-
What practices do you currently use in your classroom to help your students learn concepts on a deeper level? Do you feel these are effective? Why or why not?
-
I use a variety of strategies to create an environment where students learning concepts on a deeper level such as close readings, graphic organizers, small group and large group discussions, some meta cognition activities like mentor texts or question forming. I do feel these are effective because when I compare the pre assessment of my students to the later assessments, I can track their growth. I think it still needs improvement but I’ve noticed deeper learning.
-
There isn’t a lot of “deep” learning in my role as I am more trying to help fill-in skill gaps. I do, however, try to incorporate as many of the senses as possible to include all learners. I also try to ask a lot of questions that encourage learners to come to a conclusion on their own.
-
Hands-on, reflective, and peer discussion activities are useful.
-
As a student teacher currently in my special education portion of my time, I look to the student I am working with to determine how to set up my lessons. I know this will be different next quarter when I am with a full classroom of a broad range of learning abilities and types. For now, though, I focus on that individual student’s needs for their learning experience to be as successful as possible for them. I can’t get much more pedagogical that that.
When I get into my next phase of student teaching, I will have a good foundation of a variety of needs that students have for learning. I feel this will help me to differentiate and cater to many different learners in each lesson as I come to know my new set of students. Knowing each student is going to be key to ensuring that I am able to reach each one with each lesson. That may mean teaching an overall concept to the whole group and then using small groups of similar levels to focus on the details in a way that is most appropriate for that group. I have been able to witness this method of instruction to be very successful in a 4th grade classroom. It is definitely one way I hope to ensure that each student will be successful and learn in a way that truly helps them get excited about learning new things.
-
They are different practices I use in my classroom but I will only focus on justification and preservation today. I use justification and preservation practices in my classroom daily and I have seen that it is help my student to learn the concepts of the lessons. When my students justify their answers to a problem and how they get to their answers it helps them to remember the concept and can use these concepts in a different real-life situations. Also, when my students preserve while solving different problems, they have learned not to give up whenever they are faced with challenges.