| 3.
Building on What We Know - Cognitive Processing
Questions for Reflection
Question 1: The teacher says she "asks questions
to help them draw the kind of concepts that I want them to draw."
She appears to lead the children to decide on certain categories
rather than telling them. Could the children build their own categories
and then compare their categories with those developed by scientists?
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the expert's response
Question 2: The teacher is listing different theories
from students without comment. There doesn't seem to be much discussion
of them – organizing them in any way.
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the expert's response
Question 3: What was MacLean's goal for the household items activity?
How does that fit into her overall plan?
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the expert's response
Question 4: Fe MacLean and Sandie Gilliam make free-flowing
classroom discussion look so easy. When I try that, my students
either clam up or go off task. How do you get kids started in this
process?
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the expert's response
Question 5: Making the pop-up book and drawing the pictures
– this looks like it took a lot of time away from instruction.
How could MacLean be sure that her students were gaining deep understanding
or proficiency as a result of this process?
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the expert's response
Question 6: What strategies are good for locating gaps
in a student's prior knowledge without embarrassing the student?
I've given pre-tests before, but sometimes they backfire. I'm looking
for more.
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the expert's response
Question 7: Gilliam seems to use
top-down advance organizers and MacLean seems to move from bottom
up – starting with simple, concrete examples and moving to
abstractions. Is one better than the other? How do I know which
approach to use with my students?
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the expert's response
Question 8: Some of Gilliam's
students looked bored or uninvolved from time to time. There are
a lot of kids like that in my class. How does she keep them all
engaged?
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the expert's response
Question 9: Gilliam appears to
have the benefit of a second teacher in her classroom. I'm a one-person
show. How can I make sure that all of my kids are getting it when
I'm all there is in the classroom?
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the expert's response
Return to Support
Materials for Session 3.
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