EDUCATION STYLES HAVE CHANGED
Teaching methods have rapidly changed in the last decades. Schools are forgoing piling students down
with textbooks, arranging classrooms in linear formations, and lecture-style
instruction to utilizing virtual textbooks, allowing for casual seating
arrangements, and employing diversified teaching methods.
TEACHING IN A DIGITAL AGE
In our digital age, many more (free) resources have become
available for teachers. However, the change in the approach for educating our youth mandates a paradigm shift for
teaching styles. Teachers now have
to be creative and innovated to capture the interest of their pupils. As an example, Johnathan Ernst offers these
10 Tips to Effectively Engage Students:
- Identify (What are the students’ interests? How do they learn best? How to establish appropriate relationships with them?)
- Collaborate (Guide/lead rather than telling.)
- Engage (Ask open-ended questions. Initiate conversations. Use activities and interact.)
- Apply (Present real-life references. Share experiences. Explain importance of materials.)
- Show Weakness (Be humble/”real” with students. Don’t dominate.)
- Be Patient (Listen to the students. Set a comfortable pace.)
- Use Multiple Learning Styles (All students learn differently.)
- Encourage (Set high expectations. Provide the necessary tools. Be available.)
- Show Your Passion (Show students why you care about your field.)
- Check Up on Students (Continue to monitor and encourage students.)
SAMPLE LESSON PLAN
To demonstrate how learning might can be approached in a
digital age, I offer the following lesson plan on Benjamin Franklin for a
fourth grade classroom. The plan touches the areas of Social Studies, Science,
Digital Media, and English.
- Assess student’s prior knowledge of Ben Franklin. Type the responses so they are visible on the electronic overhead. Refer to these responses as we progress through the lesson.
- Next, watch a TeacherTube video as an overview. The link to the video is found here: http://www.teachertube.com/video/benjamin-franklin-biography-233399?utm_source=video-google&utm_medium=video-view&utm_term=video&utm_content=video-page&utm_campaign=video-view-page . At the conclusion, we will expand our list on the overhead.
- Then, complete an exercise from the PBS’s learning plan for Ben Franklin. (http://www.pbs.org/benfranklin/teachersguide.html)
discuss their ideas for a new invention, or expanding upon an
existing invention.
“Many of Franklin’s scientific inventions
came out of his ability to see a need or problem and
then come up with a
solution. Sometimes, he made
improvements on other people’s
inventions.
Students become inventors by identifying a problem or need, and
inventing a
solution.”
At the conclusion of a 20 minute
brainstorming session, each group will elect a
spokesperson to speak about their ideas.
spokesperson to speak about their ideas.
- Next, talk about Ben Franklin’s favorite foods during a class snack time. The students will be given apples to eat while the class reviews this link to Franklin’s Favorite Foods: http://www.benfranklin300.org/etc_article_foods.htm
- Following snack time, the students will create a blog entry which will be a letter that Ben Franklin might have written to his mother to describe one of his adventures or inventions. The letter will be graded based upon form, grammar, and content.
- And last, the class rejoin their teams (which were previously established). Each team will select at least 8 key words that describe Ben Franklin’s contributions and will create a word search using this link: http://puzzlemaker.discoveryeducation.com/WordSearchSetupForm.asp. The groups will then exchange their word searches with another team. Bonus points will be given for the team that uses the largest number of pertinent words and for the students who complete their sheets in the allotted time.
Reference
D. Aikat. (2011).
Effective strategies for teaching
in the digital age. Retrieved from
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