Brainstorming ideas is something we have all done. When I am teaching and my students are going to write for me, I tell them to brainstorm some ideas using a graphic organizer. In my classroom, brainstorming sometimes turns into, “I am ignoring the assignment,” for those not interested in doing it in the first place. Then I start pushing for everyone to go quickly and get this done. After reading Chapters 7 and 8 of LAUNCH, I begin to ponder if I am rushing my students through this process too quickly. Also, I am hyperactive and want to go at a fast pace, so I constantly struggle with giving my kids the answer to the question I have asked because I need to keep the pace and move. I loved the idea from Chapter 7 of beginning the brainstorming session in isolation. If you can’t talk to your neighbor about the latest gossip then possibly we will write down a few things. Then maybe when we move into a think, pair, share group and their buddy will like their idea and encourage them. I will try this in the upcoming weeks and see how it works for me.
Once we have moved to the think, pair and share, I watch the room to see how the group dynamics will work. It amazes me how often I see one students in a group doing all the work. The social dynamics are real. My challenges as a teacher is to try to manage the groups but allow the students to interact with each other and learn how to handle working with other people. Learning flexibility and strong communications skills is a lifelong skills everyone needs. It is hard to sit back and not control the situation but allow the students to work it out together the way they will have to in the real world. I do keep a very close eye on any group I feel may have a strong reaction because I do want to be there to help if needed. Once the creative juices are flowing, I can count that at least a couple of kids will tell me they are not creative and don’t know what to do. I try to share with them that I too, often feel like I am not creative. At this point I try to pull something out of my head that have had done that was creative and praise them for it. I love that our art teacher believe everyone is an artist, each person is just on different proficiency levels. We all drew things as a child, and if we were lucky enough, our art made the refrigerator. Then we get older and start comparing ourselves to our neighbors. Do we stack up or not? It doesn’t matter, we should try creative things that make us happy. I think we have to just encourage our students to try and see. Hopefully, over time the students will see the value in creating and focus serious time and energy into being creative. Work Cited Spencer, J., & Juliani, A. J. (2016). LAUNCH: Using design thinking to boost creativity and bring out the maker in every student. San Diego, CA: Dave Burgess Consulting.
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I, like so many other teachers, have often assigned a project at the end of a unit. My projects were assigned after the class had taken the assessment. I used projects as an additional element. This is not Project Based Learning. True PBL will allow the students to find their own path with the process being the important part, not how pretty the project turned out. When students graduate and become a part of the American workforce, employers want workers who can problem solve and think outside the box. PBL units encourage students to practice this process under the guidance of a teacher. Hopefully, the teacher will be there to show them the necessary information on how to research and find the answers.
The unit should begin with a challenging problem or question. If the students don’t buy into the problem then it will be a long unit for the teacher and student. Teachers should be teaching the students to question things in the inquiry stage, question, question, and question some more. There must be an element of authenticity. Students know when you give them busy work. Now the students need to have some power within this process. As a teacher, I teach better when I am interested in what I am teaching. Students learn better and more when they too find elements they are interested in and focus their energy on that. As the students is working on the challenging problem or question, they need to reflect on the process. I have learned by blogging about my teaching and really reflecting on my actions, I am adjusting things in my classroom and making improvements. Some of my greatest gains come when my principal, Mr. Meier, comes into my class and evaluates me. An outside expert point of view helps me look at things in a different light. If I put my emotions aside and take honest criticism, I then can reflect and adjust to improve my teaching method. This same process is important for the students. Listen to others, using active listening may allow for the “I got it!” moment to occur. Then my student’s project doesn’t just stay in my classroom but is allowed to venture out into the real world. Someone on the outside must see it. (BIE) Now my students graduate and their boss gives them a project to complete. After completing PBL units in high school, our student will say, “Hey team, I have done a similar project before and we can handle this.” Work Cited Gold Standard PBL: Project Based Teaching Practices (by BIE) | Project Based Learning | BIE. (n.d.). Retrieved December 11, 2016, from http://www.bie.org/object/document/gold_standard_pbl_project_based_teaching_practices1 When I tell people I am a high school English teacher, I sometimes receive a not so warm response. At this point, I can tell English class was not a pleasant experience for them. I want my students to love reading and writing. This is not happening with all of my students. So I am revisiting my personal educational philosophy to see if I need to change things. At the beginning of this year I wrote,
