Sunday, September 29, 2013
Blog Post #6
Questions! How do we question? Why is it important to know how to ask questions in the classroom? Asking questions encourages engagement, but do all questions engage the learner? In the following blog I will explain how to question your students, why it is important to question your students, and the different types of questions that engage your learners.
As teachers we are always striving for our students to get the most out of every lesson. In order to do that we must engage every student. How do we do that you ask? Asking questions is a great way to start. Teachers use questioning to accomplish many things such as assessing student knowledge, stimulating classroom discussion, helping students clarify their ideas and thought process or leading them to consider new ideas and make use of ideas already learned. (A question to ponder: Why do teachers ask questions?)
In my personal experience not all students want to answer questions openly in class. There are many underlying issues that cause a student to be closed off. Whether it be they were not paying attention or they are just to shy to answer. How do you get all students to be active learners in the classroom. There are different styles of getting your students involved in answering questions. To keep all students involved in the lesson, I have found it effective to ask a question then randomly call a student to answer. In previous classrooms I have used popsicle sticks with student names on them. Ask a question then pull a stick at random and that student is the student that will answer the question. If the student does not fully answer the question then ask probing question to get the full answer and get the student to access knowledge they already have. If the student is still having trouble then get help from another student by pulling another stick. When the students do not know who will get to answer the question that keeps the students more involved in their learning. Take the time to praise answers and acknowledge good points in the answer.
The following list are some questioning strategies that I find useful when preparing your questions for your lessons. Listed below is the main point of the strategies and the websites used for more in depth information.
Questioning Styles and Strategies
Asking Questions to Improve Your Learning
Questioning Strategies to Engage all Learners
Questioning strategies
-Keep your course goals in mind
-Refrain from asking questions that discourages students from thinking on their own
-Add additional questions to "yes-or-no" questions
-During class avoid multi-layered questions, save those for exams or paper assignments
-Ask one question at a time during class discussion
-Plan time in your lessons to stop and ask questions
-Use different types of questions throughout your lessons
-Call students at random
-Require all students to correctly answer posed questions
Why questioning is important
Now that you know how to question the students, why is it important to ask questions? Teachers ask hundreds of questions a day. Questions guide students' thinking and determine how students will process material presented to them. According to Why are questions important?, questions are the single, most influential teaching activity. The right questions capture students attention. Especially when you call on different students to answer. It redirects their attention to the question being asked. They also help students interact with the content being taught. Questions help teachers check for understanding and also helps evaluate the effectiveness of the lesson. The last point is that questioning increases the level of thinking. Questions are the best way to gain a deeper insight. Not all questions are insightful questions though. There are many different types of questions.
There are many different types of questions. Questions that only require a one word answer, questions that require a paragraph of general knowledge, and questions that require students to dig deep and connect prior knowledge. The main question types are open questions and closed questions. Closed questions are questions that only require a "yes-or-no" answer or a short phrase. These questions do not engage the students and do not require them to really think. Open questions are questions that require the student to explain, define, and gather a higher order of thinking. As well as open and closed question there are more types that elicit different thought processes from the students.
There are five basic types of questions such as factual, convergent, divergent, evaluative, and combinations. Factual questions are soliciting, reasonably, and simple, straight forward answers based on obvious facts or awareness. Convergent are based on personal awareness, material read, presentations, or material already known. Answers to these types of questions are usually within a very finite range of acceptable accuracy. Divergent questions allow the students to explore different avenues and create many different variations and alternative answers or scenarios. The correctness to these questions may be based on logical projections, may be contextual, intuition, or imagination. Divergent questions require students to analyze. synthesize, or evaluate a knowledge base and then project or predict different outcomes. Evaluative questions usually require sophisticated levels of cognitive and/or emotional judgment. When answering these types of questions students may be combining multiple logical and affective thinking process, or comparative frameworks. The answer is analyzed at multiple levels and from different perspectives before the answer arrives at newly synthesized information or conclusion. The last type is combinations. Combinations are questions that blend any of the previous types mentioned above.
Sunday, September 22, 2013
Sunday, September 15, 2013
C4T
C4T
Week 1
I was assigned PEPRN for my comments 4 teachers assignment. The first blog I read was "Students' rush in where teachers fear to tread: Sport Education as student-centered approach." In this blog the author blogged about to new method to teaching sport education. He purposed a more student-centered approach. How do you do this in P.E. do you ask? well easy allow the students to be more than just the student. Allow them to be the coach, the referee, or athlete. Place the students in smaller groups, depending on the activity, and allow them to create their own game/team. Give the students the choice.
In response to reading his blog I commented to him. I have found in years of being a student of P.E. that when given a choice students cooperation levels increase. When the students have a say in their learning the learning process goes over a lot more smoothly. I am a strong believer in the methods Ash was purposing. The students are more in control of their learning and this gives them a sense of ownership in the skills they are learning.
Week 2
The second blog I was assigned was PEPRN "What did you learn in PE today? How to stand in queue?" In this blog the author blogs about the types of experiences we present to children in our choices of activity and the pedagogical approaches that we use. The blog expresses the concerns of the methods of teaching PE these days. Do we really want to teach our students how to stand in queues? This gives the readers ideas of how to change the ways of teaching from standing in lines to giving the students life skills of lifelong participation.
In my response I made a connection to standing in queues throughout my high school physical education classes. I expressed my love for this method and concept of teaching lifelong participation skills. Along with my acceptance to the method I also expressed my concerns. Will these methods work in any environment or school system? The facilities that are given to PE teachers in our area is nothing to brag about. In my future career I would love to implement a teaching method like this.
