Assessment has many different purposes. One purpose is to
assist in student learning. I would identify this as the most important purpose
because student learning is the ultimate goal. Assessment also identifies each
student’s strengths and weaknesses. It shows what the students have a complete
understanding on as well as what they struggle with. In the Novice class that I
am currently placed in my cooperating teacher does many different types of
assessment. By doing this she gains so many understandings of how much the
students know as well as what they still need to learn. Not only do assessments
just assess the students but they also assess the teacher. If many of the
students struggle on the assessment this cue’s the teacher that they may need
to change the way they taught a certain topic or reteach the topic. When using
assessment in your classroom it is important to use a variety of assessments.
By doing this you are exposing the students to different types of thinking as
well as addressing the students’ strengths and weaknesses. For example, a
student may be very good at taking multiple-choice tests but may have a
difficult time taking an essay test because they have difficulty putting their
thoughts into words.
Sunday, March 29, 2015
Sunday, March 8, 2015
Chapter 6c &7a
Chapter 6c
Chapter 6 focused on building a successful lesson plan.
Lesson planning is a critical part of teaching and often separates the good
teachers from the bad. Many of us have written several lesson plans and often
feel that it is a pain to write out all of the standards, objectives,
rationale, materials, time limits, procedures, assessment, adaptations,
conclusion and so on. What’s the point of writing out an entire lesson plan
when you can just keep it in your head right? As a first year teacher, writing
your lesson plan down and printing it out will help your teaching go more
smoothly. Throughout the day there are so many different things happening that
it is important to have your lesson plan printed out that way it can be used as
a reference. It is very difficult for a teacher to remember the entire lesson
plan along with the materials needed, the type of assessment that will be used,
any guiding questions that will be asked and a conclusion activity. Having this
lesson plan handy will allow you to quickly look back at it if needed that way
students can get the most out of the learning activity. Also, taking time to
remember what you should be teaching allows time for the students to create
disruptions which will take even more learning time away. When I have my own
classroom I plan on writing up each lesson plan and printing it out. Some
lesson plans may just include the materials, procedures, assessment and
conclusion activity (after all, the conclusion activity is very important
because it allows the students to reflect on what they have learned and why
they have learned it.) but I feel that I should print this out so there are not
any gaps in my teaching. One thing that I also found interesting while reading
was the point about the “anticipate noise level.” I never really thought ahead
about a lesson to determine how much noise I should allow during the activity.
This is a great point to think about because it will allow the teacher to
monitor and correct the noise level before it gets out of hand.
Chapter 7a
Chapter 7 dealt with assessing students and states that
there are three general avenues that should be used for assessing student
learning. These three are (1) assess what the students says-for example, the
quantity and quality of a student’s contributions to class discussions; (2)
assess what the student does-for example, a student’s performance (the amount
and quality of a student’s participation in the learning activities); (3)
assess what the student writes-for example, items in the student’s portfolio
(homework assignments, checklists, project work, and written tests) (Kellough).
These three components will be very important when the time comes where I will
need to assess my students. Assessment is not just something a teacher does at
the end of a lesson yet something they do consistently prior, throughout and
after the lesson. It is important to assess students to see which students are
growing, which students are struggling and which students may need to be
challenged. When assessing what a student says you can keep a teacher’s log,
list desirable behaviors for activities and record observations. Tools such as
audio and video can also be used. When assessing what a student does you can
listen to what the student says such as their questions, responses and
interactions with others. You should also keep an eye on nonverbal cues. When
assessing what a student writes a teacher can use written worksheets, papers
journals, etc. I plan to be organized and keep running records and observations
of all of my students that way I can benefit each student, as they need.
