Hello, The reflections for the next week come from the Why didn't I learn this
in College? Book We are on chapter 4. Active
Learning. What kind of Active Learning strategies do you use in the
classroom? What have you observed your teacher use? What seems to be
effective? How do you use active learning strategies? What
does it mean to you?
Page 66-67 gives some examples of
how they are used. Do you think about applying/utilizing these when
you’re planning your lessons? Try to really examine how you
plan your instruction. Do you utilize these best practice
strategies?
Look at the quote on Page 65. WOW!!!!!
“ No matter how well planned, how interesting, stimulating, colorful or
relevant the lesson, if the teacher does all the interacting with the material,
the teacher’s not the student’s brain will grow.”” Pat Wolfe
Comment on this topic for your reflection this next week.
What kind of Active Learning strategies do you use in the classroom? How do you use Active Learning strategies? What does it mean to you?
ReplyDeleteThe one Active Learning strategy that I always use in the classroom is students working and talking in pairs. During instruction I will ask the class a question and instead of calling on one student, I will tell the students to talk to their partner. After about a minute, I will take some examples from the different pairs. This allows all of the students to share their ideas and not just one student giving all of the answers. Another Active Learning strategy that I have used is a picture walk. It is not exactly as described in the textbook but in order to activate prior knowledge and set a purpose for reading, the students take a picture walk through the book before we begin reading. This helps them think about what the story might be about and allows them to gather ideas that they want to learn more about. In my methods block placement, my co-op used a version of think-pair-share that I really liked. She included gestures while she was teaching and then when she was done a concept she would have the children turn to their partners and “teach” them what the teacher just taught them. It was very engaging and the children had to be paying attention in order to share. I have also used “I have the question, who has the answer?” 3-2-1’s, scavenger hunts and a lot of technology.
Active Learning means that children are constantly engaged and ready to learn. They should be able to take part in the teaching and learning. Students need the opportunity to interact with different materials, people and environments to aid their learning. I also think that differentiated instruction is important with Active Learning as well. If teachers are always using the same teaching styles and techniques, the students who struggle will not have the opportunity to find their own way of learning.
What have you seen your teacher use? What seems to be effective?
I have seen many of the same Active Learning strategies that I mentioned above. I have also seen sort-cards, journals, three column charts, interactive notebooks, review games and facts and folklore. My co-op used something called an autobiography box. She had each student make one before the first day of school so they could share it. Each child decorated a shoe box and put items that described them inside. Though this was not for an actual lesson, I am sure she could use this for a class project as well. That is about all I have seen from my co-op because she likes to strictly follow the curriculum but I think I will see many more techniques as my placement continues. I think the most effective strategies is collaborative work between students as well as teacher and students. Games are also very effective for Active Learning.
Do you think about applying/utilizing these when you’re planning your lessons? Do you utilize these best practice strategies?
After looking over the different strategies from the book I think I will definitely try and use these in the classroom. I really like the idea of ABC-XYZ. I think this strategy will really get the students thinking about what they have learned. I also like the graffiti, inside-outside circles, stir the class and word splash. Every strategy in this book seems to have some benefit for the classroom. I would use any of these to promote Active Learning in my classroom. So far I have tried to utilize the strategies above but I will definitely look into incorporating new strategies. I want my students to be able to understand concepts and check for understanding in a variety of ways.
Like you said a majority of the strategies I use come from what I've observed my teacher using. I do think that some of the strategies that are listed in the book are a variation of what I already use. I do plan to use some of the other strategies that are listed in the book. I think that teaching is all about trying new strategies and wanting to expand our professional development of strategies. I agree with you that we should allow our students to find their own way of learning.
DeleteAlex- I really liked how you mentioned that you would like to use inside-outside circles, stir the class and word splashes. I have already used word splashes with the students and they really enjoy it! We use word splashes the most often in writing class, but I would really like to use them in other subjects as well. I think it's great for writing because it gives the students a chance to choose their own writing topic, but still gives them guidance. The inside-outside circle is also something that I would LOVE to try with the class! Best of Luck with incorporating these!
DeleteAlex, I always appreciate your entries and responses. You demonstrate that you reflect on the readings and your practice.
DeleteWhat Kind of Active Learning strategies do you use in the classroom? How do you use active learning strategies? What does it mean to you?
ReplyDeleteI believe in having the students actively learning throughout a lesson. This helps the students understand the information at a deeper level. It can also help the teacher by providing assessment data. I have used many different active learning strategies in the classroom. Some of my favorites include Think-Pair-Share, Sort Cards, Signal Cards, Line-ups, Three Column charts, Corners, Anticipation Reaction Guide, 3-2-1, Ticket to Leave, Scavenger Hunts, and I have the Question, Who has the Answer?. Each of these strategies built a constructivist feel into my classroom. The students have the opportunity to create their own knowledge and build off of information to consolidate their learning. I feel this is the basis of all learning. Active Learning Strategies should be included in as many lessons as possible!
What have you observed your teacher use? What seems to be effective?
