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Trenton Mendelson Module 6 3-24-10 Module 6 discusses in detail a number of various teaching strategies that focus primarily on student-centered instructional strategies. Student-centered instructional strategies are very important and useful as an instructor because they keep the students involved in the learning process. Often instructors rely on lecture and their own presentation regarding the material. By using student-centered instructional strategies the teacher is thinking outside the box about how to keep students involved in a manner that makes the material more memorable. The section pertaining to cooperative/collaborative learning stood out to me since that is the aspect that my group’s project focuses on. I feel that incorporating cooperative and collaborative learning into lesson plans can be very effective. Both strategies require the students to take their share of responsibility for the learning. I believe that student-centered instructional strategies lend themselves to the English content area very well. When discussing literature many of these strategies would be very helpful. I think this module was very helpful in regards to providing me new ideas I had not previously considered.

Amy Wolff Module 6 23 March 2010

In this module there are many different teaching strategies discussed including everything from paired team learning to journal writing. All of the topics discussed involve a heavy emphasis on focusing on the best way to center instruction around students. There were two different sections that really stood out to me for two very different reasons. The first is the idea of cooperative learning which focuses on pair and group work. The next topic that I most enjoyed learning about is writing across the curriculum, specifically student journaling. In theory with cooperative learning students are able to learn from each other and gain friendship and respect but I have found that when used in practice it doesn’t always work that way. As a student I have had to do plenty of group work and the experiences have ranged from disastrous to incredibly beneficial. Unfortunately, it has usually been the worse of the two. With talking to other classmates I have also seen that it is not just me who is seeing this problem in group work. I want to know what it is about these group dynamics that make it difficult for them to work. Of course there are benefits but it is often difficult to see them through all of the difficulties with scheduling meeting times, distributing work, and sometimes just getting along. Also I understand that it is common practice in many classes to use group work. I am fearful that my own future students will end up feeling the same way I do about group work and I would like to understand better how to make cooperative learning more beneficial as well as more enjoyable. What I have found in groups that have worked well is that all of the members understand their individual roles and do not have one person who is bossing everyone else around or anyone who is not doing their part. I want to be able to make the right choices when making groups but I am not sure how. The other topic that I found to be most interesting was student journaling. The reason that I am drawn to this topic is because I enjoy writing so much myself. I think that incorporating this into classes would be a great way to not only enhance students’ writing skills but also to get some perspective on the students themselves. I find that writing is a great way to see into the lives of students without them feeling like the teacher is intruding too much. It is to be expected though that not every student enjoys writing as much as me so it is important to work it out so that these students can benefit from the experience as well. One way that I might do this is to give them a variety of prompts that they can choose from. Then they will have some guidance while still having the freedom to express themselves. I also might give students a separate option they can choose where they can express themselves a different way like drawing something or making a video. Even though teaching content is the number one goal I still think that it is crucial to try to understand what makes the students learn the way they do.



Abby Suelflow Module 6 Reflection 23 March 2010 After completing the module on student-centered instructional strategies, I was surprised at the number of different ways that students can be involved in their learning. The majority of my classes have been taught using a didactic approach in which the teacher delivers all of the information and the class sits and takes in as much information as possible. I have experienced some of the strategies mentioned in this module such as: cooperative learning groups, hands-on learning, and investigative student-centered project learning; however, I don’t have nearly as much experience teaching using these methods. I can recall my middle and high school teachers using the cooperative learning group strategy for specific units in English and Social Studies. One of the major problems I have with this approach is the idea that the group must work together in teams to help each other learn the material. As a fairly studious individual, I felt as though I was always teaching the rest of my group members. In essence, I was assuming the role of the teacher and the didactic approach was now being used in a smaller group setting. Moreover, our group was rewarded points based on individual scores and the members in my group rarely earned as high of a score as I did. That being said, I feel as though cooperative learning groups can be extremely beneficial for students if they are used correctly. For example, they enable students from diverse backgrounds to collaborate which generally lead to an increase in friendship and respect for one another. One of the most important sections of this module was the introductory material that mentioned the importance of the instructional methods and the learning activities being developmentally and intellectually appropriate for the students. As a future educator, I must be certain that I am teaching the appropriate content and I am teaching in a way that enables all students to be successful if they are willing to put forth the effort. Far too often, teachers only present course content that makes use of one sensory modality; typically that which the teacher prefers to use. Instruction that doesn’t accommodate all learning styles and modalities is a disadvantage for students because generally students are unable to grasp concepts visually and need some type of hands-on approach. Other students must be able to relate to the material in order for it to be of any importance. One of the greatest ways to promote meaningful and relevant learning for students is to use the teaching strategies mentioned at the end of this module; inquiry, discovery, and project-based learning. As I prepare for my instructional strategy presentation on inquiry, I am excited about what this approach has to offer in my future science classroom. A lot of the research mentions that the inquiry approach is best used in the science classroom, and therefore I feel confident that I will be able to incorporate this student-centered instructional strategy in a number of different ways in order for students to conduct their own investigations that are both meaningful and relevant to their own lives.

