If you exercise this "art of scaffolding," how do you need to change your educational practice? What serve as challenges, and what does it take to overcome the challenges?
In resource and special day classes scaffolding is an important aspect of teaching because many of the students are in these classes because they are unable to be successful without support. Many of the students have difficulty completing learning activities independently. One issue that arises is as you begin to remove the support systems some students begin to struggle with the information. But this can often be beneficial because the students can learn from struggling and even from failing.
One challenge I need to overcome is my desire to always help struggling students. Because if I do not slowly remove the 'scaffolding' then the student will never progress to being able to complete the task independently. I have been told that this is a common tendency in special education that teachers will not remove the support and let the students struggle, but if this is done correctly it can led to growth and learning.
Study Question: If you exercise this “art of scaffolding,” how do you need to change your educational practice? What serve as challenges, and what does it take to overcome the challenges? Exercising the “art of scaffolding,” requires teachers to constantly be observing each individual student to first identify their specific needs. It also requires the teacher to be able to decide when to offer support and when that support can be removed. Scaffolding is so important especially in young learners because many times without that heavy assistance and gradual release “higher functioning cannot take place.” I think that time serves as a challenge for teacher’s. I think that this could be a challenge because you have to make the time to offer each of your students the support they need in order to help them reach higher level thinking. I also think becoming an expert in this area and knowing when to release the support could be a challenge because many students tend to hold on to that support and become reliant on it, so knowing when is extremely important. I think that in order to overcome these challenges teachers need to continuously practice the “art of scaffolding,” and become familiar with what works for them and their individual students.
What gaps are there between learning activities in your classroom and real life activities in society? What should educators do to help students overcome the gaps?
My fall practicum drastically contrasted with my spring practicum experience. In the fall, kindergarten students were learning basic subtraction using manipulatives and worksheets. The teacher explicitly taught them how to take away counters and fill in the right answer in their workbooks. After the students copied the teacher, she moved on to the next activity. This activity was not stimulating or relatable to the students and lacked a real world application. They saw subtraction as something that only occurs when it is math time and when they use counters and work in their math workbooks. The learning was limited to the school context.
In contrast, a third grade class at a project-based school learned about what it takes to be an Olympian. Along with reading articles and research, the teacher incorporated realia, guest speakers, a field trip to the Olympic training center, and physical experiences of “training” like an Olympian. The teacher bridged the “real world” and educational skills (such as research and close reading) to deepen the students’ knowledge and connection between learning activities and real life activities in society.
In comparing these two experiences, it is evident that to overcome gaps between learning activities and their application to society, educators must find ways to bridge the material through real world activities. I think some easily attainable ways to create this bridge is through guest speakers, realia, role plays, and field experiences/ service learning.
Study Question: If you exercise this "art of scaffolding," how do you need to change your educational practice? What serve as challenges, and what does it take to overcome the challenges?
During my student teaching, I had to adjust my teaching methods several times because I did not know how to scaffold. I have always favored lecture classes, even as a kid because I was good at remembering everything the professor said, thus being able to reference key points in the lecture when I got stuck on something. This ended up translating to me trying to teach the same way with all students. Of course, some students favored it, but quite a few fell behind because they needed me to work alongside them to start. I started using more hands on manipulative for examples, first showing the class how I use the manipulative and then allowing them to use it. Slowly, I would only have them use the hands on pieces, thus putting the scaffolding method in to play.
My challenge was switching my method of teaching so rapidly to ensure students did not fall too far behind. It was a hard transition for me, but in the end, it was helpful to the students as well as a growing moment for me. To overcome that challenge, I had to set a side my pride and acknowledge that I was not teaching in the most effective way.
If our knowledge is embedded in a certain culture, how is it possible for us to be critical about it and go beyond the range defined by the culture, especially if things do not seem to be going well?
I think there are two ways that one can learn to become critical of their culture. First, one can develop a critical mindset of their culture through the guidance of another. This person may be someone who has come from another culture or is someone who has developed their own ability to critique their culture. Through this person’s guidance and challenging questions, one may begin to reflect on why they believe certain things about the world or act in certain ways.
Another way one can develop a critical view of their culture is by learning about and engaging with another culture. Through this learning and interactions, one can then be inspired to reflect on their own culture. This multicultural contact can also possibly provide solutions to problems one might see arising in their own culture.
If our knowledge is embedded in a certain culture, how is it possible for us to be critical about it and go beyond the range defined by the culture, especially if things do not seem to be going well?
I think there are two ways that one can learn to become critical of their culture. First, one can develop a critical mindset of their culture through the guidance of another. This person may be someone who has come from another culture or is someone who has developed their own ability to critique their culture. Through this person’s guidance and challenging questions, one may begin to reflect on why they believe certain things about the world or act in certain ways.
