CEDO525 Week 5

Strategies 9 - 11: Students learn comparisons the hard way right from the start of school. It doesn't take long before they are comparing each other's clothes, the backpack they carry, the scores they receive on homework, or even cold lunches! Sadly, this type of comparison leads to students having a negative self image, which is exactly why as teachers we need to teach the positive aspects of comparisons. Students need to learn this strategy to help them problem-solve and make appropriate choices in their life. Graphic organizers provide the perfect tool for students in identifying similarities and differences.

While the "homework and practice" isn't one of my favorite learning strategies, it is very popular with many teachers who don't want to think outside the box and rely on the same lessons and assign the same homework year after year. I've been the student of these teachers and can say from my own learning experiences that that type of learning isn't very fun for the student. However, the type of assignments I learned the most from were the ones where I was given a hypothesis to test. When given the chance to test different scenarios, I found that having a hypothesis fail wasn't necessarily a bad thing, it took the negativity out of the learning experience and taught me that making mistakes and learning from them in an educational setting can be transferred to life skills as well.

CEDO525 Week 2

Strategies 1 - 3: Setting objectives for students has always been something I felt I could use more practice with. For many years, I think teachers used the teaching standards as objectives, many times not expanding on the standard...like the old saying goes "teaching to the standard". However, throughout the last year, during the training I've received with PBL, I've learned that if the objectives are clearly stated and also shared with the students during the introduction of the project, I have a greater success with the end product of the project. I also find that having clear objectives makes assessment an easier task.

Providing feedback and recognition is crucial in getting positive results from students. Especially important is providing timely feedback. It can kind of be compared to discipling your child as a parent...if you discipline your child now for him/her coming home late 2 weeks ago, it doesn't have the impact it would have if you had addressed the issue immediately when it occurred. Same thing with feedback, students need to know right away how they are proceeding through a project because the positive reinforcement will motivate them to continue to want to do well as they finish the project.

CEDO525 Week 4

Strategies – Chapters 7 thru 8: My first experience with collaborative learning was using a webquest with my 5^th grade class a few years ago. I didn’t create the webquest; I found it online, however, I can’t remember where/who created it. The primary task was to analyze 3 different brands of chocolate chip cookies and while working in teams, research the nutritional value of each cookie and create a powerpoint of their findings. This 5^th grade class had some very distinct personalities, so I asked the classroom teacher to assist me with placing the students into groups. While we placed students in groups of four, we did not assign students roles. It was their decision to determine who would be the “researchers” and who would be the “reporters”. Each student had to contribute one slide to the powerpoint. As I could only meet with the students weekly, it took about 7-8 weeks to complete the project. I have to admit, there were some conflicts in the beginning, but I was amazed at how the students were able to divide the tasks and how they helped each other. Some were stronger at the research skills, while others were more skilled on creating the powerpoint. They worked well as teams and were very successful at answering their questions within their groups before coming to me for assistance.

I reinforce reading effort with my students with an “I Caught You Reading” program. Each week I select one student from each elementary class who I “caught reading” in the library throughout the week. I interview these students as to why they feel reading is important and to name three books they would recommend to other students. I currently place their photo and interview on the library bulletin board for all students to see, but I can now see the advantage to posting it to our website as well. The only drawback to this would be that we have many parents who have chosen to not have their students’ photos or names placed on our website for online safety reasons.