Tests that make us standard

While I see the overall purpose for using standardized tests to assess where the overall population of students are at, I think the way they are set up is completely infuriating.  I remember taking the ACT in high school and the way I prepared for it was learning test taking strategies.  I thought the whole idea of this test is to see how students have learned and what they have learned, not how well they can take a test.  I would consider myself a fairly intelligent individual, but I am a poor test taker.  I take too long because I analyze the questions and answers and I for some reason can just not do well on a test.  Due to this lack of skill, I didn't do quite as well as I should have on the ACT because I was not being tested on the content.  I scored the best on science, and as Professor Kruse pointed out, those are more of a reading test than a science test.  I am a very strong reader, so I did well on that part.  In reality, I suck at science.  But since I am able to read a problem and solve it based on that reading, I did well in that subject.  I don't think we should get rid of standardized tests, I think they need to be rewritten.  It was also brought up that the questions seem to be very gender and/or culturally specific.  I think they writers need to try harder to eliminate this bias.  Maybe there is no other way to do it and this is the best we will ever get, but I definitely believe something needs to be done to make it more valid in that we are measuring whether the required content is being learned and more reliable in that the answers will be the same across all cultures.

Motivation Part 2

The two issues that I have been asked to discuss is ZPD and SLT in regards to motivation.  These are important factors that need to be addressed.  The first issue is ZPD.  I have noticed in my practicum that when the students are allowed to pick out books to read by themselves, they choose books that are far too easy.  They know that they will be able to do the assignment because it's easy and way below their ZPD.  They are motivated to do it because they know it won't take that much work.  As a teacher, I will need to give them that extra push to put them in the zone of proximal development, but make sure I don't push them past it.  What I teach has to be challenging enough to allow them to learn something new, but not too challenging where they will be completely lost.  If I can keep them in their ideal ZPD they will hopefully be motivated to do the work because they know they can complete it.  The second issue is SLT, which is important to take into consideration.  Since students can learn from each other, they will be motivated to listen to what they have to say.  However, this can backfire horribly.  If one student is paired with someone who isn't motivated at all, that student will become unmotivated as well.  By using, and utilizing, the more knowledgeable peer the students will be more motivated because they can learn from a peer as opposed to listening to an authority figure.

Motivation Factors

Obviously the ideal situation in a classroom would be for students to be self-motivated.  However, this rarely happens in schools these days.  So, I have to find a way to get my students motivated to learn what I'm teaching because whether they want to be there or not they have to so why not make the most of it?  One of the biggest thing I want to make sure happens is that the time spent in the class is not wasted.  I hate it when teachers waste my time in class and so I don't want to waste theirs.  I think this will help to motivate them to do the work because they know I would never give them a task to waste their time.  This fits in with CLT because their schemas will be built so they know there is a point to the assignment.  I also want as much participation as possible because my content area is heavily based on discussion.  In order to motivate them to talk I want to make sure they feel as if whatever they say has a value, even if it is not exactly the answer I am looking for.  Not shooting down their answers is connected to CLT because their schemas will tell them that their opinions are valid.  There are other motivations but I think these two are the most important at this point.

Classroom Management

When considering classroom management there are a lot of things to think of.  I want to be respected and have the kids listen to me but I also want the kids to be able to talk to me.  The balance between these things is going to help with my classroom management.  I want to make sure I walk around the class so the kids don't have to focus on one spot all the time.  I also think that having them talk in groups will help them to keep each other on task.  Using the more knowledgeable peer will help them to listen to each other and if one person gets off task I think it will help to have their fellow student keep them focused.  Keeping a routine, such as a bell ringer, starting class on time/going all the way to the bell, and not springing things on them, will help keep them on task.  They have a set thing to do and expectations so they can keep themselves on task better.  Hopefully I can establish a sense of respect amongst my students so they are motivated to stay on task by themselves.  I don't want my students to have to "task switch" all the time because then they won't be able to put enough effort into the tasks to do them well.  All of these can be connected to learning theories.  Most of them are based in SLT, especially with the more knowledgeable peer.  Establishing a routine would fit in with CLT because I am establishing a schema for them.  I am also scaffolding them and adding on what they are already used to and making sure I add to that so they know how my classroom is run.  Walking around is BLT because I am causing a stimulus that they can respond to and won't be bored all the time.

Reflections on Lesson

(I thought this was posted earlier but turns out it was just a draft!)

When we did the lesson there were a few difficulties we ran into.  The first one was that when we told them to discuss the questions we gave them.  They seemed to focus more on answering the question than thinking how to give a speech on it.  We probably should have been more clear about what we wanted them to do with the questions.  Also, there wasn't as much participation as we would have liked.  I think this was because we weren't clear in what we wanted from them.  We had to restructure our lesson as we were going along to cater to what the "students" were giving us.  Next time we need to be more clear in our intentions as be more confident in what we are saying.

Thoughts So Far

I have to say that I thoroughly enjoy this class every day we have it.  I am learning a lot from the content we discuss and from what Professor Kruse teaches us.  The concepts are very interesting and are something that I would never think about.  I mean, I'm sure I have thought about this kind of stuff before when I thought about teaching but I was never aware of it before I started this class.  I am realizing that I am starting to integrate the learning theories into my real life now as well.  I had a little fight with one of my friends and I had two options of dealing with it.  I could talk to her or I could write her a letter explaining how I felt.  Unfortunately, I chose to use the more abstract way of communicating and wrote her something.  I should have made it more concrete and talked to her instead of creating an abstract way to make her understand what was going on.  I like the way Professor Kruse makes us think about what we are learning and doesn't just stand there and lecture us.  I think the fact that he has us come to our own conclusions makes it more concrete for us and we believe it more because we have to think about it ourselves.  I always look forward to this class and I always learn walk out of the room having learned something.

Questions

I guess some of the questions I would ask about SLT, CLT, and DLT and if it is being used are interacting and learning from each other?  Are they breaking down the terms they don't understand and connecting them to something they do understand?  Am I using concrete examples and relating it to their lives so they understand it better?  Am I fitting what I'm teaching into their stigmas by connecting things they say to the concept I want them to learn?