During Social Studies class today I was able to connect with the students’ lives beyond school even more. Ms. A’s class was going over their Daily Geography as a group. The students have been learning to use map keys and determining the scale of a map to discover distances between locations. After one student provided the class with the correct answer she asked her to explain to the class how she determined that distance. Rather than explaining the appropriate steps she said she typed it into MapQuest to get the answer. This technique further emphasizes the lives of these students. Not only do many students not have computer/internet access at home, but also many have never heard of MapQuest. This further emphasized to me the importance of being aware of students’ background and their experiences. Without knowing this information, it can be difficult to provide students with appropriate instruction.
Saturday, February 10, 2007
Classroom Observation Reflection: February 2nd, 2007, 10:10am-2:15pm
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4 comments:
Molly-
Indeed, I think it is so important to be cognizant of students' backgrounds and experiences. Certainly, there is a lot of disparity that plays out in schools, especially with regard to social class. It is important to remember that, even at a place like the school you teach in, there are still many students who are in danger of being "left behind" for a wide range of reasons. Students' performance is obviously influenced by their experiences beyond school and the resources they have available to them.
Student background really is important when teaching, just as you said in your blog. Sometimes you have to rethink and rearrange a lesson if you make an inaccurate assumption. I guess that's where pre-assessments are useful?
I was also drawn to your statement about the parent involvement at the school. My 488 teacher said that she found it was a positive and negative thing. Positive because of the support you receive, negative because of the pressure and over involvement of parents (in which they don't let the teacher do their job the way they want) she is sometimes faced with. I guess we can hope for a place in the middle.
Your school sounds like a great environment for students to learn and grow. It's great to see that there are so many parents out there who are willing to go the extra mile for their children to make sure that they are getting the best education possible. This gives me hope because I feel like we encounter many more situations in which parents are not available to provide extra support for their children, for whatever reason.
However, the situation you describe is a good reminder as well that not all students come from backgrounds where they have so many different opportunities and parents to help them. As teachers, we must try to give students from disadvantaged backgrounds as many new opportunities as we can so that they can build up their background knowledge and experiences.
Molly, that's really interesting how one student used MapQuest to find the distance between places. While on the one hand I think it's great that students know what internet services like MapQuest are and how to use them, I can also see these services becoming a crutch for students. For example, in this case, it seems the student didn't use a strategy or even solve the problem, he/she allowed the problem to be solved by MapQuest. I guess this makes me realize that, though we generally think of middle/upper-middle class students as being easier to deal with, there are things to be dealt with for these students as well.
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