Question 1: In chapter 3 we read about teaching so children can learn.

The author
gave us steps to planning a unit study. In the planning phase they talked about
determining activities for the big idea (topic). Later in the chapter we learned more
about how to teach the big idea. There, they suggest waiting to choose which
activities to do until after youve listened to what the students already know. My
question is, are there strategys for planning this way? Do teachers have a bank of
activities planned and then just pull from those? Or are they constantly researching
more activities as they learn more about the students they are teaching? I looked
up some articles trying to find plans on how to teach in a student-centered
classroom and the answers are all over the place. I read about teachers allowing
flexibility to change what youre doing if something else is needed or works better
that the text talked about. In reading I also realized that some of these strategies
become a teachers basket of activities that they choose from, like the KWL charts
and POE activities. I think Im thinking of activities like experiments and more
creative ways of engaging the students. I also think, Im answering my own
questionthe longer youre teaching the bigger your basket of ideas.

Question 2: After teaching on a unit or a concept we obviously assess the students

understanding and the text talked about ways to do that which show their depth of
understanding and not simply the memorized answer that is easy to teach.
Questioning in a manner that the teacher finds out what is in the students head
rather than the other way around. It makes total sense. I just wonder two things.
With adding flexibility into the plan and having the students control the learning
how do you stay on a schedule to complete all the concepts needing to be learned
for the year and how does this way of assessing their knowledge translate to the
types of tests they need to take for standardized testing?
Ive read several articles promoting and providing evidence for student centered
classrooms but havent found an article talking about the translation to
standardized tests.

TS: For the first time in years Im taking a science course. I read the material, took
notes, watched videos and answered questions in the labs and answered the
questions in the back of the chapter in an effort to prepare for the quizzes. I thought
I was prepared at this point to take the quizzes. The first quiz was on the lab. I
expected what the author talked about in the textmemorization of terms and rote
memory of what I learned. I experienced something very different. The quiz asked
me to design my own experiment using the knowledge I had gained from the
material taught. I can honestly say that I immediately thought of our text and our
class discussion. The part about negotiating meaning to the point of understanding
in a different context is when a student has conceptual change. I did not make
enough sense of the material taught to apply to some other situation. I also realize
that this professor is doing a great job at challenging my thinking and questioning in
a manner that requires me to summarize my understanding through the negotiated
meaning-making process of writing. It was another opportunity to drive home the
conceptsunfortunately I should have applied the information in this class to that
class before I took those quizzes .
Fact #1: When planning, the big idea supplies the focus for the activities, not the
other way around. We need to be flexible and we need to build opportunities for
students to make connections with new information and their schema. Use any
strategy that requires them to explain how things are connected when questioning
their understanding.

Fact #2: We have to encourage and support the students to make public what their
reasoning strategies are and how they have constructed their arguments.

Fact #3: Student centered learning strategies are about the teacher finding out what
is in the students head. Questioning is a critical element of the learning process
both for the teachers information about the student and teachers need to pose
questions that require students to move beyond recall and think through possible
solutions to arrive at an answer.

What I learned precisely:

Student-centered teaching should create an environment where students can learn

and engage in the process. How we plan for their learning, what environment we
create in the classroom and how we question their understanding is critical in
matching teaching to learning. The student is in control of their learning and the
teachers job is to engage learners in that process. Specifically, I learned that group
work and how we question understanding are a critical component of negotiation of
meaning for the learner.

Statement:

Student-centered teaching is teaching so children can learn. It involves determining

the big ideas for topics, planning the topic, finding out what the students know, and
questioning their understanding. All activities should point back to the big idea,
promote student-centered engagement, be flexible, and have built in opportunities
to make connections back to the big idea. Two critical teaching skills in this
environment are questioning and group work. Questioning is about the teacher
finding out what is in the students head. Teachers need to get out of the way and
pose question that move students beyond recall and think through possible
solutions to arrive at an answer. It should challenge them to explain how they are
connecting the information. Group work gives the learner opportunities to
negotiate meaning across different setting, individual, small group and whole class.
The function of group work is to promote the shift from individual private
negotiation of meaning to public negotiation of meaning, and is a critical component
of negotiation. All of student-centered teaching acknowledges that the learner
controls the learning and it is up to the teacher to orchestrate opportunities where
students can share and expand their developing understanding.