Reflection 3 (Allison Burt)

Allison Burt

Reflection 3

1. Discussion on what should be considered in finding “the Big Idea” for a project.

Teachers need to decide what is the main “goal” or “objectives” they want their students to learn when finding “the Big idea” within their curriculum. In the text it mentioned how an elementary school teacher used a concrete example representing the number 1,000. It is great teachers are finding multiple ways to represent concepts to make connections and implement real life applications through projects. When students are able to make those kinds of connections it sparks more interest and excitement. One point well said states, “When students know that their project offers value for their community, they become even more invested in learning” (p. 46). I agree, teachers need to assign students purposeful and meaningful work. This is why it is critical for teachers to pull out “the Big idea” within concepts they are teaching.

2. Discussion on the 2lst Century skills.

Teachers should challenge their students by assigning projects based on “higher-order” thinking skills, not just accept students learning at a knowledge level. Students need to learn to think about how they can apply a concept in multiple ways. Objectives should be associated with these action verbs including: (p 47)

Analyze

Evaluate

Create

A teacher’s goal is to expand their student’s mind, not shrink!

3. Discussion on the 21st Century literacies.

We live in a digital-driven age where technology is becoming more frequently used in the classroom.  In the text it mentions the ISTE NETS-S, which is known as a digital literacy. This looks at what skills students will need to achieve in the future, rather than living in the present. NETS-S wants students to be successful and gain independence through developing these skills: (p.49)

-Creativity and Innovation

-Communication and Collaboration

-Research and Information Fluency

-Digital Citizenship

-Technology Operations and Concepts

4. Discussion on each of the essential learning functions.

1.    Ubiquity: Learning Inside and Outside the classroom, and All the Time-Give students tools for exploring, while supporting their learning whether they are in the classroom or not. Let your students be able to familiarize themselves as much as possible with hands-on/interactive tools. This will help them become adequate and familiar with various technology tools. 

2.    Deep Learning: Students should be using higher-order thinking skills to help them make sense with what they are learning through different steps including: (p.54)

-sort

-organize

-analyze

-graph

 

Students are breaking down their projects into chunks to get a thorough understanding before moving on. 

3.    Making Things Visible and Discussable:

Visual representations allows you to grasp the information in multiple ways including, but not limited to: pictures, mind maps, Google Earth, Flickr

4.    Expressing Ourselves, Sharing Ideas, Building Community:

This involves sharing ideas through networking. INTERACTION

Blogs, Tagging, virtual meetings etc. (p.55)

5.    Collaboration-Teaching and Learning with Others: Planning and learning together.

6.    Research: Students develop skills when researching on their project topic. However, students need to identify what information is accurate versus what is not.

7.    Project Management: Planning and Organization- All group members need to be informed with meeting individual task deadlines. Group members should develop a collaborative outline including their goals and add dates.

 

8.    Reflection and Iteration: Be attentive to other group members’ ideas. It is good to have input about your project through different perspectives. The blog we are using allows group members to share thoughts and comment while developing our event.

5. Discussion on how concepts in this chapter relate to your topic/project.

Our group’s goal for our topic staying healthy is to develop a workshop at the end. The “workshop” can also be identified as “the Big idea.” This goal cannot be possible without the support of all group members. We want to use multiple perspectives and ways to represent staying healthy. We developed our ideas using the concept map with our big idea in the center. We are not just gaining knowledge about staying healthy, but organizing and creating an event. The event will be not be just limited to the group members ideas, but stretched to professionals in the community. As a group we are also networking with students from another country to apply real-world concepts.