First of all, my apologies to Dr. Krauss for not getting to this until now-Saturday, Sept. 19. The only excuse I have is that I am not accustomed to going to my blog site, and am more familiar with doing the applications. With that said, however, I am glad we are going to be utilizing blogging a great deal during this course.
From our resource Using Technology with Classroom Instruction that Works, we explored two methods used by educators to help motivate students' learning in the classroom, in addition to their behavior towards that learning. One of these was "Reinforcing Effort" and the other was "Homework Practice." For the reinforcing effort module, a teacher was able to create an effort rubric, naming each category with point values correlating with it, and students on their own were able to self-assess how they were meeting these effort standards. For instance, one category is "Paying attention." To achieve the highest point value of "4", the student must: pay attention in class, listen carefully to the teacher's questions, and focus on the class work at least 95% of the time (Pitler, Hubbell, Kuhn & Malenoski, 2007). This is associated with the behaviorist learning theory because it addresses students' needs and provides immediate and appropriate feedback (Lever-Duffy & McDonald, 2008). In order for this to be successful, students must first be explicitly taught about effort and complete some initial effort exercises to understand its concept (Pitler, Hubbell, Kuhn & Malenoski, 2007).
Next, homework and practice enable students to get additional help with lessons they've already explored in the classroom. Plus, it gives them a chance to work and read independently. If homework is assigned it should be commented upon, with parental involvement to a minimum, and should be the amount recommended for the grade level of the student (Pitler, Hubbell, Kuhn & Malenoski, 2007). The behaviorist learning theory is incorporated here because students are learning how to utilize technology to improve homework skills and practice, creating a meaningful sense of self-efficacy. The above resource further describes how the seemingly normal word processing program on Microsoft Word can enhance students' reports simply by understanding several more options students can choose that are on it. I have known about the Flesch-Kincaid grade level ratings and have just recently shown my class how to utilize this feature. Now they want to know if their reports are on grade level. We've talked about and looked at the "Auto Summarize" feature as well. I need to show them how this works. Often, students want to write, "The End." They need to see how key points in stories are used as the summary.
I believe students behaviors towards learning is reflected in the resources they have been taught to incorporate into that learning. Today's students expect cutting edge learning opportunties such as WIKI's, blogs, podcasting, and even being instructed on how to use Microsoft Word more effectively. As educators we should continue to focus on teaching our students these valuable tools to increase their social and academic success. I have much still to do.
Angie Cash
Lever-Duffy, J., & McDonald, J. (2008). Theoretical Foundations. Boston, M.A. Allyn and Bacon.
Pitler, H., Hubbell, E., Kuhn, M. & Malenoski, K. (2007) Using Technology with Classroom Instruction that Works. Alexandria, V.A. ASCD.
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7 comments:
Angie,
I like how you talk about how we as educators need to continue our focus on teaching our students the skills necessary to succeed in school. It just turns out that nowadays what we need to teach them is more than what we ever learned "technology-wise." It is something that we are going to need to keep working on and learning so that we can stay as close to up-to-date as possible. Good luck and don't worry, we are all in the same boat!
Angie,
20 years ago education was a cake walk compared to the monster we teach in today. The standards and curriculum are so overwhelming that a teachers can easily suffocate from all the work we must put into our jobs. The one thing that I have kept up with is the technology side of education. I have had the chance to see first hand the impact it has had on teachers and students. What we are learning is just the tip of a bigger iceberg that regular teachers may never see.
If we become the techno-savvy teachers we want to be we can help students in ways that the teachers that taught us years ago could only have dreamed of. We have the chance to make a difference and this is going to be on heck of a ride when technology becomes the for front of education.
Good luck and stay strong!!!
Angie,
I strongly agreed with your comments about reinforcment and practicing being a necessary force in creating self efficacy in our students. As our weeks resources explained, this is such an important human characteristc to have. Self efficacy empowers our students to be driven and desire the success that we as teachers struggle to see. How much easier would our jobs be if all of our students felt truley useful and compitent? It acts as the reinforcement for the reaction to behaviors or stimuli as the theory of Behaviorism centers around.
Thanks for the thoughts and a well written blog!
It looks like we agree with you that practice is still very important in the classroom. I really liked your point on teaching out students the tools they need to learn. I believe that if we teach our students how to learn it will lead to them doing better in all their classrooms. I have found that the students I teach, 6th graders, do not have the skills it takes to think critically,very few of my students know how to read to get information from an article or book.
Angie,
I am later than you doing the blog part of this. I've gone back to the Discussion and Application sections, and I still didn't see the blog part until the last lines of the application. I even missed those when I read over the assignment for the week.
I get the impression that many of the group here are math teachers ... i teach Science. We desperately need math knowledge, yet our goals and content do not require the drill and repetition. Despite the reasons for Marzano strategy repetitions, my goals are toward broader understandings of basic concepts of science.
I think educational technology is great and is seemingly going to be the major learning tool of the future. We are very fortunate to be obtaining up-to-date knowledge of this fact. I have been thoroughly impressed with our resources in the fact that they reveal to us how practical and engaging these learning activities can be enhanced in our classrooms. I didn't know Microsoft Word had all its additional features. We are beginning to use them now.
Thanks for the comments; it's nice to know other teachers are experiencing similar situations in their classrooms.
I work in an urban district and for years the focus has been on higher order thinking. I agree with this strategy however, I agree that reinforcing effort and having students practice skills is an effective way to instill basic skills so that higher order thinking will be useful.
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