Brandon Krull Module 6 Review March 21, 2010 Students-centered learning would be valuable in any class. It is something I think every teacher should employ. As we have learned, peers can be a great resource for students who might not understand a specific topic. It can also be comforting for a student to know how his peers understand the topic. In some cases, a student might not like to seek help from a teacher possibly because of a previous bad experience, or maybe just laziness. When I was younger, even if the teacher didn’t set us up in groups, I would go out of my way to compare my work with friends in class (Think-Pair-Share). It helped, in my mind, reinforce the work I did and offered the opportunity to possibly catch a theme or idea that I may not have caught onto. Cross-age coaching has the same idea in my mind. Take somebody who has had success in a class in the past, and set up times for tutoring. I think every teacher should offer this opportunity just as another avenue for students to retain concepts. This can also lighten the work load for a teacher who may be overwhelmed. Group projects would be a great tool to use in History. It would be a nice change from daily lecture or reading, and it would avoid overwhelming students with too much work, but yet they would get the full value of the entire project. However, while doing this, teachers need to be careful and make sure that one or two students don’t do all the work and have other students trying to get a free ride. That is why it would be a good idea for group members to grade each other. The groups will know who does the work and who doesn’t. It is difficult to keep track of student’s work ethic outside of the classroom. This also seems to instill a sense of responsibility in the students. They know that their work (or lack of) can have a big influence on their groups overall project. This could be a good way to get students who don’t put enough effort in personal assignments to learn the material and spark a higher level of work ethic.

Kelsey Sammons Module 6

Module six is all about student-centered instructional strategies. I was very excited to get to this module, because I feel that this is the most important strategy to learn, in order to become a hands-on, motivational teacher. The beginning of the module said that “Group participatory skills are learned skills, not innate ones.” Students will have to participate in group work in almost every facet of their lives, so teachers should be willing to include group work in activities to provide examples of what positive group work consists of. I appreciate that the book gave multiple examples of what group work consists of. Anything from working in pairs, to groups, to the entire class allows the students to work with one and other and expand their own knowledge base by combining the ideas they hold with those of their peers. I feel that group work will be especially meaningful within my content. Think-Pair-Share, Literature Circles and group discussions are all examples of how English teachers use student-centered group work to engage and motivate their classroom. Middle and High school students focus a lot on what their peers think of them. Group work not only makes it easy to involve every student in the learning process, but it puts every student in the same position, so no one student feels more or less important than any other student. The students will learn to make informed decisions by combining their own ideas with the thoughts with their peers.

Rita Buschbacher Module 6 3/18/10 Module six is all about student-centered instructional strategies. I think that these kinds of strategies are often times the best way for students to learn since they are actively engaged in the lesson and unit. Essentially students are in charge of how much and how well they understand the material. There is a paragraph about the two different types of knowledge and I feel that these are obtainable through student-centered instructional strategies. There is conceptual knowledge, which refers to understanding relationships, and procedural knowledge is the recording of memory of the meanings of symbols, rules, and procedures needed to complete a task. Conceptual knowledge can be established if the learning is meaningful which is what the students will be able to do with student-centered strategies. If the teacher provides the correct instruction, using experiences and real life examples, the students will want to learn the material since it applies to life. Most importantly is that the students can relate to these experiences and not only learn the content area but life lessons as well. The student-centered instructional strategy that I liked the most was small group working or even pair teamed learning. I believe that the knowledge that one will always remember is the information that they can teach someone else. If a student can do this, it demonstrates that they have mastered this skill. Students can often times learn a lot from one another since they are both learning and experiencing the material at the same time. The students may be able to help one another understand the content in a different way the teacher is teaching it. If what their teaching one another is correct, then it is an acceptable and correct way to learn. It is kind of like tutoring or mentoring which the book also mentions. I had a teacher that had daily quizzes in mathematics in a high school statistics class and we were assigned to groups to collaborate and learn from one another. It was helpful because you had students learning from other students whether it was through questioning or reinforcement, learning was taking place. Although strategies can student centered, the teacher must remember to make sure the students are on the path to reach higher order thinking skills and characteristics of intelligent behavior. The text describes some characteristics of intelligent behavior, such as perseverance, flexibility of thinking, metacognition, sense of humor, and taking risks, and if the students demonstrate these then they are achieving the higher order thinking skills. Student-centered instructional strategies allow for growth and development by relating the content to meaningful experiences in the student’s lives.