My cooperating teacher does not use many of these strategies. He will do some Think-Pair-Share and Anticipation Guides, but for the most part their learning is more lecture driven. I have made it a point to include more Active Learning Strategies into our classroom. While there are few strategies being used, the ones he does use work well. The students love the anticipation guides. They usually lead to questions which extend our learning. The students really like to see what they were wrong about and learn just about everything they can to consolidate their information about the concepts.
Do you think about applying and utilizing these when you’re planning your lessons?
When planning I always try to think of a way to have the students actively involved in the lessons. This is something that I am very passionate about and wish was done more often. Students will be bored if the learning is not active and when students are bored they are not listening and learning the information. Making things exciting, interesting, and active can keep the students focused and make them want to learn. Therefore, I always try to think about putting an Active Learning Strategy into my lessons.
Active Learning is such an important experience for children. In order for children to actively learn they need to talk, move, and think! It is not acceptable to have students sit in their seats all day long and spit out facts. Students need to be able to express their ideas, thoughts, and feelings openly.They need to be able to work in groups and with different peers every single day because they can all benefit from each other! Last, but not least, they need to be able to use different aspects of the classroom for their learning environment. This may include ipads, smartboards, whiteboards, journals, and any other modem that is helpful for the task at hand!
ReplyDeleteThe children in my classroom love to talk! So instead of treating this as negative behavior at all times, I use it to my advantage. I use talking in pairs as much as possible. I rearranged the seating in the classroom so that students would be sitting in pairs. This makes it easier for the children to work in pairs when I need them too. Instead of using the Whole Class Question-Answer strategy all the time, I tell the students to talk to their partner. I bring up an idea, question or concept and tell them to take a couple minutes to talk it over with their partner. This allows the students to have time to talk and share their ideas. Another thing I love about this strategy is that it gives students who take a little longer to come up with an answer to take their time and figure out what they want to say if they want to answer or in case they get called on. A lot of students in my class have great ideas, but it just takes them a little longer to process them, so the partner sharing helps with this! Another thing that I like to use in the classroom is to split up in groups for Math Centers. I found that a lot of times during whole group math instruction the students that did not want to answer just ended up sitting there or getting called on and having no idea where we were. Now, since we do centers, it gives each student the responsibility to have to know what is going on because there are fewer of them! Some other things I have used are Sort Cards and Three- Column Charts. For the introduction of a geography lesson I had the students talk with their partners and write down what they knew about geography on a post-it-note. This allowed them to talk in partners and also showed me proof that they did so! They were then instructed to come up to the board and post their notes on a KWL poster that I had made.
My co-op has started using "talk chips" for the children to use in groups and in partners. The children are given a certain amount of chips. Once they get into their pairs or groups they are given a topic or question to share/talk about. When they have something they want to say, they give one of their chips to the middle of the group or pair. If they other person has something they want to share, they do the same. This way, when you walk around the room you can see who is giving their chips and who is not (who is talking and who is not) and it gives the students a more strategic way to share their information instead of talking over each other or not talking at all. this seems to work very well!
Do you think about applying/utilizing these when you’re planning your lessons? Do you utilize these best practice strategies?
I most certainly try to always think about active strategies to use with the children when I am planning lessons. However, with this particular group it is a little hard to create a balance in the classroom. Since they are a talkative group, they can sometimes get out of hand. I can see when it may be a struggle to WANT to have the the students talking and chatting because they are so talkative and it is hard to get them to stop once they start. However, with good behavior management skills and high expectations, it is possible. Therefore, I do believe and try to implement strategies that get the children involved, but it needs to be with mutual respect and responsibility.
I know exactly what you mean when you say you have a talkative class. Mine is the same way. It's really difficult to teach when your students are just too busy talking to one another. The strategy that you mentioned in your first paragraph about talking to a partner is a great idea in cases like this! It gets the students talking about something important and they can bounce ideas off of one another. The only thing you need to be careful of is that students are staying on task and talking about the topic of discussion. In kindergarten, it's important to stay on top of the talking issue and make sure they understand when it's okay to talk. I might consider implementing this strategy into my classroom and seeing if it helps manage the amount of talking at inappropriate times.
DeleteI think that the "Talk chips" are a great idea. It allows you to monitor who is and isn't talking. This will help you as you are walking around the classroom checking for understanding. If you see that someone isn't talking, you can enter the discussion and see why they aren't. If they don't understand what is going on, you can address it then, rather than after the lesson. Definitely a strategy worth remembering!
DeleteI really like your co-ops idea of using the chips to share their ideas when working in a group setting. It is a great way for the teacher to asses whether or not students are actively participating, as well as seeing who is sharing and comprehending the material. It is also a great way to monitor that everyone is contributing to the discussion.
DeleteTalk chips are strongly supported in the literature. One school that had 100% AYP stated that there children talked everyday. Every child is expected to contribute what they have learned in a complete sentence to another. This makes everyone have to contribute to their own learning. We can't construct what is in their heads but we sure can give them an opportunity to put it all together and share it with another. No child should go home and not have had the opportunity to tell you what they have learned.
DeleteIn my classroom, I use the whole class question-answer strategy, which I feel that I need to do less of. This strategy just lets students raise their hands if they know the answer and then the teacher calls on one of those students. I have been noticing that when I ask questions to my class, the same four students raise their hands every time. These are always the students who know the answer right away. I feel that this strategy is not too effective because not all students get to share their knowledge. The ones who don't know the answers just end up sitting in their desks bored until the end of the lesson.
