Letting Go

Great Teaching Means Letting Go

My initial thoughts from reading this title is that effective teaching happens when teachers allow students to learn without restrictions. If teachers are to control the terms in which students are learning, then they are not independent of the teacher. Students should be encouraged to be autonomous learners and independent thinkers. Grant makes an interesting statement regarding the transfer of knowledge, students ought to be able to draw upon and apply what was learned. Grant refers to this as “not scripted behavior”.

A great deal of his article constantly reminds me of the importance of metacognition. Students ability to think about their thinking. Students should know what strategies are most effective in getting through and analyzing certain problems. Grant states, “ students gain practice from their repertoire with no teacher prompting.”  When students develop their own molded form of thinking, analyzing, problem solving they are able to make great strides towards independence. Students should not be drilled with practices exercises that they are not able to apply to situations out of context. In retrospect, it is sort of dealing with “if….,then…” scenarios. Being able to decide the types of strategies to use, and how to best solve or understand content in situations should be a focal point in student learning.

Further in the article, Grant discusses a very common term that teachers hear, “The Gradual Release Model”.  Teachers are supposed to provide the 3-2-1 framework of learning. The concept involves everyone participating and practicing together, “I Do, We Do, You Do.”  The first step is direct instruction, secondly is guided instruction, and third is based on independent feedback or practice.

Personally, I believe Grant makes a valid argument for increased student and learner independence. Teachers must learn to provide students with resources and strategies, and have the confidence in them apply these strategies to the necessary problems that arise. Learners deserve to be able to think on their own, and develop their own methods of thinking and solving problems. Grant unequivocally states “unless you back off completely, on a daily basis, in scrimmages as well as games, to see whether or not students draw appropriately from the repertoire in a timely and effective fashion in challenges that demand it, you really have no idea what they can do on their own.”  In order for our students to thrive and be successfully independent learners, teachers must provide them with the freedom to discover on their own and develop their own ways of learning and thinking. Scaffolding can become overbearing if not served with an even balance of challenge, independence and support.  

Blog Post #3

Google searching is an indefinite practice of mine. Whether it is searching for quick factual information, searching for relevant daily information or beginning a search for research related information. Google searches have become a common practice of mine throughout instruction and learning practices. In fact, my Google patterns are relative to the Information Behavior of the Researcher of the Future in that in casual conversations when a question arises that we are not aware of the answer to, we stop and Google the answer.

I’m not entirely sure what I have in common with teens in my web searching behavior. However, it depends on the nature of the task. If I am preparing research material, I would reference and search resources that are more effective in supporting my purpose. Google search have tiers of relevance and appropriateness. It is not appropriate to use “quick” Google searches to support data in research. However, if we are searching for flight information, or weather then it is quite harmless to engage in Google searches.

Your search inquiries alter your filter of results. Thus, to avoid creating your own filter bubble it would be helpful to alter the strategies you use in searching for content. Once a filter bubble is created it closes a user off to potentially new ideas, information and subjects. It is highly encourage for users to develop frameworks of searching and filtering the content results.

Blog Post #2

Technology is constantly changing and evolving with multiple dimensions. In this week’s readings, the articles and resources presented various strategies for increased technology productivity. In particular, the article The Journey from Digital Literacy to Digital Fluency and My daily info-wrangling routine focus on developing routines, which essentially contributes to using tools that are effective and disregarding, or discarding tools that are less rewarding.  Also, the article Creating Classrooms We Need: 8 Ways Into Inquiry Learning and the video InfoWhelm and Information Fluency focus more on the importance of information fluency. I personally relate to the author’s view in Creating Classrooms We Need: 8 Ways Into Inquiry Learning, “being digitally fluent means using the tools of technology to do things completely differently than I’ve ever done before.” Thus, by taking an innovative approach to technology tools and using these resources in various contexts, challenges the fluency of learners. Though the articles have different ways of approaching and presenting the information, I believe they all have the same central message. Digital Literacy and Information Fluency is an ongoing arena of context and changing knowledge. I believe the idea of using PLN’s contributes to my learning goal of implementing strategies for language learning. This learning goal is especially important for me in that it challenges me to discover new methods of instruction and delivery.

Blog Post #1

Through this course I am interested to learn how I can implement strategies of inquiry learning in ESOL education focused on English Language Learners. In addition, to learn extensively how these strategies improve or positively contribute to student learning and instruction. Also to explore effective methods of research and information discovery.Technology is a wonderful tool to have in teaching and learning, so to see the contribution it has in the content area of English language learning is a dimension I am interested in learning more about.