Elementary Lesson Modifications
I can modify my elementary lesson by incorporating constructivism principles. Throughout the whole lesson I can guide the students to aid their comprehension and understanding instead of constantly correcting them or giving them the correct answers. Scaffolding is another strategy I can incorporate into my lesson. By using it, I can correct errors and help students develop higher level thinking skills. This strategy is very effective in helping teachers guide the students to help them understand the new information and can be applied to whole group, small group and individual students. Providing the students with multiple opportunities for practice will allow them to construct meaning and develop a deeper understanding of the material being taught. Allowing them to work collaboratively will help the teacher develop a learning community and the
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I believe that changing the teacher’s role will not only improve this lesson, but all future ones as well. Becoming a facilitator will allow me to take a more passive role, allowing the students to become active members. They will be able to actively participate in the lessons while I guide them to construct meaning. Scaffolding will allow me to correct any mistakes while allowing the children to solve the math problems. It will help them develop higher thinking skills and aid students’ understanding. Providing multiple opportunities for practice will help the students make connections to develop deeper understanding. Collaborative work will allow them to work with their peers to complete the problems and develop the skills needed. Working in groups allows them to learn from one another. I believe constructivism will help the students develop a deeper understanding about fractions and mixed numbers by providing them with the skills and strategies they need to be able to construct
While both class lessons were very well-taught there are still some ways to expand the class lesson. In Ms. Novak class, she could have had the students work out the math station problems on the board so that if some students did not understand they could see the process to solving the problems. Another way to expand Ms. Novak’s lesson, would have been to have each group create their own problems and then switch the problems between the groups to solve. In Ms. Green’s class, she could have had other students work out the problems for the class in the video it seemed as if only one student were doing most of the class work.
Doing that involves an increasing mastery of skills, knowledge, and ideas." (Robinson, p. 119) The mentioned idea can be used to motivate students to participate in the learning process. The same way young children learn playing with others, the older child can do it experimenting and prove their theories. As a teacher is easy to noticed the difference between a lesson that is pure theory, and the lesson that incorporates creative factors. Students present a better behavior during the lesson, participate, interact, formulate questions and get the answers working together without
Developing Fractions Sense Workbook B is a collection of 45 lessons and is suitable for teaching fractions in the fourth grade. The workbook begins with the recognition and description of the unit fraction, including representations of the unit fraction using pattern blocks, an area model, and a number line. For each of the next 44 lessons, there is an instructional section followed by exercises. Included are review questions at the end of the exercises to help students to make connections between old and new concepts. At the end of each lesson is a summary statement of the idea taught in the lesson. The lessons are carefully sequenced such that only one concept is addressed per lesson and each concept builds on the previous one. Also, the
Hartman, H. (2002). Scaffolding & cooperative learning. Human learning and instruction. New York: City College of City University of New York.
Scaffolding is a term that appears frequently in the field of psychology. It is a term that is used to describe a form of teaching. According to Firestone, it is a technique in which teachers show their students how to find a solution to a problem. The teacher then “steps back” and allows for the student to try it on their own. This process is done to teach independence in problem solving onto the students (Firestone n.d.). Through the use of scaffolding, students are able to work on problems on their own, without having to necessarily “hold hands” with their instructor or teacher. Scaffolding is worth examining in the field of psychology because it is useful to see the development in the growth and knowledge of a child. The results of scaffolding are worth examining as well in order to see what the most effective ways of teaching are. There are many different ways in which teachers or instructors can inform their students how to solve a problem. In other words, there are many different scaffolding techniques. Because of this, the question of “what is the most frequently used scaffolding technique?” arises.
“Educational practice is necessarily based on the assumption that students are willing to engage in educational activities that they will lend their cooperation and support to the process in their education. Students who do not offer such cooperation, who are unmotivated, present significant challenges” (Williams and Ivey, 2001, 75). High school school-children show the most trouble with cooperation and motivation; they only have a few more years of schooling and for some pupils that is the end of their education. That was one of the main reasons why I wanted to observe a high school classroom; the other main reason is because I have actually considered teaching high school grades. I observed Ms. Edith Stone and her Algebra II mathematics classroom.
A. Behaviorism, constructivism and cognitivism are relatively common theories used in the classroom as ways to approach student learning. Behaviorism focuses on observable behavior, such as students answering questions correctly, or being able to follow directions to complete a task as instructed. Characteristics of a classroom that uses behaviorism might be memorization of facts, writing vocabulary words, or a token reward system to inspire the desired behavior and decrease undesired behaviors. Constructivism, as indicated by the root word “construct,” focuses on the construction of new ideas, or expanding on what is already known. Students in a classroom using constructivism as a means for learning might seem more actively engaged in the learning process; they often learn something new through applying what they already know about the content area, and exploring new matter to further their understanding. This type of classroom often uses hands on manipulatives to allow students to actually build, create, or experiment with what they are learning. A cognitivism approach to learning might be explained by the minds capacity to process information – such as how a learner might remember something, retrieve information, or store new concepts. Learning through this method often depends on how the student processes what the teacher is presenting. Classrooms using this approach might incorporate learning strategies that help students categorize and sequence information to assist with processing. Like constructivism, it can be an active style of learning.