Another way one can develop a critical view of their culture is by learning about and engaging with another culture. Through this learning and interactions, one can then be inspired to reflect on their own culture. This multicultural contact can also possibly provide solutions to problems one might see arising in their own culture.
Study Question: What gaps are there between learning activities in your classroom and real life activities in society? What should educators do to help students overcome the gaps?
This is an extremely common problem in ESL classes, as many educators warn it is easy to fall into the trap of teaching grammatical rules and concepts through rote memorization. To bridge the gap and create meaning for learners’ between grammar and real-life will increase both their motivation and learning. For example, when teaching relative adjective clauses this past semester I used current event news articles from around the world and had students locate and identify any adjective clauses they found, as adjective clauses are very commonly used in articles and academic writing. I then had students write their own article about a real or invented issue, or crime report using adjective clauses. Similarly, instead of having learners memorize hundreds of phrasal verbs, I chunked them and worked within a theme to make the phrasal verbs easier to remember and use in context. For one example, I chose 8 phrasal verbs related to the workplace and afterwards students had to write a work memo. Educators need to think about when students will use the material and create engaging and relevant activities to assign a purpose to learning.
Study Question: If you exercise this "art of scaffolding," how do you need to change your educational practice? What serve as challenges, and what does it take to overcome the challenges?
For me, someone who jumps at every opporitunity to talk, my scaffolding, and instruction had to make big changes in the early months of my student teaching. At first, i was overly reliant on lecture, and thought simply wandering amongst the students answering their questions as they popped up would be scaffolding enough. I swiftly came to understand that this was insufficient, and that verbal instruction was far short of my students needs. I began to incorporate strategies that seemed as simple as possible, as a big challange to providing effective scaffolding is making sure it's accesible to students. To this end i used methods like incorporating a glossary onto primary sources so definitions for tier 3 words (and even some tier 2) can be defined for students readily. This helps the student understand the material more and saves them time they would otherwise have to spend waiting for the instructor to assist them.
Study Question (p.99): If you exercise this “art of scaffolding,” how do you need to change your educational practice? What serve as challenges, and what does it take to overcome the challenges?
The aspect of scaffolding that I struggle most with is differentiation and universal access. It can be difficult to teach to the correct level when students come into the classroom/lesson at different ZPDs (which is a constant!).
Study Question: What gaps are there between learning activities in your classroom and real life activities in society? What should educators do to help students overcome the gaps?
I have always found that when the material you learn within the classroom can be related to situations outside the classroom, the learning that takes place becomes more meaningful and also becomes easier to remember. This real-life aspect, however, is often left out of learning that takes place within the classroom. The unfortunate part, is that many times math, science, history and literature are constantly occurring in students every day lives, and pointing this out is a great way to deepen their knowledge and understanding. This past semester, my Kindergarteners were having a difficult time understanding subtraction. To address this, I began asking my students about situations in their lives where they have lost something, or gradually had less of something. I had students come to the front of the classroom, share their story, and then call on friends to come act out their story. It allowed the students to recognize how often these situations happen to them, rather than just being a new math symbol to memorize. I think as educators, its important to point out these activities that take place inside and outside of the classroom, to allow for more connection.
How could you create a community of practice with your colleagues at your school? What does it take to lead an attempt successfully?
You can create a community of practice with your colleagues at school by organizing events for the teachers to get together and interact in a social setting. It is important that teachers are able to build a community and a sense of trust so that they can collaborate and work together effectively. Another way that I think that teachers can build a sense of community is by doing team building activities. I have had team building activities in my own classroom with my students and have seen how positive they can be when helping create a community. I think that team building activities would have a positive effect on teachers and the school as well. Teachers have to model collaboration and good communication in order for the students to be able to understand and have a good idea of what this looks like.
How could you create a community of practice with your colleagues at your school? What does it take to lead an attempt successfully?
I think that the US would benefit from using the community of practice techniques that is prevalent in Japan. Regularly viewing/critiquing fellow teachers, neriage and regular collaboration between teachers would greatly benefit teachers and students.To successfully implement this, there needs to be a scheduled routine between teachers. This needs to become a regular practice and part of the job. However, consideration needs to be given that teachers do not have a lot of extra time, so professional development days need to be included.
How could you create a community of practice with your colleagues at your school? What does it take to lead an attempt successfully?
I think that the US would benefit from using the community of practice techniques that is prevalent in Japan. Regularly viewing/critiquing fellow teachers, neriage and regular collaboration between teachers would greatly benefit teachers and students.To successfully implement this, there needs to be a scheduled routine between teachers. This needs to become a regular practice and part of the job. However, consideration needs to be given that teachers do not have a lot of extra time, so professional development days need to be included.
If you exercise this "art of scaffolding," how do you need to change your educational practice? What serve as challenges, and what does it take to overcome the challenges?
