Make a list of the sequence of skills necessary for ultimate mastery of the
content of your lesson through a constructivist approach.
Which of these learning activities/skills lend themselves to student’s
individual or group construction? How might you structure learning
activities that lead students to discover these skills/these principles?
In class my group decided to do a vocabulary lesson for Kindergarten on color words. I turned my sheet in so I don't remember exactly what we came up with. My plans for vocabulary once I have my own classroom is to have a vocabulary activity each day. Monday, I will introduce the vocabulary words and give them definitions. It would be hard to give definitions for color words so I would maybe just go over each word and show them what the color looks like. Tuesday, I would provide an activity that helps them practice writing the words, like a crossword activity. They could work with a partner to complete it. Wednesday, I would give them a worksheet like this one to work on knowing what the color is by looking at the vocabulary words. Thursday, I would have them participate in a group activity. I would have the groups walk around the school (inside or outside on the playground) and do a color scavenger hunt. I would either give them cameras if I could or have them write down what they found (when they are able to do that, I'm not sure when Kindergarteners can write well enough to do that). Then on Friday I will give them a quiz to test their knowledge of spelling the color words and recognizing what color goes with each color word. Hopefully through all the activities I provide throughout the week they will gain an understanding of the color words so that they know them by Friday. These activities incorporate individual work and group work to help them gain a better understanding.
Below is a video of some 4th and 5th grade students participating in a social studies activity. You can see and hear from the students how much more effective the activities they are participating in are than just answering questions in a textbook.
I did an activity on vocab as well. I think vocab is a great way to incorporate constructivism. I also loved how you included in teaching the vocabulary definition, showing the word by throwing the actual colors, and all different activities you included. I think it is important as you showed to include individual and social group work in constructivism.
ReplyDeleteI really like that you had so many different activities for your students to do, and I think they would definitely pick up on their colors after such an interactive week. I also thought it was really creative that you brought up having students use cameras to document different colors. Since kindergarteners are such visual learners, I think having them take photographs is a really smart way of assessing them!
ReplyDeleteI really liked the video that you included. And I also liked how you planned the lesson for kindergarten. I think that a constructivist approach to teaching and learning is so important in the younger grades, so it was definitely interesting for me to read :)
ReplyDeleteI love the idea of having the students walk around the school and recognize colors - what a great authentic activity. You do need to build up prior knowledge, so I think with kindergarteners the worksheets work as well.
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