Student Learning Proflies

This week in class, we identify the way we learn.  It is a profoundly important lesson to learn, yet one often overlooked.  Identifying our strengths and weaknesses is critical to helping ourselves become a better learner.  With this knowledge, students can become more involved in their learning, deciding the best ways to study based on scientific fact.

As parents and teachers we often teach what we know.  This means, simply, that we use the methods that we were taught by to teach our children.  While it is sometimes good, conflict between students and parents/teachers sometimes exists when this method doesn’t work.  Think about you and your child – does he/she study the way you did?  And if so, is it producing results?  I’m not a neuroscientist, so I don’t know if it’s genetic.  But I do know that each person learns differently.  Children and parents may learn the same way based on chance or science, but it still happens enough.  But when it DOESN’T happen, and a child isn’t learning when we (parents and teachers) have tried everything we know, frustration sets in.

This mini-unit is designed to help students (as well as parents) learn the best way they study.  In this classroom, we use a diverse number of learning styles.  Yes, I’m biased towards some (my own) as it’s what I know, but I make a concerted effort to include all learning styles to draw in all learners.  This why we do individual writing, group presentations, sing songs, build buildings, draw pictures, use maps, and read personal accounts and testimony.  They address all the learning styles that we will learn about this week.

This is the Student Learning Profile that each student will begin Monday, and complete through the week.  I invite parents to take a look at it, but also to help their students use their best methods to study.  Students should keep this in their binder throughout the year so we can check in on our progress and monitor what we’re doing right and wrong.

Favorite New Website

2 years ago in DC, we drove past one of the newest museums on the mall, the “Newseum:” a museum dedicated to newspapers – past and present – and the preservation of our First Amendment.  The building features numerous interactive exhibits of historical events, the media’s role in our culture, and a 71-foot engraving of the First Amendment on it’s exterior.  Additionally – and perhaps my favorite part – they display dozens of newspaper front pages outside the building.   ABC’s “This Week” broadcasts from here every Sunday, so perhaps you’ve seen it there.

Sadly, I’ve never been to the Newseum!  Our DC trip does not include it, and I haven’t been to DC for a personal trip in 5 years.  Instead, I get my fix from a portion of their website, one that allows you to see front pages of newspapers from around the country, both big cities and small.  Others remind me of one of my (many) past residences.  It’s very cool to see what’s going on around the country, especially as our news media is so driven by national political issues.  Or celebrities.  Or children who may or may not be in balloons.

 

Stand Up For Kids

We’ve begun another service-learning project with our kids at Lakeview.  The Make-a-Difference club and Student Council are collecting materials for “Stand Up For Kids.”  This organization aids homeless children.  You can see more info here:

 

Research Update

While we’re halfway done with research, we still have several things we need to do in order to present this in a useful manner:

1. Organize and prepare our slides (10 slides began by end of class Monday).  Research and the subsequent gathering of information is useless if you don’t think through it and present it in an organized and easy-to-learn fashion.  Most students have done this, but some are rushing out slides willy-nilly.  We’ll fix that today ; )
2. Submit 10 “Test Questions” for Friday’s open-note student-generated Test.  In doing this, students identify what their 10 most important points are from their research.  They also give me time to prepare a “study guide” of sorts for their fellow researchers/students taking notes on Thursday/Friday.
3. Present their research.  Most are doing this in the Researching Chicago – Presenattion and PPT.  A few others are Researching Chicago – Paper Rubric using the standard format for doing such (thesis/introduction-body paragraphs-conclusion).  Either way, students must use the rubric provided (and linked above).

Students are doing an excellent job and learning a great deal of information.  I can’t wait to see the finished presentations and will share them with you on Friday/Saturday when they are complete.

Research Project

We spent this week researching Chicago.  This project serves two goals:

1. Learn to be better researchers.
2. Teach a part of Chicago’s culture and history to your classmates.

Accomplishing both takes time.  We spent Monday – Friday collecting resources.  This required the abstention of using typical “researching” methods – google, ask, bing, etc.  Many students were indignant at the thought of not using the only sites they could possibly find information!  But most learned to find good sources still.  This is one of the most important lessons to learn, as students will have to do so next year in 8th grade, and certainly when they go to high school.  Learning to do that now makes the process far easier, and progressively makes them better researchers and students.

Next week, we’ll work on our presentations.  Rubrics go out Monday, and I’ll blog with that and give more info then!