Thursday, March 5, 2015
Chapter 6a & 6b
Chapter 6a
I found that this chapter was particularly helpful because
it dealt with instruction planning, something that nearly every first year
teacher worries about and often struggles with. The chapter specifically
covered instructional units which according to the book is “ a major
subdivision of a course and is comprised of learning activities that are
planned around a central theme, topic, issue, or problem, organizing the
content of the semester or year into units makes the teaching process more
manageable than when the teacher has no plan or makes only random choices.” I
chose to use the direct quote from the book because it shows the importance of
planning as well as how planning makes ones teaching more cohesive. The most
common type of instructional unit is a standard unit, also known as a
traditional unit, which consists of a series of lessons that are planned around
a topic, theme, concept, etc. These can be known as thematic units, which many
of us have already planned while getting our education degree. I feel that when
I become a teacher I will plan many thematic units for my students. I will do
this for several different reasons, not only are thematic units fun and
exciting, they help show students how their learning is relevant to their lives
which further motivate and excite students about learning. If students cannot
see why they are learning something, they will not stay engaged. Planning
thematic units also help the lessons stay cohesive. It prevents the teacher
from selecting random material and pushes them to stay theme oriented and plan
ahead for their lessons in order for the learning to fit the theme. This
planning ahead often seems like it may take more time and energy at first but
once lessons are planned they can be used again in the future. Planning ahead
allows the teacher to ensure they are selecting useful activities that will
benefit the students.
The chapter
also discussed directness. Once you have your theme chosen it is now up to you
to decide what types of strategies you want to use to teach your students. I
think that many different strategies should be used to help mold different
skills of the students. For instance, students need to be able to learn how to
learn in a teacher-focused environment where they listen to a mine-lecture or
demonstration and can still receive and understand information. Students also
need to be able to investigate on their own and in groups to discover
information. I think both levels of instruction are important as long as the
teacher-centered instruction is not overused. I also think it is very important
for a teacher to keep the lectures no longer than ten minutes (ten minutes may
even be too long).
Chapter 6b
- · Agree on the nature or source of the unit
- · Discuss subject-specific standards, goals and objectives, curriculum guidelines, textbooks and supplemental materials and units already in place for the school year.
- · Choose a theme topic and develop a time line
- · Establish two time lines
- · Develop the scope and sequence for content and instruction
- · Share goals and objectives
- · Give the unit a name
- · Share subject-specific units, lesson plan a printed and non-printed materials
- · Field-test the unit
- · Reflect, assess and perhaps adjust and revise the unit
When developing the learning activities there are three
parts that create the make up of the thematic units. These are initiating
activities, ongoing developmental activities and there are culminating
activities. These all play a huge part when it comes planning and conducting a
successful thematic integrative unit. Initiating activities are ones that
introduce the thematic unit. Ongoing activities are what make up the majority
of the unit. These are activities that will take the longest time but have the
deepest learning levels. Lastly there is culminating activities. These are the
activities that will help close the unit. This may be the students’ reflections
on what they learned, questions they still have, etc.
When I have my future classroom I will ensure to use these
guidelines to help create a successful thematic unit. I think reflecting on
ones thematic unit right after it is completed is a great way educators can
grow and adjust their thematic unit. It would be smart for teachers to write
down notes about what they did and didn’t like about the unit and place those
notes along with the materials they use for the thematic unit that way if they
use it next year they do not forget what they wanted to change.
Saturday, February 28, 2015
Chapter 5b & 5c
Chapter 5b
This section talked a lot about textbooks and stressing to
students the importance of respecting the materials they are given. Teachers
can help guide this by requiring or better yet, showing students how to
properly cover their textbooks. I believe that stressing the importance of
respecting classroom materials will help students respect each other as well.
Another note on textbooks was how to use them in the classroom. Being a good
teacher does not necessarily mean one should require students to read their textbook
from front to back. If a teacher chooses to do this, students will get very
bored with the material and lose interest in learning. Once this happens, it is
very difficult to motivate students. When I am a teacher I plan to take the
important information (such as the material that covers state standards) and
use the textbook to guide learning with also adding hands on activities. This
way students are learning but not just reading out of a textbook. One thing I
really found helpful was when students do need to read out of the textbook
(because there will be times when this is important) encourage students to be
alert for errors in the textbook and offer some type of reward if they find
one. This not only helps the students with literacy but it keeps them engaged
in the reading.
