Teachers, It is Time to Stop Babbling to a Brick Wall! Kids Should be Teaching Themselves!

 Generating and testing a hypothesis is one of Robert Marzano’s ten teaching strategies. For those of you non-teachers out there, these are strategies that a teacher should be using in order to differentiate instruction. Oh wait, that’s another teaching buzzword many do not know. Let me try again…

Teachers in the 21^st century face a problem every single day. It is extremely difficult to meet the needs of every student in the classroom. It is no longer possible to have every student read the exact same book, or for the teacher to stand up in front of a class and lecture while the students take notes on their own. Every child learns differently and as a teacher, we need to utilize a variety of strategies for our students to achieve.

Currently, I have 21 students in my homeroom for math and language arts, and two classes of 22 or so for social studies. For the last five years, I had only ever taught language arts and social studies. These subjects are two of the most difficult content areas to teach. #1, Kids in sixth grade are often at the point in their education where reading and writing are not cool. #2, they constantly ask why they need to learn about the past and that it should not matter to them if they know about it because it does not relate to them. Now I have to teach math, a subject that most children loathe because it has always been to hard for them? How on earth am I supposed to reach these kids?

I have to admit; I am guilty of direct instruction, probably more than I should be using it. However, as I teach, I look out at my students and see some with their heads on desks, some whispering, or drawing pictures in their notebooks, and realize I am talking to a brick wall. These kids are bored out of their minds. These kids are so used to having technology in their faces, but in school they are expected to focus and listen to a teacher babble about a place called Mesopotamia. BORING! Honestly, I would probably have fallen asleep too. I really need to start thinking about different teaching strategies and learning theories.

Problem, project, or inquiry based learning are three exceptional examples of constructivism or constuctionism. With these theories, students can develop a project based on their curriculum or participate in some sort of experiment. While students are actively involved in their learning, they tend to have more fun, and will learn more in the end (Pitler, Hubbell, Kuhn, & Malenoski, 2007). A wonderful example of this is Robert Marzano’s teaching strategy, generating and testing a hypothesis.

Until this week, I had never really thought about generating and testing a hypothesis as more than a science experiment for a science class. In reality, we can hypothesize in any subject and work towards figuring it out. Yes, it is much more simple to use this strategy in math or science, but what about language arts or social studies? With technology, anything can be possible. If a student starts out with a question about a topic, instead of giving them the answer, have them research it on their own through a web quest, or create a project on power point, or a movie on primaryaccess.org. As long as our students are questioning, there can be active learning.

One goal I would like to set for myself this year is for each ancient civilization we learn, have my students develop one to three questions they would like answered about a certain topic, have them figure out the answers on their own, and develop a project to share their knowledge with everyone else. A webquest would be a great way to begin. By supplying this to my students in the beginning, I can offer them some background knowledge on the topic and from there, they can create their questions about what they would like to learn more about (Glazer, 2001). One site that I found that offered many wonderful webquests for numerous content areas is http://bestwebquests.com/default.asp. This site actually rates the quests with stars. Another possibility is to have my students develop their own web quest for future students based on questions they come up with. In the end, I hope that they will take more out of what they wanted to learn and did learn, than what I would have them read, take notes, and a test on. 

References: 

Glazer, E. (2001). Problem Based Instruction. In M. Orey (Ed.), Emerging perspectives on learning, teaching, and technology. Retrieved from http://projects.coe.uga.edu/epltt/

Pitler, H., Hubbell, E., Kuhn, M., & Malenoski, K. (2007). Using technology with classroom instruction that works. Alexandria, VA: ASCD.

Students Should Never Dislike Social Studies Again!

Confucius once said, “Tell me, and I will forget. Show me, and I may remember. Involve me, and I will understand” (Oxensine, Robinson, & Willson, p 1, 2004). I wholeheartedly agree with this statement. As a child growing up, I had some teachers who used direct instruction, had us read and take notes from a book, study and take a test. Once the test was over and I had gotten a C, everything I had learned was gone because we were on to something new. For this very reason, I absolutely abhorred social studies.

