Chapter 6

1.     Tools that can encourage students to be reflective and evaluate their own strengths:

a.     Blogs allow students space where they can reflect over time about what they are learning.

b.     ProfilerPRO is an online survey tool that allows you to identify the learning characteristics of an individual and also among members of a group. You can identify interests, strengths, and weaknesses, and use this information as you guide learning. Create your own survey in ProfilerPRO or adapt a template to meet your needs. You can also have students reassess their profile over time and compare how their “badge” changes as they acquire new skills and understanding.

c.      Tools such as SurveyMonkey and Zoomerang allow you to set up online surveys. You can use the results to track trends and help students see how their self-assessment compares to the larger group.

2.     Ways to get students’ minds ready for a project

a.     K-W-L chart

b.     Have someone in the field that is being taught, come in and talk

c.      Ask a question

d.     Keep bringing up the topic

e.     Tell them to discuss their ideas with friends and family

3.     When students are aware of what they know and don’t know, they can establish a point of departure and a sense of purpose. The K-W-L activity is an exploration that puts students in touch with their prior knowledge and helps them imagine where their learning can go. By doing this activity, students generate everything they know, what they wonder and what they want to learn.

4.     Steps in preparing students for using technology

a.     Step 1: Set Up a Technology Playground:  consider how you might set up opportunities for students to learn by and among themselves, & learn how to use the technology

b.     Step 2: Tap Student Expertise: set up computer stations, each with one tool students will use in the project, do a practice run with the student trainers to make sure they can teach important functions, help them find tutorials and demonstrations, have small groups rotate from station to station, discuss the purpose of each tool and set expectations for its use

c.      Step 3: Introduce Project-Management Tools: a project log or journal, helps students track their progress toward goals, can be a checklist, encourage students to write their own progress goals, make sure they understand how to use it

d.     Step 4: Demonstrate: demonstrate the use of tools, discuss the use of the tools within the context of the project, make expectations clear, ask a specialist if needed

5.     Ways to promote inquiry and deep learning:

a.     There is a relationship between need and opportunity, and between scarcity and abundance

b.     Money, bartering, and other means of exchange have existed throughout history and across civilizations, and they continue to change

c.      Modern money has symbolic worth as an exchange medium

d.     Economics, health, and well-being are related

e.     Money means different things to different people

f.      Humans are interdependent

6.     This relates to our topic because we have to know how to start of our lessons in our lesson plans. We have to be creative thinking about ways to start off our topics about staying healthy.