As a teacher there will come a time when there is
controversy in the classroom. I feel that it is extremely important for
students to learn about controversial topics. With this, there will be a
variety of opinions. Teachers should stress to students that they need to look
at the issue from multiple perspectives. The teacher should also ensure that
there is guidelines set so discussions do not get out of hand. If at any point
a student gets uncomfortable it is okay for them to leave the discussion.
Chapter 5c
Chapter 5c spoke a lot about curriculum integration. With
this it covered different levels of curriculum integration. As a future teacher
I hope to at some point to use all levels of curriculum integration. Although
level one is the most common (because it is not as time consuming) I feel that
there are times when teachers can incorporate level five-curriculum
integration. Level five curriculum is where teachers across multiple grades
establish a curriculum around a common theme and work together with students to
determine discipline boundaries and so on. The chapter also talked about using
a syllabus. I feel that I will emphasize using a syllabus when I have my own
classroom because it clarifies expectations for the entire class. A syllabus can
be referred to for many questions and provides all of the materials and skills
the students will need to complete the course. I also like that it allows
students to look ahead and see what types of things they will be learning in
the class.
Wednesday, February 18, 2015
Chapter 4a & 5c
Chapter 4a
This chapter was very helpful in learning what NOT to do
when one is teaching in a middle school setting. To start, one of the quotes
that really grabbed my attention was the quote: “preventing a ship from sinking
is much easier than saving a sinking one” (Kellough 142). I feel that this quote really speaks volumes
to the fact that it is important to be proactive about misbehaviors in the
classroom to prevent further misbehaviors than avoid confronting bad behaviors
and then try and implement a new action to correct the misbehaviors once they
have gotten significantly worse down the road. After reading many of the tips I
would have to agree with the book in nearly all of the recommendations. In my
future classroom I feel that it will be important to speak at the correct
volume. Speaking too loudly will irritate and disturb students where speaking
too softly will not present you as an authoritative and professional figure.
This is why it is important to find a volume in the middle of these two that is
firm and professional. I also feel that it is important to not punish the
entire class for one or two student’s negative actions. When I was in middle
school I remember being assigned extra papers and assignments because another
student was acting out. I felt that this was wrong because I chose to act
appropriately and it was clear that the student acting out needed attention
whether it was positive or negative attention so the student would continue to
act out and did not care whether the rest of the class would get another
assignment. One thing I want to make sure to use in my classroom is positive
encouragement. Too often teachers focus solely on the negative and forget about
acknowledging those for positive behavior as well. As a future teacher it will
be one of my goals to have equal positive and negative acknowledgments. One
thing I learned from this chapter was not to say “shhh.” I found this very
interesting because many of the elementary school teachers that I have worked
with always used “shhh” to quiet down their classrooms. “Shhh” is considered
unprofessional and is just adding another noise to the classroom. All of these
tips on what not to do were helpful in becoming aware of handling classroom
misbehaviors.
Chapter 5c
Chapter 5c covered curriculum and all the subcategories of
curriculum. Although I am not going to touch on all of the parts of a lesson
plan as the chapter did, the importance of planning and having all of the key
parts of a lesson plan was highly emphasized. There are different levels to
planning. One needs to plan for the entire school year, the units and the
lessons. I feel that co-planning is so much more beneficial to both students
and teachers. I have been a part of co-teaching environments and it is amazing
with the creative ideas and lesson plans that are put together and used to
shape a fun learning program that the students will enjoy. With co-teaching
each teacher can bring ideas to the table and use each other to bounce ideas
off of one another. They can discuss what worked, what did not work and what to
change. When I am a future teacher I would like to co-plan because it would be
extremely difficult to develop an entire curriculum from scratch (especially my
first year!). With help of the teachers around me who may have had more
experience than I have, they can tell me what students have and have not
responded to.