Kevin McKinstry Module 6 March 18th 2010

The idea of hands on teaching is exactly the way that I want to teach. Module 6 showed me that there are so many different ways to teach in the hands on approach; because of this I was really excited to read the material that was present. The part that I found most fascinating though was not on the different hands on teaching methods. Instead what I found most interesting was the teaching thinking for intelligent behavior section. I had not before thought of the idea that there are different intelligent ways of thinking that are present in people. To me I thought someone was just smart and that most of the time they rubbed that in someone’s face. Looking at this showed me that someone can be smart but need a little bit more stimulation to try hard. This idea helps me understand recalcitrant learners even more because they fit into this category perfectly, because they are smart but they are just unmotivated to use their intelligence. Looking at it from this perspective helps me understand the reason that different instructional strategies must be used in the classroom. Not every student will pay attention during a lecture, or a video. But utilizing a variety of methods will ensure that a student understands the material. Also stressed in this section is an ideal that I firmly believe in, which is the idea that questions need to be asked. Too often I hear of teachers who do not leave time for questions or answer questions in a way that shows the students that the teacher is uninformed in their discipline. What a teacher needs to do is answer questions quickly, intelligently and be completely honest if they do not know the answer to a question but at the same time be willing to find the answer for that student or help that student find the answer for themselves. This way the student still has faith in the teacher and learns that you cannot know everything there is to know on a single topic. I loved this module; it answered a lot of questions that I have been asking myself. I agree with most everything that is in this section. I liked the way that it is set up and how the article shows that teachers sometimes need to act like the students to fully understand the material. Teachers sometimes forget that students do not know as much as we do, which is sad because we need to share the knowledge that we have acquired not horde it for ourselves.

Andy Cahalan Module 6 March 18, 2010

When looking at student centered instructional strategies, I think that students helping each other learn is something that I want to use in my classroom. There are several ways to do this. One method is peer tutoring, mentoring, and cross age coaching. I think that peer tutoring can be very beneficial. It is a way for students to interact with other students and learn. Cross age coaching is something that I could utilize also. While in high school I was a teachers aid for a history class and part of my job was to help the students in class who needed a little extra help. I think it not only helped the younger students, but it helped me better understand things too. Another type of students centered learning that I like is Think Pair Share. I always liked think pair share because it got us out of our desks, or at least rearranged and it broke up the class period. I also liked it because it gave a a chance to work with people we might not necessarily work with a lot. Getting students out of their comfort zone a little can help, I think. The Think Pair Share helps the students, but forces them to think before they get into a group. In groups I think you have to be careful because it is easy for one person to be doing all of the work. But if the students have already thought about the topic before they group together then they already have done some of the work. When students are involved with the learning, then it gives them a greater sense of accomplishment. It helps them come to their own conclusions about things.

