Post by Sarah Mallow on Feb 24, 2014 0:56:07 GMT
Innovative project: Narrable “Angles are Everywhere”
I have taught the skills and concepts (angles – 6.4.1, 6.4.2a) necessary for my students to begin their innovative projects. I introduced and explained the Narrable assignment with guidelines and specific requirements for my students. I also provided a sample Narrable for my students. My 3rd block students seem very excited about the prospect of moving around the school and their homes to find the required angles. We have talked at length in class about being creative when looking for their angles. We then took a group walk through the school and the courtyard to begin “brainstorming” angle ideas! Students were able to take their clipboards and list of needed angles to jot down some ideas. With my 3rd block of students, I was thoroughly impressed with some of the creative locations and angles they were finding! The students’ enthusiasm was clearly displayed in their interest and in the “ideas” they wanted to share with me as we walked. I have even heard discussion among students who want to find the most unique locations of their angles.
With my 2nd block class, we really had some issues staying on task and on topic during our walk through the school. This is a group that all of us 6th grade teachers struggle with regarding behavior management. This group just has a difficult “mix” of students. I have had to alter hands on assignments for this group in the past. They just seem to be out of control and off task if they are given any type of freedom within an assignment. We don’t seem to accomplish much learning. I spend most of my time “putting out fires” with this class when we attempt to do an unstructured assignment. I really want to be able to do this project with this group, but I am already foreseeing that this will be a much more difficult task with this 2nd block of students. I am not really even confident that this group can complete this assignment.
Contemporary Project: Project Based Learning “Build a Board Game”
I chose to use a project based learning assignment for my contemporary assignment. Although this is not necessarily a new teaching concept, it is not widely used at the elementary school level. I have pulled my Acuity B data and have isolated the top ten standards missed for each of my three classes. (It was interesting that several were the same across all three groups). I also compared these to the most commonly missed 5th grade standards as well and many were the same across the two grade levels. The 5th grade teacher and I discussed that many of these standards incorporated the same “basic skills” that our students are lacking in both grade levels (just an interesting side note). I then listed and discussed these standards with each class. Students were given a copy of their Acuity questions that they missed and I had them start some “self-reflecting”. It has been great to watch them “dissect” their own data. Some of them have been surprised by the standards they are missing. I have had reactions from “Man, I thought I knew that” to “Wow, I just made a silly mistake”. I have asked them to identify the top three skills that they think they need more work on and individual students will be submitting their lists to me at the beginning of next week. I am looking forward to seeing if their personal lists match up to what I have identified as their areas of need.
I have taught the skills and concepts (angles – 6.4.1, 6.4.2a) necessary for my students to begin their innovative projects. I introduced and explained the Narrable assignment with guidelines and specific requirements for my students. I also provided a sample Narrable for my students. My 3rd block students seem very excited about the prospect of moving around the school and their homes to find the required angles. We have talked at length in class about being creative when looking for their angles. We then took a group walk through the school and the courtyard to begin “brainstorming” angle ideas! Students were able to take their clipboards and list of needed angles to jot down some ideas. With my 3rd block of students, I was thoroughly impressed with some of the creative locations and angles they were finding! The students’ enthusiasm was clearly displayed in their interest and in the “ideas” they wanted to share with me as we walked. I have even heard discussion among students who want to find the most unique locations of their angles.
With my 2nd block class, we really had some issues staying on task and on topic during our walk through the school. This is a group that all of us 6th grade teachers struggle with regarding behavior management. This group just has a difficult “mix” of students. I have had to alter hands on assignments for this group in the past. They just seem to be out of control and off task if they are given any type of freedom within an assignment. We don’t seem to accomplish much learning. I spend most of my time “putting out fires” with this class when we attempt to do an unstructured assignment. I really want to be able to do this project with this group, but I am already foreseeing that this will be a much more difficult task with this 2nd block of students. I am not really even confident that this group can complete this assignment.
Contemporary Project: Project Based Learning “Build a Board Game”
I chose to use a project based learning assignment for my contemporary assignment. Although this is not necessarily a new teaching concept, it is not widely used at the elementary school level. I have pulled my Acuity B data and have isolated the top ten standards missed for each of my three classes. (It was interesting that several were the same across all three groups). I also compared these to the most commonly missed 5th grade standards as well and many were the same across the two grade levels. The 5th grade teacher and I discussed that many of these standards incorporated the same “basic skills” that our students are lacking in both grade levels (just an interesting side note). I then listed and discussed these standards with each class. Students were given a copy of their Acuity questions that they missed and I had them start some “self-reflecting”. It has been great to watch them “dissect” their own data. Some of them have been surprised by the standards they are missing. I have had reactions from “Man, I thought I knew that” to “Wow, I just made a silly mistake”. I have asked them to identify the top three skills that they think they need more work on and individual students will be submitting their lists to me at the beginning of next week. I am looking forward to seeing if their personal lists match up to what I have identified as their areas of need.