Saturday, February 14, 2015
Chapter 4
Chapter 4a & 4b
Chapter 4 was a very interesting and helpful Chapter for not only me, but for other first year teachers as well. What first grabbed my attention when reading was the word "conducive." In Chapter 4 a conducive learning environment was defined as on that is "emotionally safe, that helps students to perceive the importance of what is being taught, that helps them realize they can achieve, and is instructive and supportive in the procedures for doing it (Kellough, 110). I found this to be incredibly helpful because I believe that students who feel safe and feel that the information they are learning is relevant to their own lives they will be less likely to have disruptive behavior and will also grow as a learner and person. To have the connection with students, students must feel that their classroom environment is being supportive of their efforts, that the teacher whole heartedly cares about them, that the teacher respects the student and they are welcome in the classroom and the learning is challenging but not impossible. One thing that I notice about young adolescents is their want to fit in. Many times the disruptive behaviors that are created in a classroom are because students feel the need for attention. As a teacher, one must learn how to react to these situations and guide the disruptive student back on track. This is very tricky for middle school teachers because their students are going through a very awkward time. Students are trying to figure out their place in life, they are dealing with hormones and other emotional factors and in addition to all of these things, many may come from rough psychological backgrounds. When I have my future classroom it will be important to implement a strict but respectful management plan that way students understand the expectations of the classroom. By doing this, my teaching can be effective and well-organized and have a "business-like classroom" where I can properly motivate my students to learn free from distractions. Ginott commented on the importance of "communication with the student to find out his/her feelings about a situation and bout him/herself." I feel that teachers should truly learn everything they can about their students that way they can facilitate learning with each student in the most beneficial way possible.
The Chapter also spoke on "dead time." When teaching it is important that ones classroom runs with no dead time (time where students have nothing to do) because this is what often creates the disruptions. The teacher must then spend even more time getting the class back on track. When I have my own classroom (preferably a first grade classroom) I am planning on using some type of positive reward system where students are rewarded for doing the right things. This way I can model and reward those who are doing the right things and keep them motivated to continue to do the right things but also get those who are acting out back on track.
Chapter 4 was a very interesting and helpful Chapter for not only me, but for other first year teachers as well. What first grabbed my attention when reading was the word "conducive." In Chapter 4 a conducive learning environment was defined as on that is "emotionally safe, that helps students to perceive the importance of what is being taught, that helps them realize they can achieve, and is instructive and supportive in the procedures for doing it (Kellough, 110). I found this to be incredibly helpful because I believe that students who feel safe and feel that the information they are learning is relevant to their own lives they will be less likely to have disruptive behavior and will also grow as a learner and person. To have the connection with students, students must feel that their classroom environment is being supportive of their efforts, that the teacher whole heartedly cares about them, that the teacher respects the student and they are welcome in the classroom and the learning is challenging but not impossible. One thing that I notice about young adolescents is their want to fit in. Many times the disruptive behaviors that are created in a classroom are because students feel the need for attention. As a teacher, one must learn how to react to these situations and guide the disruptive student back on track. This is very tricky for middle school teachers because their students are going through a very awkward time. Students are trying to figure out their place in life, they are dealing with hormones and other emotional factors and in addition to all of these things, many may come from rough psychological backgrounds. When I have my future classroom it will be important to implement a strict but respectful management plan that way students understand the expectations of the classroom. By doing this, my teaching can be effective and well-organized and have a "business-like classroom" where I can properly motivate my students to learn free from distractions. Ginott commented on the importance of "communication with the student to find out his/her feelings about a situation and bout him/herself." I feel that teachers should truly learn everything they can about their students that way they can facilitate learning with each student in the most beneficial way possible.
The Chapter also spoke on "dead time." When teaching it is important that ones classroom runs with no dead time (time where students have nothing to do) because this is what often creates the disruptions. The teacher must then spend even more time getting the class back on track. When I have my own classroom (preferably a first grade classroom) I am planning on using some type of positive reward system where students are rewarded for doing the right things. This way I can model and reward those who are doing the right things and keep them motivated to continue to do the right things but also get those who are acting out back on track.
