Models of Teaching

It is hard to believe that I am nearing the end of this part of the journey. I love learning and will continue, just in a different way. I will miss seeing all of the people that have been on this journey with me but we will hopefully stay in touch.
Take care and Happy Thanksgiving!

Synectics Model

This was the most difficult model for me to teach. I picked a topic that was in the book and it went through making the strange familiar. My students had a hard time at first getting into the lesson. But by the end, most were engaged. I had one student that was more concerned about packing up and going home than listening to me. I guess that is what happens at the end of the day.

Problem-Centered Inquiry

I let my students work on word problems that had no numbers plugged in. They had a list of several numbers to guide them and had to select from the set of numbers. The next time I do this, I will give them word problems with no numbers and let them come up with answers. Then, I will let them make up their own word problems and see if working through this process would help them understand the relationships of different numbers and also let them see how addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division work together. They were much quicker than I thought they would be.

Concept Development Model

Well. I really liked the concept development model better that the concept attainment model. Our concept was Things to Measure. I did not give them any guidance on what direction to go but they ran with it. They focused on linear measurement. Every item they listed was measured with a ruler or yardstick. They then grouped them by items measured by inches, feet, and yards. It was cool how they were able to distinguish the difference between measuring a chocolate bar in inches with a ruler verses a football field in yards with a yardstick. They then came up with the generalization that different items would be measured with different measurement tools. I then evaluated them on coming up with items to measure by weight. They were able to go through the process by themselves. 

Concept Attainment

The concept attainment model was a change of pace for my classroom. It was a good way to introduce a concept. It is something I could use occasionally. I taught a lesson on English liquid measure. The concept was liquid and the attributes of liquid were listed by the students. We then came up with the definition of liquid. Once we had our definition, the students were able to give examples of liquids. They were then given pictures of liquids and non-liquids. Their evaluation was to group the pictures into positive and negative examples. This concept attainment helped my students determine how they would measure different objects by knowing which ones were liquid. The success of the lesson is that now that they know what liquids are, they know when to use the English liquid measure system.

Here we go again!

Well, it is that time again. School has started for my kids as well as for me. I am so excited that this is my final class for my Masters in ASTL. It has been a great learning experience. I look forward to all the things I will learn this semester through Models. 

Talk to you all soon,

Lesley