Emily Schaefer Module 6 March 21, 2010 This module presented many ideas for learning techniques that require student interaction and critical thinking. The idea is that when students can come up with ideas and share those ideas with others, they can collaborate to brainstorm ideas, get feedback, and reinforce what they learn. Also, the collaboration with others requires students to participate in active learning, which leads to critical thinking and more meaningful learning. One of the concepts presented in the chapter that I especially liked was the idea that instructors should select projects or activities that are as close to the real thing as possible. These would be direct experiences and would involve the students actually doing what is being learned. I can say that I rarely experienced this in my schooling. This would probably be because these kinds of activities take more time to plan and execute, and take a lot more work to organize and carry out with the students. In this way, it is understandable as to why teachers do not use these techniques more often. But, by settling for more verbal experiences that engage only one sense, instructors are depriving students of direct, meaningful learning. It is our responsibility as instructors to make the extra effort to provide students with more experiences that utilize as many senses as possible. When one looks at the diagrams in the book on page 240 in the text, one can easily see that in the traditional, teacher-centered learning, the instructor is the most stimulated person doing most of the work. Conversely, when one looks at the diagram of interactive, whole-class discussion on page 241, one can see that while the teacher is leading the discussion, more students are engaged, talking and sharing ideas with each other. I can apply this to my adolescent psychology course that I am taking right now. We sit in a circle, one student leads the discussion about an education journal, the teacher guides the learning, and many different students state their ideas and chip in to the discussion. I also liked the concepts of learning in pairs with peer tutoring, mentoring, and cross-age coaching. When one teaches a concept, he or she learns the subject more in depth—so both the mentor and the tutored classmate are learning. The other part of the chapter that I especially enjoyed was the ideas presented on project-centered learning. The examples in the text were especially useful for a future teacher with little experience with project-centered learning. The text gave great ideas for gathering ideas for projects—including writing a topic in a graphic web and asking the students to brainstorm questions. It also outlined appropriate group sizes, meetings with the teacher, teacher guidance, student choice, grading, and the inclusion of writing in the process.

Scott Morrison 3/19/2010 Module 6

Throughout the realm of education there are countless instructional strategies used by teachers in different content areas. While no one strategy is proven to be more efficient than another strategy, some strategies work better in certain situations. For instance, when working with kindergarteners a teacher would be more likely to use an educational game strategy rather than a lecture. Given this example it is necessary that teachers understand their students’ developmental and diversity levels. This module was helpful in a variety of ways given that it provided me with a framework for my “Instructional Strategy Project” and it allowed me to see what might best fit my content areas. Being still relatively new to education, I can admit that I did not know much about the different types of instructional strategies that exist. The key area that this will help me in is English. I think the authors of our book captured the nature of writing best through their statement “Because writing is a discrete representation of thinking, every teacher should consider himself or herself a teacher of writing,” (252). This is especially true for English teachers who tend to be held most responsible for teaching students how to write. The trick becomes for these teachers to provide a variety of writing experiences for their students. Looking back at my high school years I can remember writing in only one style. This, of course, was in analytical format. There is nothing wrong with writing analysis paper. In fact, I believe they are necessary for students to learn how to conquer. However, I do understand how writing an essay in this format every time can be tiresome and monotonous. Therefore, I think it is an important part of an English teacher’s strategy to vary writing styles and writing assignments. Among the different types of writing are autobiographical incidents, evaluations, eyewitness accounts, firsthand biographical sketches, problem solving, report of information, and journals. Each assignment offers students an opportunity to format their writing in a unique way. Students become writers who are multi-dimensional. The most common variation of writing away from the typical analytical assignment is student journals. With student journals all power is bestowed to the pencil holder. The writer is completely in control of what is written. Normally the teacher is in charge of providing students with a topic or something that will lead students to find something to write about. The main intention behind journals is to get students to think creatively and to harness these creative thoughts in a comprehendible fashion. Because of this students do not normally receive grades for their work. For instance, a teacher is not going to go through every student’s journal and pick out the grammar, mechanics, and usage errors. I have seen this work in the classroom. My cooperating teacher Mrs. Donna Neuman (Beresford Middle School) is a firm believer in journals. She asks that her students write in their journals every day with the exceptions of those days she feels they need a break. The students in Mrs. Neuman’s class have grown so comfortable with the notion of writing journals that they freely share their work in front of the class. Some of the instances and details they write about are extremely funny! Looking into the future I can see myself using several of these strategies. I plan on using journaling as soon as I get out into the teaching field. I think it is a valuable approach to connecting students with professional writers. Although these students are likely far from professionals, allowing them the opportunity to write creatively every day is very similar to authors in the writing market. The toughest part about writing is forcing yourself into the habit of doing it every day. If that is something I can help students with, they will have that much more of an advantage down the road.