Once I went to high school, that same process was true, memorize for a test and then it was gone. Except they added midterms and finals forcing us to remember all of the information we had already forgotten. I struggled so much with this, and when the time came for me to get a job teaching, what class I was offered a job to teach? Yes, social studies. Feeling incredibly apprehensive, I started my year doing exactly how my teachers taught. I was realizing that I was losing my students interest and their grades were suffering. I saw, in these students, the horrible experiences I had and vowed to change my teaching style and make social studies fun and memorable. To this day, I still have students coming to me saying how much they love the subject and I owe this all to “Learning by doing.”

Cognitive learning theory is basically how information is processed (Laureate Education, 2011). Many students struggle with processing knowledge when it is spoken to them or if they only read it, just as it was my own struggle as well. In order to transfer information to long-term memory, Dr. Orey (2011) states that we should be using images as well as create connections. Concept mapping and virtual field trips are extremely wonderful examples of this.

Concept mapping is a tool that allows information to be organized in a visual way. This is extremely new for me, as I have never actually used one before. However, after reading about them, I am seeing an advantage for my own classroom. By starting out with a focus or essential question, the students will be guided through the process of creating the concept map (Novak & Cañas, 2008). From here, students find concepts or terms that connect with their original question. This visually shows the students how the concept works. As an example, I created a basic concept map for my social studies class. We have been working on geography. 

Concept Map for Geography

I would love for my students to create a concept map to show the learning that they have accomplished thus far. In the process of the creation, they should be able to visually see the connection between the themes and all of their characteristics, as well as possibly even including examples for themselves.

Virtual Field trips are also an incredibly new experience for me. Up until last year, I did not have access to a SMART board, so this would have been extremely difficult. Viewing this allows students to really experience the trip, without actually having to be there. As I teach about Ancient Civilizations, it may be interesting for my students to take a “trip” to Pompeii, Greece, or even through the Renaissance. Just a basic search from google, one could find numerous exciting trips that would correspond to curriculum. With my subject area, being able to see images and experience what it was actually like over 2000 years ago, would be incredibly beneficial.

Effective teaching strategies are also geared towards Cognitive Learning Theory. To be perfectly honest, I really did not understand the strategy of cues, questions, and advance organizers until reading the chapter. However, summarizing and note taking have become a real strength for me. Cues are hints to the student, questions bring back background knowledge, and advance organizers are basically an activity to organize the information they are about to learn (Pitler, Hubbell, Kuhn, & Malenoski, 2007). By incorporating technology into unit, students are able to create organizers, see rubrics, design graphs and charts, or create a multimedia presentation. Summarizing and note taking can be done the same way. Instead of paper and pencil, using technology adds something for the students. Although paper and pencil can still be used, note taking and summarizing are nowhere near what they used to be. Outlining does not really work for children. Using 2-column notes, concept maps, or pictographs allows the students to work within their strengths. With this, they should achieve at a higher rate than being forced to use a strategy that they do not understand.

I am hoping to include or of these strategies into my every day teaching. As a matter of fact, I would really like to include concept mapping. What I find unfortunate is that I only have two computers in my room and a lack of availability in the computer labs. Any suggestions on how to make this a successful task?

References:

Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2010). [Webcast]. Cognitive Learning Theory. Baltimore: Author.

Novak, J. D., & Cañas, A. J. (2008). The theory underlying concept maps and how to construct and use them, Technical Report IHMC CmapTools 2006-01 Rev 01 2008. Retrieved from the Institute for Human and Machine Cognition Web site. http://cmap.ihmc.us/Publications/ResearchPapers/TheoryUnderlyingConceptMaps.pdf

Oxendine, C., Robinson, J., & Willson, G. (2004). Experiential learning. In M. Orey (Ed.), Emerging perspectives on learning, teaching, and technology. Retrieved from http://projects.coe.uga.edu/epltt/

Pitler, H., Hubbell, E., Kuhn, M., & Malenoski, K. (2007). Using technology with classroom instruction that works. Alexandria, VA: ASCD.

