Thursday, May 31, 2012

Week 4 Class Reflection Questions


Week 4 Reflection Questions

            In teaching students using the Gagne Theory of Instruction, a systematical approach has to be used in order for students to grasp and use the new information.
1.      Gaining attention- “Today we are planning a party and we have a limited amount of money in which to provide the drink for the party.”
2.      Objective- “We are going to figure out which one of the brands of juice will give us the most juice for the least amount of money. Which item has the cheapest unit price?”
3.      Recall of prior learning- “Let’s first take a look at some division problems we have done in the past.” Examples would be given to remind students how to divide.
4.      Presenting the stimulus-“We have 4 different bottles of grape juice on the table. Each of the bottles are from a different company. We need to know which company we will buy from for our party.”
5.      Learning guidance- “Here are some bags of chips. Let me demonstrate how I would find the unit cost from bag of chips. It is important to be able to identify the best deal in a store to help you save money.”
6.      Performance- “Now I will break you up into teams of 3. Each team is to figure out the unit price and decide which company we will use for our drink. Be sure to show all of your work.”
7.      Providing Feedback- “Each group has completed their task.  Applaud for the bottle you discovered will be the best deal.” Then go through each bottle asking students to applaud at the bottle they found to be the best buy.  
8.       Assessing Performance- “A party has more than just drinks. Here are some additional party foods on this handout. Using the information we have learned to decide which of the foods would be the best buy for our party.”
9.      Enhancing retention and transfer- “What are some other places you would need to figure unit price? In teams you are going to decide another time you would need to find unit prices. As a team, give the situation and the products you would have to find unit prices on. Using the Internet figure out the prices and unit cost. Display your finding for your classmates.

In teaching students using the Cognitive Information Processing Theory relies on the environment playing a large role in the process. 
“Many of you have been to a grocery store. Let’s make a KWL chart about the products you find in a store with regards to their weight and pricing.  If you will notice we have a mock store setup in the classroom. I would like you to take a few minutes to look through the store and see if you can identify some additional information about the store.  Something you may not have noticed is each item has a different weight as well as a shelf tag which may tell the price of each unit for that item.  Let’s look at an example of peanut butter. How do you know which is the best buy?  This is a shelf tag.  You will notice that on this shelf tag it shows you the cost per ounce. This will help you determine if you are getting the best buy possible. How do stores figure out the cost per unit?   Let’s take a look at the diagram on the board. What steps does it take to figuring out the unit price?  Why would we want to figure out the unit prices? Did you know not all stores figure out the unit price the same way? Some base their information on servings, while others base it on ounces.  Here are a list of items your group will find in our mock store. I would like you to figure out which brands would be the best buy. Tomorrow we will be taking a field trip to an art store and looking for a list of supplies for our upcoming art project. We will have to stay with in a budget and be able to identify which items will provide the best buy as well.” Students would be provided with additional worksheets. A final project would have the students work in teams to produce a presentation to teach others how to find the unit price of an object.

In teaching students using the Behavioral Learning Theory, students must have sufficient practice and reinforcement also with the use of small steps with frequent responsive.
“Today I am going to demonstrate how to find the unit price of this bottle of grape juice. It is important to find unit prices so you can find the best deal for your money. Has anyone every figured out the price per unit of an item? What item was it and how did you go about finding the information? Since no one has done this before let’s take a step by step look at how to do this.  We look at the total price of the juice. The cost is $3.45. We look at the number of ounces in the bottle. It says 64 ounces. We will take the cost and divide it by the ounces to come up with the unit price. Let us do each step together. (Students would give answers to get of the step.) Now I would like you to write down the steps to finding out the price per unit. Here is an example on the board of another item and its unit prices and cost. On your paper I would like you to figure out the price per unit. The correct unit price is 5 cents. If you found the correct answer for the problem on the board I would like you to stomp your feet. (Several more examples would be given to help students understand the idea. Each time students would be given the correct answer after they have had a chance to work out the problems. Extra practice would also be given that would be graded and returned.)
  
In chapter 14 it talked about the Human Performance Improvement model. As a teacher it reminds me of the importance of continuing to seek new methods to reach my students.  In order to be the best productive worker I must continue to grow and change to meet the needs of each new generation of students. My goal should be to help my students learn to be life-long learners in order for them to be productive and adaptable in their career path. We cannot depend solely on training but must use our abilities to function in the best way possible. Helping my students by providing an incentive can help motivate them as well as do their best. Helping them find their own internal incentives is one of my goals. In school helping students understand the vision of where they are going and the accomplishments it will take to complete the vision is also important. Though students may perform well in the classroom it will be important for me to make sure students can transfer the knowledge from the classroom to their life career. For me as a teacher it will be important to strive to make the information learned in an in-service become an important part of my classroom not just a good idea especially in the area of technology.

For some students history is interesting and enjoyable. For others it is boring and a waste of time. I have come across a podcast put on by Colonial Williamsburg. The pod casts are about 11 minutes in length and ran just off my computer. Some of the pod casts were "The Wooden Teeth that Weren't", "Town Gunsmith", "Meet the Cooper", "Meet the Shoemaker", "Meet the Carpenter". All of these characters are interviewed on the podcast. I learned some interesting things as well.
Here is a link to the podcast: http://podcast.history.org/
Check it out and see if it adds to the enjoyment of history. I would recommend it for at least middle school or above.
I think social bookmarking can help open new ideas to teachers as they begin to network with other teachers. Often times we don’t have time to find all the sites that could really improve our teaching, but using something like the bookmarking can help teachers work together to find new and interesting ways to present the material to their students. Also, including some sites that parents can look at to have information to help their child on a particular subject. It could also include website that could help parents find information on child rising.   

No comments:

Post a Comment