My Constructivist Learning Theory Thoughts:
I enjoyed reading the Look Before You Leap article. I thought that the
inventory was very interesting because I could clearly see the area that I need
to work on to truly crate a constructivist classroom (assessment-they really
don’t have any say in how they are assessed!) However, I think at the Kindergarten
level, having a constructivist view comes naturally for me because I believe
that is how children learn best....by doing, moving, investigating and
experiencing. My score was a 137 and I even went back to see if I fully
understood the answers and it was still pretty accurate! The children (and even
myself) in the “Camping Room” learn through play, discovery, cooperation and
almost all hands-on activities. I do, however, show my campers how to play a
game/activity or how to use a specific manipulative to help with their learning
and then put the new activity in one of our Work Stations a.k.a. stations. My
campers then get to have a choice of what activity/game they will use/play to
help guide their learning for that specific concept. For example: if we are
learning a new high frequency word I will include multiple ways for the
students to learn and explore. I might add play-doh, colored sand or wiki stix
with a set of flashcards; sight word bottles, magnetic letters, sight word
books & highlighters, add the word to our “spelling test” on the iPad,
various letter/word building manipulatives, sight word puzzles, sentence
scrambles, sight word search & find write the room, listening to books on
iPod/CD focusing on the specific sight word, and even worksheets with the sight
word in it for those who learn through this type of practice. For each work
station my campers have 10-15 different choices on how they want to learn the
concept. I do not require them to do all of the activities at each station;
instead I let them choose the activities/games in which they are interested in.
I also let the students determine whether they want to work in small groups or
if they would like to work individually. After our Work Station time is done,
we gather on the carpet and share what we have worked on/learned during our
time. I know when to change the stations out by the observations that I make on
student behavior. When the students start getting “Squirrely” at the stations
that tells me that they are getting “bored” with the activities at that
station. I simply teach them something new that fits the level/concepts in
which they are learning. I try to scaffold their learning as much as possible
to fit the needs of all of my students. If it is a new activity that they are
not engaged in, it means that I have not done a good enough job at modeling how
the activity/game is played and I can quickly intervene.
My favorite quote from this article is: “you can teach students anything; but it doesn’t
mean they have learned a thing”. They
have to make it meaningful to their own lives!
Minor Changes
The area that I would like to
improve on would be more choice for the students. I think that they do get many opportunities
to choose how they would like to learn, however, they don’t get a lot of choice
of what they want to learn. I guess that
there has never been a lot of time for me to allow them the choice of what they
want to learn. I look at the standards
and our end of the year objectives and I base their learning/my instruction off
those goals and try to make sure that all students are getting the instruction
that they need by the end of the year. In
order to get things done throughout the day I put them into table groups, I pair
them with their workstation partners & I am the one who decides what
workstation they go to. Maybe a little
more freedom will empower them to still make good educational choices for
themselves. I guess we’ll see... stay tuned!
Another area that I would like to
do a better job for instruction is feedback and conversations after the
learning has taken place. I want to see
if an individual truly has a secure understanding of a concept through
authentic conversations, not just summative assessment. I also want to seek out and value my students’
point of view.
May 14th, 2013
The Constructivist Learning Theory (CLT) ties nicely into
other areas that I have been learning about.
The CLT is the umbrella that encompasses Instructional Strategies, Backwards
Design, Assessment and my Action Research topic of Differentiated Instruction. While reviewing a power point based on In Search of Understanding: The Case for
Constructivist Classrooms by Brooks and Brooks, I was able to easily make
many connections between assessment, backwards design, instructional
strategies, and differentiated instruction.
As I was reading, I made a visual map showing the elements of
constructivism and all of its relationships.
Even after just a few notes my visual map had arrows pointing all over
the place. Here are some of the
connections that I made, see my visual map below.
After creating my “Visual Constructivist
Map” last week, I have a new understanding how all of what I’ve been learning
about in class is intertwined. There are
so many new connections being made. Some
of the connections I know are best practices, but I’m also making new
connections as to why they are best
practices and how everything I do needs to be intentional because it is all in
some way connected. This week is the
last week of school and unfortunately it has not allowed much time for teaching. Fortunately, to make our Kindergarten year
memorable, every day has been filled with either a field trip, outside kindergarten
stations, summer birthday celebrations or school-wide celebrations. So, a
baby step that I am excited to try next
school year to become more of a constructivist teacher is to focus more on
assessment. I would like the students to
have more of a say in their assessments.
I think that by having their input, they will personalize their
educational choices and make more meaningful connections. I
think that this will have a positive outcome because it will allow for more differentiation
and real-learning opportunities.
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