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Explain, in your own words, what “processing activities” are and how they contribute to a coherent curriculum.
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Processing activities is when you take time to reflect on the activity. You ask yourself the questions what did I learn, what went well, and what didn’t go so well. He can I change things for next time to make it better. This helps students to know if they really learned the information. If not, this is the time to ask clarifying questions.
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Processing activities give students opportunities to reflect and debrief what was just learned. They not only help students learn information, but apply information.
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Processing activities are a way to allow your students to process what has been learned up to a point in the learning process. It allows them to think more on what has been previously taught and use the new insights they have gained to revisit information and glean more from it. They would have grown cognitively from the beginning of your time with them and it would allow them the ability to circle back around to think more on what has been learned and allow the information to become more foundational in their thinking.
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Processing activities give the students time to review and reflect on what we have learned before we move on to the next unit. We can do this through discussion, review games, journaling. I liked the idea of having them jot down their thoughts and then come back to them later to see if they have changed.
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Processing activities involves not just teaching a topic and moving on to another one. Teachers can review material at the end of a unit or even a semester for better retention. As we use one topic to build on the next topic, there is a seamless transition for learning the subject. Also, it is important to use overarching biblical principles to see how God works through every aspect of the subject we are studying.
Before I introduced a new unit in Earth Science, I asked students to write all the things they knew about being an astronaut. Categories included food in space, preparation, sleeping, exercising, etc. Then we studied the unit, learning all about what astronauts did. Afterwards, I gave them their worksheets to write more information that they did not know before the unit. Then I teach about how God wants us, like the astronauts, to work diligently in whichever field we choose in order to produce excellent products. This includes lots of preparation and using wisdom to troubleshoot problems.
