November 24, 2008

What?
Today was the first day back from field, and the first thing we talked about were our field experiences. We then talked about Authentic Activities and webquests. We talked about the importance of teaching through and about real life situations and problems, and analyzing the problem/situation to find a solution. We then talked about why teachers don't assess authentically because it is hard to grade equally and time consuming. We then talked about discovery learning where students explain and explore in order to come up with definitions and characteristics on their own without direct instruction from the teacher, but the teacher scaffold their learning. Discovery learning is teaching for understanding, but we have to be careful of misconceptions. We then talked about making our classroom a community of learners. Where teachers and students help each other to learn. We talked about Jerome Bruner the father of constructivism. Bruner believed that knowing information is a process not a product, and teachers help students see their process of learning and why things work and connect. He also believed in mathematical thinking and teaching students to learn by using content. Bruner's process of education is structure, where students use concepts and see how things fit together. Readiness, Spiral curriculum where you can teach any concept to a child as long as it is at the child's learning level. Intuition, and Motivation coming from goals and the community of learners. Bruner also had 5 E's of education: Engage-Get interest or Hook, Explore-student centered, Explain-work together to analyze, Elaborate-Student centered deep knowledge, Evaluate-check understanding through student evaluation.
So What?
With this information I can come up with Authentic activities to use in my instruction like reporting and investigating. I will also try to use some authentic assessment so I can gauge my students individual differences and readiness. I can use discovery learning to teach to my students understandings and clear up their misconceptions. I can also identify existing misconceptions before instruction. I can get them excited about the topic, preserve their self-esteem, and watch for persistent misconceptions. I can use Bruner's theories to help my students connect the content they learn to their prior knowledge. I can also teach using spiral curriculum to teach difficult concepts to my students at their learning level.
Now What?
Now as I prepare my lesson plans I can use Bruner's 5 E's to organize them. I can also watch for examples of authentic activities to use as I teach. I will also try to identify my students misconceptions as I teach to eliminate their confusion. I really want to help my students preserve their self-esteem and get them excited about the content.