Double Entry #13

1. Read the Introduction. What "dominant paradigm" is showing signs of wear?

The traditional teacher centered style of teaching.  Educators are now trying to implement styles of learning that brings back the spark and path of true learning.  By giving students relevant problems that exist in their world and having them work as cooperating teams.  There for engaging them into the material in a more productive way that they can then retain more of the content that was introduced.

2. According to the research, how does Project-Based Learning support student learning better than traditional approaches? Describe three benefits and cite the studies. 

PBL's support better learning by:

• Giving students better critical thinking skills, according to Edutopia article Shepard (1998) showed us this through his study of fourth and fifth graders, who were confronted with the enduring question of how to solve the housing shortage problems in other countries.
• The next example given was a longitudinal study of 2 British schools.  This study by Boaler (1997, 1998) took the two schools and had one perform traditional teacher centered teaching and the other school was to implement PBL.  After three years the schools were compared on their learning styles through a pre and post test.  The results found that even though there were similar gains in factual knowledge the PBL students did better on the conceptual questions.
• The final example given talks about students who were given the assignment to make brochures about homeless students, (Penuel, Means, & Simkins, 2000) using multimedia.  When these students were tested their results showed that they had higher marks in content master, sensitivity to audience, and coherent design.

3.  According to the research, how does Problem-Based Learning support student learning better than traditional approaches? Describe three benefits and cite the studies.

• This approach has been found to be better, though, in supporting flexible problem sovling, application of knowledge, and hypothesis generation. (Dochy, Segers, Van den Bossche, and Gijbels, 2003).
• Additional studies have demonstrated that students who participate in problem-based experiences are better able to generate accurate hypotheses and coherent explanations (Hmelo, 1998b; Schmidt et al., 1996) and to support their claims with well reasoned arguments (stepien et al., 1993).
• They also experiance larger gain in conceptual understanding in science (Williams, Hemstreet, Liu, and Smith, 1998).

4.  According to the research, how does Learning by Design support student learning better than traditional approaches? Describe three benefits and cite the studies.

• In one such study, however, Hmelo, Holton, and Kolodner (2000) asked sixth-grade students to design a set of artificial lungs and build a partially working model of the respiratory system. They found that the design project led to better learning outcomes than the traditional approach to instruction.
• Fortus and colleagues (2004) conducted a study with 92 students that tracked their learning across three design-based science units that included designing a structure for extreme environments, designing environmentally friendly batteries, and designing safer cell phones.  Each unit contained multiple design and learning cycles.  the research team found that both higher and lower achieving students showed strong evidence of progress in learning the targeted science concepts and students were able to apply key concepts in their design work.
• Design activity supports revisions and redesign their work product.  The complexity of the work often dictates the need for collaboration and specific roles for different students, providing them with the opportunity to become "experts" in a particular area.

5. What are the differences between the three approaches?

Project based focuses on an end product that students must create using and researching knowledge and content to come to their end product.  Where as problem based learning focuses more on answering a question and coming up with possible solutions to an enduring question.  And learning by design has the students actually diving into the making and creating, learning and solving by making mistakes and revisions.

6. In your opinion, what is the most important benefit to learning that is common across the three types of inquiry-based learning approaches?

In my opinion having higher thinking skills and cooperating groups are the most important because students will be able to retain the information and instead of asking why they have to do the work, it may have relevance in their lives and are able to connect to their world.  students will also be able to make longer lasting connections to the content and will benefit from the social skills they gain throughout their group work.

Double Entry #12

3 Things I have Learned...

1.  The first thing that I learned or really actually realized was that verbal communication in the classroom can easily set up a hierarchy were the enviroment can easily be turned into teacher centered learning through IRE and subordinace of students.  Realizing this will make me think even harder now how I engage students in verbal communication in the classroom.

2.  I also didnt realized that questioning time was a factor, I think that students should be given time to answer a question, but i never thought about the time factor on which they try to answer.  Thinking about this brings my attention to the idea that if a student gets the answer from an inpatient teacher then why should the student even try to answer the question.

3.  A third idea presented in this aricle that created an awareness for me was the idea that its okay if every question does not have a 'right answer', and that it is okay for students to discuss ideas and possiblitlies leading into furthur questioning that can go deeper than the initial question asked.

2 Things I found interesting...

1.  I found the break down of communication very interesting and how they found that from the start of the classroom that the way you commicate with your students will dertermine how they function and learn in the classroom.

2.  I also liked how in the article they kept comparing the IRE way of teaching in paraelle to a more student centered learning enviorment.

1 Question I have...

1.  How do you as a teacher know when to implement student centered teaching, does teacher centered need to be covered first so students have the tools to focus on a project or question at hand?

