Week 2-Take 5-#2
I will be honest from the get-go and say this post will be brief-but I am currently finishing up a boys and literacy class and the inforamtion talks a lot about what we as teachers an do to help in the classroom. They talk about authentic assessments frequently,and lately, I have started to ask myself if my assignments create authentic learning? Can students individually pull out meaning that is beneficial to them? I don't ever give an assignment without purpose. I have to give them rationale, otherwise it's busy work-and I HATE busy work. Sometimes we just do things to do it and fill some time; but I'm beginning to realize that everything I do in the class directly affects what my students take away (obviously)and I'm excited to learn new strategies to help me toward that constructivist approach.
posted by Jessie C. at 7:45 AM
3 Comments:
Very cool. I am also thinking about that authentic learning piece and realizing I need to verbalize what my rational is for what I do in class. It is exciting and at times very energizing. But for me today, it is a little exhausting as I just want my grades to be updated and my stack of papers to be smaller.
Can constructivist learning be measured by testing? Or rather is it a lifelong way of looking at a problem and determining your own course of problem solving? Does "busy" work not have any relevance if it is achieving the longer term goal of student driven learning?
I, too, have a personal mission to eradicate all "busy work" from my classroom. My students recognize instantly any work from their teachers that simply takes up time without purpose. One thing that I challenge my students to do on a regular basis is seek significance in each assignment and to ask themselves, rather than their teacher, "What is the point of this?"
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