Sorry for the novel. I got inspired...pick one of the topics I discussed to continue a conversation that may build on my comments or take you in your own direction. I've posted some questions in blue...if those interest you to extend a conversation, go for it, or add your own thinking. Have a great week everyone!
This week we read
about using digital tools to provide formative responses to student writing and
summative assessments of learning reflected by digital reading and
writing. We need to implement what we
have come to know as best practices to move our students forward in their
abilities to write. You have heard it
over and over…to become a better writer, one must write. Writing takes practice. There isn’t a short cut regarding this
process.
A take-away from our reading this week was
the importance of feedback. Feedback
from those more experienced to help us articulate our thinking in words that
are representative of our thought processes, content, and audience. I’ve heard many times over that students hate
writing due to the strict parameters that we place in what should be ones
interpretation, response, and personal insights to the topic. Thousands of articles, books, and video clips
have centered on the dispositions that are being asserted for our 21st
century students. The traits and
abilities that are forecasted for our students now and in the future are
creativity, collaboration, critical thinking, and the ability to use these
traits to communicate effectively with people situated globally, that view the
world with various perspectives based on cultures different from our own.
To enable students to participate and practice
in the skills and dispositions we know that are vital to the world of work (and
outside of work), we must support and foster activities and processes that open
the world to our students with the tools and guidance that reflect their future
realities. Since my “rebirth” as I call it…my awakening of the fact that the
role of teaching and teacher that I understood, is far from what I consider
today to be one of best practices for our students. Have you experienced an awakening in your
teaching career? When did your
“awakening” happen, and what were the circumstances that led to your shift in
mindset?”
The Internet has become this generation’s
defining technology for literacy and communication. There is no doubt that new literacies
redefine what it means to be literate in the 21st century. My awareness and knowledge of all the apps
and digital tools leaves me feeling almost paralyzed due to being overwhelmed
and excited at the same time, but it also made me realize how behind some of us
are in our implementation of these tools.
Using many of these digital tools as they are intended, means our role
as we once saw it, needs to change.
Meta-cognitive reflection is essential in
fostering critical thinking, mindfulness, and awareness of our audience and use
of social practices in context. In order
for this to occur, self-assessment must be in place. Classrooms need to shift from teacher
centered to student centered. What are your beliefs in the changing role of the
teacher? Do you believe there should be
a drastic shift in pedagogy to address new literacies and the role of teacher
in the classroom? If so, how do you
envision the classroom and the purpose of the classroom teacher?
Ideas as described in our reading support
student centered classrooms by having students create their own rubrics
(holistic or analytic) to foster accountability, ownership and motivation. Static electronic feedback is a great source
of collaboration and exchange in that the respondent is learning how to use
language in a constructive way, while showing what they know through their
content knowledge or perspective. The
writer learns that words carry meaning beyond ones intentions, and learning the
power of language and voice based on different perspectives are valuable
learning lessons for the future.
Classroom lessons using the applications of marginal commentary vs.
intertextual commentary can only open windows to “the art of
communication”. I’m
quite sure you have all experienced both marginal and intertextual commentary
in regard to your work. Was the type of
commentary to be used discussed prior?
Did your receive intertextual commentary having wished it was
marginal? If you prefer one or both
types of commentary, what are the factors that pertain to your preferences?
Blogs
and e-portfolios were two areas of focus for this week. Blogging has taken me
on a journey of learning how to collaborate and exchange ideas. I realized
that blogging was reflective of my abilities to synthesize and evaluate
information whether the purpose was to be insightful, or as an exchange with
another perspective. I had to learn how
to look within the text of those I was responding to. I realized through my struggles to blog
effectively, I was beginning my journey as a critical thinker, writer, and
responder of text that would ultimately lay my foundation and awareness of
content, perspective, and the skills to articulate what I knew or didn’t know. I also realized (due to my conversations with
Dr. Beach) that there may be content that has not reached a point of
understanding, and the purpose of the exchange is to wrestle with the questions,
articulate as best you can what you think you know, and work towards
understanding with your peers, while being cognizant that each one of us is
instilling our own background knowledge, experiences, and personal pedagogies
in our posts. I realized blogging for academic purposes is a process to gain
meaning through exchanges and perspectives. I began to look forward to the
challenge. Isn’t this what we are saying
that our students must learn to do effectively and efficiently? Writing in itself is an arduous task on its
own, but constructing meaning through one another’s words and varied
perspectives is hard. Now imagine
collaborating, problem solving, reasoning, and generating a synthesis based on
mutual respect for varied opinions on a global level of communication? That is what many, if not most of our
students will be required to do on a daily basis. Knowing the struggles we have as adults with
this process of communication can only shed light on our instructional
practices as we try and instill the skills and dispositions for new literacies in
our students. What
has been your journey with blogging or other digital environments within your
writing group or through another class? Have you encountered struggles and
frustrations when collaborating with other students to generalize ideas or
synthesize information? Perhaps this is a
mode of communication that works for you?
