SED 513: Final Reflection II

FINAL REFLECTION II: Goals: Professional and Personal

Success of my goals thus far: I am happy to say that I was only partly successful in my goals this semester. I had set out to pull two students who are not in jeopardy of failing TAKS, but who’s scores have decreased over time. I was able to mentor one student, but sadly the other I did not due to conflicting schedules. She was never on campus when I had conference.

Activities used/will continue to use to work toward completion of goal: I will continue to encourage the one student to go to TAKS tutoring and tutoring in general. I will continue to send Jag Cards to my students letting them know how much I do care about them. Jag cards are a big hit with students.

Results: Daniel has been working with Mr. Haney on science material. Sending reminders via mail to Daniel and Jamie, have been unsuccessful. Jamie does not attend due to her work schedule and Daniel just chooses not to go. I talked with him today and he promised he’d attend at least on session this week. According to Mr. Haney, he feels that Daniel will do well on the science TAKS. I have been working with Daniel on history and I believe he will pass. I have one more tutoring session with him, so hopefully it will be successful.

Reflection on the activity of goal-setting and its value in my teaching: Goal setting is very important in one’s professional and personal life. Life is all about progression and its worthwhile to set goals and record the improvement.

SED 513: Final Reflection I

FINAL REFLECTION I: What Instructional Strateg(ies) Worked Best?” and Why?

WHAT?- My favorite teaching strategy by far was Chapter 9: Generating and Testing Hypotheses. I commonly thought that generating and hypothesizing was only used in the science classroom, but I have seen the significance of its usage in my history class. There are two generalizations that guide the use of hypothesis and testing in the classroom and they are 1.) Hypothesis generation and testing can be approached in a more inductive or deductive manner and 2.) Teachers should ask students to clearly explain their hypotheses and their conclusions. Personally I find great value in generalization two. Reason being is that when the student begins to explain the facts, his/her hypothesis, and conclusions, he/she would have gone through the steps of the scientific method. I wanted my students to go beyond knowledge, comprehension, and application. I wanted them to use “higher level” thinking; analysis, synthesis, and evaluation. By using “higher level” thinking, the student is more likely to retain the information and apply the steps and content in other learning areas.

SO WHAT?- Hard to believe, but some students do not find history interesting the way I do! Shocker! History has a bad rap for listening to lectures and taking notes. I wanted to change that! I wanted kids to become involved in history. The task was not an easy one. But during the second presentation of Chapter 9 in Marzano’s book, we were given a “JFK Hypotheses” project. There is great interest in the assassination of JFK. I wanted them to know why their parents do not trust the government. I want them to know how shocking it was to capture the assassination on film. I wanted them to be apart of it all. So this was a great idea. I started off by reviewing what the Warren Commission had agreed upon the assassination. Basically we got the “facts.” I also included an article titled, “40 Years Later.” This article explained that more than 50% of Americans do not believe the Warren Commission’s ruling nor do they trust the American government. I posed the question, “Why?” The students had about a week and a half to research, form a hypotheses, test it, come to a conclusion, and present their theory to the class.

An example: Jacob found it interesting that the X-CIA agents that were apart of the Warren Commission were fired by JFK. He also found it interesting that at the last minute the President’s route was changed at the last minute. He then wrote the questions he wanted to ask, “Why were they fired? Why was the route changed? Why did Jack Ruby kill Lee Harvey Oswald?” etc. From his questions he posed a hypothesis that perhaps that the CIA was involved in the assassination. Did the American government set up the assassination or the Soviets? If it were the Americans, why? If it were the Soviets, why? After presenting his hypothesis to the class he concluded that because of this conspiracy combined with the Pentagon Papers, that most Americans do not trust the government. If our own President is not safe, then are we?

NOW WHAT?- This was a highly successful project. It kept the student’s interest, they enjoyed doing the project, and most importantly they used “higher level thinking skills. These skills can be applied to all subject areas. They will retain this information longer than if I had lectured over it all. I will definitely use it next year!

SED: 513 Marzano chpts 8,9, & 10

CHAPTER 8:

What?- RUBRICS! Rubrics are so important to the learning process. Our goal in education is for students to be successful. Its important for them to know what the expectations of success are. Its important for us to tell them ahead of time what is expected.
So what?- I usually give my students a rubric as to how they will be graded. On a project given to my on-level US History students, I did not provide an adequate rubric. I had kids wanting to know why they received the grade that they did. All I could tell them was that I did not see the expectations met. They replied with, "what are the expectations?"
Now what?-Usually I find the rubrics on the floor at the end of the day, so I just thought that they didn't care. But on the contrary, they did care and all knew how to receive an A. When I do hand out rubrics (which is with every project now)those who did not receive an A, know why and I no longer have arguments. They can see that the expectations were not met.


CHAPTER 9:

What?- Using hypotheses in our curriculum is very important to the learning process. In fact, out of all of the teaching strategies, I find this one to be the best. It does not only apply to science, it applies to History, English, and Math as was demonstrated by the presentations.
So what?- I used the JFK Hypotheses project in my APUSH class. My students LOVED it! It was their 5th 6 weeks test grade. In class we reviewed what the Warren Commission had agreed upon. They the students were to investigate anything that did not sit well with them. For an example, Jacob found it interesting that the men on the Warren Commission who investigated the assassination were X-CIA agents fired by JFK! Sounds pretty fishy to me :) From this investigation, Jacob and the others, hypothesised what actually happened. Jacob presented his case to the class who the CIA was involved in the assassination. It was wonderful! I have it if you would like to see it.
Now what?- I LOVE this strategy! I honestly do. It is so cool to see the students connect the past to the present. They were able to take "fact," make inferences and come to a conclusion about their research. I know they will remember what they studied and their ideas as to who assassinated JFK. One of the best projects I have done all year!

CHAPTER 10:

What?- Cues and questions are ways that I help my students use what they already know about the topic we are studying. There are 4 generalizations that should be considered when prompting students' knowledge. Those 4 are

1. Cues and questions should focus on what is important as opposed to what is unusual.
2. "higher level" questions produce deeper learning.
3. Wait time
4. Questions are effective learning tools when they are asked BEFORE a learning experience.

So what?- I stuck to these 4 generalizations when I prepared my students for TAKS. With TAKS, it is important to focus on fact, not fluff. When I introduced the topic of WWII, I played a game called "LINKS." On the board I wrote, WWII, and from that the students had to list all the things they knew about WWII. "Adolf Hitler, Pearl Harbor, A-bomb, FDR, Truman, rationing, Treaty of Versailles, etc. From each of these items, I asked "higher level" questions. Such as, "how did the Treaty of Versailles lead to the rise of Hitler? Not only did the students need to know what the treaty was, but why it was significant. A lot of teachers are afraid of "awkward silence." Its important to wait a few minutes after you ask a question to allow students to think and process the information. Likewise, its important for students to raise their hand and not blurt out the answer so others can think. Finally, asking questions before a learning experience is helpful. Because they have begun the process of thinking. They are able to make predictions as to what the correct answer is. And as we saw from chapter 9, forming hypotheses is a great teaching strategy.
Now what?- I need to remember to use "LINK" more often and present questions before we learn about a subject. I am currently going through my PowerPoints and adding a slide at the beginning of each with questions to be answered. I think it will help a lot. The students were amazed at how much they actually knew about a topic and helped reduce the tediousness of TAKS.