Josh Freier Module 6 3/22/10 I said this in another module reflection, but many of the ideas and conceptions I’ll teach are not going to be remembered by my students. That’s just a fact. I myself would be lost if you asked me to do a trig problem, or explain the different body parts of a frog. But those classes I had were far from ineffective (most of them). While some of the particulars are lost, they still got me to think critically, to solve problems, to form and articulate ideas, etc.—things that, unlike trigs problems and frog body parts I do, and all students will, use in the real world. Instead of viewing class as a way to impart “knowledge” onto students, student-centered strategies see class as a way to get students “thinking.” They focus more on the students’ development than on the facts needed to be known. Learning, as I see it, is more about “thinking” than it is about “knowing.” Books “know” things. The internet “knows” things. People “think.” This module was extremely helpful in that it laid out several different strategies of student-centered learning and went into explanations of them. Again, I like the book does, at times, deviate from a more theoretical approach to more of a manual—just listing the different things we as teachers need to know, and explaining them. I noticed that many of the strategies do focus on thinking. Even something as simple as class discussion can be used two different ways. One way is “based on the view that knowledge consists of a series of correct answers,” and another way, the correct way, I think, “is based on the view that knowledge is the product of creative inquiry through social interaction.” There are two points in there that I think aren’t always paid enough attention. To truly learn, students need to be creative and they need to socialize. Neither of these things have much to do with taking in information, but both have quite a lot to do with human beings developing personally. For students to learn, activities should be personalized. They need to be creative, to come to understand what they can do, personally, and they need to socialize, to learn to work with others and understand others. It is secondary skills such as these that I see student-centered activities as being much better at doing. Though teaching-centered strategies are necessary, a teacher needs to remember that imparting useful information is not the only part of their job. Just as important—maybe even more important—is that “the goals of teaching encompass not only the acquisition of knowledge but also the guidance of every person to her or his fullest potential.” School is the primary ground for students to grow as people, and teachers need to realize that this means they need to help students to develop personally as well as intellectually. In any case, I see intellectual development as being personal anyway. If learning is more personal and has relevance and importance to individual students, their lives, and their experiences, they will remember and understand more. That is exactly how mnemonics works: learning something new by building it up from prior knowledge the students already have. Student-centered instructions work because they treat the students as individual people, rather than just a box that knowledge can be deposited into.

Chapter 6 Reflection

Jeff Sebern

Module 6 shows the importance of student-centered instructional strategies which engage the student in his/her own learning. Culturally sensitive can be extremely important to student learning. Each individual learns in a different way between race, ethnicity, and within a race or ethnicity. Understanding that individuality plays a key role in student learning is a critical aspect for teachers to comprehend. As a future teacher, I know now that I must find a way to be culturally sensitive, promote multiculturalism, and work hard to get to know each student’s learning style and mode. Direct learning is a way for teachers to introduce material, but indirect learning can be more effective for students to achieve personal learning and understanding. A variety of strategies to involve students in their own learning can be used. Experiences, images, and auditory aids can be a reference to draw personal understanding from. With each student having a different background with different experiences, a teacher can use this fact as a tool to promote individual learning and critical thinking. Experiences can be simulated also to show a hypothetical situation which can also help student learning. To involve students in their learning it is important to view the classroom as a community, a family that works as a cohesive unit towards the same goal. Class discussion in small groups and as a classroom helps students to listen to other opinions and gain the ability to speak publicly and make logical arguments. Pairing students together can be effective in shedding light on the truth of a topic. Two students might be able to fill the holes in one another’s understanding of class material, and in a science classroom this can be the difference between falling behind and keeping up. Cooperative learning groups can help students recognize the gifts each person has around them. If one student is a good speaker, one is an exceptional writer, and one is a brilliant artist, they can work together to teach one another their ability and also create successful projects and class work. Another key idea is that students should have some control over the direction of their learning. A topic of personal interest has a higher likelihood of being learned than a topic of no interest, and this is where teachers and students must give and take so that motivation remains high. Writing exercises are important for every content area and in science, writing can often be ignored. The truth, however, is that even in science, grammar and effective writing is often necessary for lab reports, summaries on scientific discoveries and other areas. Integrating the right set of strategies for the right group of students changes from class to class and is one of the most important ways to improve student learning.

