Reading Reflection #3 Cameron McCririe

Discussion on what should be considered in finding the "Big Idea" for a project

Scanning the table of contents of the teaching guides will help in identifying which big ideas you want students to know relating to the topic. reviewing the curriculum standards for your subjects is also important since if the teacher cannot find the standard that fits into the lesson, their students will become lost in understanding the significance of the lesson and the ideas that go along with it. Being able to connect the ideas with real world application must also be considered. Allowing students to make real world connections to their life makes learning more active and worthwhile.


Discussion on the 21st Century skills

Using specific words associated with higher order thinking in Bloom's Taxonomy of Educational Objectives. Using the words analyze, evaluate, create justify, and design are all words that can be used in 21 Century skills for helping students become higher order and critical thinkers.


Discussion on the 21st Century literacy

Students are expected to become independent learners with 21 Century literacy. With this expectation, the students will become aware an productive citizens. Students are given real world problems that pertain to each subject that will help them to become better critical thinkers and problem solvers.

Discussion on each of the essential learning functions

Ubiquity: Allowing the students to learn inside and outside the classroom all the time

Deep Learning: Instead of having students look at second hand resources on the web, have them research primary sources and make sense of the "raw" data.

Making Things Visible and Discussable: Giving students the visual aids they need to identify and then draw ideas that can be discussed in the classroom. This gives students the opportunity to share ideas and suggestions with one another.

Expressing Ourselves, Sharing Ideas, Building Community:Using different types of programs to allow for ideas to be shared with one another.

Collaboration-Teaching and Learning with Others: Using wikis, google docs, Skype.

Research: Having students understand how to conduct research and using the filter tool to help them narrow their searches down.

Project Management-Planning and Organization: Web-based home pages so students don't waste time typing in a search engine. Anything that can be used to help cut down time in students research.

Reflection and Iteration: Using blogs or wikis to help look back on your work and revise if they choose to.

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

When researching ways to become healthier, students and adult can come across many fake and misleading articles written by people who may not have the knowledge to be giving advise. Identifying primary sources is a big concept in finding reliable information on how to stay healthy. Another would be the sharing of ideas to one another. Not everyone will have all the answers to staying healthy and that is why sharing of ideas is a concept that relates to our topic.