By asking an essential question, students must at first rely on their 'Funds of Knowlede' about the subject.  Then they must engage other students to disscuss these ideas and collaborate why this effects them.  I think that by giving students an opportunity to answer big questions can improve their ideas of self, and if implemented right they can learn how to talk and reflect with one another in a respectable way.  By giving these students power in the classroom they can then become more engaged in their learning and can apply the content to themselves and their enviorment.  This also gives them a chance to see how adults communicate in the real world, and that they are not islands unto themselves but a collaborative group that is learing and growing with one another.

Top Ten Project Reflection

The first example of exemplary in the Top Ten Project I feel was the Academic Rigor in which students developed new habits of mind.  I believe they accomplished this through the learning of what fact and opinion is and how it was used in the books they were reading.  They were questioned about what makes something a fact or opinion and then they were given several examples.  Not only did students look at others work but they reflected on their own research and how they used facts and opinion to rank their animals.

The second example would be under Applied Learning, where the students had to work communicate with each other, collect and organize data, and analyze their information.  I believe this was met through the students creating their own criteria that they would rank each animal, and they had to do research on each of these animals and validate their resources.  Students also had to have open and clear communication with one another so they could properly rank the animals in a way that it reflected the entire class findings.

The third example that make this PBL exemplary was the Assessment Practice where their final product was presented to a wide audience.  Since the final project was a wiki that is a social tool the students were able to get feedback from not only their school and community but from people all over the world.  The video mentioned how the students kept up to date on how many people were viewing and voting on their site.

Pilver, R. (n.d.). Wikis and 21st century literacy instruction. Retrieved from http://top10.sblc.wikispaces.net/file/view/wikisand21stcentury.pdf
Reading and Language Arts: 4th Grade

RLA.O.4.1.1 identify and practice appropriate vocabulary:

• multiple meaning words
• synonyms
• antonyms
• homonyms
• content area vocabulary
• context clues

RLA.O.4.1.6 examine meaning clues to aid comprehension of content across the curriculum (e.g., pictures, picture captions, titles, headings, text structure, topic)

RLA.O.4.1.8 interpret and extend the ideas in literary and informational texts to summarize, determine story elements, skim and scan, determine cause and effect, compare and contrast, visualize, paraphrase, infer, sequence, determine fact and opinion, draw conclusions, analyze characterize and provide main idea and support details.

RLA.O.4.1.9 determine the author’s purpose in literary and informational texts and use supporting material to justify author’s intent:

• to persuade
• to entertain
• to inform
• to determine a specific viewpoint

RLA.O.4.1.13 judge the reliability or logic of informational texts.

RLA.O.4.1.14 select and use a variety of sources to gather information (e.g., dictionaries, encyclopedias, newspapers, informational texts, electronic resources)

RLA.O.4.1.15  use graphic organizers and visualization techniques to interpret information (e.g., charts, graphs, diagrams, non-verbal symbols).

RLA.O.4.1.16 use reading skills and strategies to understand a variety of information resources to support literacy learning (e.g., written directions, captions, electronic resources, labels, information texts).

 RLA.O.4.1.17 increase the amount of independent reading to build background knowledge, expand vocabulary and comprehend literary and informational text.

 RLA.O.4.2.6  write to persuade using order of importance, classifying differences and similarities, classifying advantages and disadvantages.

RLA.O.4.2.12 use strategies to gather and record information for research topics:

• note taking
• summarizing
• paraphrasing
• describing in narrative form
• gathering information from direct quotes, maps, charts, graphs and tables

RLA.O.4.2.13 select and use a variety of sources to gather information (e.g., dictionaries, encyclopedias, newspapers, informational texts, electronic resources).

 Science: 4th Grade

SC.O.4.1.4demonstrate curiosity, initiative and creativity by developing questions that lead to investigations; designing simple experiments; and trusting observations of discoveries when trying new tasks and skills.

SC.O.4.1.5 recognize that developing solutions to problems requires persistence, flexibility, open-mindedness, and alertness for the unexpected.

SC.O.4.1.6 support statements with facts found through research from various sources, including technology.

SC.O.4.1.9construct a hypothesis when provided a problem.

SC.O.4.2.1 describe the different characteristics of plants and animals, which help them to survive in different niches and environments.

SC.O.4.2.8construct and explain models of habitats, food chains, and food webs.

Fourth grade science. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://wveis.k12.wv.us/Teach21/public/cso/popUp.cfm

Fourth grade reading and english language arts. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://wveis.k12.wv.us/Teach21/public/cso/popUp.cfm