ReplyDeleteTo me, active learning means that students are engaging themselves in their learning and taking part in activities that enhance learning. When students do this, they are more likely to remember what they learned. When the teacher is just lecturing, the students tend to forget what was said because they are just sitting and listening. Not all students can learn that way. Personally, I love the active learning idea because I like to see all students participating in and exploring their learning in depth.
When looking over these strategies, they seem like they are better to use in the older grades. The only ones that caught my attention were the strategies for working in pairs. In my kindergarten classroom, I find it difficult to implement specific active learning strategies just because of the maturity level of my students. For example, if I use the strategy Inside Outside Circles, I know right off the bat that my students would not be able to handle the activity. I want my students to be up and moving as they are learning, but they just aren’t able to follow directions well enough for this strategy. They would get so confused when they would have to switch partners and move around the circle to talk to different people. I could always adapt it, though, and make it appropriate for them.
Honestly, I have not seen my teacher use any of these active learning strategies in the classroom. They have such a short amount of time for math and language arts and sometimes, it seems difficult to find the time to incorporate these strategies.
In my methods block last year, my coop used anticipation reaction guides when introducing a new topic to the class. This strategy gets students interested in the topic and makes them aware of how much prior knowledge they have about a topic.
I do think about using these strategies when I’m planning my lessons. I actually do include some of these strategies into my lesson plans but I don’t always utilize them when I am teaching. This could be because I forget, or because I run out of time. In kindergarten, the students have a limited amount of time for math and language arts in general, so it is even more difficult to incorporate strategies like these. My cooperating teacher makes it sound like all you really need to do when teaching kindergarteners is to get the basics across and go from there. Although it may be difficult to teach a lesson to 5 and 6 year olds and incorporate active learning strategies, I know it can be done. In future lessons, I plan to use strategies in which the students work and discuss in pairs or small groups. I could also implement journals, but this would involve me looking over everyone’s journal afterwards and making sure they wrote what they needed to write-this would take time that I don’t have as a teacher. Another strategy that I can think about incorporating into my lessons is “I have…who has?” I would need to make sure students are all paying attention during this and I also would need to explain the rules in great detail and maybe even give a few examples of how it’s played. My kindergarteners have a very difficult time following directions, but with a lot of guidance from me, I know they can do anything.
My cooperating teacher does not use these strategies either! I have tried to incorporate as many into my teaching because I feel the students are more involved and interested in the learning. Also, I agree that teaching kindergartners with active learning strategies can be difficult. However, modifying the strategies to fit the students of the classroom is definitely possible! Maybe a four corner activity could work. I have seen it done with young children where the teacher reads a story and picks out four main events. The students then have to go to the corner that is their favorite and tell the class why they choose that corner. This gets the students thinking about the story and typically ends up with them relating it to their personal lives.
DeleteThat Four Corner activity sounds like fun!
DeleteThere are multiple active learning strategies that my cooperating teacher and I use in the classroom. My cooperating teacher and I frequently check for understanding from our students. It is important for my teacher and I that students have a strong foundation in what we are teaching them before we can move on to the next topic. The major active learning we use in our classroom is a ticket out the door or as the book refers as ticket to leave. For the majority of our lessons or every other lesson, depending on the unit, we want to check to see where we can go next with our unit. Sometimes my teacher and I will have to tweak lessons because students either pick up the material quicker than we think or students do not have the basic foundations to move on to the more complex topics. We find that starting with the foundation and building upon that is the only way to help build their prior knowledge. Another strategy we use is similar to think-pair-share, but we do this as a whole class. We call it think-hide-share. This is a quick way to check to see if students get what we are learning about in the classroom. Students seem to enjoy this method the most. They are proud when I come around and say that they solved the question or problem correctly. I am glad to see that students are proud of their answers. When they answer incorrectly, we go over with them a different way of thinking about the problem or we use manipulatives, if possible, to show them how to solve the question or problem. A final strategy we use is pre-assessment data. At the beginning of some of the units, my teacher and I use a unit-end quiz at the beginning to see how much we need to go over in a unit or how in depth we need to go throughout the unit. These are just a few of the strategies that we use in the classroom.
ReplyDeleteThe above strategies are strategies that both my teacher and I use. There are definitely variations in the way she uses these strategies and the way I use these strategies. Overall, we use these strategies to make sure that our students understand what we are teaching them. My teacher has definitely found that when students work in pairs there is more success in understanding the foundations. If students do not understand what is going on asking a peer is less intimidating than asking a teacher. Students helping one another is a great way for them to get to know each another and work together as a team. Seeing students respecting one another and being helpful to one another is a great success in any teacher’s book I think.
Active learning to me is having students be interested in what they are learning about and want to learn more. When students seem to grasp a concept quickly, I tweak my plans so that they will be interested in what I am teaching them. Students should have control of what they are learning about. It is important that students are active learners and have the opportunity to use their interests as a part of their learning experience.