Jamie Wickham Module 6 3-22-2010 I found module 6 particularly interesting because the time I have spent in my teacher education program has taught me that I believe in the importance of student-centered instruction. I have written many reflection papers throughout the past two semesters and each one of them has analyzed my belief that my education was ruled by a Behaviorist educational system and I was never taught to perform tasks at the higher levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy. Rote memorization was the way by which I earned my A’s and in this manner there was no connection between the procedural knowledge I gained and the conceptual knowledge I should have been taught in order to truly learn information. The section on culturally sensitive pedagogy was important to me because we will be teaching in an environment that is much more diverse from the environment in which received our own education. With increasing diversity comes a greater need to not only acknowledge each individual’s unique differences, but to find a way to ensure that the experience they are gaining in school is culturally relevant in terms of their lives outside of school. I intend on teaching Spanish, and not only does the language have an entire culture behind it in the countries in which it is spoken, but it also carries special meaning for the large percentage of our population who speaks the language in their homes here. I plan on teaching in the Sioux City/South Sioux City area which has a large Hispanic population, and thus it is important to connect my teaching to the world in which these students live, where they are reading, listening to, and speaking Spanish daily. In a situation such as this where native Spanish speakers and non-native speakers are together in the same classroom it becomes even more beneficial to utilize the Cooperative Learning Group. These students can work together to teach each other about their respective cultures in order to better understand the Spanish language. It is a misconception that the students who I will potentially teach have an advantage in Spanish class because they speak the language. Many of these students have very little knowledge of the grammar structure of the language and thus have just as much to learn as those with little knowledge of the Spanish language. Rather than throwing worksheets at all of these students and having them simply repeat information back to me, they can work in their CLGs to solve problems, investigate the language and culture, and complete projects. Student journals would also be useful because students could practice using the language to express their own thoughts, feelings, and discoveries. This module allowed me to see the ways in which student-centered instructional strategies could be applied in my own field, and it was helpful to see specific ways I could demonstrate my teaching philosophy to my students.

Alisha Limoges Module 6 This was probably the most relevant module to me. Not only do I believe in student-centered learning, I truly liked it when teachers did these types of instructional planning with us in high school. High school and middle school students are looking for some form of independence because they are getting older and they want to feel that they have some kind of control of what they are doing in the classroom, especially if they are going to actively participate in class. Peer pressure plays a big role in middle and high school students and they feel that what their friends think of them is very important and they do not want to look “stupid” for answering a question wrong or not knowing something when all of their friends know the answer. If students feel that they can take control of their education, to a certain point, then they will actively engage in the material presented. My group will be doing the think-ink-pair-share instructional method in class on Tuesday and we will be demonstrating why this strategy is simple, yet very effective. I also feel that this module is also usful to all types of content areas but for me, in English classes, think-ink-pair-share allows for students to first have an opprotunity to think about what they are going to say and have a chance to write down what they are thinking about. Before they have to say what it is they are thinking they get the chance to pair off with other students and openly discuss what they thought about a story or idea and then once they have built up enough confidence, they can share with the entire class. Now it is definitely important to walk around and make sure that students are staying on task and are providing positive feedback. It is also important to make sure that you are introducing students to an open learning environment so they feel that they are safe to share ideas and not be put down by other classmates.

Kellen Moser Module 6 Reflection Module 6 was all about student-centered instructional strategies. Module 6 came in handy considering we also have our presentation tomorrow. The module didn't have much on the subject of our presentation, Think-Ink-Pair- Share, but there was a short paragraph. The paragraph showed me that one of the biggest advantages about using this instructional strategy was that I, as a teacher, am able to see what the kids misconceptions are about the subject. By starting a subject out this way, I can see what the kids initial thoughts are about the subject. They may have misconceptions about the subject that I haven't even thought about. They may think certain thoughts about the subject that I didn't see them thinking. By clearing these up, I can start all of the kids off on the right foot. Also, I think that learning in pairs can be very helpful for the students, especially those students that are shy. These students may be bright people, but they aren't comfortable talking in front of the whole class. The teacher may not see their full potential. By putting the students into pairs, these students may decide to open up and share their ideas more confidently. I will definetly try and implement some sort of pairing work in my classroom, especially if I notice certain kids that have trouble speaking in front of the whole class. Also, this module talked about cooperative learning, which is similar to paired learning, except you put more

students together. The teacher is suppose to create heterogeneous groups, putting kids together with differing learning styles, ethnicity, language proficiency, etc. The students are to use each other's strengths to support each other's weaknesses. I think that this way of teaching could create some problems. The biggest weakness I see with this strategy is that recalcitrant students would be able to hide within the group. They would be able to depend on others within the group to complete the work and get the grade. This could be solved by having the students grade each other within the group work, but I feel that they may just give each other good grades, so that everyone does well. I'm not sure how I would go about making sure that each student contributes to the group. I also found the section on intelligent behavior interesting. The authors listed thirteen or fourteen characteristics that teachers should try and implement in their lessons to help students. I think that the text was right when it said that teachers often assume that students have these characteristics. Teachers don't often take the time to teach these qualities, because they assume that students just have these qualities. Teachers need to teach perseverance, metacognition, using all the senses, taking risks, etc. These can all be embedded into lessons. I think that on of the most important of these is have a sense of humor. I found it interesting that there are certain physilogical traits that are increased when humor is found in teaching. Kids need to find a healthy way to laugh, not falling back on making fun of other children. It's the teachers job to make learning fun and relaxing.

