After completing the Week 1 chapter reading from "Interweaving Curriculum and Classroom Assessment" and learning from the first lecture, I found a few notable topics that I will be reflecting on. Overall, from both the readings and the lecture material I found that the major topic that was to be learned this week was the idea that the education curriculum, classroom and teacher are changing from the "old story" to the "new story". Essentially what this is, is the transition from the standard curriculum (standardize tests, teacher as dictator etc) to a much more integrated curriculum one that encourages the use of technology, productive teacher feedback etc. which all overall help for a much better development of all students.
First, as a prospective teacher I really found it interesting learning about the four models of the curriculum: traditional, project-based learning, holisitc and social reconstruction. I felt that although it is great that most educational models of curriculum are shifting towards the "social reconstruction" model one in which promotes social justice and fairness it is important to note that some of the practices from other models should still be used today. For example, although there are a lot of flaws found within the traditional model such as promoting poor student socialization and interaction, in every classroom there are certain aspects where direct instruction can be beneficial. In fact, I believe that in certain situations direct instruction can be helpful as it reinforces mannerisms and that the teacher is the facilitator. In relation to this idea, I also found it very interesting to learn that primary students learned Spanish language easier through story telling. In my personal experiences in elementary school French class I too found learning French was a lot easier when we acted out plays and stories more so than just basic dictating. Overall, I feel that all four models of the curriculum should be introduced when necessary as I believe they will provide the optimal classroom development for both students and teachers.
Next, I also found that the four differentiated learning strategies for teaching and assessing were helpful to me as a prospective teacher. I feel that the DI research Carol Tomlinson did an excellent job when she created the four major learning strategies for students to cover all different abilities. I do sort of feel that there may be a few more strategies for each specific teacher depending on their own personal experiences which maybe useful to them personally.
Third, until I read this chapter, I wouldn't have thought much in terms of a difference between individualization and personalization. From what I gathered in the chapter, personalization is how the learner derive their own learning based skills based on past experiences and future goals. In personalization however the teacher actually facilitates the learning. Meanwhile individualization is when teachers actually change the structure of the lesson, subject etc. to gear it towards the needs of a specific learner. Similarly differentiation means that the teacher change the curriculum structure as well but they change it for the entire class to reach a goal. I really think that this will help me in the future as a prospective teacher as it will help me understand different approaches to deal with various scenarios. I feel that in the "new story" the idea of the teacher changing the structure has sort of diminished and education has been more focused on individualization. I think it has been focused more on students understanding how they learn best on their own with the teacher guiding them when necessary.
The fourth major aspect that I observed in the first lecture is the change of assessment from the "old story" to the "new story". The new story attempts to relinquish old evaluation practices such as percentages, letter grades, bell curves etc. as this does not overall enhance student learning but it just evaluates it. I feel that students cannot truly learn from memorizing and practicing tests as this just reiterates that school is a game and not every student learns in that way (white privledge). Learning about the new story assessment which allows for self and peer assessment, gives students a chance to observe and truly reflect on their work and allow them to answer the questions such as Am I truly satistified with my effort? and was there anything I could improve on? This self-reflection has been proven to help students reach their goals as they are better understanding themselves as a learner. Also, after reading about the productive teacher feedback in terms of assessment, I never really realized that there were ways to be positive and still provide constructive feedback to students which is helping me personally shift to my new story. The only critisism that I had for this change was that I do feel that in certain situations standardized testing could be beneficial. In many job environments students will have to deal with high pressure situations in which they must make a confident and formative decision. I feel that sometimes standardize testing can increase students skills to be able to work under pressure.
Finally, the final major aspect that I want to comment on is the use of technology in the classroom. I was very excited to read about this in the chapter as myself feel that I am pretty technologically inclined due to my past experiences. Agreeing with this article I feel that the incorporations of technologies such as digital media (youtube) social media (gmail, facebook, twitter), online lessons etc. would all be extremely beneficial to students providing ample opportunites for growth and development. In relation to my own experience, this is huge for my future, as myself being a prospective geography teacher can now easily use GIS (Geographic Information System) softwares to teach children about various aspects of our world.
No comments:
Post a Comment