Tuesday, February 3, 2015
Chapter 2a, 2b and Chapter 3
Chapter 2a
When becoming a teacher one must know that you will be making hundreds of decisions every day. Whether they are big decisions such as dealing with solving a conflict in the classroom or making a smaller decision such as which morning song you should use that day. Regardless, you will make countless of them. When it comes to the Decision-Making Phases of Instruction, one can see that the thought process can be divided into four different sections which are: (1) the planning or preactiive phase, (2) the teaching or interactive phase, (3) the analyzing and evaluating or reflective phase, and (4) the application or projective phase. All of these phases ensure that teachers are appropriately planning lessons that cover all needed learning aspects. In my future classroom, I can use these four phases to make sure I am well prepared to teach my lessons. For instance, I will use the first phase, planning or preactiive phase, to help select the content I would like to teach as well as my goals and objectives I would like students to take away from the lesson. In this step I also would be thinking about homework assignments and also taking students prior knowledge into account so I can appropriately plan for my lesson. The next three phases, the teaching or interactive phase, the analyzing and evaluating or reflective phase, and the application or projective phase, will all be helpful when it comes to making decisions when creating my curriculum. One thing I believe to be incredibly important for teachers is reflection. Teachers must reflect on the students responses to their teaching skills in order to continue to improve and increase student academic achievement. In the future if my students do poorly on an assignment I will take full responsibility in what I need to do to ensure they learn the necessary material. This will require me to reflect and adjust my lesson in a manner that students will be able to understand and better grasp the concept. I feel that issues such as these can be reduced by using individualized instruction. In my previous post I referenced a quote that said "Not every shoe fits," meaning that not every teaching strategy will work for every student. Some students may learn at a slower or quicker pace. Some students are visual while others are auditorial. By individualizing instruction, you can select a learning plan that will best suit each student and set them up for success. I feel that using facilitative instruction in my classroom, which is student-centered rather than the traditional teacher-centered style, will create a positive learning environment where students can develop the necessary skills they need to be prepared for the future.
As one may begin to see, teaching requires a lot of skills and is a big commitment. A teacher must be committed to their students, their school and the school's mission statement, the district and the district goals as well as ensuring their students are safe.
Chapter 2b
Chapter 2b focuses on characteristics of a competent classroom teacher. The chapter provides a lengthy list on skills that a teacher should strive for in order to be successful in the classroom. The list includes things such as:
1. The teacher is knowledgable about the subject matter
2. The teacher understands the processes of learning
3. The etcher uses effective modeling behaviors
4. The teacher is open to change, willing to take risks, and to be held accountable
5. The teacher is nondiscriminatory toward gender, sexual preference, ethnicity, skin color, religion, physical disabilities, socioeconomic status, learning disabilities, national origin, or any other personal characteristics.
6. The teacher organizes the classroom and plans lessons carefully
7. The teacher functions effectively as a decision maker
8. The teacher demonstrates confidence in each student's ability to learn
9. The teacher makes specific and frequent efforts to demonstrate how the subject content may be related to the students' lives.
10. The teacher is reliable
As one can see there are many characteristics that a good teacher must possess. Out of the twenty one that were listed in the book Teaching Young Adolescents: Methods and Resources for Middle Grades Teaching, I narrowed it down to ten, which I listed above. Not saying the other eleven are less important but the ones I chose are ones that stuck out to me and that I plan to use in my future classroom. Another thing that I really enjoyed reading about was a teacher's "withitness." A teacher's withitness is the teacher's ability to be aware of the entire classroom. It is their ability to stay alert and to quickly redirect student's misbehaviors. Guidelines to developing this withitness is being aware of spending too much time with anyone student (a general guideline is longer than 30 seconds with one student in a class of 20), avoid turning your back to the class (example: writing on the white board), keep students alert by calling on them, and maintain constant visual surveillance of the entire class. I felt that these were very good tips to provide to a teacher, especially first year teacher, to remind them that they must be mentally sharp at all times when in the classroom.
