Marilyn

Northeastern University Mini-Baja Team traveling to South Dakota.

        This is probably why I am in this class. Two words that popped up in our discussions yesterday that I jotted down were 'dynamic' and 'embedded'.  I feel my "natives" need dynamic technology embedded into their classroom curriculum.  They may not feel the need in first grade (not like a high schooler may be more connected to technology on an everyday level), but it is the world we live in and it must be incorporated into their education. Technology is embedded in their lives, it must be embedded in their education. 

Constructivism and the Five E’s

    Before I begin discussion of the reading I find it apropos to mention that I did not print this article, highlight it with a highlighter and take notes in the margins, as I would have done for any other class.  Upon finishing reading the piece, I began a Word document beside the open article and was able to type my comments while being able to refer back to the piece.  Hopefully I will be able to cut and paste this document onto my wiki page…! 

    This article about constructivist learning describes the necessary involvement of the student for this style of learning to take place. First, there must be an initial curiosity, a desire on the student’s part to want to understand (I find it interesting that the word “understand” comes to mind to use here, not “know” – and I think that may be a key feature of constructivist learning).  This desire may be self-motivated or may be initialized by a teacher with expert questioning, prodding or other methods of engagement.  This is the engagement stage; the student needs to ‘buy into’ or be committed to the project.  I believe it important to note here that students will ‘arrive’ at the project with many levels of understanding and prior knowledge, and that this is perfectly acceptable; they are able to progress from wherever they are.

      The next stage in this process is the exploration stage.  Often students work with materials in small groups to build a common understanding so that they may have a common base of knowledge and vocabulary, which will further their communications and thus allow them to think more deeply, ask more questions and explore further.

    In the explanation stage the student must start to take the concrete and put it into the abstract, and during the elaboration stage the learner is able to extend the learning to other real world situations. Both of these stages fit very neatly into Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences.

    And finally there is the evaluation stage where the teacher must assess in some way what the student has learned.  This evaluation can take many forms, some of which may or may not fit into certain grading systems.  This (or these!) evaluations do not happen just at “the end”; the assessment process must be ongoing to enable the teacher to guide the student further or catch key misunderstandings. Even though I have listed these steps in an order and used words like ‘next’ and ‘then’, I find myself recognizing here another key component of this style of learning – and that is that a learner can be in several of these steps at any one time. 

 Kathy Schrock

Once I found the tools that Kathy provided for us I got VERY excited! The links to useable child friendly websites was just what I have been asking for (and getting from others in our class)BUT…it didn’t take long for me to remember why I don’t like surfing the web, even with help (being given sites to go to). Kathy has lists of sites, many, if not all, which lead to other lists of sites, and soon one has spent an hour and barely touched the surface.

            I will return to Bill Nye the Science guy as there were directions for students to make ‘things’ – I don’t remember what things, but it seemed as if they changed regularly. I will also return more immediately to the puzzle makers!! Yeah!

See our DVES 1st grade wiki page!