Rob Cunningham Modulo 6 3/22/10

The actual art of teaching and the strategies used to convey knowledge and the application is the prime material that I want to cover in this class. The first teaching technique that I found the most applicable in my field of study is learning in pairs section of the lesson. I personally believe that this is the best way for students to learn mathematics. The technique that caught my eye was the peer tutoring or mentoring technique. This technique is where one student of more advanced ability helps a student of lesser ability in the learning of material. I personally think that this is a fantastic way of teamwork in learning. It is my belief that if a person can teach material then they have mastery of the material. If an individual can teach another than they fully understand the material. Also, help comes more easily from a person your own age. A student is much more willing to ask questions and to receive help from an individual their own age because they are much more comfortable with their peers. Teachers and adults are very intimidating figures who, when perceived by the student, may look down on the student because they do not understand material all that well. In this peer mentoring program, however, those who excel master the content, while those who struggle are more apt to asking questions and understanding the material because they are not being dominated by an adult figure. I personally have had a lot of experience with the mentor aspect of this teaching style. I currently tutor many of the athletes at USD and have found myself mastering many of the mathematical concepts that arise in my fellow athletes’ classes. I feel more prepared in my math skills because I have practiced so much material that I am more confident in what I can do as a mathematician. Similarly I have seen the effect that I have on those who come to me for help. They do feel more relaxed in asking me questions and have commented that I can explain it better than their instructors can. I therefore, have a first hand experience that this technique will work. Another technique that I found extremely interesting was the learning experience ladder. Personally I thought that it was inverted in how I would have it organized. I believe that for the most part the lectures and verbal experiences are the foundations of many students learning, and therefore should be at the bottom of the ladder, while the experiences, while concrete, create more beneficial learning for students. The best practices for teaching are the middle sections of the ladder, however. I feel that students can be best taught by composing the concrete and abstract methods of instruction. However, I think that the concrete experiences allow the students more opportunities to create their own thoughts and feelings, the abstract does convey the factual knowledge that is important for a student to know and learn. Regardless, a nice blend between concrete and abstract techniques must be used to be an efficient teacher. I still don’t know how a teacher can plan any of these techniques, granted a general idea or experience, but I feel that a good teacher can go with the flow of the class and adjust to what is happening at any given time. Therefore, I feel that the elaborate teaching techniques are rather worthless because they should come natural to teacher, it will make the class more natural and I think that the students and teacher will learn more from the experience if they just ride the educational wave.

Carrie Brooks SEED 400 Module 6 23 March 2010 Since the student-centered instructional strategy presentations are looming, this module is especially beneficial. After signing up for the project, I realized that I did not know what a “student-centered instructional strategy” entailed. The title is fairly self-explanatory, but after reading Module 6, I feel more comfortable with the concept, and I see the importance and benefits of utilizing student-centered instructional strategies. When students attend class, they anticipate sitting in the same desk every day, listening to the instructor, and taking notes. With such a predictable routine, it is no wonder that students consider school to be boring. Teachers, who use student-centered instructional strategies, facilitate different learning experiences daily, which make the learning process more exciting and engaging for students. When the students are engaged in the discovery process of learning, they have a greater sense of ownership over their knowledge. Through this, they will be more excited about the content, leading to a better attitude about school and deeper learning. As the book points out, these benefits of student-centered learning are wonderful, but there are also down-falls. For example, student-centered approaches are typically more time consuming. Also, the teacher does not have as much control over what the students are learning. Both of these issues are especially important today with the advent of standardized testing. Luckily, Spanish does not have to focus on standardized testing as much as much as many other content areas, so I can be more flexible with my teaching methods. When students learn Spanish, they need to understand that they are learning a whole new mode of communication. Many students look at it as another subject that they never intend to apply to the real world. By getting them to interact, using Spanish, in the classroom, I believe that they can transfer those experiences to the real world. Module 6 discusses different interactive teaching methods, such as cooperative learning groups, and project-centered learning. I also like the idea of having the students journal. The students would enjoy looking back at how much Spanish they knew at the beginning of the year, and how they have progressed to the end of the year. Keeping a journal would track their progression well. I especially like that the teacher does not grade all of the grammatical errors and technical issues in journals. Many student-centered approaches take the focus away from grading and place it back on a rich learning environment. By creating an environment conducive to interactive learning, teachers are creating an setting, where students can enjoy learning and grow as both a student and as an independent individual.

