Students will most likely engage in these tasks because the Smart Notebooks are colourful and interesting, with relevant pictures and videos; and have clear instructions and questions. Clear instructions are part of the Quality Learning Environment (Explicit Quality Criteria) according to the Quality Teaching Model (QTM). As "digital natives", most students will be comfortable working and reading from a computer screen (Lyell, 2012a). They will enjoy Youtube clips such as Horrible Histories, which they may already be familiar with.
Within the project we tried to ensure we were always pushing students up Bloom's Taxonomy towards Higher Order Thinking with Create and Assess activities (Marsh & Hart, 2011, p.139). We also used Lower Order Thinking tasks such as Categorize, Sort and Describe, usually at the beginning of lessons. The Higher Order Thinking tasks were usually later in the lesson or in the assignment. Higher Order Thinking is an element of Intellectual Quality in the QTM.
The assignment was Project-based Learning. PBL is a "comprehensive set of real, complex problems that provide learners with opportunities to acquire knowledge, understanding and skills" (Killen, 2009, p.246). Students needed to complete a model of an Ancient Egyptian house, and write a short story about life as an Ancient Egyptian person. I think these kinds of tasks lead students to the Create level of Bloom's Taxonomy. The work is challenging because students will have to imagine themselves as an Ancient Egyptian person, and use their linguistic skills to bring this person to life.
Wednesday 24 October 2012
The Project and Quality Teaching
The project relates to the Quality Teaching Model very strongly in many areas. In this blog post I will concentrate on four specific elements across all three focus areas: Intellectual Quality, Quality Learning Environment and Significance.
Firstly, from the area of Quality Learning environment, I believe our unit of work provides a high level of Exlpicit Quality Criteria to set the students up for learning in each lesson. At the start of each lesson we stated what content would be included in the lesson. We also tried to ensure each activity was explained well in question or instruction format. This would hopefully ensure students are not left confused over what to do.
For Intellectual Quality, the element of Metalanguage is a major focus. In History there are a lot of new words for students. We created Vocabulary lists and literacy-focused activities. We explained what words meant within text and by using pictures to show what things looked like.
Significance is an area I believe is particularly important to History teaching. Cultural Knowledge is pertinent to History in general. For example, if a student is Aboriginal they are going to have some Cultural Knowledge on a topic about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. Background Knowledge on a subject like Ancient Egypt is likely. Often students have at least heard of the pyramids.
Firstly, from the area of Quality Learning environment, I believe our unit of work provides a high level of Exlpicit Quality Criteria to set the students up for learning in each lesson. At the start of each lesson we stated what content would be included in the lesson. We also tried to ensure each activity was explained well in question or instruction format. This would hopefully ensure students are not left confused over what to do.
For Intellectual Quality, the element of Metalanguage is a major focus. In History there are a lot of new words for students. We created Vocabulary lists and literacy-focused activities. We explained what words meant within text and by using pictures to show what things looked like.
Significance is an area I believe is particularly important to History teaching. Cultural Knowledge is pertinent to History in general. For example, if a student is Aboriginal they are going to have some Cultural Knowledge on a topic about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. Background Knowledge on a subject like Ancient Egypt is likely. Often students have at least heard of the pyramids.
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