5 E's and Inquiry Methods

The 5 Es help teachers to create engaging lessons as well as recognize when their students are engaged. Learning is much more easily facilitated when students invest their interest and attention into a lesson. For that reason, the Inquiry Models of teaching are some of my favorite. They allow students to take charge of their own learning while still being guided by the teacher. The Inquiry Models allow teachers to pose broad, open-ended questions for students to explore on their own or in groups.
While I am a big fan of this kind of teaching, I understand that there are difficulties and downsides as well. If students don't feel like the classroom is a safe environment, the exploration of the provided learning material will be overshadowed by the fear that the students will do something wrong and be punished for it. It's very important for a teacher using the inquiry models to create a strong class community of respect and an environment in which students feel comfortable. If this is done correctly, students will be able to engage with the lesson and experience the joy of learning. When appropriate, teachers can offer a course correction if students are missing the mark completely. This should be done sparingly and with as much tact as possible. Tactfully spinning an "incorrect" answer to make sure the class as a whole is not mislead is a useful skill when teaching using this method.

Learning Styles and Multiple Intelligences

In my experience with "Learning Styles" and "Multiple Intelligences," these theories are often used by students to make excuses for why they can't do something. I've heard things such as, "I'm failing that class because I'm a visual learner and the teacher only lectures" or "I'm really talented in Math, but not in Language." I feel these theories, rather than assisting teachers in reaching their students, have done harm to students by making them think that learning should come easy. If learning doesn't come easy, the problem is not with the student, but with the teacher.
This is a backwards approach to education. While it is very important that teachers make every effort to make their content accessible to students, it won't matter if the students don't put in the effort to learn the content. The most thoughtful and engaging learning activity could capture the attention of that one hard-to-reach student, but unless the student makes an effort to internalize the content, the student will still fall behind the other students in the class.
On that note, I'd like to discuss direct instruction as a teaching method. While I certainly think that it has its place in education, I believe it should be used with great care. Direct instruction is the kind of teaching that "trouble students" dread. It is difficult to create an engaging lesson with this teaching method. However, it requires less planning than many other instructional methods. For this reason, teachers should feel free to make use of it. With a burn-out rate as high as what is experienced in education, teachers should keep in mind their own mental health when crafting their lessons. Direct instruction lessons can be used to teach concepts that the teacher is confident the students will grasp easily. It can also be used to provide scaffolding for a more engaging lesson later down the road.

TodaysMeet - Point of View

Reflection

TodaysMeet is a no-frills collaboration tool that is easy and intuitive to use. I really like that you can embed it in its "live stream." Because of this, if you already have a blog or similar page that your students visit frequently, you don't have to give them a different website to navigate to. They can just visit the blog that they normally visit and participate from there. As I mentioned earlier, there are no extra bells and whistles with this tool. Some students may find it boring and not very engaging. I can imagine some students joining the conversation just to go through the motions to get their grade rather than actively participating and following the chat.

In this example, I am trying to prompt student discussion and analysis of the point of view in the book "Out of the Dust" by Karen Hesse. I would hope that different students would contribute different insights and at the end of the conversation, the students will have expanded their understanding of the book as well as of how authors develop characters and points of view.

Standards

UEN
Reading: Literature Standard 6
Explain how an author develops the point of view of the narrator or speaker in a text.
EdTech
Standard 7
Use telecommunications and on-line resources (e.g., email, online discussions, web environments) to participate in collaborative problem-solving activities to develop solutions or products for audiences inside and outside the classroom. (4, 5)
ISTE
Global Collaborator
I strive to broaden my perspective, understand others and work effectively in teams using digital tools.