Week 1
I was assigned PEPRN for my comments 4 teachers assignment. The first blog I read was "Students' rush in where teachers fear to tread: Sport Education as student-centered approach." In this blog the author blogged about to new method to teaching sport education. He purposed a more student-centered approach. How do you do this in P.E. do you ask? well easy allow the students to be more than just the student. Allow them to be the coach, the referee, or athlete. Place the students in smaller groups, depending on the activity, and allow them to create their own game/team. Give the students the choice.
In response to reading his blog I commented to him. I have found in years of being a student of P.E. that when given a choice students cooperation levels increase. When the students have a say in their learning the learning process goes over a lot more smoothly. I am a strong believer in the methods Ash was purposing. The students are more in control of their learning and this gives them a sense of ownership in the skills they are learning.
Week 2
The second blog I was assigned was PEPRN "What did you learn in PE today? How to stand in queue?" In this blog the author blogs about the types of experiences we present to children in our choices of activity and the pedagogical approaches that we use. The blog expresses the concerns of the methods of teaching PE these days. Do we really want to teach our students how to stand in queues? This gives the readers ideas of how to change the ways of teaching from standing in lines to giving the students life skills of lifelong participation.
In my response I made a connection to standing in queues throughout my high school physical education classes. I expressed my love for this method and concept of teaching lifelong participation skills. Along with my acceptance to the method I also expressed my concerns. Will these methods work in any environment or school system? The facilities that are given to PE teachers in our area is nothing to brag about. In my future career I would love to implement a teaching method like this.
Blog Post #4
In this assignment we were assigned to research podcasts. I was given numerous sites that helped in the discovery of what, how, when, and topics for podcasts. After watching and reading these sites about podcasting I have learned many new things.
The first podcasting site I explored was Langwitches Blog. I have learned that podcasting takes learning to a whole new level. Podcasting made the students excited about learning. It took the lessons they were learning to a new place and allowed the students to be excited and share it with the world. On one of the sites I explored there was a podcast of students reading. You could tell that all the students involved were genuinely excited about the project at hand. I found this to be a very good method in teaching reading and fluency. The method used would have to be altered depending on teacher aides but it was a good way of utilizing the aides and teachers in this class.
On a different site, Curriki - Podcast collection, there were many different resources to use to learn how to podcast, topics for podcasting, and podcasting lessons. I will definitely use this site in my future career to allow the students to use to learn on their own.
The last website that I explored was Integrating ICT into the MFL classroom. On this site it gives you the benefits of podcasting. Podcasting allows students to gain a higher level of thinking because students are teaching others how to do something. It also gives teachers the chance to record their lessons and allow those students that miss class to watch the podcast they misses. It also allows parents to be involved in their childs' learning. Along with giving numerous reasons of why podcasting is great in the classroom this site gives instruction or links to other sites to learn to do your own podcast.
Why Podcast?
Podcasting brings students to a new century of learning. Today's students are technological natives. These days kids are navigating through iPhones, iPads, laptops, and iPods before they are speaking full sentences. This is what excites students. So why not teach in a method that the students enjoy and get excited about. Podcasting not only excites the student but it brings learning to a whole new level. It allows the students to gain a higher level of thinking because it allows students to teach other learners how to do something. I was once told that a student will remember 10% of what they read, 20% of what they hear, 30% of what they see, 50% of what they see and hear, 70% of what they say and write, and 90% of what they teach to others. With that being said podcasting will allow the students to teach concepts to others. Which in turn the students will learn more of the material being studied.
How do we podcast?
How to podcast? I asked myself that as well when I was assigned this project. I am extremely camera shy so I have never thought about making a podcast to post to the world but even though I had no clue on how to create one after all the sites I have explored in this assignment I have definitely been converted to a podcast fan. I am going to list a few sites for you to explore that will teach you how to podcast. These sites are not difficult to follow and are for beginners in the podcasting world. How to podcast
Using Garageband
How to Podcast
Sunday, September 8, 2013
Blog Post #3
PEER EDITING
This week we learned how to complete quality peer reviews. I watched two videos and a power point on these topics; What is Peer Editing?, Peer Editing with Perfection Tutorial, and Writing Peer Review Top 10 Mistakes The message in the videos and power point were the same but they were presented in different ways. I found these to be helpful tips on how to approach a peer with comments, concerns, and questions about their blog posts.
The first and only rule to peer editing is to always stay positive. Try not to be a Mean Margaret. Lead the comment/email with something they did well or that you liked. Which is the first to three steps in peer editing, compliment. Step two in peer editing is make suggestions. Make suggestions on their word choices, organization of sentences, or topic and main idea. The last step, making corrections. Check their punctuation, grammar, spelling, and sentences. When making corrections try to be as specific as possible. If you follow these simple steps in peer editing then you should be a professional in no time.
This week we learned how to complete quality peer reviews. I watched two videos and a power point on these topics; What is Peer Editing?, Peer Editing with Perfection Tutorial, and Writing Peer Review Top 10 Mistakes The message in the videos and power point were the same but they were presented in different ways. I found these to be helpful tips on how to approach a peer with comments, concerns, and questions about their blog posts.
The first and only rule to peer editing is to always stay positive. Try not to be a Mean Margaret. Lead the comment/email with something they did well or that you liked. Which is the first to three steps in peer editing, compliment. Step two in peer editing is make suggestions. Make suggestions on their word choices, organization of sentences, or topic and main idea. The last step, making corrections. Check their punctuation, grammar, spelling, and sentences. When making corrections try to be as specific as possible. If you follow these simple steps in peer editing then you should be a professional in no time.
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