Intelligence is something that can be biological, and I also completely agree with Vygotski that intelligence in children can grow into an intellectual life of those around them. Everyday when I teach, I am assuming that all my students have the capacity to learn because I ask them to think, even struggling students have the capacity to answer questions and actively engage in our lessons. Now, I am working in a general education classroom... however, I truly think that with the proper amount of scaffolding, any student has the capacity to learn. Naturally, I agree that students have innate intelligence at different levels, however, I also believe that students can learn from each other.
My assumptions of learning also includes that teachers and even other students can greatly influence the capacity of students intelligence. I have a few different examples: First, a gifted student can be hindered by their environment if they are not nurtured and challenged to their abilities. Students must receive the same signals from parents, teachers and peers to feel same in being gifted, or they might exhibit detrimental behavior. Also, if a gifted student is not challenged, they will not learn important inquiry behaviors which can also hinder their intelligence.
This can work in the opposite way for struggling, even average students. When they have a teacher who provides a strong learning community, Danielson's Domain 2; students will feel save to take risks, even challenging themselves to push their thought process. When a teacher provides lots of modeling of language and inquiry, students can see firsthand how to ask themselves and others the same types of questions. Also, watching intelligent students model intelligent behavior, they will imitate that behavior, practicing what they have learned. Students will be internalizing socially shared actions of those around them. That is intelligence. Using social experiences to further their own learning. When teachers hold students to high standards, they will learn how to take these risks. Teachers are so crucial to this process, however, I believe that parents must also take their responsibility to provide appropriate actions for their child to share. Parents are their child's number one teacher, and gaining appropriate inquiry based intelligence will start at home.
These assumptions about students (and their environment) do shape the way I provide developmentally appropriate instruction. I provide lots of different types of activities and exposures for my students. I assume that they come into my classroom with all different types of abilities and home environments so I want to give them a meaningful education while they are in my classroom. I set up activities and lessons so students will have to work together, problem solving together to come up with solutions. My hope is that students will model how to inquire for each other, and be able actively join the discussion no matter how well they can read or write.
I also provide lots of modeling of my enthusiasm for the curriculum, sharing my interests with the students, and active engagement. It is so neat each year to hear how excited students get about a unit because of what I have modeled for them. I also love to see how hard some students will work so they can come up with answers like some of the higher leveled thinkers in my room. My favorite part of modeling comes when a struggling reader will start to exhibit abilities that show they are able to participate in discussion, or be able to read a passage that they couldn't before, or able to put together sounds because of what they heard their table members say.
I set my classroom up into tables to allow for discussion and modeling to take place. Although I haven't had any students to date with special physical needs, I believe this setup would be conducive to their needs as well. We have lots of floor space available for movement in the classroom. So in closing, I believe that all students can become part of an intelligent human development.
Lastly, I am interested in Domain 3 for further inquiry:)
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Modeling, modeling, modeling! We talked about modeling almost every time I went to professional development and conferences. The way we model our students is the way we expect them to learn. As a foreign language teacher in my district, we are required to use as much target language as possible during our instruction (over 95% in target language). Can you imagine how students understand what I am talking about completely in some foreign language? Actually, they do, because we use gestures, pictures, and all kinds of props. Students learn the foreign language like a baby; they are modeling to learn in an immersion environment.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you both about the power of modeling- I know that sometimes it seems silly to model things that come so naturally to us- I do a lot of this with reading- modeling my thinking as I read- it sometimes feels weird to "make my thinking visible" but that is what we need to do- and over and over and over for all of our students!
ReplyDeleteModeling is such an imperative aspect of our day and prior to now, I've seen it as a way to show my students what I want them to do. However, CZ made a point that makes me think- "the way we model for our students is the way we expect them to learn". We model daily, not just in our teaching, but in our actions to our students and colleages without even realizing it. Those little "parrots" in our classrooms are really watching our every move and repeating them... and if we model high expectations, how to act in the classroom, complete our work, as well as care and compassion towards others, shouldn't some of it rub off on our students?
ReplyDeleteI agree... i think the classroom environment is very important for student learning. Students need to feel safe and accepted. They also need to have a good rapport with the teacher and feel safe knowing they can try their best and have the support of the teacher!
ReplyDelete