In 100 words or more, comment on the following:
Specifically how are you helping students build these and other 21st Century Skills in your classroom?
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12 comments:
I teach middle school students and one way I try to teach them survival skills is I never tell them what page to turn to when we use our textbooks. I tell them what topic we will be covering and ask them to get together with their neighbor and use the table of contents to find the correct chapter. This may seem like such a simple skill, but I used to teach high school students and I remember being shocked when they didn’t know how to find a chapter in a book or couldn’t tell me where the table of contents is located. Students are developing collaboration and communication skills when they work together to read a recipe and complete a foods lab. I have found that it can be difficult to have a class discussion with middle school students because they don’t know what questions to ask, so sometime I type the questions on a piece of paper and cut them into strips. Then I have the students draw the questions out of a cup and ask them. It gets the discussion going, all the students get to hear examples of good questions, and I ask the students to provide the responses. This may seem like “spoon feeding”, but these kids need to start somewhere!
How am I preparing students for their future? When it comes to critical thinking I allow for students to do "talk throughs". We problem solve different solutions and their consequences for problems/situations that arise both academically and socially with in our classroom. As far as collaboration goes we spend an enormous amount of time working one on one with each other, working in teams, and working whole group taking turns allowing each student an opportunity to be a leader. Adaptability comes very naturally with my age group of students, although it is still difficult for some. I work with my students to be flexible and accomidating. We also role play and I role model a person that takes initiative, clear communication skills and how many different ways information and knowledge can be accessed. When it comes to imagination and 5/6 year olds dreams and ideas are abound!! I foster it and enjoy it on a daily basis!!
A: response to Sheri
I think it's great that you are teaching adaptability skills to kindergartners! It's great that your students have "talk throughs" because one issue I see with many of my students is that they have a difficult time recognizing their feelings/needs/wants, let along expressing them in appropriate ways.
In my Literacy Resource classroom, I am helping students to build these essential 21st Century skills in several ways. We are supporting their literacy skills, and helping the students to become informed consumers of information. By building comprehension skills, students are able to access and apply necessary information to a variety of problems. From analyzing elements of text and its purposes, students are building critical thinking and problem solving skills. Through the reading of text, the use of proper written communication is being modeled and utilized. Students are being encouraged to collaborate and think and respond to a variety of information.
A: Response to Amanda
"informed consumers of information", wow, I have never heard this phrase before and I have to say these 4 words sum up the needs of our new generation of learners wonderfully! Informed consumers of information is what my children and students will need to be competent in to succeed in today and tomorrows world.
To help students practice problem-solving and critical thinking, I like to have them figure out the best ways to find out what they missed during an absence, what page we're on if they weren't listening,what to do if they have lost an assignment, and how to get supplies on their own if they are unprepared for class. It may seem silly, but small things like this do help students become more self-reliant. I also like to read mysteries to my class to help them listen for clues and infer the solution of the story to practice critical thinking. The key lies in not telling them the solution. They think about it, discuss it, and get very excited when they figure it out on their own. We are always working on communication skills in writing or speaking when responding to literature or even just having a class discussion to activate prior knowledge. I like to have students work in collaborative pairs or groups to complete projects . I will be working closely with the librarian to focus on accessing information, and evaluating sources. I guess the main areas I need to improve in are finding a way to encourage adaptablity and fostering the use of imagination.
response to dstark:
Hmmm, that sounds familiar. :) I have had students find the page number too, and I agree that these are simple but important tasks. I also find that students are reluctant to ask questions or take risks. They just tend to stare me down waiting for the answer. I need to resist giving it to them. I think the question strips are a great idea. A great follow up would be to have them write questions for the next unit now that they know what a good question looks like.
In response to dstark;
You have a great idea and approach in teaching students to develop and use information finding skills. I never realized before that even by telling kids which page to turn to, we can be enabling them, and taking away important opportunities for practice. Thank you for the insight.
Initial Response to Question 3B
Whenever possible, I use group work to foster communication skills and teamwork among the children. I try to teach each group how to work through conflicts that may arise, so that a solution may be reached. I have to admit; however, that this area is still quite challenging for me to facilitate. Just recently I have been integrating a bit of technology into the classroom. I asked my sixth graders to research and help create a spring musical based on the television program, "American Bandstand." I was definitely impressed by the students' ability to use the technology, and their ability to create a production of shared ownership. I want to try this project again in the future, but will better equip myself to field their questions when we enter the computer lab this time. I am also looking into the use of WebQuest activities for my upper elementary students. I have decided that I can no longer fear the new technology, but must instead learn to master it.
Responding to Lela,
I like how you allow your students the opportunity to make care of problems, such as being unprepared for class, on their own. Do you find that most students are successful when given the opportunity? I think it's great that your students are using cues from the text to solve mysteries. This gives them a great sense of ownership, plus keeps them on-task.
3B
I am helping students build 21st Century Skills with continued access to technology. I believe that the more exposure to different types of learning, the better prepared they are for future endeavors.
The biggest challenge to preparing students for the future, is the fact that the types of employment and information is changing at such a fantastic rate, we can only dream about the employment readiness of the future. As Wagner quoted a Dell executive, “Yesterday’s answers won’t solve today’s problems.”
We know that technology of today will not look anything like the technology of tomorrow; however, by giving my students access to today’s technology, I believe I am providing a schema about the information process that will transcend into tomorrow’s world.
A: response to Amanda
I too was impressed by Amanda's comments towards how she is helping her students become 21st century learners. She obviously has put time and thought into this subject matter, outside of this discussion group. To prepare your students beyond tomorrow is such an important task, and one that impacts students lives. Way to go, Amanda!
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