What are the reasons you feel the way you do, and how would this impact
your instructional practices? Would you implement
blogging within your curriculum frameworks?
Why or why not?
Hi Barbra, thanks for the thorough prompts. :) Firs off, my "awakening" moment occurred when I learned the intersubjectivity (students are also the meaning-makers) and interobjectivity (the meaning-making processes transform minds), and I applied the concepts in my classroom last semester. What happened was that I had my students survey American people or their peers for a certain topic, with a questionnaire they made, by utilizing any resources they have. Some students emailed their friends living in New Jersey to gather more data. Some went to a Walmart store to meet real American people. (again my class is for listening and speaking). The "ways" of reaching informants were not given by me, which were what they built up. The students actively led their learning as a subject, and they transformed their perspectives through receiving diverse ideas from others. As a result, their presentations about the topics were very authentic, thorough, and full of energy.
ReplyDeleteThis experience was awakening point to my teaching career, because I gave it a try although my colleagues coldly warned me by saying, "John, there's no way for Intermediate 3 students doing the research something academic just like what you designed." My students and I counterpunched them with the humongous results mentioned above. From that moment, I more confidently design my research-based project with openness for ways of gathering data, communicating with others, and collaborating. The real benefit is not only for my students, but also for me as well, because I and my curriculum also go through the "transformation" process through the bidirectional characteristics of the whole process. Another interesting thing in this experience is that my students used new literacy tools with the concept of NL. I miss the students, but at the same time, I am excited to see other students who will awaken me up again with other unexpected ideas along the projects. What were other Wannabes' awakening moments? :)
Since I'm not an educator, I can speak from my position at K20 in a way. I've always been THE hand-in-the-air, volunteering for challenges and extra credit for the fun of it kind of student. I always did that because at home I was lucky enough to have parents who let me create my own knowledge. At school, I would criticize my teachers and even now, I will skip class if the entire class consists of someone having me read aloud something I already read, an instructor reading from a powerpoint that I can very capably read myself, or if they add nothing to the conversation. I think my awakening moment came when I was doing research for K20 and discovered that educators were learning that wasn't the way to teach kids anymore. Had it not been for my parents, I honestly would have dropped out, not from lack of interest or ability, but from abject boredom. It makes me happy that bringing interactivity into classrooms via the Internet is making education as a whole rethink this 'I tell you, now you tell me what I told you' kind of teaching. I've gotten incredibly incorrect information from many, many teachers that had to be relearned in college; and while our own state considers making the US look perfect and above reproach in AP History books, it is heartening to know that educators are taking a look at how best to help students learn on their own. So, maybe Okla. will have poopy textbooks, but at least, with a good teacher helping students be creative and critical, the students may have correct information.
DeleteJohn I can't pinpoint one moment of enlightenment throughout my teaching career, but numerous moments that drastically impacted some aspect of my practice and/or philosophy. I've always been a big advocate of professional development (obviously, based on my latest endeavor) and have attended many, many workshops and classes over the years to try and improve my practice and positively impact my students (and now the teachers I work with and their students). For the most part, I have walked away from each with a sense of what I can do differently or better (and why) for and with my students. For example, I remember attending a math workshop with Greg Tang for 3 days while I was teaching Second Grade in Hawaii. I walked away with a sense of urgency to help my students better understand relationships and number bonds within a set of 10. I had always taught this concept, and yet until spending time with Tang, I had NO idea how significantly this concept impacted the manipulation of ALL numbers, both physically and mentally. Those 3 days, and the information I acquired, absolutely changed the way I teach math, regardless of grade level or student achievement level. Similarly, a few years ago I went through extensive training via LETRS (Language Essentials for Teachers of Reading and Spelling) Modules ("Foundations" through Module 12). I spent a total of 24 days in training that year, yet every day was absolutely worth being away from my students because it completely changed the way I approached language instruction (as evidenced by the morphology "project" shared in our other class).
DeleteI'm a pretty firm believer that when an educator thinks they know everything, when they think they've got it all figured out, and/or when they feel like doing what they know is better than doing what they know is best for kids, it's time for them to retire or find another job.
