I cannot believe that we are in the fourth week of classes. It feels as if time is flying by. This week in SSED 307 we are working more persistently on our units. We are learning about guiding questions and critical content and skills. Before we talked about guiding questions, I had no idea the level of depth that they include. I learned that there are three levels of guiding questions and they are factual, conceptual, and provocative. The factual questions test the student's basic level of understanding of the topic in question. The conceptual questions allow a higher level of thinking to be involved, and the provocative questions give students a chance to voice their opinion as there is no right or wrong answer. I am excited about using these questions to guide my students into asking thought provoking questions about important issues.
In my outside learning and research this week, I have been looking into technology tools for literacy that can be incorporated into my future classroom. There was a wonderful tool called Get Epic. This is an online library that is free for educators. It has great resources such as articles and book collections. It even has Spanish books. This is a great differentiation tool for teachers with ESL students. I encourage you all to check it out.
https://www.getepic.com/app/
I have also been learning about ways to incorporate Higher-Order-Thinking Skills into my future classroom. I found a great article about incorporating technology in lessons to stretch student's minds. I think it is interesting that we have used almost all of these in SSED 307. It talks about using one minute videos, podcasts, infographics, screencasts, and five photo stories, to help students explain and explore their learning.
These both connect to Standard 4 D& E. Teachers integrate and utilize technology in their instruction. Teachers help students develop critical thinking and problem solving skills. Both these tools relate quite nicely to the NCPTS. By having an online library for students, it allows for students to be exposed to technology, and it helps them know its proper use. By expecting students to explain what they have learned it forces them to be creative and think outside the box. I can use both of these tools in my future classroom.
I love the quote above. Our work matters every day. Take pride and joy in that.
Stay encouraged friends,
Mallory
Mallory, I did not realize the different depths that guiding questions can get into. I LOVE Get Epic!, such an awesome tool for the classroom and it incorporates technology! Also, thanks for sharing the article about how to let students explore their own learning. Your quote is spot on! Teaching truly does matter and we should take pride in that! Also, know that all of our hard work right now matters. Great post!
ReplyDeleteThank you for including the article on stretching student's thinking. It was quite informative. It gave me some new things to try out. I also absolutely love the quote you added to the end. It is something I think about all of the time.
ReplyDeleteYes! Stay encouraged! This is great advice. Continue to be productive! Continue to be proactive.
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