This week I was bombarded with Alan November-isms and his carefully worded "criticisms" of the current state of education and "idealism" as to how the classroom should be run.
http://vimeo.com/3930740
http://pdtogo.com/smart/?p=66
After listening, I felt an overwhelming desire to invite Alan into my classroom to show me just how it's done.
The stronger argument for BLOGGING in my classroom occurred when my students were stumped by the task of naming two fractions that were closer to one than half and further perplexed by the task of explaining how they got the answer.
None of my kids were ready for the brain stretching required of them when asked to explain their thinking.
Together we proceeded to:
1) draw pictures of fractions, showing half and one
2) listen to teacher examples of an explanation
3) verbalize thinking about fractions with teacher prompts and cues
4) write sentences explaining how we understand that a fraction is closer to one than half.
Up to this point I thought my kids had a good understanding about fractions. Unfortunately, the 2 weeks I had spent teaching about fractions left my students lacking in an ability to show, model, demonstrate, or explain their understanding of fractions.
Blogging seems like the perfect tool for my students to practice demonstrating their understanding of the current topic or concept that we are tackling.
BLOG ON :)
