Empowering Student Relationships With Media Debates over children and media use are nothing new, but the technologies by which children primarily interact with media have changed significantly. Most guidelines related to "screen time" were developed when television was the dominant media, but new technologies are making us question the value of older research. In its most recent report on the subject, the American Academy of Pediatrics makes reference to "important positive and prosocial effects of media use," and a call for expanding media education programs in schools. While more dedicated media education in schools would be great, it is little more than a pipe dream in the current climate of low budgets and high-stake tests. It is therefore incumbent on individual educators to help students interact with media in ways that are critical and empowering. A New Taxonomy Image Credit: Josh Weisgrau Consume At the lowest level, we have consumption. Curate This is followed by curation, or "Why are you watching this?” Create Critique
ADA:Fast Facts for Faculty - Writing in the University Writing in the University By Brenda Brueggemann. Introduction The General Education Curriculum (GEC) Course Guidelines for the second and third (required) courses in writing at The Ohio State University state that: The abilities to read and listen with comprehension and critical acuity are requisite to the gaining of knowledge in a university setting. Further, we recognize that writing especially is a primary tool in learning itself, not just a means of expressing learning that has taken place. Many students, however, may often experience difficulties with writing that are not caused by a lack of understanding or critical ability. For students with disabilities there may be even greater obstacles to college writing. In-class Writing Activities Examples: Opening the class period with instructor-prompted writing- usually calling for a paragraphlength response- that addresses either past or future points, general or specific in nature, from previous classes, lectures, readings, or discussions.
25 Ways to Develop 21st Century Thinkers The need to develop critical thinkers has never been as urgent as it is now. In a world that is digitally focused and where there is an outpouring of information surfeit, students need to be equipped with the right tools to live up to the new learning exigencies. Critical thinking as a skill is the mother of all other skills and one that underpins and solidify students overall learning. Given the importance of cultivating a culture of critical thinking inside our classrooms and to help teachers have access to a wide range of resources on how to teach and enhance students critical thinking skills, Educational Technology and mobile Learning has devoted an entire section to everything teachers need in order to teach and integrate this skills in their teaching. You can access it HERE. Today, we are adding another great resource. Courtesy of: Mentoring Minds
ADA: Partnership Grant - Fast Facts for Faculty Guided Notes Improving the Effectiveness of Your Lectures Developed by William L. Heward The Ohio State University Partnership Grant Improving the Quality of Education for Students with Disabilities. What Are Guided Notes? Guided notes are instructor-prepared handouts that provide all students with background information and standard cues with specific spaces to write key facts, concepts, and/or relationships during the lecture. Some Pros and Cons of the Lecture Method Lecturing is one of the most widely used teaching methods in higher education. Advantages of lecturing. Although some educators consider the lecture method outdated and ineffective, it offers several advantages and reasons for its continued use (Barbetta & Scaruppa, 1995; Michael, 1994). Lecturing is an efficient use of the instructor's time. A good lecture can be presented from one semester to the next, reducing subsequent planning and preparation time to review and update. Lecturing is versatile. Lectures can be personalized. 1.