Cody Miller Module 6 3-18-2010

Module six discusses student centered instructional strategies. The teaching strategies presented within this module have in common two elements: social interaction and problem solving. Student centered teaching strategies require students to interact with one another and draw conclusions, learn concepts, and form generalizations, through induction, deduction, and observation or through application of principles. Believers of student centered instructional strategies accept the principle that learning is an active process. Studies show that when students are involved in direct experiences, they are using more of their sensory input channels, their learning modalities. And when all the senses are engaged, learning is more integrated and is most effective, meaningful, and longest lasting. One of the most important skills student centered instructional strategies help develop is problem solving. Inquiry teaching, a student centered instructional strategy that promotes problem solving, gives students a problem and has them figure out how to solve it. I believe that giving students skills like problem solving is more important than having them memorize a book of facts about the content area.

==== This chapter about student centered teaching strategies was very informative and interesting. We have learned a lot about the different facets of teaching, but I feel like this chapter on instructional strategies is one of the most important in regards to teaching. The book offers many different student centered instructional strategies. As I was reading about the different kinds of strategies, I remembered back to when many of these strategies were utilized in my high school education. I can recall working on many different projects, pairing with a partner to practice tasks, and playing games as a class to better learn the material just to name a few of the strategies correlating with the book. These breaks in the routine were always welcomed by myself and my peers. We often enjoyed the opportunity to stray away from the same day to day monotonies. It often invigorated us to learn more and kept us refreshed in my opinion. Also I can recall much more of the information that I learned in a nonconventional way. For example I can easily recall facts about the ancient city of Pompeii that was covered when Mount Vesuvius erupted because my freshman year I did a group presentation on it, complete with model and demonstration. I feel like if I would have learned all the same information on Pompeii only in the form of lecture notes, there is absolutely no way I could remember it now! I think it will be especially vital in my discipline, math, to use a variety of instruction. It is extremely difficult to keep the attention of Middle School and High School students’ day in and day out. Especially for students who aren’t interested in math, I feel like using tactics such as peer mentoring or mathematical games for instance would motivate them to study that maybe normally they wouldn’t be overly motivated to learn. By using these instructional strategies in my future classroom I feel like hopefully I can help students better recall information in the future, and also have more fun and an overall better experience in education. ====

Tyler Maxwell Module 6 March 18, 2010

Module 6 was a great preparation chapter. It goes into great detail of lesson plans and assessments that will be useful in the classroom. It also explains the importance of a strong and structured lesson plan is for successful teaching. The module explains as well that is vital for teachers to keep students interested especially by letting them know the information you are teaching them is relevant. Proving relevance in math education I feel will be quite simple in some cases, however in others it seems to be quite impossible. My math teachers in high school always tried to prove the relevance of the subject matter that we were being taught. I remember one fact in particular that stick out in my mind. I am not sure what we were learning exactly in the class at the time, however, we asked our teacher the relevance of the material we were covering. Our teacher did her best to inform us that it was important and that we would all use it in our future. Eventually, she ran out of leeway and admitted to us that there was probably no real relevance for most of the students in the class. She explained however, that if we were to ever want to go to college, we needed to master these skills to make sure we could get into a better school. I think that finding relevance with math education would be pretty difficult with many of the things we cover. This is also why I find the NASA webpage on my professional resources file to be very interesting. The NASA projects introduce real world technology and advancements. One project in particular that I found to be interesting was the one that dealt with launching a space shuttle into orbit. This is an actual real world problem that will need to be figured out by someone. The thing I really like about the site is that it has some of the same types of problems from Algebra I to trigonometry. The assignments are just a little more complex and take more time in trigonometry than it would be in the lower level math classes. This article discusses and has several different examples on creating a lesson plan that will help lead to educational success. It explains the importance of lesson plans and assessments in your classrooms. It also goes on to explain the importance of a strong and well structured lesson plan and it’s effects on successful teaching.