Deeper thinking for a successful future Module # 4

Module # 4 Blog

Chapter 9

When I started reading chapter nine about metacognition I chuckled to myself because it means that you are thinking about your own thinking. I happen to overthink my thoughts all the time so I can relate to this. Of course, this is not the only thing metacognition means because it includes three kinds of knowledge. 1. declarative knowledge-what influences your learning and memory. 2. Procedural knowledge-knowing how to use knowledge. 3. Self-regulatory knowledge-to ensure competition of the task (Woolfolk p. 329). Thought this section was very enlightening. Learning strategies were talked about and how some teachers think that it is ok to have the students just memorize and use flashcards. That is how I was taught and going back to school is harder because teaching is so much different than when I was in school. In my first class when answering questions, I kept looking for the direct answers ion the book just like I was taught to do when I was in school. I realized the direct answers were not there you had to read and cognitively think. I was used to one way of learning so I found it challenging. When (Woolfolk p.333) talked about note taking and highlighting too much does not help I was surprised by this. I agree that you must be organized with note taking with lectures and be well organized. When I was in school you wrote out an outline now they have concept maps which I so far have only used once but found it helpful especially because you can use certain colors to help keep you better organized. The table on p. 339 about teaching strategies for improving students was informative. 

Chapter 10  

I found interesting about reciprocal teaching because I never heard of this. Just basically helping students think more deeply about what they are reading. Reciprocal works with any age in school. This chapter also discussed about group work and how each student can cooperate with one another and they can learn better from doing so. To prepare students for cooperative learning you need to have the five elements. Positive independence, pro-motive interaction, individual accountability, collaborative and social skills, group processing (Woolfolk p. 388). I think group work is very important because student learn from each other. It might help the shy people become more social. I remember group work helping me and somehow even though the teacher explains it sometimes when you have you classmate explain it clicks better.

Chapter 11

This chapter was touching on observational learning. How we can learn a lot from observing each other. Observations can be very effective with learning. As teachers, we need to teach towards self-efficiency and self- regulated learning. Thought it was interesting on how Woolfolk p.433 talked about teachers burning out the first couple of years because they have not developed coping strategies to handle the pressures that face them. So pretty much I know it is going to be stressful and I must remind myself to stay grounded and learn how to handle whatever comes up and not let it stress me out too much. So basically, there will be a lot of self-talk going on.

Looking at our resources for this week I did take the plagiarism quiz a couple of times like it suggested we do. I watched the video on the Scaffolding approach and how it helps students become better readers and writers. The teacher used a spoke diagram to help students get organized with what was being taught in their text books.

The second video I watched was on Constructivist social studies lesson. The class got into groups and collaboratively had board where they made they colorful with information from what they were learning that day. The use of these boards created an interactive working environment so they can bounce ideas off each other and work with each other. Some of the students commented and said they found this type of group work to be more comfortable and useful because they understood more working on boards together rather than just reading from a book.

The third resource an article on Deep understanding was about teaching students how to learn.  “A growing body of research demonstrates that students learn more deeply if they have engaged in activities that require applying classroom-gathered knowledge to real-world problems.” Brigid Barron, Linda Darling-Hammond, October 8, 2008. This is so true.

I am going to do my best to teach my students how to learn. It’s not about memorizing it’s about bringing it to deeper level of understanding so they can retain information and have a successful future.