Based on my experience as Math teacher, I have observed how much my students struggle on processing new information in a way that helps them to storage it in long-term memory; for that reason the main skill I would like my students to be able to do is reasoning. The ability of reasoning by themselves, form concepts, and come out with conclusions will help them in the solving problem process. During the process of reasoning they have to retrieve background knowledge and connect/associate it to the novel concepts in order to come out with their own concept and conclusions. It is my job, as teacher, to guide my students in this meaningful learning process, since I consider it the key in future problem solving situations. I would help activating background knowledge and elaboration through questions and authentic activities relevant to the students to create a sense of surprise to them, at the same time, improve maintaining their attention. Additionally, I would present different organization techniques that will help them in making connections. Moreover, I would like them to use rehearsal, since that will help students to move their knowledge from declarative knowledge to procedural knowledge, which will stay in the long-term memory.
CSEL intervention case study:
In the High School Case Study I strongly believe that if we, as teacher, make the new information meaningful, logical, organized, and visually attractive and interesting to students, several behavioral issue can be corrected or avoid, because in many cases frustration or lack of interest is the cause of such behaviors; therefore they can encourage productive behavior in the students. However, when I think in these ideas, in theory it sound idyllic, but in practice, we –teachers- need a lot of experience to reach to the point where we know our students so well that we are able to plan our classes using relevant and meaningful activities for our students, authentic task, and significant assessment so that we capture their attention and make them feel part of the learning process.
Sometimes I feel as if it is more my duty as a teacher to teach reasoning about life than reasoning within my content area. We are role models and constant positive (hopefully) figures in their lives and especially if they are not taught these skills at home, we are responsible for that. Students build on previous knowledge to form logical conclusions and hone their reasoning skills and this can absolutely apply when we "teach" them appropriate behavior, manners, appropriate language, life skills and when we model all of these. Students need rehearsal and are most easily kept on-task when activities and lessons are meaningful and authentic. I have stopped a lesson when students are off-task or have said or done something inappropriate and right in the middle of it, done a quick exercise to demonstrate both my disapproval and the effect that this particular instance had on the learning process. In this way, students become part of the process, it has become meaningful for them and their behavior has been corrected.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Jenna. It is important that we as teachers stay positive in our teaching and remain a constant role model for them. I believe it is important for teachers to be flexible within their lesson plans and be able to adjust to their students and their reactions to the materials. You might move through a topic quickly that does not need as much explanation as you had planned for, or you might run across a topic that takes longer to grasp than you thought. In these situations it is important to try to pull from material students are already familiar with, and break down the material like a puzzle that they can understand and put together.
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