Imagine as a first year teacher that you spent your entire summer going over the curriculum and creating your lesson plans based on what you wanted your students to know, do, and be. You walk into your classroom and you notice in the first 5-10 minutes that your students are not what you expected. You spent your whole summer memorizing every final detail of the curriculum, but never took any consideration of what your students would be like. How are you going to manage your classroom if you don’t know your students?
Getting to know your students and having a background on their previous knowledge and skills can make a world’s difference in the outcome you and your students want accomplished by the end of the year. Not all students are the same and as stressed in Interweaving Curriculum and Classroom Assessment: Engaging the 21st Century Learner, “The curriculum can be relevant only when it connects to student’s interests and experiences” (Drake, 2014, p.52).
When determining students pre-knowledge and skills, it is important to keep two factors in mind:
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Learning Preferences:
Different students have different learning preferences in any classroom a teacher enters. One of the approaches I was evaluated by in primary and secondary school was VAK. I was evaluated through a multiple choice test to see if I was a visual learner, an auditory learner, or a kinetic learner. Visual learners (as the picture to the right suggests) learn through visually seeing the information in front of them. Teachers need to reinforce visual learning by: using graphics, colour organizing notes, give written directions, and using charts to explain theories. Teachers should note that auditory learners learn best when hearing, and teachers should reinforce this method of learning through reading out loud, or using storytelling/analogies to get a point across. Lastly, kinesthetic learners learn through hands on work, so teachers should reinforce this method of learning through role play, translating information into models, recite a list by counting fingers,and memorization through movement.
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Another way to track own a students learning preference is through Howard Gardner's multiple intelligences as depicted in the diagram to the left. This diagram challenges the previous set of learning styles by stating there are different, more unique sets of learning styles than just visual, auditory, and kinesthetic. Teachers in the 21st century apply this model in different methods of assessment for project based learning. How do I know this? Back when I was in grade 12, my English teacher gave my class a project that analyzed William Shakespeare's Othello and through our own interpretation we had to come up with one major theme that was emphasized in the text. I was paired up with a student who was musically inclined and our project was a song recording we made that related to the themes we had chosen from the text. The notes, tempo, and lyrics all related to the theme of betrayal, and we got an A+ on the project. My point is that students are able to shine based on the multiple intelligence column they fall under, and if a teacher gives them room to grow in that intelligence, they will excel in the tasks they are given.
Environmental Preferences:
As a teacher it is also important to analyse how each student interacts and adapts to their surroundings. In what type of environment does a student work best it? How can I as a teacher set up my classroom to appease most or all of my students?
As a high school teacher the task is more tricky, some teachers might have one room dedicated to their classes, while some move from room to room each class making it harder to create a concrete environment model.
The picture above was taken from a classroom management model, and emphasizes that different environments are suitable for different situations based on the lesson plan of the day. These various models of classroom arrangement account for the multiple needs of the students, the u-shaped model takes the art of discussion into account, and those who excel in class discussions and collaboration succeed based on this model. Kinetic learners and those who learn best in groups will benefit in a cluster formation model as students have easy accessibility to other students around them. The teacher centered instruction model is great for visual learners as all students have great visuals to the board and to the teacher. This model is also a great way to alternate the classroom if students are easily distracted in group formations. These models can be used in different types of classes that emphasize on group work, debates or discussions, or lectures and tests. Therefore, as a teacher is is important to look at the environment needed for the lesson plan of the day, and it is important to change the environment every once in a while to suit the needs of all students. Depending on the students profile, and their learning and environment preferences, a teacher should model their instruction of the curriculum based on the students needs.
Determining each of the students needs is up to the teacher and how they would like to approach their students. Interweaving Curriculum and Classroom Assessment: Engaging the 21st Century Learner takes a great approach at answering this question: “Teachers can record the information they learn about their students on a student profile” (Drake, 2014, p.55). Usually during the first two weeks of school most students fill out this type of a profile. The profile is created to analyze various points that make each student unique and emphasize the strengths each students have. Making a profile is beneficial to students as well as it allows themselves to critically think about who they are as an individual and as a learner- it's a fun activity that allows wiggle room for creativity. How do I assess which each of my students' need?