I really like your views on this topic, Rebecca! I agree with you when you say that students should have control of what they are learning about. I hope that other educators will see the importance of this and implement it into their own classroom!
DeleteI agree with both of you! Students should always have the right to play a role in choosing what they would like to learn about. Obviously some things will be out of their control, but when it is an option for students to take part in their own learning, that option should always be acted upon. I love seeing this done in the classroom I am in now, and hope that it continues when I move into my special education placement.
DeleteActive learning is an essential part of the entire educational process. I think asking a group of fourth graders to listen to a lecture style lesson is an almost ridiculous request. I doubt that most of us would identify lecture style as our favorite style of learning. When there is no connection between the students, the teacher and the content, retention will be difficult.
ReplyDeleteThe first place that I focus active learning strategies on is when I am connecting to prior knowledge. In order to activate my student’s prior knowledge, I need to require my students to be active in that process! Personally, I like to use KWL charts, Think Pair Share, and Word Splash. I feel like the students need to have some ownership of their learning process. I also think it is important to validate that the students are bringing knowledge. I think too often it can appear that the teacher has all the knowledge and simply gives it to the student. I prefer to think that the students have their own knowledge and that we work together to construct new knowledge.
I also like to use active learning strategies that involve having my students work in groups. My fourth graders are very social beings. Sometimes I think it is physically painful for them to have to sit in their chairs for more than one instructional period. Depending on the activity, I let the students work in groups of their choosing. Other times, I preselect groups or I use a randomizer app to arrange my students into groups. One of my favorite active learning strategies is reciprocal teaching. I think that having to explain what you are learning is much more difficult than just demonstrating the skill. One way I plan to implement this strategy is through the use of iMovie. I have a group of students who consistently finish early during math. When they are finished their classwork, I am going to have them work in a small group to make a short iMovie teaching the skill learned that day and how to complete the homework for that night. This iMovie will be added to our class blog along with the nightly homework assignments. Strategies like these will not only keep my students engaged but will also help them to summarize their learning.
Rachel, I agree that you must begin by activating prior knowledge. Not only does this provide ownership over what is being taught, but it allows for a real world connection to be made. This creates the building block or the rest of the lesson. I also love the idea that a lesson consists of constructing knowledge together. I think the active learning strategies that you mentioned, such as KWL charts, pave the way for this to happen.
DeleteI agree with Rachel. I think that students should be very involved in their learning. They should be able to work together, teach each other things and learn from one another. I also like using Active Learning strategies for activating prior knowledge. I think that in order to get children excited to learn and interested in the topics, they need to be involved in every aspect of their learning. Using these Active Learning techniques from beginning to end can really help the students stay engaged throughout the day. They will definitely absorb more knowledge through engaging activities than through lecture.
DeleteI love the iMovie idea! That is a great strategy to use for students who are a little bit ahead of the others and need something to occupy them with instead of just giving them busy work!
DeleteIn my classroom, some active learning strategies I use are: turning and talking, journals, reciprocal teaching, and discussion partners. The one that I use most consistently is turning and talking. Throughout every lesson, I have students turning and talking to their neighbor to discuss an answer or to think about an idea or question. My school is a Learning Focus school, and active learning is a big part of that. My co-op has expressed the importance of having students be active participants in their learning, so I have tried to incorporate active learning strategies in everything I teach. The strategies I use, I have observed my co-op using and I have tried to do what she does. The students seem to really engage in their learning and benefit from discussing their answers and learning from their classmates. I feel that because my class contains students at a higher level, they can all challenge one another and that makes for great discussion as well as helping each other come up with a great response. I also feel that turning and talking is extremely effective, because it allows the students to talk. This group is pretty chatty and need that break to talk. Sometimes it is hard to keep them on task, but if they had to just sit and listen, I feel that they would lose focus more often.
ReplyDeleteTo me, active learning means that the students are consistently engaged. They need to be shaping the lesson, as well as being a participant in the activity. Constant student involvement, activation of knowledge, checking for understanding and summarizing are all essential parts of a lesson and help students get the best education that they can. Without these things, students will just be going through the motions. I feel that active learning is extremely beneficial and should be a part of every lesson and activity. Instead of giving the students and answer, having them discuss and share allows them to help one another, and maybe rephrase what you said into more understandable terms.
When planning my lessons, I always think to myself, “how can I get the students more involved?” I always keep in mind that I have already learned all of this and it is my job to teach it to them and make sure that they learn it. Since the students need to learn it, they must be an integral part of the lesson. I feel for the most part that I utilize these best practice strategies, but I could definitely use a wider variety of them.
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DeleteAly, we use the turn and tell your neighbor strategy too! I really like it because it gives the students the chance to either brainstorm or explain in their own words what we just talked about or are going to talk about. Though, sometimes I find that the same students will just be chit chatting instead of discussing the prompt. I try to walk around the room and check in with different table groups to eliminate this.
DeleteAly, my school is also learning focused and I have found that they are huge with active learning. They want the students engaged in the lesson and doing whatever they can to be a part of it, rather than just sitting and listening to the teacher lecture to them. I also use the turning and talking technique and found that I really like it, as do my students. It not only allows them to speak their thoughts to a friend before sharing aloud, but it also allows the students who may be quieter or shy to voice their opinion in a way that they feel more comfortable.
