Standard #4- Understand how students learn and develop
Adolescents need to participate in higher-order thinking and critical thinking/literacy, butbefore a teacher is able to get students to truly learn, we must know how they learn. I have studied a broad range of theories on development and learning from the psychological minds of Piaget and Vygotsky and have applied them to the classroom. In my classrooms, as in every classroom, students learned in many different ways. Therefore, my lessons were geared toward each of these different types of learners, whether visual, social, auditory or kinesthetic. Through the use of group work, social learners were able to thrive, while the use of class discussions and videos engaged auditory learners. Visual learners were also able to gain a better understanding of the material through graphs or charts. Kinesthetic learners, who learn best when they were engaged in hands on activities, were able to flourish when they were able to get out of their desks and act out scenes from the play Romeo and Juliet.
Scaffolding, providing support and then gradually removing the support, was used in each unit. For example, every Thursday I did a lesson on new vocabulary found in the novel The Hunger Games. Previous to this assignment, we had been working on deciphering vocabulary in context. I would model close reading skills and the ways to use context clues to figure out the
meaning of specific words. By the time we began The Hunger Games unit, the students were well versed in this practice. They were able to take each of the ten words, look at them in context, and figure out the definition. The use of scaffolding in this way gradually guides students from lower-level thinking to higher-order thinking, which is the goal of Bloom’s taxonomy. When students feel like they are a part of their own education, they are more likely to become critical thinkers and analyzers.
To understand how students learn and develop, it is also essential to get to know our students on a deeper level. While at my middle school placement, I assigned my students an independent reading project. For this project, the students had to choose a book to read, take notes in a specific format for every chapter, and eventually write a paper on it. Since this was such a major project, it was important for the students to choose a book that they were really interested in. I had spent weeks getting to know them as individuals, including their strengths, weaknesses, and passions. I worked together with the librarian to help students find the perfect book that would appeal to them on all levels. I had one student who came into class daily talking about his tractor. He worked on his tractor daily, taking it apart and putting it back together. When the time came to choose an IR book, I placed a book about tractors on his desk and watched his eyes light up. At the end of the quarter, the student divulged to me that this was the first book he had ever read entirely. A topic that interested the student, paired with a reading level that corresponded with his abilities, ensured that the student would complete the assignment in its entirety. By getting to know the student both personally and academically, and creating realistic goals for his success, the student was able to grow academically and take pride in his success.
Blooms Taxonomy
picture of class independent reading list
Adolescents need to participate in higher-order thinking and critical thinking/literacy, butbefore a teacher is able to get students to truly learn, we must know how they learn. I have studied a broad range of theories on development and learning from the psychological minds of Piaget and Vygotsky and have applied them to the classroom. In my classrooms, as in every classroom, students learned in many different ways. Therefore, my lessons were geared toward each of these different types of learners, whether visual, social, auditory or kinesthetic. Through the use of group work, social learners were able to thrive, while the use of class discussions and videos engaged auditory learners. Visual learners were also able to gain a better understanding of the material through graphs or charts. Kinesthetic learners, who learn best when they were engaged in hands on activities, were able to flourish when they were able to get out of their desks and act out scenes from the play Romeo and Juliet.
Scaffolding, providing support and then gradually removing the support, was used in each unit. For example, every Thursday I did a lesson on new vocabulary found in the novel The Hunger Games. Previous to this assignment, we had been working on deciphering vocabulary in context. I would model close reading skills and the ways to use context clues to figure out the
meaning of specific words. By the time we began The Hunger Games unit, the students were well versed in this practice. They were able to take each of the ten words, look at them in context, and figure out the definition. The use of scaffolding in this way gradually guides students from lower-level thinking to higher-order thinking, which is the goal of Bloom’s taxonomy. When students feel like they are a part of their own education, they are more likely to become critical thinkers and analyzers.
To understand how students learn and develop, it is also essential to get to know our students on a deeper level. While at my middle school placement, I assigned my students an independent reading project. For this project, the students had to choose a book to read, take notes in a specific format for every chapter, and eventually write a paper on it. Since this was such a major project, it was important for the students to choose a book that they were really interested in. I had spent weeks getting to know them as individuals, including their strengths, weaknesses, and passions. I worked together with the librarian to help students find the perfect book that would appeal to them on all levels. I had one student who came into class daily talking about his tractor. He worked on his tractor daily, taking it apart and putting it back together. When the time came to choose an IR book, I placed a book about tractors on his desk and watched his eyes light up. At the end of the quarter, the student divulged to me that this was the first book he had ever read entirely. A topic that interested the student, paired with a reading level that corresponded with his abilities, ensured that the student would complete the assignment in its entirety. By getting to know the student both personally and academically, and creating realistic goals for his success, the student was able to grow academically and take pride in his success.
Blooms Taxonomy
picture of class independent reading list