ReplyDeleteIn resource and special day classes scaffolding is an important aspect of teaching because many of the students are in these classes because they are unable to be successful without support. Many of the students have difficulty completing learning activities independently. One issue that arises is as you begin to remove the support systems some students begin to struggle with the information. But this can often be beneficial because the students can learn from struggling and even from failing.
One challenge I need to overcome is my desire to always help struggling students. Because if I do not slowly remove the 'scaffolding' then the student will never progress to being able to complete the task independently. I have been told that this is a common tendency in special education that teachers will not remove the support and let the students struggle, but if this is done correctly it can led to growth and learning.
Study Question: If you exercise this “art of scaffolding,” how do you need to change your educational practice? What serve as challenges, and what does it take to overcome the challenges?
ReplyDeleteExercising the “art of scaffolding,” requires teachers to constantly be observing each individual student to first identify their specific needs. It also requires the teacher to be able to decide when to offer support and when that support can be removed. Scaffolding is so important especially in young learners because many times without that heavy assistance and gradual release “higher functioning cannot take place.” I think that time serves as a challenge for teacher’s. I think that this could be a challenge because you have to make the time to offer each of your students the support they need in order to help them reach higher level thinking. I also think becoming an expert in this area and knowing when to release the support could be a challenge because many students tend to hold on to that support and become reliant on it, so knowing when is extremely important. I think that in order to overcome these challenges teachers need to continuously practice the “art of scaffolding,” and become familiar with what works for them and their individual students.
What gaps are there between learning activities in your classroom and real life activities in society? What should educators do to help students overcome the gaps?
ReplyDeleteMy fall practicum drastically contrasted with my spring practicum experience. In the fall, kindergarten students were learning basic subtraction using manipulatives and worksheets. The teacher explicitly taught them how to take away counters and fill in the right answer in their workbooks. After the students copied the teacher, she moved on to the next activity. This activity was not stimulating or relatable to the students and lacked a real world application. They saw subtraction as something that only occurs when it is math time and when they use counters and work in their math workbooks. The learning was limited to the school context.
In contrast, a third grade class at a project-based school learned about what it takes to be an Olympian. Along with reading articles and research, the teacher incorporated realia, guest speakers, a field trip to the Olympic training center, and physical experiences of “training” like an Olympian. The teacher bridged the “real world” and educational skills (such as research and close reading) to deepen the students’ knowledge and connection between learning activities and real life activities in society.
In comparing these two experiences, it is evident that to overcome gaps between learning activities and their application to society, educators must find ways to bridge the material through real world activities. I think some easily attainable ways to create this bridge is through guest speakers, realia, role plays, and field experiences/ service learning.
Study Question: If you exercise this "art of scaffolding," how do you need to change your educational practice? What serve as challenges, and what does it take to overcome the challenges?
ReplyDeleteDuring my student teaching, I had to adjust my teaching methods several times because I did not know how to scaffold. I have always favored lecture classes, even as a kid because I was good at remembering everything the professor said, thus being able to reference key points in the lecture when I got stuck on something. This ended up translating to me trying to teach the same way with all students. Of course, some students favored it, but quite a few fell behind because they needed me to work alongside them to start. I started using more hands on manipulative for examples, first showing the class how I use the manipulative and then allowing them to use it. Slowly, I would only have them use the hands on pieces, thus putting the scaffolding method in to play.
My challenge was switching my method of teaching so rapidly to ensure students did not fall too far behind. It was a hard transition for me, but in the end, it was helpful to the students as well as a growing moment for me. To overcome that challenge, I had to set a side my pride and acknowledge that I was not teaching in the most effective way.
If our knowledge is embedded in a certain culture, how is it possible for us to be critical about it and go beyond the range defined by the culture, especially if things do not seem to be going well?
ReplyDeleteI think there are two ways that one can learn to become critical of their culture. First, one can develop a critical mindset of their culture through the guidance of another. This person may be someone who has come from another culture or is someone who has developed their own ability to critique their culture. Through this person’s guidance and challenging questions, one may begin to reflect on why they believe certain things about the world or act in certain ways.
Another way one can develop a critical view of their culture is by learning about and engaging with another culture. Through this learning and interactions, one can then be inspired to reflect on their own culture. This multicultural contact can also possibly provide solutions to problems one might see arising in their own culture.
If our knowledge is embedded in a certain culture, how is it possible for us to be critical about it and go beyond the range defined by the culture, especially if things do not seem to be going well?
ReplyDeleteI think there are two ways that one can learn to become critical of their culture. First, one can develop a critical mindset of their culture through the guidance of another. This person may be someone who has come from another culture or is someone who has developed their own ability to critique their culture. Through this person’s guidance and challenging questions, one may begin to reflect on why they believe certain things about the world or act in certain ways.