Should We "Train" People The Same Way We Train Animals?

A few years ago, a friend of mine got a new puppy. In order to train said puppy, my friend bought a training book called “Don’t Shoot the Dog!” I thought to myself that it was such a strange name. For the next few weeks, he was absolutely raving about how wonderful the book was and I became very curious about it. He took out the book and showed me a review on the front cover by Carol Tarvis, Ph.D., author of the book “Anger”, “This delightful, clear, and utterly helpful book is for anyone who wants to understand or change the behavior of an animal – whether the animal in question is a barking dog, a nosy neighbor, a hostile cat, or you and your own bad habits” (Pryor, 1999). What hit me was that this book was not necessarily about how to train a dog, but how to use positive reinforcement for teaching new behaviors. It was at this point, as a teacher, I knew I had to read it. I am always looking for new ways to improve my classroom management and this was perfect! After reading it, I had learned so much! If you are a teacher, own a pet, or have a habit you want to break, you should definitely check it out. "Don't Shoot the Dog"

So, now you are probably asking yourself, why is this girl telling me all about a book on training dogs? An assignment for class this week required us to think about behaviorist learning theory. Over the course of many years, there have been many different learning theories that are related to education. Behaviorism basically began with Ivan Pavlov and his study with dogs and salivation. Pavlov was able to train a dog to salivate once a bell was rung (Standridge, 2002). It was after this research was completed that John B. Watson and B.F. Skinner developed their theory of operant conditioning.

The operant conditioning model describes that a person will respond positively if there was some sort of reward in the end (Standridge, 2002). In this case, a person will most likely be willing to repeat the task or behavior, in order to receive the reward. The positive reinforcement is what Karen Pryor (1999) was talking about in her book. On the other hand, if a person receives a consequence or punishment, the targeted behavior may decrease over time (Standridge, 2002). This would also be considered negative reinforcement (Pryor, 1999). It may not be something a person wants, but the behavior may cease.

There are two instructional strategies that I was asked to read about that actually correlate well with the behaviorist theory, reinforcing effort and homework/ practice. Reinforcing effort is an incredibly important component in education today. This follows Skinner’s idea of operant conditioning perfectly. When we are reinforcing the effort a student puts into an assignment, we are most likely going to see a positive result. Students have a very difficult time understanding how the effort they put in to a task reflects their achievement (Pitler, Hubbell, Kuhn, & Malenoski, 2007). To watch them achieve, we should be asking our students to graph the amount of effort they put in to an assignment and then have them compare it to the grade they receive. If they did not study enough, they will most likely receive a lower grade on the test, but if they did study often, they should receive a higher grade. One goal I am setting for myself this year is to have my students track the effort they are putting in to their reading. I hope to see more effort from my students and I will be able to see if they achieve with their DRA levels and CMT data.

Homework and practice is another strategy that follows the behaviorist learning theory. The more a student practices something outside of the school day, the more a child will understand and be able to replicate what was learned. Robert Marzano et al (2001), found that students should practice something at least 24 times before they can achieve even 80% proficiency. If we, as teachers, reinforce this practice in our students, we will most likely see our students work harder and achieve higher.

With all of this said, I leave you with the following quote to ponder: “Some people have seen reinforcement theory as a method of control, of manipulation, of restriction of individuals and society. But society changes must begin with personal changes” (Pryor, 1999, p 163).

References:

Marzano, R. J., Pickering, D., & Pollock, J. E. (2001). Classroom instruction that works: research-based strategies for increasing student achievement. New York: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.

Pitler, H., Hubbell, E., Kuhn, M., & Malenoski, K. (2007). Using technology with classroom instruction that works. Alexandria, VA: ASCD.

Pryor, K. (1999). Don't shoot the dog!: the new art of teaching and training (Rev. ed.). New York: Bantam Books.

Standridge, M. (2002). Behaviorism. In M. Orey (ed.), Emerging perspectives on learning, teaching, and technology. Retrieved from http://projects.coe.uga.edu/epltt/index.php?title=Main_Page