MacKinely, I really like reading your awakening moments. That's probably why we do the professional workshop and go to a conference being apart from our students. Being a "better" educator requires us to be strong. Strong enough to defense yourself from sarcastic critiques, keep doing what you have a faith in, and transform your own minds along the way of evolving. Reading your and Jacqueline's awakening moments reminds me of one article about professional development. The author pointed out that although teachers say wow to innovative pedagogy and technology tools at a conference, it is very easy to see them coldly grinning and going back to their classroom doing the same thing - no transforming of mind occurred. We may want to think about ourselves as well.
DeleteMontessori, on the other hand, was one strongly faithful educator who got many threats from the governing authorities at her time due to her innovative and humanity-oriented pedagogy. I'm glad to hear your story as well Jacqueline, I'll reflect on my teaching to check whether my teaching might've provoked any students to think about dropping out.
I'll be back after reading more. One thought at this moment after reading BABR 10 is that now I understand why they use the word "static" with a positive connotation there. Usually, to me, "static" implies somewhat negative aspect as it is not dynamic. However, in terms of keeping the feedback records using either intertextually or margin-basedly, "static" might be a positive characteristics according to the reading. Any thoughts?
ReplyDeleteStatic to me just means flat, unchanging -- or at least that's how we use it in writing. There's nothing wrong with it, and it is necessary in many contexts. Static also isn't static all the time. For example, art, paintings; though they do not change if they are traditional oil or acrylic, their meaning changes based on the perception of the viewer. One could even argue that a play is always the same play (static -- the words don't change, the parts don't change), but because of its pieces, the actors and director and their own understanding of the story, it is dynamic as well.
DeleteMy job description on linked in claims that I'm writer of both static and dynamic mediums, which is true, but even if I only wrote books and not video games as well, I would still be writing something that changes based on the interpreter.
But now I'm getting all philosophical, lol.
I really like your point Jacqueline, the "dynamicness" of interpretation. Yes, it is philosophical and constructionism viewpoint-based, which is my favorite. :) One thought I want to add here from the reading is that the fact that the context is assessment. So we can see the difference of "static feedback" which is one-way from teachers to students and "dynamic feedback" which is more dialogue-based that even involves follow-up discussions as necessary. There are pros and cons for both, of course, but to me, the former sounds a bit drier than the latter in terms of the dynamicness of assessment, which scaffolds meaning making. But, still I really like the dynamics of static comments based on the diverse interpretations.
DeleteThis discussion has led me to think about the necessity of comprehension check regarding the static feedback. We welcome various interpretations, but at the same time, we want to make sure whether or not our students/readers appropriately grab the meaning that we left using the static feedback. It is another dilemma to me. I support that leaving a room to some extent is better than checking their comprehension all the time. But, I want to know your opinions as well. What do you think? Do we need to check their comprehension as often as possible? Or, should we leave a room for the diversity of interpretation?
John I think I completely understand where you are going with this. I just had a discussion with my mentor the other day about providing feedback to my teachers. It is strongly suggested that we provide commentary on (all aspects of) their performance via questions that are intended to make them think and reflect and (hopefully) develop their own awareness of effective practices. For some teachers (particularly those who are "traditionally trained") this method is highly effective and allows for these new teachers to develop their self-efficacy and metacognitive skills. For other teachers (the majority of the teachers I am working with this year) this type of feedback leads to a dead end of excuses and stagnation, where they aren't growing and their kids aren't learning. My question for my mentor was along the lines of "When the reflective feedback and questions aren't working, when does it become acceptable to give directive feedback?"
DeleteHi Mackinely, wow this is another good example to think about. I've never officially mentored teachers, but I have mentored one teacher living in Japan; she teaches Korean there. In the given case where the mentees are clueless, I would give them an assignment to produce a reflective outcome; it would be either writing an essay or making a movie or etc. Again only for the clueless ones. For most cases, hopefully, teachers may reflect their own limitations by receiving critiques from coaches I think. This notion may sound too ideal to be true though.
DeleteIn my case, whenever I give my teacher student advice or tips, I let her implement it in her class and share the story in the next meeting. Often she brings up follow up questions based on her experience, so we both learn and evolve as an educator. So, I'm really curious now...what was your mentor's answer? Have you asked that question to your mentor? What do you think Barbara and Jacqueline? :)
Well, because ultimately kids are involved in our setting, and they are the ones suffering if the teacher is struggling, my mentor said that if after repeated attempts the teacher still doesn't get it, then I need to "give it to them." ;)
DeleteI loved reading your awakening moment. My philosophy is I don't listen very intently to those that aren't willing to step in the arena with me. To take risks in your curriculum or in many other facets, you must be willing to open yourself up to criticism and vulnerability. The great news in your case was you grew as a learner right along side your students. No guts--no glory, right?
