Chapters 7 and 8

Chapter 7 is all about cooperative learning, a topic about which I've learned quite a bit over my years as an education major at Bethel. Cooperative learning is becoming more and more key in today's world, mainly because today's world is becoming more and more global. It's easy (and traditional) to base groups off of ability, but that really isn't so good, and I agree. Students need to be in mixed ability groups to push some students to learn, and to push some students to teach. I believe learning is enhanced in both ways. The book also says that a variety of criteria should be used to group students; groups should be informal, formal, and "base groups"; groups should be of a managable size; and cooperative learning should be combined with other class structures. Multi-media and web resources are great ways for students to learn cooperatively, as are WebQuests. They give students the chance to either be together or apart when working as a group, and it's a great way to use technology in the classroom. After creating a WebQuest for a class assignment, I can positively say I will use that in the classroom someday. Shared calendars and shared bookmarks are other ways for students to learn together. Also, I will be doing much work with websites in my classroom. They are easy, simple ways to use technology.























Chapter 8 is titled Reinforcing Effort. This is talking about enhancing students understanding of relationship between effort and achievement by addressing their attitudes and beliefs about learning. Basically, it's the philosophy behind learning. I agree wholeheartedly and believe that students need intrinsic motivation and personal drive to really achieve significant learning. Effort Rubrics are great ways for students to track their own effort, and I like the idea enough that I'd like to incorporate it into my classroom in some way. Showing students data is also shown to convince students that effort is truly tied to achievement, though I wonder how successful this really can be in getting students to make an effort? Surveys on a site like Survey Monkey could be used to gague students effort.

Chapters 4, 5 and 6

Chapter 4 deals primarily with using cues, questions and advance organizers. The main idea the text is trying to get at here is that using certain forms can be beneficial in the use of technology. This is a very good idea: just as with any medium, the virtual canvas must be used with certain intentionality in order to accomplish the growth of knowledge. While this is true, the chapter makes no good argument for why this is something that is important to differentiate between mediums. Whether written, spoken in groups, drawn free hand, or done in any manner of way on a computer or over the Internet, these same rules apply and in a sense eliminate the need for specific discussion on said topics.

Nonlinguistic representation is the topic for chapter 5. This chapter deals with the creation of visual or kinesthetic methods rather than the usual written methods. This includes great ideas like using graphic organizers to display information in a logical way that makes sense and demonstrating concepts with physical movement. These both work great in Social Studies. The graphic organizer can show the relationships of many people, places and things around us, which is in fact the study of Social Studies. Geography can make great use of body movement in demonstrating things like population trends and 'relative vs exact location.' There are also many more uses in class both with or without the use of technology.

Chapter 6 concentrates on note-taking. One important recommendation is that students be given teacher-prepared notes so that the important information is covered within the student's notes. It is important to not also that the student does not just receieve a free pass to not take his/her own notes from the book or during class. If this had been the case, I would not be in agreement. Instead, the authors suggest that students also be taught how to take effective notes and organize them themselves. Thus, the responsibility, presumably, falls gradually into the students' hands.