Tina's+Page

One connection I made was between the quote " new knowledge must be constructed from existing knowledge is that teachers need to pay attention to incomplete understandings, false beliefs and the naive renditions of concepts that learners bring with them to a given subject" and a guest speaker we had at Pro -d the other day on the subject of Differentiated Instruction. I believe the presenter in that knowing where the kids are at can help you meet the demands of the prescribed curriculum. If we find out through pre-assessment the "incomplete understanding, false beliefs ..." we can tailor our instruction to address those. On the other hand we may also find out that our students have a good understanding of a given area and we can move faster through that part. It also goes to engagement. Engagement is necessary if we want students to learn new knowledge. If we repeat and have students practice what they already know, we bore them and if we move too quickly we reach the frustration level of students and they tune out. Knowing students is important.

One question I have is...

My stab at encouraging metacognition in my students in Reading has led me to teaching about reading strategies and providing words and phrases through modeling the strategy to help explain what might be going on in their heads (or should be) at times. For example visualizing might be thought of as the "movie going on in your mind as you read". I then hope that students will identify parts of their book where they use the strategy. So at first I when I saw the word visulaize or when the author wrote blah... blah... and I could see the movie in my mind, I would think that they got it or used the strategy. I came to realize that some (ok, maybe many) might be just restating what I say and giving it back to me. Did they really visualize that or did they write/say that because they wanted to get the assignment over with? How do I encourage students to think about their thinking? How do I know when they engage in authentic metacognition?

What does this article teach us about learning?” (Community space) “How do I understand learning to occur?” “How does what we have explored relate to learning and teaching with technology?”