ReplyDeleteI'm curious---in reading about intertextually or margin-based connotations, which do you prefer? Do you discuss the types of connotation that you would like to see in your student's papers when they use track changes? Do you have a feeling one way or another for yourself if comments are in the margin for peer reviewers, or does it matter to you that they strike out and highlight right in your text. Just curious...
I'm an anomaly in this group because as a writer, I may get a little indignant about peer reviews, but that's only if, as you said, they don't "step into the arena with me." That's my passion and my talent as well as something I've been working on perfecting for the better part of 25 years. It would be insulting if they didn't take it as seriously as me.
DeleteI want students, reviewers, etc. to tear up my books. I want them to question everything I've written. I want to see a paper or novel of mine torn to shreds, covered in ink, its binding broken, its pages dog eared. Books and papers and our work and their work are not sacred things. If they do their jobs, they are meant to be questioned and criticized and devoured and used to create more knowledge in someone else.
I want them to find fault or to correct or to enlighten me. I do what I can, but I am one person and will never see new things if people don't challenge me.
Interesting Jacqueline... I would be dumbfounded if ANYONE ever treated my work in that manner, regardless of their intentions. Now don't get me wrong, I'm not thinking along the lines of "If you don't have anything nice to say..." but more "Don't criticize if you can't be constructive." Have you always felt this way about your work? Is this true with just your writing or all areas? Did you ever have a teacher in school (K-12) do this to your work?
DeleteBarbara I've never personally experienced either type of commentary, either as a giver or receiver. In fact, before reading BABR Chapter 10, I didn't even know how to insert these types of comments. I am SO excited to use them to send feedback to my teachers on their lesson plans!
DeletePersonally I am a big picture kind of person, so I would much prefer marginal and end commentary because I find it to be less disruptive to the reading. I can absorb the information better at the end of a thought, rather than have it intermingled within the thought. In fact, I get so frustrated by the "interruption" that I can completely understand how a student who strongly prefers one method over the other may end up rejecting the comments if presented in a manner that they are not comfortable with.
Do you see yourself using this type of commentary with your students or within your role as a teacher? Are you already doing so?
Mackinley, it's interesting. I started using track changes for the first time my first semester as a doc student. There wasn't any discussion, but my peer partner and I used marginal-based annotations. Then this semester I had a peer partner in another class use intertextual annotations, and I was surprised at my initial reaction. I didn't like it because it seemed so intrusive to my work---I get it, but it surprised me how it made me feel. I'm sure it is very similar to a red pen on student's work. Regarding my own students, I don't use track changes to annotate yet. I teach 3rd graders how to do Cornell notes and they do GREAT! It helps them articulate their thinking, and use note-taking to make great summaries. So often "we" set the bar too low for our students---they love challenges. I've just started to use Diigo and Evernote with one of my private tutoring students. We both are learners! We both seem to really like it, and we are learning together.
DeleteI personally prefer the marginal comments as well, for my writing particularly, because it is better to compare my work and the reviewer's thoughts. However, as an ESL teacher, I follow the different degrees of "explicitness" when I give feedback based on the students' needs and the difficulties of the target contents. For example, if a student makes a subject-verb agreement mistake once or two times in a paper, even though I know the student is at higher level than the mistake, then, I just underline it and write a quotation mark below the mistake in hopes of her catching the error herself. This is an implicit way. On the other hand, if another student makes the SVA mistakes all the time throughout the paper, and the student is right at the beginner's level, I will underline the mistake and literally write, " "is" must be "are" because the subject is plural." Yes, this is explicit. Likewise, I go with different degrees depending on these diverse factors. When I teach advanced students, who are accustomed to the MS-word marginal commenting, I use marginal comments. What about you all when you give feedback to your students or peer writers? Do you differentiate the degree of explicitness like my example?
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteAh, blogging. Well, I've tried keeping blogs. I have such great intentions, but as you can see in the next few links, I never have the time to keep up with them, lol.
ReplyDeleteEmpty the Queue
J.K. Schlasner, Storyteller
And I also have we2game.wordpress.com, but my boyfriend and I are trying to begin a video game blog there, it has absolutely nothing on it yet.