Padlet - Class Discussion

Reflection

I really like the concept of Padlet and wish I had a real class that I could use it with! It is very simple to use and makes a class discussion effortless. I feel that students will be more likely to participate in a written discussion than a verbal one because they will have time to formulate their thoughts before posting them. They won't have to worry about finding the right words on the spot. I know that that is one reason that I have trouble with in-class discussions. I am afraid I won't be able to accurately convey what I am thinking. As a teacher, I would use this tool to carry out class discussions - in this example we would be discussing a book that we are reading as a class. I would ask each student to make a least one comment answering the main question or asking questions of their peers regarding the reading.

Standards

UEN
Language Arts Grade 5
Reading: Literature Standard 1
Quote accurately from a text when explaining what the text says explicitly and when drawing inferences from the text.
EdTech
Standard 7
Use telecommunications and on-line resources (e.g., email, online discussions, web environments) to participate in collaborative problem-solving activities to develop solutions or products for audiences inside and outside the classroom.
ISTE
Global Collaborator
I strive to broaden my perspective, understand others and work effectively in teams using digital tools.

eMaze - Classifying Living and Non-Living Things

Reflection

I enjoyed using this tool. It was easy and felt kind of like a "one-stop shop" for presentations. I was able to search for the images I used right from the presentation. I feel like that is a lot more user-friendly than PowerPoint where you have to search on the internet and then insert the picture yourself. The project I had in mind for students would be that we would visit the computer lab as a class and students would work in partnerships as they go through the presentation. They would answer questions and engage with the presentation together. For a few of the slides, I included the same images so that students could add on to what they learned in previous slides and practice identifying different parts of the ecosystem in those images.

Standards

UEN
Standard 2
Students will understand that organisms depend on living and nonliving things within their environment.
EdTech
Standard 6
Use telecommunications efficiently and effectively to access remote information and communicate with others in support of direct and independent learning and for pursuit of personal interests
ISTE
Global Collaborator
I strive to broaden my perspective, understand others and work effectively in teams using digital tools.

Podcast - Conservation of Matter

 

Conservation of Matter.mp3

Observing physical change.mp3

Observing Chemical Change.mp3

Conserving Matter.mp3

Reflection

Making a podcast was a little nerve-racking for me. I really don't like recording myself and I feel like I am going to say something wrong and have to start all over. To overcome that, I wrote a script for each podcast and read it aloud. This worked well for the most part, except when I would stutter on a word I would get self-conscious. I think that these turned out well despite that. In a classroom setting, I would use a podcast as a way for students to have access to study materials that they can access when at home. I know that many students dread reading and having a podcast they could listen to instead might be a way of getting them to study without so much dread.

Standards 

UEN

Science, 5th Grade, Standard 1

Students will understand that chemical and physical changes occur in matter.

EdTech

Standard 8 Use technology resources (e.g., calculators, data collection probes, videos, educational software) for problem-solving, self-directed learning, and extended learning activities.

ISTE

Knowledge Constructor

I critically select, evaluate and synthesize digital resources into a collection that reflects my learning and builds my knowledge.

MindMap - Character Comparison

Reflection:

I used Popplet.com to create My MindMap. This project is an example project that I would use with students to show them what I expect from them. The assignment would be to compare and contrast characters from a book that they are reading individually or even as a class. The great thing about Popplet is that there is no limit to the space used. This project could be expanded to included many other characters and you could easily find a character and review their characteristics or add to them. 

I didn't really have any complaints about Popplet. It allowed me to easily create a mind map that looked clean. It is easily edited and I feel elementary students will be able to use this tool to brain storm and compare concepts and ideas.

Standards:

UEN Standard 5th Grade
Reading: Literature Standard 3
Compare and contrast two or more characters, settings, or events in a story or drama, drawing on specific details in the text (e.g., how characters interact).
Ed Tech
Standard 5
Use technology tools (e.g., multimedia authoring, presentation, web tools, digital cameras, scanners) for individual and collaborative writing, communication, and publishing activities to create knowledge products for audiences inside and outside the classroom. (3, 4)
ISTE
Innovative Designer
I solve problems by creating new and imaginative solutions using a variety of digital tools.