PLE #6: Constructivism

In class, our group planned a second grade lesson using weather vocabulary words and a constructivist approach to teaching and learning.

The Tennessee state standards for our lesson are as follows:

Grade 2: Standard 8 - The Atmosphere
Conceptual Strand 8
The earth is surrounded by an active atmosphere and an energy system that controls the distribution life, local weather, climate, and global temperature.
Guiding Question 8
How do the physical characteristics and the chemical makeup of the atmosphere influence surface processes and life on Earth?
GLE 0207.8.1 Associate temperature patterns with seasonal changes.

The sequence of skills necessary for ultimate mastery of our lesson through a constructivist approach are listed below.

-Teacher creates a KWL chart to determine students' prior knowledge about the weather.
-Teacher provides vocabulary list without definitions.
-Students brainstorm what they think vocabulary words might mean.
-Students are divided into small groups.
-Students research and define each vocab word in groups.
-Students will watch several weather reports as a class.
-Each student will be assigned a role (writer, news anchor, etc.)
-Students will work together to present a weather report to the class using their vocab words.

The majority of the skills in this activity lend themselves to group construction. The students are working together in groups to create a weather report. This type of activity allows students to collaborate with one another and construct knowledge as a group. The majority of the research for the report will be done as a group; however, the research portion could lend itself to individual construction. The research portion of the activity could be more individual or group-oriented depending on classroom dynamics. It is important to note that the process is more important than the product in this situation.

In order to lead students to discover these principles, I would provide explicit instructions for the project in the form of a rubric and monitor the groups as necessary. I would allow the students to discover the principles on their own through group construction as long as they were staying focused on the task at hands. I would encourage them to stay focused by letting them know that I would be monitoring their progress and asking each group questions to determine how things were going.

Click here to read an article on constructivism from the Exploratorium website.

PLE #s 4 & 5: Cognitive Learning Theory

I am personally not a huge fan of cognitive learning theory because I don't think that the brain processes information like a computer. I do, however, think that some aspects of CLT are important for getting students to learn. I want my students to know that long-term repetition is more beneficial than short-term repetition. Learning requires practice, and there are some things that just need to be memorized (e.g., multiplication tables). I also want my students to realize that meaningful learning is more effective than rote memorization. Using mnemonic devices, vivid imagery, and prior knowledge will help them to make sense of new knowledge. These aspects of CLT will definitely benefit my students in situations where more authentic activities might not be possible.

My knowledge of the memory processes will guide my instructional decisions in many ways. I know that students need to focus their attention on something in order to move it from the sensory registry to working memory. I also know that information stored in the sensory registry only lasts for a very short time (from less than one second to three seconds max). This means that I need to plan activities that will keep students engaged in the material long enough to focus their attention and move the new information to working memory. While information does last slightly longer in working memory, it also must be encoded and transferred to long-term memory fairly quickly. I will need to relate the new information I'm teaching back to my students' prior knowledge in order to ensure that it is stored in their long-term memory. Mnemonic devices, such as Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally, can help make new information meaningful for students. Organizing information into categories and using visual imagery can also be helpful.

PLE #4: Assessment

If I have learned anything from my time in the education program, it is that "assessment" does not necessarily equal "testing". Assessments come in all different forms and can serve many different purposes. They don't necessarily need to have a grade attached in order to provide necessary information about student learning. In fact, some of the best assessments can be short, informal, and non-graded. Assessments can be used to inform instruction, monitor student progress, and demonstrate student learning. High-stakes assessments, such as standardized tests, can be used to make important decisions about students and to hold teachers and administrators accountable for student learning. I don't think that any teacher would deny that assessment is incredibly important in the classroom, but there is certainly a lot of controversy surrounding the use of high-stakes assessments (and the misuse of assessment in general). I think that creating and using assessments is going to be something that we all struggle with as first year teachers, but our study of assessments in this class has definitely helped me out a lot.

Click here to read an article from Vanderbilt University about classroom assessment techniques. I also found this article on different types of assessments that can be used to check for understanding.

I'm currently observing in a second grade classroom, and they're studying solid shapes in math. This involves learning about faces, edges, and vertices as well as the different types of solid shapes (cubes, spheres, cones, etc.). I've noticed that this is a challenging concept for some students to grasp, and I think that assessing students often would ensure that I knew whether or not they were understanding the material.

In my lesson plan, I would use short, daily homework assignments as a form of informal, formative assessment. Students would answer about 5 questions to make sure that they understood the differences between faces, edges, and vertices as well as the differences between the solid shapes. For example, I might have students tell me everything that they know about a particular shape or tell me the name of the shape based off of its faces and vertices. A fun performance-based assessment would involve students working in pairs or groups of three to create solid shapes out of construction paper. Each group would be given a shape and would have to use their knowledge of edges, faces, and vertices to build their shape. A more formal assessment for this lesson plan might involve giving students a short quiz after we had discussed solid shapes for a few days. I might also show my kids this video before giving them their quiz so that they would have a fun, musical reminder of what they've learned.



Finally, I would give a graded topic test as a means of summative assessment. I would hold off on giving this final topic test until I felt like a majority of my class had mastered the topic taught in my lesson plan.