognitive learning to better their overall learning outcomes. For instance, I think it is important for my students to know that they are in control of their own cognitive processes. For instance, being aware of the importance of attention in terms of cognitive learning will cause them to create effective personal learning environments. An example of this could be that my student knows they are easily distracted when they sit near the door or when they sit next to their best friend. In theory, they would then make adjustments to this so that their attention is not bothered. However, I realize how hard this concept would be for elementary students. In addition, I also want my students to know about metamemory strategies and how they effect their learning outcomes. For example, some of my students will not be able to remember what we talk about during a lesson unless they write some of it down. Most importantly, I want my students to know that there are several factors that go into creating affective learning outcomes and the sooner they are aware of these factors the better their learning outcomes will be.

     Below is an article on meta-attention for learning disabled and non-learning disabled children. When it comes to being aware of their attention, this study shows that younger children are more inclined to pay attention due to the effects of rewards and that older children are more inclined to pay attention due to their interest level.
http://www.jstor.org/stable/1510613

Ch. 14 Assessment

Think of a lesson plan from your licensure area. Knowing that assessment is an integral part of teaching, explain at least four informal and formal assessments that you will use in your lesson plan to provide you with feedback and involve the students in assessing their own learning. 

As we have learned in class and read in our textbook, assessment is a very important part of being an effective teacher. Assessments allow us to observe a student's behavior or academic achievement and draw inferences from those observations about the student's knowledge and abilities. I know everyone thinks of multiple choice standardized tests when the word assessment comes up, however there are many different ways that teachers can assess their students. Assessments are most effective when a variety of them are used to determine a student's knowledge, abilities, and behavior. As a teacher, I will make sure I use a variety of assessments to observe my students because it is important to remember that my classroom will be made up of different learners who demonstrate their learning in a variety of ways.

Using a Science lesson plan on friction for a 4th grade classroom that I recently created, I will explain how I would use both informal and formal assessments to provide myself with valuable feedback that I could use to reshape the direction of my teaching and also keep track of my students' learning while involving my students in assessing their own learning at the same time. The objectives of this lesson are that students will discover that friction is a force that resists motion by observing the effects of friction on a moving object, students will discover how lubricants reduce friction between an object and the surface, and students will suggest additional ways to reduce friction between objects.

4 Informal Assessments I will use:

1. Questioning: I will use this type of informal assessment at the beginning of this lesson and during this lesson to gain insight on the degree and depth of my students' understanding of friction and motion. Using questioning at the beginning of the lesson will allow me to see what preconceptions my students already have about friction and motion and what they do/do not already know. This will allow me to adjust the lesson to most effectively meet the needs of my students. Questioning during the lesson will allow my students the opportunity for deeper thinking. 
2.  Observation: I will use the assessment strategy of observation during the lesson while students work in groups to complete the activity, since a large part of this lesson is student-led. While students are working in groups, I will walk around and take notes on how well each student performs physical tasks, reflect on a specific aspect of their learning, note specific behaviors when working in groups, etc. By keeping a notebook of my individual observations on each student, I can furnish a picture of student learning over time. 
3. Write daily or weekly entries in their journals: I will use this type of informal assessment to further expand my students' understanding of the lesson on friction while also tying in a connection to Language Arts/Writing. Our Language Arts lesson for that week or day might be on short stories and poems and so to connect to this skill, I would have my students write about either what life would be like in a frictionless world or describe other ways to reduce friction between objects. This type of informal assessment would provide me with feedback on my students' understanding of friction after learning about it in the lesson and show me what they still need work on. 
4. Peer/Self Assessments: This type of informal assessment would allow students to evaluate their own learning. These are important because when students are required to think about their own learning, articulate their understanding, and what they still need improvement on, their overall achievement improves. One way I would use this assessment would be the "Two Stars and a Wish" peer assessment strategy. After writing in their journals about friction, each student would be paired with another student and would read to one another what they have written about friction. Each partner must then identify two things the author did well (stars) and one suggestion for improvement (wish). This type of assessment is great because it creates a classroom community and it also allows students to see where they could use improvement while also learning from their peers. 

4 Formal Assessments I will use:

1. Oral Presentation: For this assessment strategy, I will have my students present an oral presentation to the class on either sports in which friction plays an important role or ways that scientists have used their discoveries about friction to improve transportation. This presentation can be done either with a partner or individually, which allows the students some sense of control over how they are assessed. This will provide feedback on the students' understanding of the lesson and show what they are capable of doing. This type of task is meaningful, thought provoking, and authentic. 
2. Multiple-Choice Test: While this is not my favorite type of assessment, it will still provide useful feedback on what my students know and still need improvement on regarding the topic of friction and motion. I would use this assessment at the end of the unit on friction and motion to test my students' overall knowledge in this content area. This would show how effective both my teaching and the lesson were on furthering their understanding of friction. 
3. Conducting an Experiment: At the end of the lesson, I would have my students get in groups and discuss with one another an experiment they could conduct on friction and motion. This could be an experiment that shows how objects have different amounts of friction when rubbed against different surfaces. This type of performance assessment will give me feedback on what my students really know about friction by showing me rather than writing it out for me or telling me. By applying their knowledge of friction to conducting an experiment, I can see their level of understanding they gained from the lesson and adjust my teaching from there. 
4. Short-Answer Quiz: I will inform my students before starting the lesson that there will be a quiz when the lesson is finished. This type of formal assessment provides feedback on a student's understanding of friction by having them put into their own words what friction is, how friction stops motion, and how lubricants help assist objects in motion. I plan to use this assessment format to provide me with an overview of what my students learned and didn't learn through the lesson. This will give me a guideline of what concepts need to be further explained and worked on before I give my students the multiple-choice test at the end of the friction unit. 

Through using these different types of assessment, I can most effectively gain feedback that is both valid and reliable. 

West Virginia Department of Education 

This is a link to a great website on formative assessments. It provides a variety of ways for you to assess your students and describes why each type of formative assessment is valuable and useful. I found so many great resources on this site that I plan to use in my own classroom that will provide me with great feedback on my students' progress. I think it is important to utilize all the ways that you can assess your students in order to gain reliable and valid feedback.