A Teacher's Guide to Differentiating Instruction Introduction Does effectively teaching 30 students in one classroom require teachers to develop 30 lessons, one tailor-made for each student? Or should teachers “aim for the middle” and hope to reach most students in a given lesson? The answer is not simple. While most would agree it is impractical to try to individualize every lesson for every child, research has shown that teaching to the middle is ineffective. It ignores the needs of advanced students, often leaving them unchallenged and bored, while it intimidates and confuses lower functioning learners. What is Differentiation? Simply stated, differentiation is modified instruction that helps students with diverse academic needs and learning styles master the same challenging academic content. How to Start Four planning steps set the stage for effective differentiated instruction. Vary Materials Nonfiction and fiction, written at a variety of reading levels. Vary Process Vary Assessment Conclusion References Good, M. View Full Article
ADA: Fast Facts for Faculty - Universal Design Elements of Good Teaching Universal Design Definition: Universal design is an approach to designing course instruction, materials, and content to benefit people of all learning styles without adaptation or retrofitting. Universal design provides equal access to learning, not simply equal access to information. Universal Design allows the student to control the method of accessing information while the teacher monitors the learning process and initiates any beneficial methods. Although this design enables the student to be self-sufficient, the teacher is responsible for imparting knowledge and facilitating the learning process. Who Benefits: Students who speak English as a second language. Principles: Identify the essential course content. "Compiled from North Carolina State University's Principles of Universal Design and Chickering and Gamson's Seven Principles for Good Practice in Undergraduate Education. Essential Qualities Representation: Engagement: Expression: Implementation: Resources:
Are Teachers of Tomorrow Prepared to Use Innovative Tech? Getty Images With a new generation of teachers coming into the work force, there’s a discrepancy between what principals expect of teachers-in-training and what they’re actually learning in school. A new Project Tomorrow report surveying principals concluded that they want to hire new teachers with creative ideas about how technology can be leveraged to create authentic and differentiated learning experiences. But student-teachers report that their tech training focuses only on simple management tools. At the same time, the report concludes that those who have the biggest influence on new teachers — veteran educators — don’t always embrace new ways of using technology to engage students. Only half of current working teachers believe they can use technology to motivate students to learn, compared to 75 percent of incoming teachers. Teachers-in-training say coursework focuses on technologies that help a teacher stay organized, rather than ways to engage students. Related
The Big List of Class Discussion Strategies Listen to this article as a podcast episode: Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 38:22 — 53.1MB) Subscribe: iTunes | Android | When I worked with student teachers on developing effective lesson plans, one thing I always asked them to revise was the phrase “We will discuss.” We will discuss the video. We will discuss the story. We will discuss our results. Every time I saw it in a lesson plan, I would add a note: “What format will you use? The problem wasn’t them; in most of the classrooms where they’d sat as students, that’s exactly what a class discussion looked like. So here they are: 15 formats for structuring a class discussion to make it more engaging, more organized, more equitable, and more academically challenging. I’ve separated the strategies into three groups. Enjoy! Gallery Walk > a.k.a. Basic Structure: Stations or posters are set up around the classroom, on the walls or on tables. Philosophical Chairs > a.k.a. Pinwheel Discussion > Socratic Seminar > a.k.a. a.k.a.
Helping Diverse Learners Succeed My career got off to a bad start when I was hired to teach in a Minneapolis Ojibwe Survival School. That was the year that Prince's Sign O the Times dropped -- the year most of my lesson plans failed. More terrifying was the fact that I had no backup plan. I'm embarrassed now to admit that I sent over 15 kids to in-school suspension in a single morning. The attempted assaults weren't fun, but I classified them as aberrations and moved on. It took a decade for me to figure out what I did wrong -- a lot of little things, but one big thing. Today we know more strategies for helping all kinds of students succeed. Research-Based Strategies for Working with Diverse Learners A review of the research (PDF, 119KB) on teaching diverse learners sorts the "best practices" into four categories, summarized below: 1. Teachers address beliefs that lead to lower expectations of diverse students and persistently teach challenging curriculum. 2. 3. Teachers develop relationships with their students. 4.
Physicists Seek To Lose The Lecture As Teaching Tool The lecture is one of the oldest forms of education there is. "Before printing someone would read the books to everybody who would copy them down," says Joe Redish, a physics professor at the University of Maryland. But lecturing has never been an effective teaching technique and now that information is everywhere, some say it's a waste of time. Indeed, physicists have the data to prove it. When Eric Mazur began teaching physics at Harvard, he started out teaching the same way he had been taught. "I sort of projected my own experience, my own vision of learning and teaching — which is what my instructors had done to me. He loved to lecture. "For a long while, I thought I was doing a really, really good job," he says. But then in 1990, he came across articles written by David Hestenes, a physicist at Arizona State. Hestenes had a suspicion students were just memorizing the formulas and never really getting the concepts. The two balls reached the ground at the same time.
50+ Tools for Differentiating Instruction Through Social Media Imagine a world where resources were limited to what was found in the classroom or the school closet known as the "Curriculum Materials Room." Picture a world where students wrote letters with pen and paper to communicate with other students and adults outside of the building. Due to postage costs, the teacher either sent the letters in bulk or paid for stamps out of his or her own pocket. Can you recall a time when student interests like skateboarding or video were never used as part of learning curriculum because the tools needed were either too expensive or not yet conceptualized? Do you remember a time when non-traditional learners struggled, and absenteeism meant a high likelihood of students doing poorly in school, and possibly having to retake the course? If you experienced none of these scenarios, then you live in a world of possibility because you grew up with the many social media tools available to support all learners. Selecting the Right Tool Readiness Interests