So I must say, I don't think this online textbook is as UDL as the other. I found this very difficult to be motivated by, the way the information was presented was very dry, I didn't find the examples very clear, and for those examples that were presented there was definitely a lack of visual examples. With that said, I thought the chapter did raise a few interesting points. As I read through the chapter's sections on learner, knowledge and assessment-centered, I was thinking about the things I would write on my blog about the impossibility of separating these situations, however I was glad to see that the chapter stressed the importance of the alignment of the learning environments at the chapter's conclusion. The one section I would like to speak more explicitly about is the assessment section. I think it is important to use formative assessments, and I know the reading and writing workshop uses a great deal of this and is a fantastic program. However, I think in general this is something that can be quite difficult especially for beginning teachers. To find the time to give all of the students in your class feedback and to teach students to give each other appropriate feedback, especially with students in the younger years, is not an easy task. I think it would be helpful for the chapter to give some specific examples of ways to accomplish this goal that they stress the importance of.
I also found the section on television particularly interesting. I think I have a tendency to look at television as being predominantly and overwhelmingly negative for children. So it was interesting to read about research that has displayed the very opposite of my notion. I think making this knowledge more public could have a possibly large and beneficial impact on children as parents may be encouraged to at least have their children watch educational television, if they are allowing them to watch a substantial amount of television per week.
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3 comments:
Hi Kim!
I completely agree with you that one of the many challenges of becoming a teacher is to
find time to provide students with appropriate feedback and to teach them to do the same.
One thing that I always thought of was providing frequent and informal assessment as much
as possible throughout the day. The more informal and frequent the feedback that a
teacher details orally to individual students, the more likely they are to be able to
pick those techniques up and use them for themselves.
I also really found the information on the TV interesting. Its funny, despite everything
everybody says, TV may not be all that bad for students- obviously anything in excess is
not good- but a little bit of TV (especially if its educational!) never hurt anyone :)
Hey Kim!
I definitely agree with your first sentence about how different these two chapters are presented! The section on television was definitely very interesting to me too! I always thought watching too much TV was a bad thing too because it does provide stereotypes and a way for a lot of individuals to avoid doing productive things. I haven't seen a lot of educational TV shows catered to teenagers or young adults but I am curious to see what types of TV shows people watch and what values they get from it.
Hi Kim,
Your emphasis on formative assessment illustrates the importance of continual feedback. It is very difficult to continually assess the progress of all students. Often classrooms have too many students and too few supports. This is especially challenging for a new teacher who is trying to balance instructional time, and ensure that no one is falling behind. I agree, a few suggestions would be useful. I have found that maintaining a very organized classroom and daily schedule is helpful. Also, turning assessments into "games" is a good way of engaging students and collecting data. In other classes you have expressed very good ideas that you used in your instruction. I would like to hear more.
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