Building knowledge through labeling is a strategy we see used frequeently in our primary years classrooms. How did you feel about the strategy to label properties? Where could that fit within the context of your day?
Looking ahead at your week at a glance lesson plans, where could you add in one of the strategies suggested in this chapter?
Learning transfer is by far the more advanced and most difficult strategy to use in this chapter. What suggestions do you have for the group based on your past experiences?
We are past the halfway point in our study together. Don't forget to go back and read the rich discussions that are contininuing on past threads. Next week we will be reading Chapter 7-Engage for Energy and Focus.
If you have enjoyed this type of study and you are interested in learning more through online book studies I suggest you join the IDOE eLearning Book Study group with me! This is where I was inspired to do this book study using this platform instead of Canvas or meeting in-person to talk. I feel like the discussion goes more in-depth when you have time to reflect and respond at your own pace. The conversations are also archived, unlike an in-person study, where you can go back at any time and read others responses.
The next book study for the IDOE starts September 7th and we are reading Ditch That Textbook:Free Your Teaching and Revolutionize Your Classroom by Matt Miller. I heard Matt speak at InSai one year in just a quick 45 min breakout session before he became a nationally known speaker. He kept me so engaged and bursting with ideas I couldn't keep up on my note-taking, seriously I had to put down my computer and just listen. :-) You earn PGPs and have the chance to win $1,000 for PD for your building. Email me and I can get you signed up. :-)
I really enjoyed this chapter and want to add in lots of these ideas. I think as teachers, we naturally do this pattern when introducing new concepts. I want to add in teaching each other strategies. Every paragraph kept taking me back to my 2nd year of teaching with the oldest of 9 children, who couldn't read but was in charge of them at night, asked if a giraffe was really that tall. Stunned me that this poor little guy had never had the chance to see one, therefore had no context to connect it to. One of the days I realized not all children get the experiences I had as a child. Being A tech school gives us such a better glimpse into our world for our children, but bringing in short clips or videos to help gain #3 developing context and meanings. However, I usually stop there and not go into the get it right. This seems like a perfect tie into Science/SS. The transfer step takes me back to the model school conference and rigor-asking deeper meaning questions.
ReplyDeleteI agree that having the technology readily available is a huge help! Just the other day with the Achieve article, we watched the short clip of the yellow eyed penguins and pulled up images of New Zealand. Makes it much more accessible.
DeleteThe #5 Transfer step also made me think of the Model Schools Conference teaching with rigor. These steps to make teaching fresh and exciting are just what I needed!
DeleteI think developing context and meaning is probably the strategy that comes the most naturally for me. Making it personal and providing the visuals to forge a deeper connection and understanding just makes sense! Also agreeing that many of our kids do not come with those experiences or the exposure necessary to make those connections for success. I did a word of the day last year, but now think a word of the week may be more beneficial. I like the idea of letting the students be the experts, huge confidence booster!
ReplyDeleteI agree that letting students be the expert gives them tremendous confidence. It also lets us see how well and how much they truly understood. It amazes me what children know and conversely, what they don't know too. Some of them have such grown up perspectives on life. At young ages, some of the children are parenting their parents.
DeleteI'm also doing a word of the day, but now see that I'm not using it to its fullest potential. I like the idea of offering an incentive to those who use it properly in context.
DeleteI too think anytime we can allow students to make it personal they are more engaged. Even if their understanding of the content is lacking depth their level of interest hooks them in. I think in this world of students they are all visual. Any way we can give them a picture to connect content and learning we are building bridges for deeper understanding.
DeleteIt's been my observation that Eric Jensen gives us permission to put the fun back in education. With all of the emphasis on testing and more and more expectations on us to prove we are are doing what we are doing, it sometimes can take away from the essence of teaching children to love learning. I think his examples of labels and how the children expand upon that makes a lot of sense. I plan to think about how I organize information for the children to learn it. I plan to allow a little more time for them to relate their stories too. Too often, I'm focused on the clock and tend to forget how students finding that personal connection helps them find relevance in what we are teaching. In art, I have to constantly remind students to think about why we do the things we do. We are hopefully building more important thinking and problem solving skills than just adorning refrigerators with our artwork.
ReplyDeleteI like your comment about "permission to put the fun back in education." I feel like especially from what I have seen in the primary grades certain things have been pushed out because of testing. But those things that we are pushing out are the strategies and activities that are going to help our students become successful learners.
DeleteMy 5th grade class is now in the process of learning all fifty states and their capitals. This is quite clearly a label situation. There are several strategies I use to help them learn: 1) we literally cut and paste the labels on a map; 2) I made giant puzzle pieces of the states and we use sticky tac to affix them to my whiteboard map, along with their labels, and 3) we practice on www.sheppardsoftware.com. The kids are quite successful so far - we are learning them in regions, and still have the southwest and western states to go. The real test will be transferring this labeling process to learning later.
ReplyDeleteAnother section of this chapter that struck me was on page 107: "Provide a clear, compelling model of what accuracy looks like." I remember from reading "Teach Like a Champion" that right is right, that we shouldn't accept mediocrity as "A" work. When we raise our expectations of what the students are expected to learn, they will rise to the occasion. This is one reason why I like our new Benchmark Reading series. It is definitely a richer, fuller way to teach reading, and I can see a big difference.
I remember making a state book in 5th grade. I loved learning all the states, not so much the state capitals though. I'm glad you're making it fun and enjoyable and hands on for them. You're engaging them, that's awesome!
DeleteFor me this year in STEM I see myself focusing developing context and meaning. We start many STEM lessons with student's making predictions. This to be creates an atmosphere where they know we expect them to be engaged and ready to test their hypothesis. By testing their own hypothesis through questions they have generated it allows our students to feel the answers for themselves. It becomes more meaningful for them to remember what we have covered and why we arrived at the solutions we did. Another method I would like to expand in my class is students building a model. Our fourth graders last year built a city with their team while studying erosion. They were to establish the best place for buildings and trees to limit damage when a 10" by 4' soil mountain was covered with water. They then had to determine the financial loss for each building and tree lost. Since the students were engaged with the whole process they understood the material. Many recognized the erosion project helped them to understand the questions on ISTEP covering this topic.
ReplyDeleteYou're making it meaningful to them. That's awesome! I love STEM and the hands on approach. I think hands on and personal is the best way to go. I'm glad they understood it and could use it on I-STEP.
DeleteI think #2 Discover Properties is what I use the most because it comes naturally to me and it's just so beneficial for my first graders. We pick a topic (label) and just dig and dig. We're getting ready to focus on pumpkins and we'll be on the topic for awhile. Peer Teaching is also something that I love. The students love it too and they learn so much from each other,
ReplyDeleteI like the idea of peer teaching too. The students do learn so much from each other and when they have to present the idea their understanding just goes deeper.
DeleteI really liked the strategies to teach students the process of discovering properties. Teaching students to not only understand the labels but make key distinctions between it and other labels is a vital skill. You could fit those strategies into any subject area you are teaching. I liked the odd word out and let students teach one another. Odd word out would be very similar to sorting activities we do with word study. With both of these I think students would be engaged and want to do the lesson. Learning transfer is a difficult strategy but I’ve found in the past that infusing questions with real-life detail has kept my students more engaged and focused on the task given to them. In math creating situations where they use money for counting or the amount of something related to food has created a very engaging lesson.
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