As I read Betty Ray's Design Thinking piece the part that first
grabbed my eye was that the goal was to break through the negative thinking
that plagues the big, thorny issues, and to come up with one prototype idea for
solving one aspect problem. Also I liked the "no idea is too
stupid" mantra. I am all for making ideas and situations positive.
I like the fact that this can be used in many situations and that it
requires group work. By having a class do this they are learning another
way to work together with peers to solve problems.
The second article
that I read was Content Area Literacy in Elementary Classrooms. It is a
very interesting topic that should be taken very seriously. It states
that it is very important to teach content area literacy instruction at an
early age. Out of the three factors that were stated that have converged to
create change in the face of content area literacy instruction technology stood
out to me. With today's technology and that the U.S... economy demands a
higher level of literacy than ever before these two run hand in hand. The
internet can help one go through information faster than looking through books.
Another main point was making the case for content area literacy and why
should teachers give more attention to instruction involving expository text.
Early exposure, motivation from informational text, and the increase of
new knowledge domains from informational text are the main points. I
definitely agree that informational texts increase new knowledge domains.
With personal experience I feel that it contributes to schema development
in many ways. By developing new domains at the elementary level it helps
ensure the success in upper grades. The article also states how to
integrate literacy instruction with content area study. The activity chosen
was learning logs. I think this is a great idea. Now to be honest I
have never done a learning log until this past week for CIE 302 but from doing
it I loved it. This can definitely be used in any subject.
The article sums
up with other ways such as providing access to a multiplicity of text types and
providing immersion in content through inquiry-based experiences. All in
all this is an excellent article and very informational.
Questions:
-I see that Design-Thinking is an awesome tool/strategy to use but I am sure that there will be some students who won't think that it all that. How can I get those students to be as excited about it as I am?
-I know that you can begin to teach content area literacy at an early age but how early is too early?
Questions:
-I see that Design-Thinking is an awesome tool/strategy to use but I am sure that there will be some students who won't think that it all that. How can I get those students to be as excited about it as I am?
-I know that you can begin to teach content area literacy at an early age but how early is too early?
After reading your post, the article by Betty Ray on design thinking made a little more sense to me. The things that you spoke about didn't stand out t me as I read so reading your statements gave more clarity to me.
ReplyDeleteI saw that you you spoke about learning logs. I have never done those. I read about the idea circles and it reminded me of literature circles that we did last semester in Dr. Boyce's class. I think that this and the learning logs are two great ideas but they definitely need to be taught before they are expected to be done properly by students. I believe many think alouds and modeling have to be done first and that these would definitely lead to better understanding and more motivation for students in regards to informational texts because they are not traditional and can definitely be motivations for students.