Is Our Toolbox Full?
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We've been given a plethora of teaching techniques to utilize in our spring classes. How I plan to implement them in the fall is essentially up to me, but why would I not follow in the footsteps of great thinkers and educators?
Differentiated Instruction:
When a teacher is teaching to multiple intelligence, most of the time they will be able to achieve some differentiated instruction techniques. DI can be used in all areas of education, and is particularly useful in agriculture education, because after all our students won't be listening to lecture and taking tests in the workforce. They will be working in collaboration with others, utilizing psychomotor skills, rationalizing and synthesizing factors, and truly working within the problem solving mindset.
How I can Utilize Individual Teaching Techniques in the Spring:
- Teach how my students will learn.
- Assess in ways my students will best show off their work, this can mean multiple options for assessments.
- Tailor supervised studies to meet students interest and teach cognitive and affective learning.
- Leverage interest in experimenting.
- Independent Study is fabricated by the student, in a way that best meets their learning styles and interests, minimal teacher influence is needed but supervision is still provided.
- Student notebooks, different from notes they write in class, can be a reflection tool for them to synthesize knowledge in their own way, that they have learned.
Lisa, just like a box of crayons is filled with unique colors, the ag classroom is filled with unique students and learners. DI and incorporating ITTs are a great way to address this, and also to tie into students' strengths and passions. You include a great list of how you plan to utilize these techniques in your student teaching internship. I especially like how you want to use different types of assessment and supervised instruction such as SAEs!
ReplyDeletePBL assessments are a great way to provide DI in the classroom. I think the challenge there is to make sure that all of the project options accomplish the same learning goals and require the same level of effort - just in different ways. Each class is different, too. Sometimes, to get an initial feel for what type of instruction will work best for a group of students, I teach the first unit very intentionally using a strategy and then assessing how learning went so I can narrow down which ones are the best fit. I also have found that my students benefit when I can find (or make) a short video clip for a concept to put on Schoology so they can go back and re-watch something at any point during a unit for review. Sometimes I find two or three that we show in class and I ask students to put in their notes which one they understood the best so they have a focus when they go to review.
ReplyDeleteAs a third year teacher and developing curriculum, I have found it hard to make every lesson differentiated with only having 24 hours in a day. So my first year or two I would try differentiation within a unit and as I have revisited my curriculum this year I have taken a lesson to lesson approach with differentiation. It is important, like many of the topics you learn during your fall of senior year are, but doing every right off the bat is really tough. I have also found this changes class to class in what works and so for the first time this year, I have two ways I can teach some of my lessons just from past experience.
ReplyDeletePBL, PBL, PBL!!!....and Inquiry-based learning too.
ReplyDelete