Weekly Vitamins: A Dose of Problem Based Learning

This week, we read all about Problem Based Learning (PBL). The readings were great materials to prepare us for our lab on PBL. Hearing about PBL initially sounds scary... letting students basically research and find the answers, sometimes based off of little prior knowledge. What if it takes some students longer than others to figure it out? What if they begin asking questions about things that I don't know about? How do you prepare information about a topic/lesson when the students are the ones driving the class? How do you make objectives and prepare assessments when you don't know what exactly the students will discover?

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Perhaps I have so much apprehension and concern about PBL because I haven't been forced to do it much in my years of school. I've been handed the information, books, articles, texts to learn. I've been given instructions and haven't been given much liberty to think on my own or truly grasp the impact my thoughts and research can play into learning and education. I know there has to be an effective way to get to answer my questions--I suppose I just have to do a little problem solving on my own to figure that out. 

Using knowledge to guide

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In the article Principles of Teaching Problem Solving, they talked a little about the knowledge of the learner. They mentioned declarative knowledge which is the facts, concepts, and principles students learn. Procedural knowledge deals with problem-solving and structure of the learning. Teaching both at the same time or crossing back and forth can be extremely effective. 

I think this starts to ease some of my worries as I wrap my head around PBL. I thought that teachers had to first teach the declarative knowledge and then do the procedural, or that they might introduce a subject with the procedural knowledge and then they would fill in the rest of the information with the declarative knowledge. While there may be some cases where this might be most effective, knowing that it can also be done together is also really helpful. Maybe the teacher introduces a few key terms and then has students work. When a student encounters a question or even specific information, the teacher might then give more declarative knowledge and send the students on their way to discovering more. 

Impact of situation in students' lives

If the students don't see the connect to their own lives or reality, they won't see the need to learn. That, or they will only learn "for the test". PBL, I think, really helps them see that understanding the situation and solutions can be important for their lives and careers. They can also apply and practice what they are learning instead of always regurgitating the information. 

In the article, 8 Essentials for Problem Based Learning, it gives some tips about using it most effectively in the classroom. 

socialimpact.wharton.upenn.edu

Having a captivating interest approach, and identifying an essential question that they are to solve are two main ways to begin the process. Essential questions or driving questions should be open-ended, complex, and linked to the core problem. The author compared it to a thesis in a research paper. Without it, there wouldn't be much direction.

Student choice is also important. Students shouldn't have full control of the reigns, but should be given options what and how. Let them decide how to present the information. Let them ask the questions, and don't heavily place criteria on them. As long as it relates to the goal of the driving question and the teacher can see that the student is understanding the content, the other portions of the assignment(s) are secondary.

Additional readings

I found some sources that organize the process of PBL. Worth reading! I think it helped facilitate the process in an organized manner. It pulls in a lot of the ideas from the reading, but has some other nice tips.

http://www.educationworld.com/a_curr/problem-based-learning-tips-ideas.shtml

http://www.educationworld.com/a_curr/problem-based-learning-real-world.shtml

Leaving Thought

"Great things are done by a series of small things brought together" -- Vincent van Gogh

My Unit Plan Evaluation

We just finished our Model Unit Plan assignment and I am now looking over all of the feedback from the assignment. Overall, I think I had a pretty good start, however there are a few areas I need to revise.

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Peer Feedback

I did not have too much specific feedback from my peers, however they noted that my unit assessments section could be revised to make it into percentages (I originally had them as just point values). Another suggestion was to be more descriptive in some areas such as the FFA and SAE integration areas.

Professional Feedback

Some of the big things I needed to work on were objectives. I need to add in the criteria part for the objectives. Some have the criteria, but others I struggled to put a quantitative value or a specific learning indicator on it. I suppose I feel that some lessons or activities can't always be evaluated. And I feel that sometimes students need a day or two of learning about that same topic before that objective is truly completed. I still need practice with objectives, but I think not every activity or lesson fits perfectly in the "box" of objectives, if you can imagine such a thing.

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Other than that, I just needed to be even more specific about certain sections. I already felt I was pretty specific, so I think I'm going to have reevaluate and add more details as per the suggestions. 