And oh, I forgot about <a href="http://http://www.jphoenexx.blogspot.com/this one</a>! Lol, its my gamer's blog before I realized that Blogger isn't the best blog medium.
I've had others. I kept a MySpace when I was a teen and when it was a blog site. That lasted daily for two years, but it also became the focal point of much of the bullying I received as a kid, so I dropped it and one day lost all my entries when it became a music site. That was back when blogs were like public diaries, though. Before Facebook and Twitter came out. I also created a website on angelfire when I was an early teen and made that into a journal of its own in a way. It's this using blogging for business thing that has me nervous; and that's what these are essentially. When I write, it has to be ready to be part of my portfolio, even here. My next boss could look me up and find everything I've ever written online, except my MySpace because even I can't find that, lol. So blogging is daunting to me in that sense.
I've never had to keep a group blog for any class but this one, but I think I did need to keep a blog once for a digital transmedia theories course about a year ago. It was all fiction, stream of consciousness, lack of timeline writing though as an artistic response to the lack of linear time online. It wasn't like this. This kind of thing I know how to do because of my involvement with RSS feeds and Facebook.
What about you all? Evidently most of us have had some kind of blog in a class before, but do you have personal blogs? Do you think it could help you connect to your students at school if you kept one geared toward them?
I have never blogged for a class before this one, but my sister in law and I have been sharing our experiences parenting boys with "social disabilities" on a blog, although our vision was much greater than what it's actually been up to this point. While I have certainly read a lot about them over the past 8 weeks or so, I'm still not sure that I clearly understand the value of blogging in a classroom. I think it may be one of those things that I have to try for myself to truly understand it's power, however I also recognize that it may be highly effective with one group of students and not at all with another group.
DeleteMackinley, so true what you are saying about one size never fitting all. I think writing as a subject or means of expression is difficult for most (unless you are gifted like Jacqueline :) ). It's our ability to express our thinking and articulate what we think, feel, and process. If we don't have clarity, it is REALLY hard to articulate that on paper or on a blog. One thing I have learned personally is practice--practice--practice. I am still a work in progress to achieve blogging at the level of conversation in regard to academic subjects. I admit I have no interest in blogging on a personal level--primarily due to interest and time. I have seen the reaction and progress of my students using Reading Response Journals, so I know writing to articulate your thinking is a great benefit. There is of course a big difference when you blog in either open spaces or confined spaces similar to your classroom. I equate it to reading your paper in front of the class feeling vulnerable.
DeleteI totally agree, but as someone who has severe social anxiety, I know that those few students who are good at writing will take to blogging like a duck to water and may surprise you, considering they probably don't speak much in class. Also, blogging doesn't have to be words. As you can see in my JK Schlasner storyteller blog, it can be pictures and art too. Or it could just be sharing a video and saying that it helped you learn something. There doesn't have to be writing. But then again...that gets us into the concept of vlogging for those kids who prefer to talk (see JennaMarbles on Youtube, one of the first famous vloggers).
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteBarbara, while I understand the need to learn how to write as a form of communication, I am a pretty strong believer in not teaching content and process at the same time and through the same activity. So while blogging can help someone develop their and articulate their thoughts, I fall back to the idea that (for me) it would need to be serving a very specific purpose, and not simply to help develop and articulate my thoughts. As I was reading the string of responses I felt myself thinking "Well what ever happened to the idea of Multiple Intelligences. I mean, if only I could develop and articulate verbally, then I'd have no problem at all." And then the very next sentence that I read was Jacqueline's suggestion of vlogging! We didn't really chat much about it last week when it came up in our reading and Dr. Beach's blog, but I do want to examine it more closely. I feel that it could be very beneficial for some students whose expressive oral abilities are far superior to their expressive written abilities, as well as those students with physical limitations that prevent them from being able to write, and then those (like me) who much prefer to process orally and then move on to the writing if necessary.
DeleteJacqueline you've been very open with us about your anxiety in social settings and your increased level of comfort within a digital space. I am curious, and please know that you do not have to answer, but I am wondering if your "digital identity" (? I don't know if that's how you would even refer to it) also transfer to a vlogging set up, where there is an asynchronous visual component?
