Chapter 6 Reflection

1.             Discuss how technology tools can encourage students to be reflective and evaluate their own strengths.

Teachers should have students complete a self-evaluation before and after a project to help them become more reflective. These self-evaluations should focus on the learning dispositions you expect them to develop during the project. When students assess themselves they think about their capabilities and how they direct their own learning. Students should be asked about their thinking and processes throughout the project so they become more aware of their metacognitive strategies. When students self-evaluate at the end of the project they should be able to identify certain experiences and activities that helped them learn. This will help them feel accomplished and ready to begin the next project. Technology can help students be reflective and evaluate their own strengths. Blogs can be a space for students to reflect over time about their learning. ProfilerPRO can help teachers identify student interests, strengths, and weaknesses and this information can help them guide their students learning. Finally, survey tools like SurveyMonkey can help you compare students’ self-assessments.

2.             Describe several ways in which you can get students’ minds ready for a project.

Good projects start when teachers tap into their students’ prior knowledge. KWL and similar activities can help accomplish this. Teachers need to be careful in how they first introduce their project to students. They need to get the students attention and then give the project time to settle into their imaginations. Students need to think, explore, and discuss the topic for several days before beginning their work. The more students think about the upcoming project, the more they anticipate hearing more about it. This will make students ready to begin the project as soon as it is launched.

3.             Discuss the elements of teaching fundamentals first.

Before beginning a project, teachers need to consider what prerequisite skills or knowledge their students will need to work independently on their project. Teaching these fundamentals first will ensure student success on the upcoming project. Teachers need to first set the stage for this independent inquiry. Doing something like a KWL activity helps students connect with their prior knowledge and imagine where their learning can go. Students consider what they know, wonder, and want to learn. Teachers should help students transform factual questions into questions that will lead to more complex and interesting investigations. Teachers should also share their assessment rubric with their students. This shows students what performance looks like through a qualitative description of each rating.

4.             Describe the important steps in preparing students for using technology in project.

Technology should not be the focus of projects; it should be how the project gets done. Teachers need to plan efficient ways to get students ready to use technology before they begin the project. They need to recall what resources are available to them and identify the learning functions that are important to the project. They then need to consider what tools will best accomplish these learning functions. Teachers should set up a technology playground where their students can explore new technology. They should encourage students to help each other and provide brief demonstrations when needed. By doing this, teachers can let technically able students teach others. They can set up stations with different tools, do a practice run with student trainers, and help them find demonstrations they may use. Students can then rotate stations as the student trainers demonstrate how to use the tools. However, before students begin the project, teachers should discuss the purpose of each tool and set expectations for its use. Teachers should also introduce project-management tools. A project log or journal can help students track their progress toward their goals. Students should be encouraged to write about their progess, and this will help teachers gain insight into how their students are doing. Finally, teachers should demonstrate the tools their students will be using. If they are not comfortable doing so, they should find a technology specialist, or another teacher, to demonstrate so they can learn with their students.

5.             Discuss ways to promote inquiry and deep learning.

Teachers should guide students as they choose questions, plan investigations, and put their plans into action. Students should explore their own interests and teachers should help shape student interests into real inquiry. Teachers can guide students toward skilled questioning by imagining what experts might ask. They can also guide inquiry by using question starters. “Which one” questions ask students to gather information and make informed decisions. “How” questions ask students to understand problems, weigh options, consider various points of view, and propose solutions. “What if” questions ask students to use the knowledge they have to develop a hypothesis and consider options. “Should” questions ask students to make moral or practical decisions based on evidence. Finally, “why” questions ask students to understand cause and effect.

6. Discussion on how concepts in this chapter relate to your topic/project.

Teaching the fundamentals first will be important for our project. Our students will have to have background researching and writing reports to complete the first phase of the project. From there, our students will have to understand how to write a recipe as well as how to cook that recipe. As teachers we would have to provide demonstrations on how to write recipes and we would also have to encourage our students to learn about kitchen safety. Finally, we would have to share our assessment rubric with our students so they would know what we expect out of their entire project.