Chapter 3
Chapter 3 touches on Teaching thinking for intelligent behavior. When I say this I mean teaching students how to think and as a teacher help them develop their thinking skills. When students develop their thinking skills they develop a type of confidence. They begin to believe that they can learn and start to enjoy learning as well. When a student enjoys learning they become hungry for knowledge and begin to make connections and apply their knowledge and ultimately become a life long learner. Some characteristics of "intelligent behavior" are things such as being able to draw on knowledge and apply it to the real world as I just mentioned above. Other characteristics are skills such as managing impulsivity. Especially for young adolescents, there are times when it is easy to act before thinking (acting on impulse). If a teacher can help a student manage their impulsivity the student will learn to do small thing such as think before speaking, raising their hand, think before beginning a project and so on. When I become a teacher I think I can help guide my students to control such impulses by pausing after asking a question and asking students to raise their hands. Students must wait for me to call on them. This helps "train" these impulses. I also think it is important to remain open to continuous learning. Although at times I have been a person who likes to do things my own way, I will need to understand that intelligent thinking will open new pathways of learning whether it is a new way to solving a problem or looking at something from a different perspective. By doing this I can continue to encourage my students to learn and become the intelligent thinkers I know they can be.
This chapter also focused on questioning and it's purpose. Not only did the chapter provide multiple types of questioning such as analytic questioning, clarifying questing, convergent-thinking questioning, evaluative questioning, socratic questioning, etc, but it also gave many positive reasons of why questioning is so critical. By using questioning in my future classroom I can review and remind students of classroom procedures (by reviewing rules and daily procedures in an elementary classroom I can cut down on misbehaviors and waisted time). I can use questioning to gather information about my students such as "who is done with their assignment? and who still needs more time?" One of my favorites is using questioning to guide student thinking an learning. By asking the right questions I can guide students to discovering the right answer without just telling them. Learning about the different types of questioning and the benefits they provide were very enjoyable and I plan to use many of them when I become a teacher.
When becoming a teacher one must know that you will be making hundreds of decisions every day. Whether they are big decisions such as dealing with solving a conflict in the classroom or making a smaller decision such as which morning song you should use that day. Regardless, you will make countless of them. When it comes to the Decision-Making Phases of Instruction, one can see that the thought process can be divided into four different sections which are: (1) the planning or preactiive phase, (2) the teaching or interactive phase, (3) the analyzing and evaluating or reflective phase, and (4) the application or projective phase. All of these phases ensure that teachers are appropriately planning lessons that cover all needed learning aspects. In my future classroom, I can use these four phases to make sure I am well prepared to teach my lessons. For instance, I will use the first phase, planning or preactiive phase, to help select the content I would like to teach as well as my goals and objectives I would like students to take away from the lesson. In this step I also would be thinking about homework assignments and also taking students prior knowledge into account so I can appropriately plan for my lesson. The next three phases, the teaching or interactive phase, the analyzing and evaluating or reflective phase, and the application or projective phase, will all be helpful when it comes to making decisions when creating my curriculum. One thing I believe to be incredibly important for teachers is reflection. Teachers must reflect on the students responses to their teaching skills in order to continue to improve and increase student academic achievement. In the future if my students do poorly on an assignment I will take full responsibility in what I need to do to ensure they learn the necessary material. This will require me to reflect and adjust my lesson in a manner that students will be able to understand and better grasp the concept. I feel that issues such as these can be reduced by using individualized instruction. In my previous post I referenced a quote that said "Not every shoe fits," meaning that not every teaching strategy will work for every student. Some students may learn at a slower or quicker pace. Some students are visual while others are auditorial. By individualizing instruction, you can select a learning plan that will best suit each student and set them up for success. I feel that using facilitative instruction in my classroom, which is student-centered rather than the traditional teacher-centered style, will create a positive learning environment where students can develop the necessary skills they need to be prepared for the future.