Reflective thoughts

I thought this assignment was hard! We had just learned about understanding by design, and working with the end in mind, but making a whole unit without knowing some of the specific details was hard. For example, knowing the realia when I didn't even know what I was doing for my lessons was challenging. I like the idea of starting with most sections of the unit plan and keeping the unknown parts a work in progress. I would then start my lesson plans. That way I can add realia or standards as I encounter them with my lesson plan into my unit plan. Establishing goals and having a general timeline for the unit is essential to the "end in mind" idea, however, so I definitely see the value in that. 

Weekly Vitamins: The Essential Nutrients for an Involved Classroom

This week we read about asking effective questions in the classroom. There are many reasons teachers ask questions and there are many types of questions they can ask. 

Why ask questions?

Cornell University says that there are several reasons:

• check student understanding of the materials
• keep student's attention and encourage participation
• review or summarize what they've just learned
• promote critical thinking
• encourage students to put their reasoning into words rather than linger in their thoughts

In my mind, questions are the most effective tool a teacher can use to teach. You don't have to buy it, don't need to physically put something together.. you don't even need to write it down (though it's recommended)! Just asking questions lets the teacher know where their students are at in their learning and can get them refocused if they are off track. 

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Questions should hold meaning, and meet the goal the teacher is trying to reach, not just going through the motions. If the students need to know something specific, they might hear a closed question. Open-ended may have multiple answers that students can use their prior knowledge to figure out the best response. Discussion can be a great tool to not only practice critical thinking and reasoning skills but also communication and debate skills. Rhetorical questions are also effective by forcing students to think.

What techniques can make questions more effective in the classroom?

I think a lot of it depends on the context of what students are learning and the goal the teacher desires to reach. However, there are some really good tips offered by the University of Florida. 

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One tip is to avoid asking "are there any questions?". How many times have I asked that and was received with blank stares. Whether it was in meetings or workshops or classrooms, I assumed silence meant my audience had no questions and completely understood. But I know there were times when that question was turned on me. Did I have questions? Yes. Did I ask them when the teacher asks if anyone has any questions? Most likely no. Unless I was confident that other students had similar questions or I knew I was not going to be judged for my question, I tended to stay quiet and wait until the end of class. If I can rephrase that question so that I am asking students more meaningful questions, I'll be able to determine who needs help and with what.

Another tip I saw was to wait 5-7 seconds after asking a question for a response. Teachers want to ask these meaningful questions but sometimes expect these equally meaningful answers right away. Students don't know what they're going to ask, so they need some more time to process the question and come up with a good answer. By pushing after only a second or two isn't giving them enough time to think and have a quality answer. I think I've even heard that teachers should wait at least 10 seconds on complex questions. Some students simply need more time. 

Who are our students?

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In some of the TED talks we watched, they talked about student value. Students are very talented and intelligent. And they are not too far off from being thrown into the real world once they reach high school. They should be respected as adults and valued for their thoughts and innovative ideas. Teachers are teaching them how to be adults and yet, when they want to talk about complex and more "adult" things like politics or news, some may automatically assume they can't handle a conversation like that. Teachers should use their wisdom to share, not hide for only those around their age. 

Leaving Thought

"When you ask for genius, it will show up, if you believe it"--Angela Maiers

 

Lab Trial #2: Interest Approach

Question or Problem

How do I create an effective interest approach or anticipatory set that captures student interest while also tying into the lesson prepared for the day?

blog.engineeringstudents.org

...doing research on interest approaches... hypothesizing that students will be interested in lesson and make a connection to their learning goals...

Testing the experiment

My lesson was an introduction to the Food Safety Laws unit in my Food Science course. I wanted to start them off with food contaminants, as this is how their textbook begins the Food Safety chapter, and I think this would be relatable to them as many are probably familiar with the concepts of food contamination. 

convergencetraining.com

I presented my students with three food items, each with a contaminant in them. Students had to come up to the food and observe what they saw, and hypothesis what they think happened. 

Analysis and results of data

When I finally figured out an interest approach, I was really excited to do it. However, what I had in my head was not exactly what came out in class. I believe for the most part, my interest approach went really well. It was fairly simple, after all. But my clarity in explaining the process of what they were doing as well as rules of what not to do were lacking. I didn't tell the students not to touch the food until after I saw them touching it, and even then didn't make those expectations clear enough because another student ate part of the interest approach! These were actual contaminants, however the students should have been okay.

