Week 14 Student AR

1. Problem- Students need to be able to identify patterns through word families and ryming words.

2. Rationale- Recognizing ryme and word families in text was idendified as a goal in the schools Strategic Plan.

3. Stategy- Games which will require students to use basic elements of phonetic analysis.

4. Question- How can a variety of ryming games be used to help students recognize ryme and word families in text?

5. Evidence- Research shows that implementing a range of ryming games can help students improve their recognition of ryme and word families in text (Allen, 1998).

6. Data Collection- An assessment of decoding strategies will be administered before the implementation of the porject and again at the end of the four week implementation period. A reading attitude survey will aslo be issued at the start and finish of the project. A student checklist covering a students ability to identify ryme in pictures, text , and sound, as well as documenting student performance and participation in whole group activities and samples of student work are other forms of data collection used for this activity. This data will be inserted into a graph upon completion of the activity.

Week 14 Teacher AR

1 Title- Looking into the Mirror: Helping students speak more reflectively about their work during portfolio presentations

2 Question- How can portfolios be used to get students to self assess and internalize the curriculum goals for themselves.

4 Strategy- Setting objectives and providing feedback were the stategies used for this activity.

5 Feedback- Effective learning results from students providing their own feedback, monitoring their work against established criteria (Trammel, Schloss, & Alper, 1994; Wiggins, 1993).
Setting Objectives- If students are encouraged to personalize the teacher's goals, then learning increases. Student ownership enhances learning focus. Studies show the benefits of students setting sub-goals derived from the larger teacher-defined goals (Bandura & Schunk, 1981; Morgan, 1985).

6 Students will give a portfolio presentation after the first semester. An intervention will be held showing weak points and how students can improve. Then at the end of the second semester students will present a second portfolio demonstrating what they've learned.

7. The data was analyzed by comparing the first and second semester portfolio presentations.

8. Their was a 73.3% rise in students who scored at or above grade level in reflection after the intervention and a 51.9% decrease in students who scored below grade level. When surveyed, eighty-one percent of students said they felt that the intervention helped them think about, plan, and improve what they were going to say during their presentations.

9. The results show that providing helpful feedback to the students and allowing them to redo the activity results in a higher level of understanding for the learning goals and concepts for a given activity.

Struggling Student

One of the students in my class seems to loose interest quickly when working on classroom activities. I noticed from the survey the interest of this student is geared towards computers and graphics. Although those subject are covered in Tech. Ed., we are currently on another field of study. In order to help this student engage in the current material, elements from the subjects of interest could be integrated into the current lesson. For instance instead of learning about the different types of bridges from conventional studies, Bridge Designer a computer program which allows students to build a bridge and test it revealing its strengths and weaknesses could be used.

Technology Survey

How many computers are in the classroom? 22

Do they have internet access? Yes

Can you access Google tools? Yes

Do you have access to a laptop cart? Yes; Can they get on the Internet? Yes

Is there a computer lab? Yes but irrelevant since class has own lab Do the computers have Internet access? Yes Can you access Google tools? Yes How do you reserve it? Sign Up Sheet

How many of your students have computers with Internet access at home? 12 of 13

Are there locations in the community where students can access the computers and the Internet? Yes, Library

Double Entry Journal #14

Some challenges inquiry based instruction involves are that to a teacher not familiar with the practice it can seem chaotic and unorganized. Because many students are not used to this form of instruction, students may have difficulty developing logical arguments and evidence to support their claims (Krajcik et al., 1998).

Benefits of group work include increased information retention, teams outperformed individuals on all types and across all ages (Quin, Johnson, & Johnson, 1995). Cooperative group work benefits

students in social and behavioral areas as well, including improvement in student selfconcept, social interaction, time on task, and positive feelings toward peers (Cohen et al., 1982; Cook et al., 1985; Hartley, 1977; Ginsburg-Block, Rohrbeck, & Fantuzzo, 2006; Johnson & Johnson, 1989).

One strategy that can be used to support group learning is Complex Instruction, an example of this technique is here.

Resource: Barron, B., & Darling-Hammond, L. (n.d.). Teaching for meaningful learning. Retrieved from http://www.edutopia.org/pdfs/edutopia-teaching-for-meaningful-learning.pdf

Double Entry Journal #13

Traditional education where the student has to memorize information or perform operations with a given equation are becoming antiquated because they don't teach students the critical thinking skills which are necessary in today's society.

Project Based Learning(PBL) allows students to better learn by making the problems authentic and relatable to real life scenarios. (Thomas, 2000) In a study done by Boaler(1997, 1998) it was found students who are taught in project based classrooms have a better understanding of conceptual problems. Another benefit students gain when exposed to PBL is an increased ability to define problems (Gallagher, Stepien, & Rosenthal, 1992), most likely stemming from the fact that PBL resembles real life scenarios the students can relate to.

Problem Based Learning(PBL) offers students the ability to work in small groups to investigate meaningful problems, identify what they need to learn in order to solve a problem, and generate

strategies for solution (Barrows, 1996; HmeloSilver, 2004). Research has found that the use of cases in teacher education can help prospective teachers learn to apply theory and practical knowledge to specific school contexts and think through and resolve classroom dilemmas more productively(Darling-Hammond & Hammerness, 2002). Additional studies have demonstrated that students who participated in problem-based experiences are better able to generate accurate hypotheses and coherent explanations (Hmelo, 1998b; Schmidt et al., 1996).

Learning by Design focuses on having the students apply their learned knowledge towards constructing an artifact. In one such study, Hmelo, Holton, and Kolodner (2000) asked sixth-grade students to design a set of artificial lungs and build a partially working model of the respiratory system. They found that the design project led to better learning outcomes than the traditional approach to instruction. They also noted that the design students learned to view the respiratory system more systemically and understood more about the structures and functions of the system than the comparison group. Researchers have also observed that design activities are particularly good for helping students develop understanding of complex systems, noting that the systems can be presented as a united whole whose structure is adapted to specific purposes (Perkins, 1986). Fortus and colleagues (2004) noted learning by design had a positive effect on motivation and sense of ownership over designs among students.

Differences between these approaches are Project Based Learning focuses on making learning authentic for the student, Problem Based Learning focuses on getting the student to critically analyze a problem, and Learning by Design focuses on the application of the knowledge the students gain.

I think the benefit that can be gained by all of these approaches is that they make learning interesting to the student by involving them in the process and forcing them to actively participate while developing solutions to questions that arise during the activity.

Barron, B., & Darling-Hammond, L. (n.d.). Teaching for meaningful learning. Retrieved from http://www.edutopia.org/pdfs/edutopia-teaching-for-meaningful-learning.pdf

Double Entry Journal #12

I learned that IRE type teaching leads to the idea that the teacher is superior to the student and that it implies there is an answer to every question. Also this learning implies that the teacher decides what is important and how the material should be covered

I thought it was interesting relating the intimacy of language to public speaking as well as how stiffing IRE type instruction can be to student interest.

One question I have is why is IRE instruction taught as a primary method of instruction if its results are as dismal as this reading suggests.

Discourse." Coalition for the Advancement of Jewish Education. Yahoo. Available: http://www.caje.org/a_lukin.htm. March 7, 1998.

Asking essential questions can improve learning in schools because the answers to the questions are often open ended and allow the student to critically think and develop their own rationale to the answer.

Reflection: learning to ask essential questions. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://docs.google.com/document/d/165BCE1vIgTotWw49y5tMN2JAKVNdjH7aVTsaNZep7Js/edit?hl=en_US