As one may begin to see, teaching requires a lot of skills and is a big commitment. A teacher must be committed to their students, their school and the school's mission statement, the district and the district goals as well as ensuring their students are safe.
Chapter 2b
Chapter 2b focuses on characteristics of a competent classroom teacher. The chapter provides a lengthy list on skills that a teacher should strive for in order to be successful in the classroom. The list includes things such as:
1. The teacher is knowledgable about the subject matter
2. The teacher understands the processes of learning
3. The etcher uses effective modeling behaviors
4. The teacher is open to change, willing to take risks, and to be held accountable
5. The teacher is nondiscriminatory toward gender, sexual preference, ethnicity, skin color, religion, physical disabilities, socioeconomic status, learning disabilities, national origin, or any other personal characteristics.
6. The teacher organizes the classroom and plans lessons carefully
7. The teacher functions effectively as a decision maker
8. The teacher demonstrates confidence in each student's ability to learn
9. The teacher makes specific and frequent efforts to demonstrate how the subject content may be related to the students' lives.
10. The teacher is reliable
As one can see there are many characteristics that a good teacher must possess. Out of the twenty one that were listed in the book Teaching Young Adolescents: Methods and Resources for Middle Grades Teaching, I narrowed it down to ten, which I listed above. Not saying the other eleven are less important but the ones I chose are ones that stuck out to me and that I plan to use in my future classroom. Another thing that I really enjoyed reading about was a teacher's "withitness." A teacher's withitness is the teacher's ability to be aware of the entire classroom. It is their ability to stay alert and to quickly redirect student's misbehaviors. Guidelines to developing this withitness is being aware of spending too much time with anyone student (a general guideline is longer than 30 seconds with one student in a class of 20), avoid turning your back to the class (example: writing on the white board), keep students alert by calling on them, and maintain constant visual surveillance of the entire class. I felt that these were very good tips to provide to a teacher, especially first year teacher, to remind them that they must be mentally sharp at all times when in the classroom.
Chapter 3
Chapter 3 touches on Teaching thinking for intelligent behavior. When I say this I mean teaching students how to think and as a teacher help them develop their thinking skills. When students develop their thinking skills they develop a type of confidence. They begin to believe that they can learn and start to enjoy learning as well. When a student enjoys learning they become hungry for knowledge and begin to make connections and apply their knowledge and ultimately become a life long learner. Some characteristics of "intelligent behavior" are things such as being able to draw on knowledge and apply it to the real world as I just mentioned above. Other characteristics are skills such as managing impulsivity. Especially for young adolescents, there are times when it is easy to act before thinking (acting on impulse). If a teacher can help a student manage their impulsivity the student will learn to do small thing such as think before speaking, raising their hand, think before beginning a project and so on. When I become a teacher I think I can help guide my students to control such impulses by pausing after asking a question and asking students to raise their hands. Students must wait for me to call on them. This helps "train" these impulses. I also think it is important to remain open to continuous learning. Although at times I have been a person who likes to do things my own way, I will need to understand that intelligent thinking will open new pathways of learning whether it is a new way to solving a problem or looking at something from a different perspective. By doing this I can continue to encourage my students to learn and become the intelligent thinkers I know they can be.
This chapter also focused on questioning and it's purpose. Not only did the chapter provide multiple types of questioning such as analytic questioning, clarifying questing, convergent-thinking questioning, evaluative questioning, socratic questioning, etc, but it also gave many positive reasons of why questioning is so critical. By using questioning in my future classroom I can review and remind students of classroom procedures (by reviewing rules and daily procedures in an elementary classroom I can cut down on misbehaviors and waisted time). I can use questioning to gather information about my students such as "who is done with their assignment? and who still needs more time?" One of my favorites is using questioning to guide student thinking an learning. By asking the right questions I can guide students to discovering the right answer without just telling them. Learning about the different types of questioning and the benefits they provide were very enjoyable and I plan to use many of them when I become a teacher.
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