Learning from Failures.... NOT a bad thing! A fun video to remind us and our students that it is not only ok, but beneficial to make mistakes.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AWtRadR4zYM
Ways to reflect...
How to improve
Through writing
Memorization
School year (photo albums, journals, etc.)
Growth
Sharing
This week's opportunity is a time for you to reflect. I would like you to offer TWO reflections in this post. Choose an area above and create a post that offers: 1) a personal reflection on your time as a student and 2) a way you allow for student reflection in one of the areas.** NEXT WEEK is on Balance. Thank God because his energy is exhausting. I will not post during the break. We will resume on Wednesday 3/29.
1) Memorization was huge when I was a kid. One thing I remembered this week was a poem by Langston Hughes called "Dreams," which I memorized in jr. high. This poem was in our readers this week and the kids were surprised I "still" remembered it. haha
ReplyDelete2) One thing I have done is to have them memorize that exact poem this week for the test on Thursday. In the past, I created a time capsule for a group of kids and a video of all our pictures throughout the year; but I really need to do better with this group. I am going to have them write a letter to the incoming group for next year. I liked that idea.
1) In moving from my parent's house into my own home, I found a few journals that I had kept at different ages in my life. Going back through them (and blushing at how absurd most of the entries were) I could remember exactly how I was feeling at the time. It's like those moments were frozen in my mind.
ReplyDelete2) Although I haven't done this as much as I planned to, I have had my class start a blog. They post assignments that we write in class onto this blog and then can share them with their parents, or just come back to them at a later date.
Memorization seems so "old school" to many that for a while during my career, it was looked down upon by many who considered themselves educational experts. I disagree. I think there are many, many things that we should absolutely commit to memory. As a kid, I remember memorizing poems, Constitutional Preamble, prepositions, multiplication tables, etc. And seriously, I used that stuff. That being said, I brought memorization into my classroom as a teacher. I had kids memorize all kinds of grammatical concepts because knowing them led to better performance on more complicated skills. Although literature spot passages aren't necessarily memorizing, they required my students to focus on certain parts of the text that were significant. We've made up songs and used all sorts of strategies to memorize, and I have found it quite valuable.
ReplyDeleteI know everyone is tired of hearing about multiplication songs, but that is how I learned my multiplication facts in third grade. I still know all my third grade songs. This year I noticed that the kids weren't as excited about my old third grade songs, so we made up our own to the tunes of hip songs that they hear on the radio! Both of my Tech Team groups used these songs to make their video and Keynote presentation! I catch my students singing them often, and their multiplication has improved greatly! I now have an "A" average on my weekly timed multiplication test!
ReplyDeleteI abhor memorization! I still have nightmares about standing in front of my peers and trying to recite the preamble, romeo and juliet, the bill of rights, the Books of the Bible, Bible verses, counties and county seats...I consider myself an ad lib kinda gal--a color analyst if you will...I am just not gifted at memorization! And listening to every kid in your class say the same thing over and over...TORTURE and an inefficient use of class time-in my opinion! There's also minimal engagement for the entire class. In the book, Super Teacher Ron Clark really pushes memorization projects for kids. I personally think that the ability to memorize is a gift. I appreciate his philosophy but I do not feel that memorization is that groovy and it's just DOK1. I ask my students to memorize math facts--that's all. I do appreciate the value of math fact fluency. All of the other stuff aforementioned is important but I believe understanding the principles and concepts behind the documents far outweighs being able to recite them from memory.
ReplyDeleteSimon and Gina (WE BELIEVE) :) As a student I only remember drill and practice memorization. There was never a connection between subjects a reinactment in the civil war for example. There was just textbook. Today, we use formative quick assesstments built into our lessons to see if students really understand content.
ReplyDeleteI remember drills and memorization were the major parts of learning. As I look back on my experience as a student those 2 approaches followed me even in college. I can remember making up phrases to memorize or songs to help me learn and remember the answer to a test. I basically studied the test.
ReplyDeleteToday I feel like we use a lot of formative assessment and there are so many more ways for our students to explore and learn different things. I think a lot of the problem is that with common core, concepts are taught and then not seen again for a while. We have to keep practicing them or the students won't retain it. Don't get me wrong, I still think memorization works great with some things and I feel like there is such a big push to get away from it. I still remember things I learned in Elementary school because I did it over and over again.
Since I have read way far ahead into the chapter about BALANCE, I feel that there must be a balance between memorization and hands on learning. I can remember standing in front of Pat Forbus' 2nd grade class reciting my multiplication facts week after week. It was no problem for me, but I also remember Rich Black telling his mother in the car rider line to go ahead and beat him because he was never going to learn them!
ReplyDelete