Pedagogy | msunderwood

Celebrating Individuality

Differentiated Learning

One thing that I like to use consistently to help with all learning levels is using graphic organizers. I find that these tools allow students to complete them to their own ability without creating different assignments; students can write as much or as little or draw if they feel that that is a stronger way to express themselves. I used graphic organizers consistently to prepare for "Book Club Meet-Ups" and they helped to facilitate conversations and develop understanding.

Multi-modality

When learning about static electricity, the class was involved in multiple ways of gaining knowledge to help in their understanding. We read, discussed, drew, observed experiments, and enacted the properties of positive and negative charges using our bodies. These lessons approached static electricity from a linguistic, visual, interpersonal, and kinesthetic way addressing the needs of diverse learners.

Instilling Confidence

I collaborated with the school Librarian to develop poetry lessons inspired by the book: "Favourite Part of Me" This was an opportunity for the students to choose a part of themselves that they liked the most and celebrate it. To take this one step further, the class compiled their poems to make a poetry book that all of the students could access and share. This fostered confidence in not only their physical qualities but also emotionall and socially as they were able to share it with their peers.

An ongoing project that we did in the class was posting book recommendations. This was a way for students to share their knowledge and opinions with each other. Students took pride in their ability to offer advice and celebrated when they had completed a book

The Value of Relationships

Experience Based Learning

I strongly believe in the idea of learning through experiences. To take this even further, I think it is important to also make the experience authentic and connect it to real world situations. For the circuit portion of the electricity unit I taught, I began by bringing in jumper cables for a car and asking the students what they knew about then. We then began to discuss why knowing how circuits work is beneficial in everyday life. From there, the students were given mini circuit boards with key parts (lightbulbs, wires, batteries and connectors) and given the challenge to successfully connect and light the two light bulbs. The students were able to create both parallel circuits and series circuits.

Project Based Learning

The Mock Trial was the end result of studying the judicial system. Students were aware at the beginning of the unit that this is what they would be working towards. Throughout the unit, students were given the opportuntity to create artifacts (evidence) that would be used in the trial, write their statements for the judge from both a defence and prosecution perspective as well as act out a trial. They also had to determine what type of trial it was and what court it would be held in. This provided the students with the ability to make connections between what was being taught and the application.

Integration

The Mock Trial was also a great example of integrated studies. This project incorporated Fine Arts, Language Arts and Social Studies.

Collaborative Learning

One example of collaborative learning that I implemented was the weekly "Book Club Meet Ups". Students would come together to share their information on certain literary techniques used in writing that they had discovered in their novels. They asked questions of one another and found connections between their texts.

A second example was when I challenged the students to measure the perimeter of the school. In small groups they devised a way to tackle this process; they shared ideas and built upon each other suggestions. One group member suggested to measure just the windows and then multiplying them rather then measuring them individually. From there, they used this technique with other features of the building that repeated such as bricks that lined the gymnasium.

Community Building

I began a recognition program in which the students could recognize each other's positive behavior by giving them a "High Five Paw" and posting it on the class board. This not only helped to increase a student's sense of self-worth but also helped to foster relationships between their classmates. This also aided in creating a positive classroom environment.

Elimination is a P.E. activity in which the students have to reach a target point at the back of the gym without being caught by the guards. At first, students approached this in an individualistic manner but then begin to recognize that by working together they have a higher chance of success. It is always interesting to see what role the students take on - the one who acts as a distraction, the one who sacrifices themselves for the team, or the one who gets to reach the target.