Homework Lance
Rationale
The instructional strategies that are exemplified in the lessons chosen reflect engaging, developmentally and culturally appropriate teaching and learning strategies. Further, the lessons promote civic awareness instudents to take care of themselves and the environment. The cross-curricular thematic instruction permits students to learn in real world experiences and allows students to explore and discover (Kelly). When students come to school and view lessons as interrelated with their life experiences, they are motivatedto learn.
Research indicates that children between the ages of four and seven learn through visual and spatial activities because the right side of their brain has not yet fully developed. This is the reason hands-on learning is such an effective teaching tool because it requires multi-tasking which greatly increases brain stimulation and development (Goodwin).
The lessons involving real-time activities promote learning as fun and build the foundation to support active readers and successful learners. A student’s prior knowledge is a built-in component of the lessons. By creating and using engaging hands-on lessons, they help stimulate kinesthetic learning styles blending elements of visual and auditory learning which supports student participation (newschoolarch). Experiential or hands-on learning is powerful because it supports any learning style (newschoolarch). The students can hear and see the lessons in accordance to their learning preference.
After the students read the books, they were able to use their visual senses to “touch” and “feel” the stories by going on nature walks, growing an egg carton garden and observing the seed growth over time, making earth hats and writing stories and posterboards made the lessons become alive. When students learn by doing, their motivation and focus is high; thus a higher rate of retention (Goodwin). The more students can explore, make mistakes, and redo, the more they focus, stay motivated and take pride in the ownership of their education.
The lesson topics were chosen to promote active exploration to encourage discussion and afford children opportunities to apply what they learned to real world context. Through these experiences, students learn strategies and skills in meaningful situations (Vogt). The extended activities and homework were intended to bridge school-home connections.
Designing developmentally appropriate literacy instruction can be challenging because you want to make sure you are not operating from a space of comfort and stagnation which would be uninspiring for both you as teacher and the students. I believe we must be careful to meet the students where they are, but to appropriately challenge them so we don’t stunt their growth. Above all, we must include culturally relevant materials in our lesson planning.
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