I really liked the idea of tracking effort from this weeks reading. Showing students that effort equals success in a concrete manner like that would seem to be a very effective teaching strategy. It is also a very behaviorist strategy. It is showing students that this behavior leads to this result. Good grades result (for most students) in rewards and poor grades result in consequences. The author suggests setting up a spreadsheet to track this, which I guess you could do, but it seems like just trying to shoehorn technology into the process. I guess if you have a class set of computers that you have easy access to that would work well, but for how much time getting a class to the computer lab takes use a sheet of paper would be just as effective.
The strategies suggested in the next chapter are more project-based ideas. The use of word processing, spreadsheets, multimedia software, etc fits better into the constructivist theory since the students would be associating the learning with the way that they learned it, not just the stimulus-response pattern of behaviorist theory.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
I cannot wait to implement that rubric, spreadsheet and all! But, I do have 6 classroom computers and am right next door to the computer lab. After the initial set up of the spreadsheet in the computer lab so that I can check to see that everyone set it up correctly, I can't see students needing more than 5 minutes a week on a computer to update the rubric... Maybe I'm wrong, but I'll let you know next fall!
ReplyDeleteMy classroom has only one desktop computer for the students. My laptop is off limits to them since it has data on all of my students. Unless something changes significantly next year, my classes do not have the opportunity to use the computer lab every week. Therefore, I plan to use a printed version of the rubric that they can fill out and take home for the parents to sign. I also plan to schedule a day in the computer lab prior to each progress report. The students can then enter their data into the spreadsheet and create graphs that I will attach to their progress reports. Having the visual display of effort vs. grades should help answer the most common parental question: "Why did my child get this grade?"
ReplyDeleteI've been searching for a way to incorporate students cell-phones into a class. Students already carry these phones with them and use them as clocks and caculators. I thought that I could get students to send text messages with multiple choice answers to assessments. I thought that I could get students to text small essay answers. As excited as the students were to get to use their cell phones in class, it was a horrible failure. Most considered it homework and it (on cell phone) didn't get turned in any faster than regular pencil and paper.
ReplyDeleteTodd Seip
There is a total ban on cell phones in our school. Students were using them inappropriately - recording people without permission and putting it on YouTube. Some teachers have even bought scramblers to interfer with cell phone signals...
ReplyDelete