“I feel it is my responsibility to give students the opportunity to become a thinking, productive adult. I am responsible for caring for my students. They are responsible for the choices they make. Each student comes to my class with baggage and my job is to try to encourage the soul inside. I must move past the bad behaviors and try to find a way to communicate with each student whatever their level is right now.” Well, I still believe what I have written here. I want my students to become thinking, productive adults. I want to feed their minds and their souls. If I don’t take the time to know my students then I won’t be able to differentiate and personalize when it is necessary. For example, I was giving examples of different types of graphic organizers to my class today. I know I have a couple of students who need things to be factual and logical; by the way they love math class. I specifically chose one that would be a very linear design. Then I chose one that was geared toward my student who is more free thinking. If I had only offered one example, I would have not covered all of my students. Good professional development is an essential element of teaching. If we are not learning, then we are not growing. This year I had the opportunity to attend at PD day with Kay Daughtery from the Missouri Reading Initiative. The topic was blended writing and how to integrate it into the classroom. The new Missouri Learning Standards for the English department roll out next year and this is a part of the new standards. I would highly recommend Mrs. Daughtery’s seminars for English teachers. I liked it not because it covered new standards but because it is good teaching. I left with several lesson plans I can really use in my classroom. Teaching has been a challenge for me this year because I do not feel like I am doing a good job. I am not reaching a number of my students. This is incredibly frustrating to me. I want to feed their souls. I created a “Take what you need board” that is full of post-it notes with words of encouragement on them. If you are feeling sad, you can take the laughter post-it with you and hopefully you will then find laughter in your day. I have also tried different technology ideas to increase engagement like the use of Augmented Reality. It was a great idea but it flopped. I would be willing to try again but I would have to make sure the technology would work for me this time. I can continue to do all of these things and work my tail off but if my students are not taking responsibility for their actions will it work? I don’t believe it will. I believe I need to do a better job of holding my students accountable. I cannot do the work for them, they must make the decision to step up or fail. It is important for me to find a better way to encourage personal responsibility within my students so I feel that I am doing the best job I possibly can for them. My hope is with learner driven units incorporated into my spring semester, I may see improvements. Revisiting my philosophy of education is a great idea. It helps me prioritize my goals for myself and for my students. I care deeply for my students, all of them. I truly want each of them to be successful. My goal is to finish the semester strong and come back pumped up and ready to try new ways to increase engagement in my classroom. For more information about the Missouri Reading Initiative: www.missourireadinginitiative.com/ A sense of accomplishment is a wonderful feeling and I felt this way when I turned in my final project for my class. My project was to create a learner driven unit. I am pretty proud of myself now. However, when I actually use this unit with my American Literature class, I am sure I will see many places for improvements. It really amazed me how much I questioned and revisited this project.
The process of building this unit began with looking at my curriculum and finding a place to use an inquiry based unit. In an English class, I felt an inquiry would be the best way for me to begin my journey into this method of teaching. During second semester, I knew I would be covering Edgar Allen Poe. Poe is an American classic but he is not my favorite. I have been concerned that I often don’t do justice to this author because it is hard for me to get really excited about the material. I may have just angered a great number of people. He just scares me and I don’t like to be scared. Now that I had my starting place, I needed to look at other inquiry based English units that had already been created. The Buck Institute for Education was my first source. BIE is the gold standard in learner driven teaching. This site had many examples and I quickly started to form my driving statement the students would be required to prove or disprove. My instructor, Mr. Brian Anton, explained he had more success with statements rather than questions. My statement is, “Edgar Allen Poe was an American author from the 1800’s, who is credited with inventing the modern day detective story and the science fiction genre. Even with Poe’s modern popularity, many authors and critics since his death have questioned the quality of his work. Prove or disprove whether Poe’s writing should be classified as high quality and the impact it has on today’s authors.” My students will begin the process by defining what they believe is high quality writing. Then they will read and research Poe’s works, both short stories and poems. They will then go before a panel of college English teachers and journalists from our community and present their findings on the statement. They will be expected to defend their answer. I am excited to teach Poe this year. My hope is this inquiry driven unit will encourage more of my students to really demonstrate their full potential when they have an authentic audience. I am still having a few problem with the rubric for this unit. It has been the difficult part for me to complete. I have read the examples used on the BIE and I just worried that it is not what I really want to use. My plan is to continue to work on it and seek advice from other who have done this instructional method. This spring I have to be flexible and willing to change if things are not going as planned. This first full unit will be a learning experience for me! Work Cited "Resources ." Resources | Project Based Learning | BIE. N.p., n.d. Web. 06 Dec. 2016. |
AuthorMy name is Lisa and I teach English Language Arts at Forsyth, MO. Archives
May 2017
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