I stumbled upon this activity for a student profile and I absolutely loved it. As a 21st century "teacher in training" I found the Facebook profile was ingenious when it comes to getting to know your students in a high school setting. Here students fill out information that makes each students unique, and at the bottom it asks questions such as, "I learn best from teachers that...", and "I struggle to learn from teachers that...", and this assists in a profile development that teachers can work from. I also allows for goal setting as it asks for what type of goals they would like to achieve in that particular class for the end of the term. A more up-to-date version of this activity can be found here.
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- What type of lessons could you construct as a teacher to engage all three types of learning styles?
- What is your favourite Student profile activity and why? Share below!
- How would you construct your learning environment to fit the needs of all your students?
Sabrina Bieber
Educational concepts referenced from Chapter 2:
Drake, S.M. & Reid, J.L. & Kolohon, W. (2014). Interweaving curriculum and
classroom assessment: Engaging the 21 Century Learner. Toronto, ON: Oxford
University Press.
Drake, S.M. & Reid, J.L. & Kolohon, W. (2014). Interweaving curriculum and
classroom assessment: Engaging the 21 Century Learner. Toronto, ON: Oxford
University Press.
Hello Miss Bieber,
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed reading you blog about getting to know your students in order to have a successful relevant curriculum and ultimately a successful classroom. Overall I believe that your photos were very well located amongst the blog as the separation between paragraphs were well spaced making the blog an easy read. I found your introduction to be very captivating and inviting making me want to continue reading through your entire post. I thought the layout of information was organized well as you started off discussing the learning preferences and styles then how to asses each students needs. I agree that a major step is to determine the learning styles of each student first in order to make sure you can meet each and every students ability. I really enjoyed reading your questions that you left me with at the end of the blog as it really made me think into a deep level of learning on this topic. It made me think of things that I would not have thought about until being asked here at the end of the blog but the ideas behind each question specifically relate to the topic of you post and ultimately made me think of things that will be helpful for me as I enter the teaching profession. Getting to know the students and meeting each students learning style is something that I do believe I need to work on as I know I am not perfect at completing this task and therefore the more I read up on this topic I feel like I keep learning new ideas that might help me tackle this task in teaching. One criticism I would have is to maybe use multiple references rather than only one as it might give more ideas and information that you might find useful for this post. Overall I thought your blog was very well written and I look forward to reading your next one!
Cheers,
Mr. Bracco
Hi Miss Bieber,
ReplyDeleteI think you’ve written a fantastic blog post that speaks to your personal experiences while providing information to connect students’ interests and experiences with the curriculum. One suggestion I have is to make your title more specific and relevant to the topic at hand. Although it is enticing to read more about what you have to say, I think it would be much more effective if you provided the reader with more insight into exactly what you discuss throughout the post. You use this technique at the end of your blog post as well, which is a useful strategy to keep your readers thinking about the topic even after they’ve read the post. On a different note, I really liked that you included the question at the beginning of your post. It serves to engage your readers with the topic being discussed and reflect on how their classroom management strategies will be affected if they do not know their students.
I would also like to commend you on the use of images throughout this week’s blog post. All of the images were both interesting and relevant to your topic. I would recommend that you make the images a bit larger, specifically the environmental preferences and Facebook student profile, as these are resources that your readers would benefit from.
All in all, you’ve written an interesting blog post! I’m looking forward to reading more of your work.
Miss Berardocco
Hi Miss Bieber,
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed reading your blog, due to the way in which you went about connecting course concepts to your own personal experience. I really loved your introduction, it invited me to imagine what my first day on the job would be like, and although we can do everything in our power to memorize our lesson plans, we cannot prepare ourselves for what our student will be like. You answer the question of how to get to know your students through a variety of strategies such as student profiles, surveys, and environmental preferences. You clearly show a solid understanding of what it takes to get to know your students, and back these claims up with key quotations from the textbook. Compared to your last blog you do an excellent job in breaking up the text with a number of visuals, that connect to the new ideas presented in your blog. For example, I really liked your example of having student create a Facebook profile, in order to understand their learning styles and interests, and how to apply such information to you lesson plans. Overall great work, and I look forward to reading your next blog in the near future!