The important role of collaboration among your students and the inclusion of the community in offering student’s opportunity to grow; The role of collaboration in this unit was use in the advantage of the students. Through collaboration the students are able to get immediate feedback from their group and foster critical think opportunities on how fraction are applied in another person daily lives. Parent involvement was also a big component in this unit. Since, parents played an important role on how they wanted the information of fraction to be deliver to their child. This unit created a sense of community through collaboration of the teacher, students, and parents.
Lesson study refers to a Japanese program of developing teachers’ profession during their teaching experience. It is a translation from Japanese word Jugyokenkyo which literally means study or research (Fernandez & Yshida, 2012). Fernandez and Yushida (2012) define it as “lessons that are object of ones’ study”. It means that through lesson study, the teachers explore their teaching-based research goals through the several steps which they have defined them earlier. These steps include: collaborative planning, observation, discussion, revising, re-teaching, and sharing reflection. Also, Dudley (2014) defines lesson study as a procedure in which teams of teachers do planning, teaching, observing, and analyzing learning and teaching collaboratively.
A technical definition for scaffolding can be, "a process through which a teacher adds supports for students in order to enhance learning and aid in the mastery of tasks." (Reid, para. 1, 2017). This basis of learning that the teacher adds support for is known as the Zone of Proximal Development. The Zone of Proximal Development can be defined as the difference where a student can perform currently to what they can achieve with the proper instruction and resources. In comparison to athletics, this would be considered a learner’s 'floor' vs their 'ceiling.' Before one can look at the application of constructivism and scaffolding in the classroom, one must understand what it is not. Constructivism is not direct instruction. It is not built around a teacher giving a general lecture to a class on a daily basis with little to no peer communication. This established thesis, and antithesis can let one see what this teaching method looks like in a
Our subjectivity is heavily influenced by the amount of education that we receive. The effort that people contribute to enhancing academic excellence today is what makes learning possible and effective. Through the proper use of our academic knowledge we can construct society together. Schooling is an evident pathway toward generating social change and it is important that education is properly enforced and easily accessed by all people. Because education enables a person to grasp an understanding of his or her society, we as educated people have a crucial responsibility for contributing to social advancement.
Con: Constructivism classrooms do not have much room for structure (Rhinehart Neas). For new teachers, structure is important to maintain to have control of the classroom. Constructivism is meant for classrooms that can be more student centered than teacher controlled. For new teachers this method could not work very well. Another problem with constructivism is that students may not have the prior knowledge to begin a new lesson (Rhinehart Neas). The student that does not understand is also going to be the student who does not ask for help. Therefore, the teacher sometimes does need to teach and not just be a guide.
After finishing the teaching part of the lesson, I realized that not everything goes according to plan. For example, in our lesson plan, we had the explain portion detailed and outlined to teach students the technical terms of what they were seeing in the stations and other activities and make it a collaborative effort within groups to work with the vocabulary words. However, the teaching of the plan was not well executed. Also, I learned that teaching a topic does not have to be boring or just full of worksheets. Fun, engaging lab stations and interactive activities can fulfill the standards and requirements just as well, if not better, than basic worksheets and PowerPoint lectures. Lastly, I realized that lesson planning and teaching require a great deal of effort and work, but it is all worth it when a light bulb goes off in a students’ head and they learn something new and are excited to be learning and extend their science
Among many teaching styles and learning theories, there is one that is becoming more popular, the constructivist theory. The constructivist theory focuses on the way a person learns, a constructivist believes that the person will learn better when he/she is actively engaged. The person acts or views objects and events in their environment, in the process, this person then understands and learns from the object or events(P. Johnson, 2004). When we encounter a certain experience in our life, we think back to other things that have occurred in our life and use that to tackle this experience. In a lot of cases, we are creators of our own knowledge. In a classroom, the constructivist theory encourages more hands-on assignments or real-world situations, such as, experiments in science and math real-world problem solving. A constructivist teacher constantly checks up on the student, asking them to reflect what they are learning from this activity. The teacher should be keeping track on how they approached similar situations and help them build on that. The students can actually learning how to learn in a well-planned classroom. Many people look at this learning style as a spiral, the student is constantly learning from each new experience and their ideas become more complex and develop stronger abilities to integrate this information(P. Johnson, 2004). An example of a constructivist classroom would be, the student is in science class and everyone is asking questions, although the teacher knows the answer, instead of just giving it to them, she attempts to get the students to think through their knowledge and try to come up with a logical answer. A problem with this method of learning is that people believe that it is excusing the role of...
The procedures of the lesson were quite clear and logical for the most part, the lesson went mostly according to plan, although some nerves on my part may have caused some minor changes. The children responded positively and enthusiastically to the lesson as well as participated actively during the sorting activity, answering questions throughout the lesson. I think that the activity was age appropriate as it was not too easy neither was it too difficult for the children to complete the tasks. The children seemed to be engaged in the activity and eager to participate, using the colourful handmade materials, as the activity was rather like a fun and interactive game. According to (Guha, 2002), play and language form the basis for learning about math in natural ways, and one great way to integrate math involves hands-on activities and problem-solving situations that pique your children's curiosity. There were also few interruptions throughout the lesson which helped ensure a smooth lesson flow. I also managed to keep the children disciplined and keep their volume down throughout the lesson, since it was conducted at nap time. However, there is definitely some room for improvement. During the storytelling session, some children seemed slightly disengaged, which was probably due to the length of story. I also made a mistake of asking the children a wrong quest...