My goals in the first week were to hone my skills of Inquiry based learning and to become better at Infographics. This is something that was really targeted for me this week. When it comes to the infographs I can see were the growth mindset needs to come into play for me. If I get frustrated while trying to create the infograph it will not be productive at all. I love the sense that the challenge for learning should be portrayed as exciting by the teacher. Carol Dweck is very encouraging in her interview. She tells us that we must be challenged to keep those neurons firing. It makes sense to me that if we are not challenged we are not improving our brain power. Eduardo Briceno also touches on the need for challenges as he discusses Josh Waitzken, he was a chess genius and decided to become a genius at another field, Mixed Martial Arts. By creating opportunities to fail and experience he credits this to his ability to becoming a world champion. Pretty impressive. Briceno keeps mentioning that a growth mindset can change the way people act and behave in the presence of a challenge or when things become difficult. He also states that it will change a confidence in someone, for example fixed mindset brains are concerned with how others look at them and those with growth mindset do not. This could change a child for life.
Based on what I have learned about a growth mindset it is really not changing my goals but enhancing them. I know as I struggle to create my infograph I will have moments where I would like to stop. Although, if I embrace this challenge I will become better at the infographs and inquiry learning. I am going to do my best to recognize that the growth mindset in the creation of the graph will help me in the long run. Briceno tells us to listen to our fixed mindset when it says I can't do it and to add YET! As continued education students I am certain that most of us would fall into the growth mindset category or we would have stopped with our undergraduate studies. However, I do believe that we have both types of mindset at one time. We may take on certain tasks with fixed and others with a growth mindset.
The creation of essential questions is something that I think we all do in education without being deliberate. This article "Learners Should Be Developing Their Own Essential Questions", is suggesting we be deliberate. As a teacher in social studies I open up a lesson with the unpacking of standards. Once we have identified what we need to be able to do and the things we need to know in order to do it, I ask the kids what sorts of questions we are going to be looking for. This is very similar except I do it as a whole class. After reading the article, I think that each child should have some time that is not influenced by others to hash out the question that they may ask to seek the information. It makes sense to me and I also think that this will help my inquiry based learning. Those questions are what creates the foundation and peaks the interest of the students. "Questioning comes naturally to children and seems to become a lost art and skill as people age." This is something that I remind myself with my 4 year old daughter as she plays 20 questions with me. Most that are "Why?" We have to be conscious of the inquiry and use it to direct students learning. I am really hoping that this will help me to direct my students in the future.
I like the strategy that you mentioned in your post, allowing students independent time to think out and ask questions about content without the pressure of their peers. I think this is something I would like to incorporate into my lessons. I think all students need individual think time just as much as they need collaboration. Thanks for the strategy!
ReplyDeleteOne of my goals was also to increase my ability to use inquiry based learning in my own classroom. I think just by using the growth mindset, I can begin to increase the engagement of my students. I need to learn how to challenge them more and encourage them to improve daily. To do this, I need to learn more ways to teach them to "think" and encourage them to use the growth mindset.
ReplyDeleteI think you make a good point with your discussion about questions... how often do we ask, "Are there any questions?" and no one asks anything. But as soon as you start an assignment or give a quiz, many students say they don't understand. Fostering an environment where questions are encouraged is a great place to start promoting student engagement and inquiry based learning.
I enjoyed reading your post for this week. I especially found your idea for giving students time to "hash out" their own questions without the influence of their classmates great. I also teach social studies and do the same thing. We will look at the standard(s) for the day and then discuss their learning targets (essential questions). Instead of doing this, I should let them create their own learning targets by unpacking the standard.
ReplyDeleteI also found Eduardo Briceno's discussion of Josh Waitzken very interesting and motivating. I thought it was really cool that he admitted that his failures are what led him to be a world champion. I feel like I need to discuss people like this more often in my class with my students. People who are successful now, but did have failures in their lives. That might really hit home for some of my students!
I teach American Government and start a lesson about the same as you do. I too open the lesson with what we will learn by the end of the unit. Though, I am a new teacher I would always come prepared with one or two essential questions to go along with the standard. I recently shadowed another instructor who asked the students to comprise their own questions for the unit. It allowed them to think critically and they came up with pretty good question. Since their are going to ask questions anyway they should be able to come up with their own essential question. It helps them to take charge of their learning.
ReplyDeleteThanks Y'all! It is always good to have reassurance and the fact that each of us use this tactic in some sort of way lets us know it works. Because if it was not working we would have abandoned it ....right? LOL
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