The opportunity to read and write about things that speak to us and that we can relate to has been very freeing since i was worried I would have to stay in the same box as everyone else. What struck me as interesting from my reading of Coopers chapters 3 and 4 was the section in chapter 3 about enduring understanding and essential skills. The whole chapter was interesting because it is evident that Cooper has gotten into the minds of students and is looking for ways to bring that to teachers because I can’t even count how many times in high school I asked out loud or too myself why in the world do I need to know this. In the enduring understandings and essential skills section Cooper talks about the experience I had in Gr 11 calculus class I focused so much on learning the formulas rather than understanding the concepts that were being taught. The problem that I ran into was that if I forgot how to do a specific equation I would totally blank and sit there and twirl my pen since I had no understanding of the concepts. This left me frustrated and disengaged because I knew personally that I could of done a lot better in the class if I had acquired a better understanding of the unit that was taught.
The other section that spoke to me was the section on connecting assessment design and curriculum targets. In this section Cooper told us the story Joseph Stafford and his 1920s Nightclub activity where he got his students to engage organizing and entire day with a complete meal, vaudeville acts, music and a dance show. This was also accompanied by a research project. This was similar to my Gr 12 politics and world issues class. Our teacher Mrs. Oxley would set up a model U.N. for the class and the assignment started at the beginning of the year. We were assigned a country at random and given a question to study during the year. We were asked if we support the ability for certain countries to possess nuclear weapons. You needed to gather information during the semester to support your argument and you needed to figure out who your allies where in the UN and make sure you were aligned with their position as well. Armed with the information we had acquired we participated in a UN debate at the end of the semester where I can honestly say every student was engaged because they had taken pride in their specific countries position. I ended up getting China and I was For countries being allowed to possess nuclear weapons on the basis that I as a superpower possessed my own nuclear weapons and wanted to keep them. I also developed a distrust for the U.S. who where my rival superpower and I supported my allies who were looking to keep their nuclear weapons or acquire weapons of their own. I would use this activity in my own classroom because it opens up the ability for me to asses during the semester in order to see how the students are understanding their sections and what work needs to be improved upon for the final assessment which the model UN sit down where everyone was able to prevent their findings and understandings of what was learned about politics and world issues. The last section that really spoke to was the initial (diagnostic) assessment section because I actually got to experience it in my first day of CSL. I am placed at Henry Munro Middle School with some great teachers in the Phys. Ed. department that are very progressive almost as if they read the Cooper text as well. This section became interesting after viewing and getting a better understanding on the school take on zone of proximal development of ZPD. The students at Henry Munro are doing a cross-country circuit and the assessment for this unit is setup very similar to what Cooper describes. The ZPD has to answer four questions, what do the students currently know and what can students currently do? Where do I want them to get to? How big is the gap? How do I ensure the gap is just right to challenge students in a way that maximizes learning? The first day of the unit the students and staff walked the course and timed how long it took everyone to walk it at a decent pace this presented the baseline for all students you were not allowed to finish a lap running slower than they were able to walk it. The next class students ran two laps of the course and this set their personal bests for them to understand where they are and what number they are looking to beat. This also allows the teacher to assess where the student is physically and see how much they improve during the unit. The teachers set up different clubs the 4,5,6,7, and 8 minute clubs where the time you got gained you access to that club the hope is that at the end of the unit is that every student was able to at least move up one club from where they started. this creates competition between students in the same classes as well as with friends in other classes who all hopefully want to do better than each other keeping a larger number of students engaged who have different motivations. It was great to be able to see what we are learning about in class and reading being applied so early in my CSL and it provides extra excitement knowing that the teachers are progressive and open to new ideas and willing to allow me to apply what we learned to their school as well.
1 Comment
linda radford
10/13/2015 07:30:16 pm
Brandon, It is really exciting to hear that what you are seeing in CSL mirrors what you are reading in Cooper so closely. And, clearly your own high school experiences of not learning and learning have been formative!
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