Learning Log No. 7 Part 2

One-to-one Tutoring Talk with Gordon Dossett

A few good points I picked up on from his talk;

·         Suggests that we should ask students to write on the spot for instant feedback

·         Good strategy is to ask a student what his/her argument is without looking at the essay

o   This helps the tutor know whether the student has confidence and knowledge in his/her work

·         Guidance is more important that giving students tips on improvement

After his talk, Gordon gave us the task to act out a role play; get in to pairs where each takes a turn in being a teacher and student. He handed out two different extracts and we had to pretend that they were our own pieces. A student would then have to seek the ‘tutor’ for help.

What went well for my partner and I was that we shared our experiences in writing. My ‘tutor’ provided a very interesting quote about adverbs by Stephen King. When it was my turn to teach, I did the same where I explained what I struggled with in my first year writing class and how I came about to do better. The reason why I thought this tactic worked was because it felt that I, as the ‘student’, could connect with the ‘tutor’.

What went wrong was having the confidence in knowing what or what not to say. My ‘student’ pretended as though the piece was too good for feedback. This was a helpful challenge because there’s always a possibility that some students can be stubborn with accepting criticism. I had to take a few seconds to myself to really think of what to say incase I’d hurt anyone’s feelings. I overcame this by asking open questions (relating back to Geoff Petty’s Chapter 48, Providing Learners With Support) to my ‘student’. I asked questions like; So why do you think you’re in this position right now? What was it that your classmates didn’t like about your piece? What are you trying to aim for with your piece? By doing so, it eased the atmosphere a lot more. Hearing the answers helped give me a clearer idea of what I can do to help. Being in a one-to-one situation is definitely more personal so it’s good that I try my best to be approachable and open. 

Learning Log No. 7

Notes taken from Chapter 43, Assessment

3 points learners should have to earn maximum effect;

·         Clear goals – need to know what they’re aiming for

·         A medal – information on what they’ve done well

·         A mission – how to improve

Why are self-, peer and spoof assessment able to double attainment?

·         Help students clarify goals

·         Give students model and mission information

·         Make judgments about their own work, clarifying their understanding of the subject matter

·         Help students attribute success to doing the right thing

·         Put students in charge of their own improvement

·         Self-critical and reflective habit of mind

Notes taken from Chapter 48, Providing Learners With Support

One-to-one approach

·         Listen to the student’s experience

·         Value the student as an individual

·         Reward their progress

·         Challenge them with high regard and expectations

·         Set students challenging action plans to reach their goals and needs

How to succeed in one-to-one

·         Listen

·         Empathize

·         Ask open questions

·         Reflect

Bringing two different approaches together

Hold students responsible for their own learning	ß          à	Show a high regard for all learners
Challenge students to improve	ß           à	Support the students who need it
Have high expectations of all students	ß           à	Listen to and respect students as individuals

Learning Log No. 6

Notes taken from Chapter 40, Writing The Lesson Plan

The PAR Approach

Present

·         Orientation

o   Recalling last lesson

o   Explain its relevance

o   Challenging goals are given

·         New material is presented

o   New knowledge explained

o   Practical/intellectual skills are demonstrated

o   Students may study examples

·         Typical learning strategies

o   Ask

o   Tell

o   Demonstrate

o   Examples

·         Feedback for learner & teacher

o   Learning in progress is checked and corrected

o   Group discussion

Apply

To apply reasoning ie: problem solving, making decisions, etc

·         When learning cognitive skills

o   Presentations

o   Critical evaluation

Review

·         Were the goals met?

·         Learning strategies

o   Note-making

o   Quiz, tests, etc

·         Feedback for learning and teacher

o   Review and evaluate on how successful the lesson went. Point out any flaws or mistakes made along the plan

Different types of ASSESSMENT and what they stand for

FORMATIVE	SUMMATIVE
Essays	Exams
Presentations	Essays
Participation/discussion	Presentations
Micro test/quiz	Project folder/report
Projects	Portfolio
Workshop-peer assessment
Blog/journal

Learning Log No. 5 Part 2

Teaching 3^rd years, Educare, ‘Point of View’

Elements of model: very structured and is skills based

Learning objective: students should be able to identify effects of different points of view for a reader

                             : should write confidently from a perspective of somebody other than themselves

Explain: ask students what they think is a ‘point of view’ and what the effects are

Doing-detail: handouts of extracts from a piece that relates to the task

Use: write a paragraph from a second person’s voice

Check and correct: small group workshop

Homework: for next week, writing exercise on different P.O.V

The plan above was devised in class. I had to work with 3 other classmates so there’s no doubt that there was a clash of ideas of what ‘point of view’ really is. In my opinion, it can mean different things to everyone. I and one student stated that P.O.V is a view from a character, ranging from a dog’s view to a grandmother’s view, etc. Whereas the other two thought that P.O.V is in relation to the use of narratives; first person, second person and third person. The struggle to decide what it really means is an interesting point to include in my Learning Log because it meant that we had to decide on what to teach. It took us a while but in the end we concluded in joining those two ideas together. Considering that the class was for third years, we may as well go for it, knowing that it would be a challenging task. Not a lot of students normally use second person narrative so we went with that. In terms of characterization, we thought that students should write it from an opposite sex’s point of view. Ironically, the difficulty was making the task difficult itself. We really had to think differently. 

I thought that this task was very useful. This is because my parents had always taught me to never let my ego get in the way of doing/making something good. Especially at this generation and time, most things are now made of collaborated work. People are connecting and networking. It's important to accept that not everyone will agree with my ideas. This too can play a big part for teaching. Now that teaching is not exactly as black and white as many years ago, we have to think of different ways of teaching. Try new things and share ideas. Listening to myself arguing with my fellow groupmates was a good lesson because it inevitably brought ourselves to negotiate and come up with something effective. 

Learning Log No. 5

Notes taken from Geoff Petty’s Chapter 37, Aims and Objectives

·         Specific learning outcomes/specific objectives should:

o   Know what students should be able to do

o   Written in a way to help determine whether or not you achieve the objective

o   Suit the resources

o   Focus on a student’s ability

·         The Cognitive Domain

o   Knowledge: to be able to state, recall, list, recognize, draw…

o   Comprehension: to be able to explain, describe reason for…

o   Application: to be able to apply, construct, solve, select…

o   Analysis: to be able to break down, compare and contrast…

o   Evaluation: to be able to judge, criticize…

·         The Affective Domain

o   Concerns itself with attention, interest, awareness, opinions, moral and values

·         The Psychomotor Domain

o   Physical skills that include sense perception, experiments, etc

Notes taken from Geoff Petty’s Chapter 38, Choosing Activities for The Lesson

·         The CIA (Content Idea Activities) process

o   Content

§  Clarify the topic content to an appropriate depth and breadth

·         Ideas

o   Determine the content’s main:

§  Concepts

§  Factors

§  Evidence/experiments

§  Principles/viewpoints

·         Activities

o   Create questions and activities where students must reason with, process and apply key ideas

·         Academic and vocational relevance to the topic is important

·         Consider reason skills your subject seeks to develop

Notes taken from Geoff Petty’s Chapter 39, Choosing Activities to Achieve Affective objectives

·         Encouraging students t attend and to show interest in their studies

o   Image

§  Does the new opinion help envision my image?

o   Consistency

§  Is the belief consistent with my other beliefs?

o   Effectiveness

§  How will the belief affect my short/long term goals?