Learning Blog 4

I found chapter 5 to be very informative when looking to understand the “Reflective Phase” of the PAR lesson plan framework. I enjoyed how the authors started off the chapter emphasizing the importance of critical thinking. Page 108 says, “To learn, students need to be in a relaxed atmosphere where they have time to reflect on the assignment.” I think as classroom teachers, it’s difficult to give the students an adequate amount of time to reflect on an assignment due to the pressures of covering all of the SOL objectives laid out on the district pacing guide for the day. I tend to look at my data and direct my instruction based on the needs of my students; however, it can be difficult to balance the extra time spent on a lesson and moving towards the next objective. If a teacher spends too much time on one aspect of a lesson, the class will fall behind in meeting the time restraints for the district pacing guides.

It was helpful for me to read the 3 positive aspects of reflective learning so that I can truly understand the importance of the reflective phase (pg 109):

1.                     Students think more in depth about what they have learned and yet to learn about a lesson.

2.                     It helps students retain material they have read (the more students reflect, the longer they’ll remember the material)

3.                     Provides a demonstration of one’s learning through a system of informal evaluation

On page 116, the authors explain the benefits of cooperative learning and one of them was a gain in self-esteem, time on task, attendance, and ability to work effectively with others. Collaborative learning provides students with life skills needed in the “real world” and it also gives them something to look forward to when coming to school! They won’t have to sit through a “boring” lecture presented by their teacher because they’re actively involved in their own learning process!

I was relieved to see that the 16 strategies presented in the Reflection Phase chapter were much clearer for me to understand than the ones listed in the Assistance Phase from chapter 4 J. I think that there are more strategies applicable to my first grade classroom in the Reflection Phase than those in the Assistance Phase from chapter 4. I even found that I’m already using some of them in my classroom already due to the big push at our school to use Kagan strategies.

One of the ones that I use is similar to the Rallytable described on page 123. Instead of students writing their responses on a piece of paper, the students get in pairs and say statements back and forth. This is called Rallyrobin. For example, if I say “body coverings” the students will take turns going back and forth saying different body coverings and/or specific animals with that body covering. Or, if I say “compound words” they must go back and forth naming different compound words.

Another strategy that I’ve found extremely helpful is the think-pair-share strategy. We’re supposed to use this everyday in each of our lessons for each content area. The students are given a topic and must think about it, then break into pairs, and take turns sharing what they know about the topic. I’ve used this during the Preparation Phase of my lessons and also at the conclusion of my lessons (Reflection Phase). I’ve found that it’s also helpful to use this prior to a test.

I thought that the About/Point strategy would be very helpful for my students after reading a difficult passage. Also, the self-generated questions would be beneficial for my students to create after a lesson because it enables them to think critically about what they read by creating their own questions and also it holds them accountable for what they read.

This chapter was very helpful for me to better understand critical thinking and how to implement it into my classroom.