Submitted by Tara (not verified) on March 25, 2008 - 05:41.
I was inspired by this blog. The activities that the students participated in were so relevant to their every day lives. Shouldn't all school activities be this way? Kottler, Zehm and Kottler (2005)said that students desire for their learning to be relevant to their every day lives. Didn't we all want that when we were in school? Sometimes I forget how it was to be a student.
I know that when I provide my students with information and activities that they are really interested in, they perform better. Last week, I was teaching my third grade group of students to use adjectives to their writing to make it more interesting. It seemed that nothing was working. The students would always choose color words to describe rather than expanding their use of adjectives. The group consisted of four, very active boys. I reflected on how I could present this concept in the most relevant and exciting way. I decided to allow the group to choose what they wanted to write about. After much brainstorming, they chose race cars. I then told each of them to write about their race car in a way that would really make their audience visualize it. Their writing had the most interesting adjectives. They thoroughly enjoyed writing, and the goal of adding adjectives to their writing was met. I am a firm believer that student learning should be relevant and meaningful.
Another wonderful thing I learned through reading this blog was the idea of publicly celebrating students successes with parents, other teachers, and students.
Thanks so much for your blog.
Kottler, J. A., Zehm, S. J., & Kottler, E. (2005). On being a teacher: The human dimension (3rd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.
Relevant learning
Submitted by Tara (not verified) on March 25, 2008 - 05:41.
I was inspired by this blog. The activities that the students participated in were so relevant to their every day lives. Shouldn't all school activities be this way? Kottler, Zehm and Kottler (2005)said that students desire for their learning to be relevant to their every day lives. Didn't we all want that when we were in school? Sometimes I forget how it was to be a student.
I know that when I provide my students with information and activities that they are really interested in, they perform better. Last week, I was teaching my third grade group of students to use adjectives to their writing to make it more interesting. It seemed that nothing was working. The students would always choose color words to describe rather than expanding their use of adjectives. The group consisted of four, very active boys. I reflected on how I could present this concept in the most relevant and exciting way. I decided to allow the group to choose what they wanted to write about. After much brainstorming, they chose race cars. I then told each of them to write about their race car in a way that would really make their audience visualize it. Their writing had the most interesting adjectives. They thoroughly enjoyed writing, and the goal of adding adjectives to their writing was met. I am a firm believer that student learning should be relevant and meaningful.
Another wonderful thing I learned through reading this blog was the idea of publicly celebrating students successes with parents, other teachers, and students.
Thanks so much for your blog.
Kottler, J. A., Zehm, S. J., & Kottler, E. (2005). On being a teacher: The human dimension (3rd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.