DeleteI try to incorporate a variety of active learning strategies into the classroom. I do not think there is anything wrong with whole class question-answer, as long as it is not the only strategy being used. In addition to whole class question-answer, so far I have had students work individually, in pairs, and in small groups, used journals for written response, had students become experts, planned science lessons where students get to use materials, and incorporated movement and hand motions to support difficult concepts. I try to mix it up so that the students do not get tired of doing the same thing every day. I have also found that this is a great way to ensure that a lesson meets the needs of different learning styles.
ReplyDeleteMy co-op likes to use stations for Language Arts instruction. This seems to be extremely effective for my class. During this time, the students work with their classmates in small groups. Each station has a focus a different focus and may require a different active learning strategy. Recently, when my co-op was introducing stations for the week she reminded students that they are allowed to talk about their thinking with their classmates in their group. She felt the students needed this reminder since talking is so often discouraged during whole class instruction. However, for stations to be worthwhile it is essential that the students communicate and work with one another.
I think it is important for a strategy to be continuously used once it is found to be effective. I have seen first hand that students respond well to routine, and how the more a strategy is incorporated the better the response. I definitely plan to continue using active learning strategies in the classroom and will continue to consider them when planning lessons in the future. For my action research I am focusing on strategies for cognitive engagement, so I will soon be implementing something similar to the ticket to leave concept. By asking higher order thinking questions at the end of lessons, the students will have a chance to make connections. This strategy is also beneficial to check for understanding and provides the teacher with formative assessment data.
What kind of Active Learning strategies do you use in the classroom? What have you observed your teacher use? What seems to be effective? How do you use active learning strategies? What does it mean to you?
ReplyDeleteIn my classroom, we use a bunch of different active learning strategies. I really like "turn and tell your neighbor" in any context. Sometimes I'll have them tell their neighbor a direction that was given, a page number that we are on, or even a prediction about a science experiment. The only problem with this strategy is that some students remain quiet. I try to walk around the classroom during this 30 second time period to check in with these students. This seems to help the quiet or unmotivated students. This is sort of like "Think, Pair, Share." They get the chance to think about the question independently, then they share with their neighbor, and they we share these suggestions as a large group. In Math, we are learning about ungrouping in subtraction. We use white boards to promote active learning in Math class. We also have the kids explain what they are doing as they are doing it. A lot of them understand how to do it, but they do not know why they are doing it. It helps if they explain that they are ungrouping in the tens column and adding that ten to the ones column. Active learning to me just means holding the student accountable during the lesson. They need to be focused and on task and these strategies definitely promote this.
Do you think about applying/utilizing these when you’re planning your lessons? Try to really examine how you plan your instruction. Do you utilize these best practice strategies?
I honestly do think about active learning when I'm planning my lessons. I am always sure to add classroom management and active learning strategies as bullet points into my planning. This way, right before I teach the lesson, I review my plan and these bullet points stand out to me and I am able to remember them better. Active learning can be so simply utilized, but I feel like it is such an important part of instruction.
I never thought about having the students tell their partners the directions. I have found that a few of my kids never seem to hear all of my directions. I think I might start to do that!
DeleteI do the same thing as you about including active learning strategies in my lesson plans, only I put it on a post-it note and have it near me when I am teaching. I have found that it helps to remind me that the students need to take an active part in what they are learning and to make sure that I keep my lessons interesting.
I think that one of the most important things to incorporate into my lessons is the idea of active learning. This allows the students to take an interest in their own learning and interact with their peers. I always try to include the idea of active learning into my lessons whether it is a quick “talk with your elbow partner,” or the entire lesson is my students working with their peers. Since many students in my classroom have processing issues, allowing them time to talk with a partner can give them the extra wait time they need to process. I try to incorporate short video clips in my teaching as my class responds very well to them. I require my students to become experts on a specific part of the video and that they will be required to teach the rest of the class. I have found that this makes the students participate more because they can be the teacher for a short period of time. My students are also required to complete a morning warm up and math warm up. Instead of me going over the warm ups, I have my students do it and teach the rest of the class. I have also used “I have who has” and games very similar so that the students are engaged in their learning. In the future, I plan to use tickets as a way of assessment and to include more active learning strategies.
ReplyDeleteMy cooperating teacher uses active learning strategies numerous times throughout her lessons. She will constantly have the students interact with the anchor charts she creates. We also use the SMART board because it allows the students to interact with the material more. In my own teaching, I try to create demonstrations that the students can participate in allowing them to feel the materials and interact with the content. I have found that using active learning strategies engages the students much more than a traditional ‘lecture’ and they participate more in class. In my math lessons next week, I have begun to incorporate an academic choice grid. I consider this an active learning strategy because the students are completing multiple activities and are engaged in their learning. This strategy is different than stations because the students have more freedom and responsibility. It makes the students feel as if they are in charge of their own learning.
Laura,
DeleteI think a lot of your strategies sound great! What is the academic choice grid? In one of my learning support placements, I saw a teacher use a choice board to display multiple options that were all required. the students go to choose the order they wanted to complete their activities. She said that based on her experience, incorporating choice gave students more responsibility in completing their work. Is this the type of choice grid you mean? It sounds really interesting!
