I have to say, this weeks' readings were very interesting but at the same time I am not sure how I will incorporate some of the ideas in my 3rd grade class. The Contructivist theories say that students building and creating help them put what they learn into long term memory. I defenitly agree with this and feel that hands-on activities are best. Students love to be involoved with what they are learning.
In the reading this week it spoke about students creating and testing thier own hypohesis and creating spreadsheets to organize data. I am not sure my students would be able to this. They are very dependent on teachers and I think most would just give up. I am all for incorporating higher order thinking skills such as this, but I am not sure they are quite ready.
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Jennifer:
ReplyDeleteCould they create a Power Point as a culminating activity which then they could describe the process of developing a hypothesis and then copy and paste a chart from word into the document? I teach high school, so I don't really know what elementary kids are capable of doing, but PPT is user friendly and if they can use Word then they might be able to use it and just paste in data.
There is a version of inspiration called Kidspiration that is very user friendly to younger students. That could always be an outlet for building. I teach 4th grade and find that student's success when working in a small group on more complicated skills. However, if you using it as an assessment piece, that is not always possible. For one problem based learning project we do I have students create a Wanted poster on Word. Oh, the is also KidPix that students could use to illustrate and create a caption with. As mentioned images help students network ideas to form long term memories.
ReplyDeleteThanks so much for the ideas, I will have to check them out.
ReplyDeleteJennifer,
ReplyDeleteWe have Kidspiration loaded on the computers in the computer lab. I'm sure Ms. Brooks would be willing to help you out with your class if you wanted to create a lesson. I know what you mean about not knowing if your class can handle some things. Sometimes you are blessed with a class that "gets it" and other times you get a class that can't even put their name on their paper!