Reading Reflection 3

1.  The project has to be purposeful for the students; once you have determined the effectiveness of the project you should consider the relevance. Is this project going to be the relevant to students’ lives and the society they spend life in? The “Big Idea” should be realistic, engaging, and promote higher order thinking skills. It should be clear to the students how the project will modify the world around them.
2. The 21st century presents students with an entire set of new skills they need to know to succeed in this day and age. Bloom’s taxonomy can help to shape lessons and projects to help students develop higher order thinking skills along with 21st century skills. The taxonomy will help to develop these new skills by forcing the students to justify, characterize, design, and explain their topics of study and learn about them in depth.
3. Literacy skills are continually evolving with the technology of the present day. Literacy is not only being able to read the written word. It has transformed into being able to think outside the box, navigating the digital age, and doing this all on a deadline. In addition to reading in writing today's students have to have the ability to collaborate and community with many different kinds of people, along with understanding social responsibilities. The world has shrunken down to fit it in our pockets one persons reach has never been longer.
4. I find that the learning functions are essential to all successful learning communities. Some students despise school and only go because they are told to or have no other place to move. This doesn’t have to be the case; students’ perceptions can be changed. Learning can be made enjoyable and not seen as a chore. By implementing these functions, students will want to attend school and to learn from you. They will allow the students to relax and do not think of the pressures of the outside world.

• Ubiquity: Students should get help to realize that the majority of learning is not done in a classroom and not all-important knowledge comes from a book. Their brains are constantly taking in new information, processing it and putting it to good use. Learning should be about what happens in life, not just what happens in the classroom.
• Deep learning: Allow students to find out more information about the things they enjoy and integrate them into the lesson. Shape the lesson around the student and don’t force the student to fit the mold.
• Making things visible and discussable: Many students would classify themselves as kinesthetic learners meaning they need to be hands on, manipulating and touching in order to understand. According to the cone of learning people remember 20% of what we hear, 50% of what we see, but we remember 90% of what we see and do. Allowing for open discussion will inform the teacher of the interests their students have and what they want to learn, and not what they are told to learn.
• Collaboration: In today’s world the people who are most successful are the people who can work together to get things done.
• Research: Without even realizing it students are constantly doing research. A lot of the time it is not academic but for entertainment, but they are using those skills that prove to be beneficial. Allow them to convert these interests and skills to develop a finished product they can display proudly.
• Project management: Students today are busier than ever with school, sports, work, and personal obligation. Teaching these students projects and time management skills early will only be to their benefit. Assisting them to plan and organize will seem unimportant to them at first, but as they mature they will realize its importance in life.
• Reflection and iteration: Humans are a stubborn creator. It’s in our nature. We tend not to learn the lesson when it is told to use, but after we have lived it ourselves. Thinking back and reflecting on life events and how it made you feel will deepen your understanding of the world around you and the learning experience. Taking the successes and defeats of a project will force students to truly think about what needs to be fixed later and what they should do the next time. Teaching students about metacognition and reflecting their learning will enable them to develop and further engage in their projects. Discussion on how concepts in this chapter relate to your topic/project.
  
  

       5.Implementing these ideals will allow us as teachers to develop projects that have a longer reach           out into the community and develop our student’s higher level thinking skills. They will help               us to engage our students and better develop the 21st century skills that are a necessity.