My teacher works a lot with her smart board within the classroom. I feel that this is a great active learning strategy for students. The smart board activities are designed according to the lesson that the students are working on. The students have to physically come to the board and use hands-on/interactive activities to complete the planned activity. The smart board does not only keep the student using it focused but also the other students watching focused. I know this is a successful strategy because every student is eager to come up to the smart board and do the next problem. My teacher also does a lot with accessing prior knowledge. Before she begins teaching a new lesson, she usually with has her students think with their elbow partners of prior knowledge related to our lesson. This is a great way to give students opportunities to talk about what they are learning. With all the strategies my teacher uses, i feel that they not only engaged the students but also has the students excited about learning. With working with kindergarten, it is important to keep the students engaged so that they remain focused throughout the lesson. In my last lesson, I used active learning strategies by having the students complete their work with partners. These partners were pre-selected before the lesson. I had a high-level student working with a low level student and they had to work together to sort mittens. The students worked really well together in partners like this. Active learning - Having all students excited and engaged in the lesson in a way that they understand what they are learning.
ReplyDeleteWithin my lesson, I try to have my students engaged in a way that they don't lose focus. Because I'm working with 5/6 years olds, it is important to come up with numerous strategies to keep them focused on the lesson. The main way I do that is by randomly asking the class "who can raise a quiet hand and tell me....." and I come up with a random question related to my lesson. At the age, the students are eager to answer questions and it gets my students focused back in on the lesson. I also try to use brain breaks throughout my lesson. So the other day when I was teaching a count by 5 lesson, I played a youtube video that involved dance moves while counting by 5s. This gave the students a break from sitting still but also was related to the lesson I was teaching. After the dance video, students were able to sit down and focus again on the next part of their lesson.
My co-op also works a lot with her Mimio, a program that turns our white board into a smart board. The students are always excited and ready to get to use the Mimio. We use interactive aspects of it so the students are the ones actually writing or clicking on things. I agree that it keeps all the students focused because they are waiting to see what they will be able to do with the board. I really like the idea of brain breaks and movement within lessons and activities. My second graders are always chatty and full of energy, so they really benefit from activities like that.
DeleteMy cooperating teacher loves her smart board too, Shayna! I agree that the students love using it and they are much more likely to volunteer to answer questions when they know they get to write their answers on the smart board. She also loves using brain breaks, just like you had mentioned. She usually just plays zumba dance move videos and then goes back to teaching, but I really liked your suggestion about keeping it somehow related to the lesson.
DeleteI think active learning is a very important component of every single lesson taught. To me active learning involves having the students always engaged and ready to learn. It also involves the students taking some responsibility for their own learning. Active learning also involves the students interacting with different people, environments, materials, etc. Having students being in control of their own learning is something I think is very important and effective. In my classroom the students have both reading centers and math centers almost everyday where they are expected to work appropriately for each center. If students are not working we just remind them that they are in charge of their own learning and that they may be distracting other students who are trying to learn. So far all of my students who have needed that reminder have responded positively by getting back to what they should be working on in that particular center.
ReplyDeleteMy co-op and I use very similar active learning strategies in the classroom. In order to activate prior knowledge we discuss the students' schema for almost every lesson or new topic. It's important to tap into what your students already know because it will show you where they are with their knowledge on a particular topic and it will show students that everyone comes to the table with different knowledge and different experiences but that doesn't mean that their schema is automatically wrong if it is different from ours. We also use KWL charts and picture walks through stories sometimes to help activate our students prior knowledge. We also use the share with your partner strategy a lot. This allows for our more quiet students to be able to share their ideas with someone and it allows for other students to talk rather than always hearing from the same people all the time. I also have some students who take longer to process questions or directions, so sharing with a partner helps to give them more time to process. My co-op and I both use the whole class question-answer strategy, but very minimally. We try not to use it, by using some of the other strategies mentioned. We also both like to use video clips and having the students using hand motions or other movements to help get them engaged, interested, and to help get some of their energy out so they can focus on the task at hand.
I think you should always be thinking of how you can use active learning strategies in the classroom. If your students are not engaged and actively learning they will get bored and they will not learn as much. I try to base which strategies to use based on the particular activity we are doing. I also base that decision based on which students I will have in the classroom during that particular activity. I think you need to find strategies that work with your personality and goals, as well as your students' personalities, strengths, and needs. If the teacher and students are working together for success, then it is only bound to happen.
What kind of Active Learning strategies do you use in the classroom? How do you use active learning strategies? What does it mean to you?
ReplyDeleteTo me, active learning creates an opportunity for students to have a responsibility in their learning. They are no longer frogs on a log and they have guide their instructional/learning time. I believe to be an effective teacher, you must include active learning strategies, because students learn from experience. Strategies that I have used in the classroom are "Think-pair-share" "cooperative groups" "word splash" "ticket to leave" and "I have who, who has?". I have used these strategies in a bunch of different subject areas. "Think-pair-share" is used in almost every subject, every day, as well as, "ticket to leave". Cooperative groups is most often used in Science class and occasionally Social Studies. I like to use word splashes for writing class because it allows the students to choose their writing topic, but it narrows the focus. "I have, who has?" is most often used as a review for our class.
