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!