Thursday, August 7, 2014

Blog 7: Instructional Frameworks

Here are some things I appreciated learning about this week.

--Schemata & reading-to-learn process

Teachers need to connect students’ schemata with the new learning they are delivering. When students don't have a working schema, teachers need to help students create one using the schemata they currently have. That way, students can apply what they already know to the new content, and use the new schema moving forward as they navigate the following lessons. 

--Instructional Frameworks should be teacher-directed, text-based strategies. It was really helpful to have all this information laid out clearly and plainly. It's something I know I will come back to as I create lessons.
Questions for me to ask myself as a language teacher: Am I modeling how to engage in reading? Am I helping students achieve my goals for them in the lesson? Am I helping them achieve their goals for themselves? O'Brien mentions that this last question can be easily overlooked. What are my students goals for themselves? If I don't know what they are, or think they don't have any, then I am not connecting to the source of their potential intrinsic motivation.

--It sounds like as I get into lesson planning on a regular basis and use various tools to do so, I will need to remember to draw focus to the pre-reading phase, making sure students have the appropriate information before they even begin to read.

--Promoting self-efficacy and self-regulation in the during-reading phase -- this makes perfect sense to me, and O'Brien's lecture helped me think about this concept in a different way than I had before. I want to look out on my classroom and see students who are working themselves through the reading material on their own. I want to know that students have been able to do their homework and are prepared for class. But to do so, I need to step back to the pre-reading phase, and make sure that my students truly have the tools they need to be self-monitoring.

--Finally, I really liked the example lesson on Native American folklore. I think my favorite part was -- surprise -- the assessment they chose! What a cool idea. I love the creativity and originality of having a skit performance as an assessment for this lesson. It's perfect, and as O'Brien mentioned, I think I'm starting to see how having an assessment at the end of a lesson really gives a lesson value. Students understand that they need this information to perform a skit for their teacher and peers, and I think this is a great way to tap into intrinsic motivation, where the students end up valuing the lesson as much as the teacher.
A depiction of the Ojibwe trickster Nanabozho, who often takes the form of a hare.
Courtesy of lauriecraig.pbworks.com