What have you observed your teacher use? What seems to be effective?
My cooperating teacher is GREAT with active learning. She uses a lot of cooperating groups, think-pair-shares, word splashes, I have, who has, and paired work. I have watched her use these strategies in multiple classroom settings and the kids really enjoy it. The second marking period recently ended, so we were able to compare the marking periods and almost every child improved. I believe this has happened because of the amount of active learning in the classroom. To me, witnessing the results was enough evidence to show that active learning does make a difference.
Do you think about applying/utilizing these when you’re planning your lessons? Do you utilize these best practice strategies? I really do try to incorporate as many active learning strategies as possible. However, I do find it difficult at times to find the most effective strategy to use. At this point in time, it takes me a little longer to write a lesson plan because I am trying to think of the best active learning strategy. I do believe that once we get into the swing of using a bunch of different strategies it will become easier to incorporate them. I would really like to use strategies that I have not observed my co-op use. The strategies that I would like to use are: Inside-Outside circles, graffiti, walking tours, sort cards, stir the class and journals. The combination of multiple strategies will keep the students on their toes and hopefully they won't get bored with one strategy. I think any strategy that involves active learning will be helpful because it allows the students to take part in their learning.
Kimmy, I really love your active strategy ideas. They sound like great ways to include students in their learning. Using strategies that can be used in multiple subject areas is also a great idea. I agree, I feel that incorporating active learning strategies is important to our students learning process. With that being said, it can be hard to include them within our lesson. We have so many other things to include in lesson plans. Even though it can be changeling for us to come up with active strategy activities it is important to have them. Students should always be active participants in their learning.
DeleteWhat kind of Active Learning strategies do you use in the classroom? What have you observed your teacher use? What seems to be effective? How do you use active learning strategies? What does it mean to you?
ReplyDeleteActive Learning strategies can make a world of difference in children learning by sustaining student attention and engaging students in the learning process. To me active learning allows the child to become a true part of the learning process through active participation. My cooperating teacher uses her smart board for each lesson, and the students always jump at the opportunity to use it. They love volunteering to answer questions, circle answers, demonstrate how they found an answer, or even just sign in in the morning on it. In addition, I noticed that my cooperating teacher loves to keep the students active. She constantly has them go back to their seats or come to the carpet as a way to break up instruction and prevent them from becoming bored. She also has them use white boards and gives the students brain breaks as a way to blow off some steam and keep them energized for lessons. Something that I have learned from my cooperating teacher is that you need to put yourself in the students’ shoes and imagine how you would be feeling. I have found it really helpful to imagine being a second grader and imagine something I would enjoy doing to keep myself engaged, such as singing songs about vocabulary words and pantomiming actions when writing about a main event.
Do you think about applying/utilizing these when you’re planning your lessons? Try to really examine how you plan your instruction. Do you utilize these best practice strategies?
I think about these when planning my lessons because I am trying to keep lessons in a similar manner to how my cooperating teacher implements her lessons. She does such a great job of keeping students engaged, that I have found it easy to stick to her example. Also, the curriculum is scripted and many of the strategies mentioned in the guide are active learning strategies, such as Sing along videos and a basketball math addition game.
I think it is important to utilize active learning strategies in order to engage the material, participate in the learning process, and to move the material from short term to long term retention. Active learning requires students to take responsibility for their own learning. It also gives students the opportunity to work together and learn from and with their classmates.
ReplyDeleteIn my kindergarten classroom both my co-op. and me implement many active learning strategies through each and every day. At this age the students are so young and are just learning how to interact appropriately with their peers, as well as what is expected of them as they are growing as learners. In order to instill these concepts into our students and into their learning my co-op. and me use active learning strategies such as having students turn to a partner and share what the teacher has just taught and making predictions and connections before reading a story in order to activate prior knowledge and relate the content to real life experiences.
My co-op. also uses centers for students to practice working independently, as well as becoming responsible for their own learning. The expectations for these centers have been established since the beginning of the school year and students know what is expected of them in terms of both work ethic and behavior.
There are many other strategies that are also used in my classroom and that I have picked up over time from various field placements. I believe that active learning strategies are important to incorporate into every aspect of teaching as a way to assess students learning and to make students aware of the role they play in their own learning.
What kind of Active Learning strategies do you use in the classroom? What have you observed your teacher use? What seems to be effective? How do you use active learning strategies? What does it mean to you?
ReplyDeleteIn the classroom, I use several active learning strategies, most of which I have picked up from my cooperating teacher. We use think, pair, share; text talks, and several other similar approaches. All of the strategies that have all students actively involved in their learning seem to be effective. (If they aren't nearly as involved the test scores are HORRIBLE). To me, active learning is having the students taking part in the process of learning and constructing their own meaning and understanding of the activities/instruction. Often times this is a lot of fun for the students, but seems very informal.
Do you think about applying/utilizing these when you’re planning your lessons? Try to really examine how you plan your instruction. Do you utilize these best practice strategies?
