Okay so I have a few comments and questions on parts of the readings. It's all over the place, but here I go!
Pg. 4 I read that, "...all learning takes place in settings that have particular sets of cultural and social norms..." A few years ago, my boss told me that studies have shown that having females and males separated helps them concentrate better in class. What is interesting is that this trimester, my B block has mostly all boys and they definitely do concentrate better. I have had no issues with this class, and they participate all the time. What do you guys think?
On page 8, the article mentions how students have limited opportunity to understand because many curricula emphasizes on memory rather than understanding. I definitely agree with this because I have taught like this for many years..boo. I taught this way because in high school and my early years of college this is the way I "learned" the material. Memorizing was the way to go!!! I didn't care about understanding all I cared about was my grade. So of course, I transferred this way of thinking to my students during my early years of teaching. Now it's definitely different though (thanks Victoria), I try to teach for understanding and fall back on memorizing if nothing else works (I'm just being honest).
I also think it's cool to teach using pre-exisiting knowledge (pg. 10), but we definitely do need to be aware of any misconceptions our students have. I've had many instances where my students swore they knew the material and they really didn't. And if Chris L. is correct it takes six weeks to undo this...correct?
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Hey Chrisel,
I'm thinking about that same quote about the "particular sets of cultural and social norms" that can define a learning space. Our 7th grade community has evolved considerably since August. At this point in the year there are just a few students who stand out as actively disregarding or undermining the school's mission. Our staff has become divided over this issue because on the one hand, the few students who are continuing to have major discipline problems are impacting the progress of the community as a whole - that set of social and cultural norms that are so critical to a positive learning environment. Yet, if these students end up being expelled, haven't we just failed them? If they leave our school, where will they go? For me, now, it's a question of how to create and uphold these support nets. Do we assume that the appropriate net of social and cultural norms basically exists and our job is to preserve it (with whatever means are necessary, even after a series of chances, expulsion?) or do we step further back and say we need to reform this net and make strides to include any outlying or oppositional students in its creation?
It sounds like in your class, the all-male dynamic has contributed to a positive learning environment. I wonder why, though? It must be a combination of the energy to bring and establish in your classroom and that all-male dynamic. What is it about gender-same environments that works sometimes? And why is it that, for me, it's groups of boys who, together, make up the "discipline problem" at our school?
It's refreshing to hear that your group of male students is doing well. I'd started to feel hopeless about how our schools are failing boys. While I think we're due for a large-scale paradigm shift, it sounds like you've implemented something successful on a smaller scale in your classroom. Congratulations! I'd love to observe sometime and that class in action.
Chrisel, I've witnessed the wonderful relationships you've built with your students and I commend you for being so gentle, open and positive with all your students. I definitely agree that we need to be aware of our misconceptions we have about our students and it can become dangerous if we let them be point of teaching.
The "six weeks" thing is mostly about creating or breaking habits and routines. Correcting a flawed paradigm can take YEARS. :) In my experience, you have to work with the new paradigm "as if it were true" for a while before you can really grasp it and accept it -- but that may just be how my mind works.
Math seems like it would be an especially challenging subject in which to teach for understanding rather than memorization. I learned math by the Saxon method, which emphasizes practicing skills over and over and OVER again using a mixture of simple drills and word problems. I became skilled at using different equations and mathematical procedures in different situations, but there were some aspects of math that I just never grasped on a conceptual level (like matrix theory), which caused problems for me in later classes in physics. You definitely have my sympathy as you're figuring out how to convey mathematical ideas in a constructivist way.
And yes, we definitely tend to reproduce the teaching habits of our own instructors. I still feel that temptation to fall back on the lecture mode that my professors used -- though it's becoming easier to resist as I recognize the technique's weaknesses in dealing with my own students. :)
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