I also agree with you about that some people may not benefit from the blogging. I do have blogs for my classes and also for myself. Honestly, I have never used blogs for a class before taking the Theoretical Issues in ILAC course last semester, in which all classmates discussed using each group's blog just like what we're doing now. I learn a lot from the blogging, especially because the readings were very abstract, philosophical, and sophisticated. My group members sometimes even picked only two or three sentences and discussed the meanings collaboratively. In the real classroom, we were ready to talk accordingly. With these positive aspects, I have started using blogs for my students for all skills (reading, writing, speaking, and listening). To my experiences, the majority of my students seem to like blogging because it can give them authentic desire to think, organize, and discuss by using the target language (English as a second language). Also, since blogging keeps the data on the web, there is a value of distributed learning as well - people can share our crafts/knowledge anywhere anytime they want. However, just like Mackinley pointed out, a few student seemed to struggle on blogging by saying, "I don't know why I need to type in on a blog, I want to read books more." Well, however, those kinds of students eventually became a blogger based on the environment of the class (or, peer pressure probably). For this reason, I think blogging has a great potential for students to pre-think the topics, collaborate with peers, articulate their thoughts, and reflect on their findings later anytime they want. I use my personal blog to store ideas sometimes. For example, I posted the six social practices of new literacies in my blog ( <a href="http://tw0622.blogspot.com/2015/09/six-social-practices-new-literacies.html”>Six Practices</a> )
ReplyDeleteOn top of that, I really like Jacqueline's point as well; blogging does not have to be writing. Pictures, videos, words could be a posting as well. This discussion reminds me of our discussion at the second in-class meeting, which was about the concept of "text." I may prompt my students to upload YouTube video as a response, of course, after modeling it by myself first. :)
Tried to insert a hyperlink of my personal blog's posting, but didn't work for some reason...:( This is the link: http://tw0622.blogspot.com/2015/09/six-social-practices-new-literacies.html?showComment=1446244191768#c3951587156919872593
ReplyDelete:)
John, I've tried so many times I can't count. I've used 3 different site's links, followed the directions they have given, and still cannot succeed. Jacqueline, I need you!
DeleteI think this is an incredibly exciting time, but also one where I feel I'm going in blind. I'm running to catch up on all the developments within the digital environment that can enhance the content areas of my teaching, and at the same time trying to grasp on to new definitions of literacy. The digital environment has become such a catalyst in what we define literacy, I know I need to wrap around all the modes that cause new interactions in text.
ReplyDeleteI taught a class this week to education undergraduates and had them use recognized children's literature to discuss the true intent of the author's message, his purpose for writing the story, the overarching themes, and discuss the perspectives of the characters in relation to the author's message. The books were relatively short read-alouds that had a moral theme (Henry's Freedom Box, The Freedom Quilt, The Sandwich Swap, The Rough-Faced Girl). I was shocked to see they were not able to discuss the books on anything more than a surface level. Dialogue and exchange of different perspectives is so important, and especially since we are globally connected, I wonder how dialogue will be fostered alongside the varied tools for online conversation. I feel we are just beginning to navigate our way to brand new paths.
Interesting.. I am wondering about the activities they had. What kind of activities or tasks did they do?
DeleteI totally agree with you Barbara about the "new paths" concept. I have some students who still complain about my use of technology tools, open-ended discussions, and collaborative projects. It seems like some of our students are still living in the box to some extent. To my experience, approximately 80-90% like the "new" ways though. :)
Have you had this type of complaints from your students, who want to have a traditional way of teaching (e.g., one way lecturing)?
DeleteSounds like a great lesson Barbara! Wish I could have been there! :)
DeleteJohn, while I have not received complaints about my less than traditional methods, I can identify with one possibility in which those complaints or concerns might be rooted. When a teacher lectures, there is a very high level of predictability. Students don't have to wonder what the teacher is expecting or what content will be asked of them on an assessment. However in a class in which the instructor allows the students to construct their own learning and acts as a facilitator, some students (especially those of us whom are people pleasers, or who prefer a high level of predictability, or are fairly Type A, or ALL of the aforementioned...) find this to be rather unnerving because they aren't able to pinpoint exactly what is expected of them, even with the use of well developed rubrics and such.
Maybe? What do you think?
Thanks for expanding this discussion. :) Even the students who complained at the beginning, I observed that they began to follow my design that fosters self-regulated learning through an open-ended and collaborative projects as time goes by. I think that peers' examples or modeling would lead them to move forward because it was a culture in the class. People want to belong to a culture and share the norms and beliefs in general, and the students were no exception I think. I believe this type of phenomenon might have happened in your case as well. How was it? Were there any students who still left "behind"?
DeleteThanks to all of you for this very interesting discussion of the readings and ideas! I appreciate your openness to each other this week. You have given me some things to think about as well.
ReplyDelete