Every time I plan a lesson I always stop to think about how I am going to get my students engaged and taking part in the construction in their own learning. I think about the standard or objective that I have to accomplish and think about how I can get them there and make it meaningful for the students. I have never found a standard where it makes sense to lecture fourth grade students.
I recently taught a lesson on using adjectives. The students were engaged when I showed them a mystery bag with an item on it. They were actively listening to what I had to say. I gave students adjectives that described the item and after each adjective they would guess what the item. The students learned exactly what I expected out of them and the most effective way to use adjectives. I have seen my teacher make the students be in charge of their own learning. She designs a lot of lessons that have students activate their prior knowledge and uses questions to make them think critically. I think that it is important for students to take charge of the learning. Teachers should design lessons that include not only hands-on activities, but activities that benefit all learners, whether visual or auditory learning.
ReplyDeleteAfter re-reading this section and looking at all of the different strategies, I realized that I could include more. There is always more room to improve no matter how experienced a teacher may be. I am teaching a nutrition unit starting on Monday, and a lot of this unit includes some of these strategies. The unit is scripted, but I am trying to include more opportunities for active learning strategies.
What kind of Active Learning strategies do you/your teacher use in the classroom? What do they mean to you?
ReplyDeleteIn my classroom, I use a lot of active learning strategies. An example of one is "turn and talk." I like this one a lot because it forces students to talk to one another in a safe and comfortable environment where they don't feel as much pressure as they might talking in front of the entire class. This strategy requires students to discuss the material, but doesn't force anyone to feel nervous or unprepared. Another example is "thumbs up/thumbs down" to check for understanding. This seems to work very well in my current classroom. I've picked up many of these strategies from my co-op who does an excellent job of using active learning strategies in the classroom. Active learning strategies are an important to me as a future educator because they are not only effective for the students, but help us as teachers to gain a better understanding of how we are doing/whether or not our students are understanding what we are teaching.
Do you think about applying/utilizing these when you’re planning your lessons?
Yes, I do. My lesson plans require for me to include these type of strategies, and I believe that they are just as important as including the PA standards. They complete the lesson, and make the entire learning process come alive. I try to utilize these best practice strategies on a daily basis whenever I teach, and love getting to see my co-op use them as well.
After reading this section of the book, I realized that there are so many active learning strategies that I haven't even heard of yet! I really enjoy this book, and plan to apply these techniques in the future.
What kind of Active Learning strategies do you use in the classroom? How do you use active learning strategies? What does it mean to you?
ReplyDeleteActive Learning strategies are incredibly important to incorporate into the early childhood classroom. I am still learning about different strategies to use, and our book is giving me some great ideas on how I am use active learning strategies with my first graders. My cooperating teacher is always using the smartboard. Their entire literacy and mathematics curriculum can be found and used on the smartboard, and the students seem more interested in the lesson when it is visible in print and on the board. There are also math and reading games that my cooperating teacher uses as a warm-up for her lessons, I have used these games as well and it really gets the kids excited to learn! I have tried using the think-pair-share model, but it does not always go according to plan. My cooperating teacher has given each student a thinking partner and we try to use them as much as possible. The students also have journals in which they write everyday. Just the other day my cooperating teacher created a new writing schedule where the students will brainstorm and draw their ideas on Monday, pre-write and edit on Tuesday to Thursday, and then write a final copy on Friday. The students love writing in their journals because they are allowed to write about anything they want. They are learning about the writing process and learning how to fix their mistakes. I want my students to take responsibility in their learning and have fun doing it, which is what active learning really means to me.
Do you think about applying/utilizing these when you’re planning your lessons? Try to really examine how you plan your instruction. Do you utilize these best practice strategies?
A lot of the lessons I teach are straight from the book, which makes it difficult in applying active learning strategies. However, I always try to tweak the lessons so that I am engaging students and making the lessons "my own" as well. I definitely want to make put more of an effort into putting several active learning strategies into my lessons and be more aware of how it can affect my students.
I use a lot of active learning strategies in my classroom, but one of my favorites is “turn and talk.” I use this one in almost every lesson I do with my students because I feel that it allows them to talk in an environment that they feel comfortable in. They are able to think about what they want to say, share it with a partner, and then share with the whole class. This way if their answer is incorrect or they need help saying it in a way that makes more sense, their peer can help them. This can also help the students who are more on the quiet side in class share their thoughts. I feel that active learning strategies really benefit the students in the class by allowing them to be a part of their learning. They aren’t just sitting there being lectured to, because we all know how boring that can be, but rather being an active participant in what they are learning about. By talking with a partner before answering a question, they are able to truly focus on what the teacher is trying to relay to them.
ReplyDeleteI also like to use a lot of group work in the classroom. This allows the students’ time to share their thoughts and opinions with their classmates as well as summarize what they had previously learned in the lesson. For example, last week my class was learning about graphs and how to create them as well as read them. For every new graph they learned about, I had them work with a partner to create their own, based off of what they learned about it that day. It seemed to work really well, and the students enjoyed the time they had to work on their own, rather than sit there and have me show them numerous examples over and over again. Active engagement in a classroom is so important and I certainly plan on taking more of those strategies that I read in the book and implementing them into the classroom.