Another way one can develop a critical view of their culture is by learning about and engaging with another culture. Through this learning and interactions, one can then be inspired to reflect on their own culture. This multicultural contact can also possibly provide solutions to problems one might see arising in their own culture.
Study Question: What gaps are there between learning activities in your classroom and real life activities in society? What should educators do to help students overcome the gaps?
ReplyDeleteThis is an extremely common problem in ESL classes, as many educators warn it is easy to fall into the trap of teaching grammatical rules and concepts through rote memorization. To bridge the gap and create meaning for learners’ between grammar and real-life will increase both their motivation and learning. For example, when teaching relative adjective clauses this past semester I used current event news articles from around the world and had students locate and identify any adjective clauses they found, as adjective clauses are very commonly used in articles and academic writing. I then had students write their own article about a real or invented issue, or crime report using adjective clauses. Similarly, instead of having learners memorize hundreds of phrasal verbs, I chunked them and worked within a theme to make the phrasal verbs easier to remember and use in context. For one example, I chose 8 phrasal verbs related to the workplace and afterwards students had to write a work memo. Educators need to think about when students will use the material and create engaging and relevant activities to assign a purpose to learning.
Study Question: If you exercise this "art of scaffolding," how do you need to change your educational practice? What serve as challenges, and what does it take to overcome the challenges?
ReplyDeleteFor me, someone who jumps at every opporitunity to talk, my scaffolding, and instruction had to make big changes in the early months of my student teaching. At first, i was overly reliant on lecture, and thought simply wandering amongst the students answering their questions as they popped up would be scaffolding enough. I swiftly came to understand that this was insufficient, and that verbal instruction was far short of my students needs. I began to incorporate strategies that seemed as simple as possible, as a big challange to providing effective scaffolding is making sure it's accesible to students. To this end i used methods like incorporating a glossary onto primary sources so definitions for tier 3 words (and even some tier 2) can be defined for students readily. This helps the student understand the material more and saves them time they would otherwise have to spend waiting for the instructor to assist them.
Study Question (p.99): If you exercise this “art of scaffolding,” how do you need to change your educational practice? What serve as challenges, and what does it take to overcome the challenges?
ReplyDeleteThe aspect of scaffolding that I struggle most with is differentiation and universal access. It can be difficult to teach to the correct level when students come into the classroom/lesson at different ZPDs (which is a constant!).
Study Question: What gaps are there between learning activities in your classroom and real life activities in society? What should educators do to help students overcome the gaps?
ReplyDeleteI have always found that when the material you learn within the classroom can be related to situations outside the classroom, the learning that takes place becomes more meaningful and also becomes easier to remember. This real-life aspect, however, is often left out of learning that takes place within the classroom. The unfortunate part, is that many times math, science, history and literature are constantly occurring in students every day lives, and pointing this out is a great way to deepen their knowledge and understanding. This past semester, my Kindergarteners were having a difficult time understanding subtraction. To address this, I began asking my students about situations in their lives where they have lost something, or gradually had less of something. I had students come to the front of the classroom, share their story, and then call on friends to come act out their story. It allowed the students to recognize how often these situations happen to them, rather than just being a new math symbol to memorize. I think as educators, its important to point out these activities that take place inside and outside of the classroom, to allow for more connection.
How could you create a community of practice with your colleagues at your school? What does it take to lead an attempt successfully?
ReplyDeleteYou can create a community of practice with your colleagues at school by organizing events for the teachers to get together and interact in a social setting. It is important that teachers are able to build a community and a sense of trust so that they can collaborate and work together effectively. Another way that I think that teachers can build a sense of community is by doing team building activities. I have had team building activities in my own classroom with my students and have seen how positive they can be when helping create a community. I think that team building activities would have a positive effect on teachers and the school as well.
Teachers have to model collaboration and good communication in order for the students to be able to understand and have a good idea of what this looks like.
How could you create a community of practice with your colleagues at your school? What does it take to lead an attempt successfully?
ReplyDeleteI think that the US would benefit from using the community of practice techniques that is prevalent in Japan. Regularly viewing/critiquing fellow teachers, neriage and regular collaboration between teachers would greatly benefit teachers and students.To successfully implement this, there needs to be a scheduled routine between teachers. This needs to become a regular practice and part of the job. However, consideration needs to be given that teachers do not have a lot of extra time, so professional development days need to be included.
How could you create a community of practice with your colleagues at your school? What does it take to lead an attempt successfully?
ReplyDeleteI think that the US would benefit from using the community of practice techniques that is prevalent in Japan. Regularly viewing/critiquing fellow teachers, neriage and regular collaboration between teachers would greatly benefit teachers and students.To successfully implement this, there needs to be a scheduled routine between teachers. This needs to become a regular practice and part of the job. However, consideration needs to be given that teachers do not have a lot of extra time, so professional development days need to be included.