Self-Monitoring
Students
In chapters
10 and 11 by Daniels and Zemelman, I noticed that I could relate my observation
visits through Central Falls High School to the readings.
Chapter 10
was on inquiry units, and how project-based, problem-based and experiential learning
can help motivate students into becoming life long learners. What I liked about
this chapter is that it promoted what I like to call “investigative learning”.
Chapter 10 correlates life-long learning to school experiences that help a
student become an independent thinker by searching for answers for any “burning
question”. During my observations, my first observation was in an ESL classroom
that focused on a “theme” of what it means to be a hero. Because the students
were reading a text based on heroic actions, the teacher had the students work
independently on a project of their own hero. Although it wasn’t collaborative
work that Chapter 10 does recommend for successful learning, the student’s were
still “active researchers instead of passive listeners”, as noted in chapter
10. In each video presentation, a student would present who their hero is, and
some of the student’s presentations ranged from ambassadors to other successful
figures that the student’s had to do in depth research in order to explain
why that chosen person was their hero.
Inquiry
units, I believe, make learning fun because a student can actually apply what
their learning by getting out there and somewhat taking on the role of a
detective, as opposed to sitting in a classroom while tediously listening to material
they may or may not fully understand.
It is in
Chapter 11 that I built a strong connection from my reading to my observation
visits. Considering my visits were in an ESL classroom, this chapter, which was
titled “Help for Struggling Readers”, I could connect the material to what I
have seen in period one of ESL. To start off, this chapter emphasizes how
important it is to model reading processes as a teacher. In period one, the
student’s were working on figurative language before reading Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. With each figurative
language example, the teacher would break up each example and help the students
understand what exactly the phrase would be saying. In example, in a phrase
that went along the lines of “her fingers were like little magnets”, the
teacher would first ask the student’s if they knew what a magnet was. After
showing the class a magnet, he told a story of Mr. Magneto from X-Men, a movie
most of the students were familiar with. After breaking down the figurative
phrase to the students, the student’s were engaged in a class discussion on the
meaning of the phrase.
What I
liked most about this chapter is how it promoted “self-monitoring”. In my
observations, every single time a student was stuck at a certain question, the
teacher didn’t give up on the student, instead the teacher would only give more
examples, and break down the question even more till the student could finally
find a way to answer what was asked. The teacher didn’t use his position to
just give out information every time a student was stuck, instead he believed
in the student so much as to spend a good ten minutes breaking down a single
question until the student could finally find a way to understand what was
being asked. The teacher I observed definitely modeled what the chapter was
emphasizing in which it is crucial to believe in your students potential and
create an environment filled with positivity.
