Reflections are a synthesis of understandings so far:

 

* Synthesis of key ideas from readings and your critical reflection on them
* Links to practice (how will your teaching / planning be influenced by what you are learning in your inquiry? (give examples)
* Insights / resources gained from group discussions
* Questions arising

 

Improv.ca

Improv.ca is a great resource for warm up activities or “brain breaks.” I might do one of these activities for a couple minutes in the middle of class if it looks as though the students are becoming unengaged because the activity is running longer than their attention span of about 15 minutes. One example of these activities is spelling out the letters of your favorite foods with a partner. This can also be a great icebreaker activity.

 

From Tourists to Citizens in the Classroom. – H. Jerome Freiberg

This article aligns with my inquiry into how to help students be self-motivated to learn. The key ideas of Freiberg’s article being that when students are given responsibilities they are better able to take ownership of their learning. Examples being making a charter of rules and responsibilities with the class, having the class help design rubrics for assignments, and have assigned jobs or classroom management positions such as assisting substitute teachers, collecting homework and passing out papers this way leadership is more shared.
When leadership is shared and students take more ownership of their learning they become citizens in the classroom rather than tourists. “Creating caring classrooms and supportive schools will improve opportunities for students to become citizens rather than tourists. In places where people respect them and care about them as individuals, students can learn to become informed and involved members of our democratic society.” (Freiberg 1996 P.36) My teaching will be influenced by this article, I will create jobs/responsibilities for students so that leadership in the classroom is shared by students and teacher. I believe all students are citizens of the classroom it’s just a matter of helping them feel as though they are citizens by participating and contributing to their learning.

 

Assessment Minute by Minute, Day by Day. – Siobhan Leahy

To help improve students’ motivation and engaged I will use the Popsicle stick idea from the article. Popsicle sticks with each of the students’ names on them in a jar are used to call on students randomly. Of course leaving the Popsicle stick out after that student has been called on and putting them back in once all students have been called on.
After reading the article I will be wearier of testing at the end of unit, if you do this you may not be able to use the assessment for learning because now the unit is over, you’re on to the next thing and the teachable moment has likely been missed. I found the 5 broad strategies for a cohesive classroom particularly important; they seem to me to be the 5 pillars of a successful community for learning.

“Five broad strategies to be equally powerful for teachers of all content areas and at all grade levels.” (Leahy 2005):

• Clarifying and sharing learning intentions and criteria for success.
• Engineering effective class room discussions, questions, and learning tasks.
• Providing feedback that moves learners forward
• Activating students as the owners of their own learning.
• Activating students as instructional resources for one another
This article lead me to wonder, is assessment of learning ever helpful for learning? That is a grade at the end of the class. How is an end of the class grade helpful for learning? I understand that assessment of learning is necessary for deciding if a student should move on to the next grade, but is it helpful beyond that? And how so?

 

Rethinking Classroom Assessment with Purpose in Mind & Six Strategies for Fair Classroom Assessment: Assessment for Learning, Assessment as Learning & Assessment Of Learning. – Dr. Lorna Earl and Dr. Steven Katz

It seems ridiculous to think “that lesson went well” for every student in a general sort of way and it seems every lesson goes slightly different for every student depending on background knowledge. A question that arose for me after this reading was how does one go about designing a lesson that can go well for all students? And is this an attainable ideal? Or is it more of a goal to aim for. Is it kind of a shoot for the starts and if you land on the moon that’s still amazing kind of goal?
The article mentions that “motivation is essential for the hard work of learning. The higher the motivation, the more time and energy a student is willing to devote to any given task. Even when a student finds the content interesting and the activity enjoyable, learning requires sustained concentration and effort.” (Earl 2006 P.06). So motivation is very important, but how does one motivate students? The article suggests focusing on assessment for learning and assessment as learning rather than assessment OF learning, which is giving a grade without substantial feedback and without a chance to correct mistakes. This approach misses two teachable moments: 1. Assessment FOR learning: The chance to do another lesson on the content that has not been understood (with the whole class or certain individuals) and 2. Assessment of learning: the chance to have a student assess their own work by providing a concise rubric, having them check mark the things they have done, and seeing what they need to add to improve their mark.