But I ask myself, what if I had facilitated this in a real classroom? I think as far as clarification goes, I would have gotten an F... okay maybe a D if I'm being nice to myself. We talk so much about how clarity is essential to a smooth lesson and a happy group of students. I am still trying to find my flow, I think, and once I do, I'll be able to more effectively explain directions. I think when I sit down and do lesson plans, I almost have to anticipate everything and plan for that. It's like coming up with twenty different plan B's for anything that might happen. 

Something else that was mentioned from my peers is being more forceful in disciplining them. I am good with immediately approaching the problem, but need to be stronger in my response to the student's misbehavior. Students need to see that I am serious and will follow through with consequences as needed. 

Conclusion

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Overall, I still think the interest approach in itself was effective. Some interest approaches are much simpler, and that's okay, but I was glad to bring in actual food and have students do a little observation. It got them up and moving and thinking critically about the food they were observing. As long as I keep in mind clarity and preparing myself for situations to occur, I think my lab would have been golden. I look forward to leading this lesson with my real students in the future, and make some major improvements the second time. 

Leaving Thought

"I have not failed, I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work."--Thomas Edison

A Vlog on Resource People

I decided to change things up this week and make a vlog! I didn't realize I could talk that much but I think there's just so much to share!

So this week, we read about cooperative or group learning techniques to use in the classroom. Each of my cohort members were given a group learning method to report on and mine is utilizing resource people in the community!

Watch the video to hear some of my thoughts about guest speakers in the classroom. Sorry the video is too big for Blogger, so you'll have to click on the link to watch it!

Resource People Vlog!!

Here are some of the articles I mentioned:

For tips on planning for a resource person, Click Here.

For more "what" and "why" as far as resource people in the classroom goes, Click Here.


Also, check out this video about National Teach Ag Day (today!). I got to be a part in this video!

*video credit goes to Victoria Herr

Happy National Teach Ag Day!

Weekly Vitamins: Ingredients of a Well-Balanced Plan

Ever heard of someone say that well-balanced meals are full of color? Just as food should have the right mix of nutrients, be paired with similar items on the plate, and be made at the right temperature, so should lessons. Let's break down how this week's readings require that teachers teach with balance and attention to levels of instruction.

The Ramon Noodle lesson

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In my last blog post on the readings, I talked a little bit about objectives. This week, we also had a reading on objectives, but there were a few little things that really struck me. Whittington talks about lower-level objectives (to which I equate to Ramon Noodles). This meal is easy to make and can be done with a low level of knowledge in the kitchen. Whittington says that by raising the bar in the objectives (or maybe making a spaghetti and meatball platter instead), it shows that if they can demonstrate understanding through a more complex level of thinking, then they must also be able to understand the lower-level thinking. 

Food analogies aside, the author says that teachers should be cautious of teaching to lower-level objectives like listing or recalling information. Instead, have students problem solve and apply the lists by explaining or creating. If that can be done successfully, teachers know that the students must also have mastered the recall level.

I think, however, being able to list information is important, and sometimes, it is a necessary step to focus on before diving too deeply into complex areas. At least in the very beginning of a unit or lesson it may be beneficial to take time to focus on rote memorization, and then use that foundation to propel the student into higher levels of thinking. Some students may otherwise be overwhelmed if they don't have some sort of a foundation to begin with, and within their zone of proximal development. For example, one can't explain why parts of an engine work together if they don't first know what the parts are called or what their purpose is. 

The balanced plate

exclusive.multibriefs.com

I loved this quote from the article: "when we write objectives designed to challenge students at higher cognitive levels, we, as teachers must equally challenge ourselves to teach at higher cognitive levels". This statement is so powerful because it says that teachers must mirror the level they teach at to the level at which they want their students to think. Teachers can't teach how to make Ramon Noodles and expect that their students will make a spaghetti and meatball platter. Likewise, teachers shouldn't teach a spaghetti platter and only evaluate at a Ramon Noodle level. This creates confusion of the goal of the lesson and what they are to carry over into the next lesson.

