Know Your Students

What I Learned
This isn't necessarily new learning.  But it really does affect me differently each time I hear it.   It doesn't matter how much technology I know or can use if I don't know how to adapt it to my students.  It's interesting to think about shifts in technology and how that is going to affect how we look at a school day.  I love the idea of assigning a lecture as homework and collaborating in class the next day to elaborate on concepts from the previous night's learning.  This will give students a more equal playing field (if they choose to take advantage of it) in class the next day.  It would also allow students to take the time to think about what they don't know and give them the chance to come up with relevant questions.  Hopefully, this would better engage students in the learning the day after they do their "homework."  For me, there is a huge different in my level of engagement when I have some sort of background knowledge rather than feeling completely lost.  In terms of knowing our students, it is important to know what kind of access students have to outside technology can help us create assignments that .  We need to teach students to advocate for themselves in order to have access to the resources they need to be successful.  It's true that not all students have the same access to technology at home, but they will need to learn to take advantage of the resources that are potentially available to them outside of their homes.




Implications for Instruction
Knowing our students is the most important thing to remember no matter what subject we teach.  We need to be aware of what kind of background (academically, culturally etc).  In our science class this morning, we talked a lot about knowing our students in terms of how their cultural practices affect how they view themselves as learners.   If we ignore the connections between cultural practices and areas of expertise, we could be ignoring some of the main ways to connect the curriculum to their students’ lives. In terms of what this means for instruction, I want to be able to connect students' lives to all aspects of my curriculum.  Whether this means incorporating their favorite things into their math problems or constructing a curriculum around what you know about their scientific interests, students need to know that we notice things about them and that those things matter to us too.

Geometry Sketchpad

Something I've noticed recently in my own learning is that I've had a hard time paying attention to class lectures (Robin, this isn't specific to your class by any means).  I know that part of it is definitely related to the fact that we only have a few weeks left to go in the quarter, and I'm a little antsy to finish.  However, in reflecting on that, it's becoming increasingly evident that if I want my students to be engaged in their learning, my talking is not what's going to do it.  It was great working in the computer lab with Geometry sketchpad.  Each of us got the chance to complete the task and had to think about why certain shapes worked with other shapes in order to complete the task correctly. It was fun to be able to engage in a thinking task without being lectured about the properties of different quadrilaterals etc.

In terms of bringing these strategies into my classroom.  I'm excited to try different technologies that can help students engage more deeply into task oriented learning.  While it has been difficult to do this within the context of the materials available to me in my main placement, I'm excited to see the difference that task oriented learning and/or group work will have on my students.

This may be some middle of winter quarter "optimism".....

While I love the idea of having so many opportunities to use technology in my classroom, I’m having a hard time reconciling those opportunities to the amount of time I realistically have to use them.  Aside from being able to use my Ipod Touch for Literacy, I have not had many opportunities to use it in the classroom.  Maybe this will change when I take over my 4^th grade classroom in April, but for now, it's difficult to find the time to use it.  I feel like I can see use in the bigger picture, but when I'm co-teaching and/or only teaching a couple of lessons a day, there's not too much time to teach the kids what they need to know about the technology for it to be successful.  

I can see using the touches for my own purposes in terms of recording running record assessments or recording student interviews, but in terms of differentiating instruction, I'm not sure how it can work logistically with just one ipod touch. I feel like those that get to use it will be a distraction to the ones that don't and it may hurt more than it helps, having only one.   

Tangrams

This week, continues to reinforce the idea of differentiated instruction for me- not only in terms of struggling students, but also in terms of multiple intelligences.  Working with the tangrams supports the idea that there should be multiple entry points for students to be successful.  One of the main reason people have such a strong opinion about the subject of math is because they’re used to only having one way to correctly solve a problem.  Likely, they are also used to only being presented with one type of problem to solve.  It’s important to emphasize that there is a variety of ways to be smart at math other than just getting the right answer from plugging numbers into an equation.  Allowing students to be successful in multiple areas can give them the encouragement they need to work at math in areas where they aren’t as successful.

Implications for instruction

These principles are important to remember in math and all other subjects as well.  It is important for students to have entry points of success without resorting to remediated instruction.  This kind of work makes me think that I want to focus the differentiation in my classroom as more than just ability level.  Whether the subject is math, reading, writing, science or social studies, at least some of the differentiation should ideally be by interest or learning style.  Differentiation by ability just reinforces ideas that students already have about how smart they are and how successful they can be.  Differentiating in multiple ways allows students to find ways to be successful on their own.

Moving From Assessment to Instruction

This last week, I had an interesting reading conference with R.  He read two separate reading passages, one about Amelia Earhart and one about steam engines.  When we started our reading conference, I gave him a choice of which passage to read.  He chose the steam engine passage.  He had almost not trouble with miscues or comprehension, and he got through it relatively quickly.  Because we had time at the end of the conference, I also assessed him on the Amelia Earhart passage.  His ability to retell and comprehend both pieces was strong.  


Initially, I had predicted that his comprehension level would be higher on the piece he was able to choose, however, his comprehension was strongest on the Amelia Earhart passage.  This is likely because he had more background knowledge going into the reading.  


From these observations it is clear that R has a strong ability to comprehend and infer from grade level text.  He is also interested in realistic fiction as well as literature about sports.  As a result of this, possible learning objectives could be, using a text slightly above grade level for R to make inferences about the author's purpose for writing the text. Analyzing these elements of literature would also be useful in developing R's ideas and content in his writing. 

Geometry!

What I learned:
This week really helped me see the different levels that students can be at in terms of their understanding of Geometry.  In my 4th grade placement, definitely have students who, if they turned a right angle onto a different side, they would no longer see a right angle.  This is most likely because they are used to doing a lot of their geometry on worksheets.  Asking students explicit questions with one answer that only apply to the situation on the paper will not help advance them to the next level of Geometrical thinking.

Even though I wasn't able to recall many of the Geometric properties I'd learned in high school on my own, being able to have a paper in my hand to think about why I knew what I knew was helpful.  I may not have been able to do any two column proofs, but being able to hold the paper in my hand made me think further about what I knew about the shapes and lines and eventually come to conclusions based on prior knowledge.


Questions:
As teachers, is there a way to help students move from one level to the next?


Implications for my teaching practice:
Looking ahead into the spring when I take over my 4th grade classroom, I'm not sure what specific areas of math I'll be responsible for teaching.  I do know that there WILL be ways to incorporate geometry into other types of math (as well as a potential Geometry unit).  Knowing that students learn math best when they get to touch it, my Geometry lessons will not be one-dimensional.