Sunday, June 12, 2011

Task 1: Chapter 4 of Schell and Fisher

First of all, I would like to say that I love that Schell and Fisher grabbed my attention at the beginning of the chapter with a successful teaching story. I must admit that if I had read the second situation first I may not have enjoyed reading this chapter as much... so kudos to the authors!

Schell and Fisher share a lot of interesting ideas throughout this chapter but the section that appealed to me the most is the section on instructional strategies that work, specifically the sub-sections of inquiry-based learning and making connections. I can see using the mix and mingle strategy on page 95 in my groups integrated unit and in my classroom in upcoming years. Another strategy I will suggest my group use is Jigsaw Reading found on page 97. I like the idea of different people being responsible for different sections of  reading task then sharing with a group in order to find out what the entire reading was about. I feel this lightens part of the reading load then allows a chance to share knowledge. Also, I think this strategy can help learners, focus instead of feeling bogged down with their assignments. Another reason this was interesting to me is this strategy was mentioned, without the title of Jigsaw Reading, in our graduate class the other night. I can't remember who said it but the idea of different people being responsible for different parts of the reading then sharing information was provided for our workload. This goes to show that ideas that we are provided to use with elementary school students can branch to all levels of education!

Well back to reading and adding things to my list of what I want to do to improve my classroom for next school year!

1 comment:

  1. I agree with you. I found this chapter interesting. I too am making a list of things I want to change for next year. I am enjoying learning all these new ways to better help my students learn.

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