Family meals

So we've set up an idea for the level at which to teach individual students, but now we must differentiate our instruction and give students a chance to practice as a group. There are many reasons to incorporate cooperative or group learning, but one that Groseta and Myers shares really stood out to me. They said that students more frequently use higher-level reasoning strategies when they're expected to explain something to their peers. This makes sense as I think about Bloom's taxonomy and those higher-level objectives as discussed earlier. "Explaining" is much higher than "listing", and students that have to explain something to their partner or small group are more likely to have better discussion and reasoning skills than those that just simply list off the answers. 

steadyhealth.com

In our Methods of Teaching Agriculture book, it offered some examples of ways to go about group teaching. Here, group teaching can be taken to mean large groups as well as partners or small groups. The idea in group teaching is meant to facilitate other ways to get students involved and learning with one another; not just individual instruction. I really liked how the book emphasized that teachers must teach to their strengths. They should also take into consideration the subject matter being taught and whether the method will best drive home the learning. One of their examples was how a lesson on parts of a plant probably wouldn't be done by role-playing or taking a field trip.

Conclusion

This is important for me to remember as I plan ways to differentiate my instruction. I have to ask myself does the activity or action I'm having my students perform best reflect the objectives I need to meet? Are students being challenged to the appropriate level and by the right way?

Having a firm grasp on those thoughts will aid me as I build a well-balanced lesson plan.

Leaving Thought

"Normality is a paved road: it's comfortable to walk, but no flowers grow"--Vincent van Gogh

Whittington, M.S. (2005). Writing objectives in secondary agriculture courses that challenge

         students to think. Agriculture Education Magazine. Retrieved from

         http://www.naae.org/profdevelopment/magazine/archive_issues/Volume77/v77i5.pdf

Newcomb, L.H., McCracken, J.D., Warmbrod, J.R., & Whittington, M.S. (1993). Methods of

        teaching agriculture. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson Prentice Hall.

Groseta, K.J. & Myers, B.E. (2006). Using cooperative learning in formal and nonformal

        education. Retrieved from https://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/pdffiles/WC/WC06200.pdf

Lab Trial #1: First Day of School

Question or Problem

How do I create an engaging first day of school lesson plan identifying student interests, instructing classroom management procedures, and engaging students in their first taste of the content for the first unit of instruction? (Added Challenge: How do I create the inviting and comfortable learning atmosphere I desire based on my teaching philosophy?).

getchemistryhelp.com

...doing research on activities and classroom procedure practices... hypothesizing that students will enjoy planned activities and walk away with understanding of the course...

Testing the experiment

wallsheaven.de

In lab on Wednesday I had my students do a bellwork activity by writing some information down about themselves. Following this, I went over the objectives, and led them in an icebreaker. There was much more to my lesson, however this was what could fit in the 10 minute time period for the lab.

Analysis and results of data

I really enjoyed planning and facilitating this lesson plan! My students (classmates) had some strong characters as they acted out different types of students. One had a cell phone addiction, and others shared inappropriate comments or put-downs that I had to correct. After watching the video of the lab, I think I did a good job of paying attention to the behavior of my students. There were only a few behaviors that I didn't notice that I should have taken care of. (Still growing those eyes in the back of my head, I guess). Despite those few unnoticed behaviors, I think walking around the room, engaging with students, and approaching them as soon as I noticed the misbehavior helped.

On the other side of this, I know I need to work on managing those students once I've caught them. After hearing some very helpful and supportive feedback from my peers, the biggest thing I got was to be more stern, and serious from the second an issue happens so students immediately know that I'm not playing around when it comes to misbehavior. 

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It always seems to be the case that I think of good responses after the fact but in the moment, I'm never quite sure what to say. I think this is difficult because each student reacts to a response in different ways. While one student may be receptive to a "teacher stare", another might need to be pulled out into the hall way 2 or 3 (or more) times before they get their act together. Knowing that there are many options and that they differ from student to student make discipline difficult for me. Especially when I have to do it in the moment.

Conclusion

I truly welcomed the suggestions of my classmates because I think their perspective and honesty helps me more clearly see where I need improvement as well as see what my strengths are. Discipline is the key area I need to improve! 

Otherwise, I felt very good about being in front of the room, leading the activities, and transitioning. 

Leaving Thought

"If it's both terrifying and amazing, then you should definitely pursue it"-Erada