Reading Reflection #3

Reading Reflection #3

1.      Discussion on what should be considered in finding “the Big Idea” for a project.

The big idea should be based on the concept that you want to teach, it will be wrapping everything up that you have been teaching and it will be the overall project. It is what your projects theme is based on.  If you are planning a lesson, all of your lessons should tie into the BIG IDEA. When I was working in a daycare this summer our theme was space, but the big idea was that the kids would learn enough about space. We had a field trip and brought the students to the planetarium. The big idea was having children understand the Solar Systems and we had daily projects that were simple like making 3-d stars, or doing a 3-d solar system. We even had astronaut/ space food for lunch and snack for that whole month. This really got the students interested and it was very obvious they were intrigued as well. This provided real world learning like going to look at stars, the moons phases, and also having things that the students can learn in the class and apply to real life.

2.      Discussion on the 2lst Century skills.

The 21^st century skills are the skills that children will learn that will help them advance in a 21^st century. These include collaborating with group members, important attitudes, beneficiary skills and good habits. These are not just learned through book work, but instead working with a community of people and with practice students can go beyond mastery and become comfortable utilizing what they were taught. This applies to Blooms Taxonomy, where instead of teaching to remember, and then comprehending, we teach children to apply it but then we stop. We rarely have the students evaluate and synthesizing. These are all skills that children don’t learn from a book, these skills are practiced and taught deliberately.

3.      Discussion on the 21st Century literacies.

The 21^st century literacies include many of the skills that we want our students to learn for 21^st century skills. Also collaborating and project management is always very good for people that ever have to work in groups. These are things that many children wouldn't know unless they got exposed to them. The ISTE and NETS discussed digital literacy. These literacies help students learn and create. All of this comes down to having the students be able to be independent  and aware.  "Projects are a great way to hold children accountable for their own actions. "Projects can truly prepare learners for the world beyond school." (Pg. 48)

4.      Discussion on each of the essential learning functions.

There are 8 different learning functions, they include Ubiquity, Deep Learning, Making things visible and discuss-able, expressing ourselves, sharing ideas, building communities, collaboration, research, project management, and reflection and iteration. Ubiquity means presence everywhere or in many places. This has to do with teaching inside and outside of the classroom and making sure that the students are always learning no matter where they are. Deep Learning means not just teaching but going further than that. This means really aiming deeper than we usually need to go. Making things visible and discuss-able is a huge deal because if children can’t “see” what you are teaching or if they can’t relate to what they are getting taught, the students will be less likely to get involved or pay attention. We need to remember that discussions are so powerful and we need to remember to incorporate group discussion because so much can happen once everyone comes together and this gives other students to reflect off other student’s ideas. Expressing ourselves and sharing ideas all lead to building a community. This is so important when you are in a classroom, this breaks the barriers where children feel threatened and they can feel more comfortable sharing when they feel a sense of a community. Collaboration’s a very important skill, you will never be able to work together if you don’t ever practice working in a group. These are skills that many people take for granted, but if you've never gotten taught, then how would you know? Researching is great because it is something that we have to relying on. This also takes skills, we have learned that there is so much out there on the internet and it is so important to understand how to research and how you do it correctly. This takes time and its great practice because it involve reading and searching different articles and different types of materials. Project management-planning and organization are huge skills to have. You have to be organized and the more that you are organized the easier life gets. If we start out teaching our younger students about this, then our future generations will be so more prepared and also planning is a skill that you do not just learn overnight, instead this takes time. Lastly is reflection and iteration, and I think that reflections are so powerful and really teach you so much. This is something that we should be focusing on as teachers is having our students be able to reflect more, because this gives them a great understanding and sometimes if others are having problems and you reflect that helps not only the child struggling but the others as well. This is a great idea, because this comes directly from others and since everyone has a different viewpoint, this lets everyone hear different things from different people. This allows people to think of things they wouldn't have thought about, since it’s coming from others besides their selves.

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

These learning functions are important and relate to our project because we have to do these things. We have to collaborate as a team because we are a team. We also have to be able to make things visible and discuss-able because we are going to have to do this for our students. We have to be able to express ourselves and share ideas with others otherwise there will be no communication. Sharing ideas is a must when you’re on a team working as a group. All of those things create a sense of community. In order to improve, you must be able to provide feedback and reflect on the positives and the negatives and then you can make adjustments.  These concepts in this chapter relate to our topic because, we have to utilize these techniques to collaborate as a group to come up with a way that we will introduce our “Big Idea” which is our classroom garden. Of course this takes a lot of preparation, and also a lot of communication and working tightly and efficiently with the members in our group so we can create what we want to create.