Weeks 10-11
(Product and Action Plan)
I have already finished my posters and pasted them in Bach. I pasted them one after the other from the beginning to the end of the junior hallway, so people can read them as they go walking by, as if they were reading a powerpoint presentation and each poster is a slide. I think is going to work. They ended up colorful and with not too many words. Here is a digital copy of them:
posters.pdf | |
File Size: | 7283 kb |
File Type: |
I have also finished my webpage, and my plan is to show it to the students of the school. I will start with the students of my grade by placing it in a group we have on Facebook to see which are their comments or suggestions or reactions about it. Then, I will try to put it into the school's page, so every student has an access to the link whenever they feel like knowing how to study. Here is the link of the finished website:
http://lauracuello20.wix.com/studyguide
http://lauracuello20.wix.com/studyguide
Here are some screenshots of how the webpage looks like:
As part of my action, I want the theory of learning styles and how it is applied to studying to be taught to students at least once in bach. Luz Helena told me that next year there would be no classes of PSHE or LP, so it is impossible to find a place in the curriculum in that area. I researched for schools which have applied this theory in some way in their school and this is what I found:
Ideas for the curriculum
Before going into the planning of the proposal i'm going to make to include study teaching methods in the curriculum of the school, I've researched some examples of schools that have implemented, in a way, the teaching of applying learning styles in how to study.
1. The Breakfast Club
A 7th grade teacher, Kathy Dekmar (USA), formed a brekfast club in which students came in from 7:30 to 8:00 am to a review class. The thing is she taught them there are different ways to study and that they had to organize their study sessions to a better quality than quantity.
"Dekmar reports that more students join in her breakfast review sessions every year. They enjoy the relaxed atmosphere, engaging dialogue about subject matter, shared food, and the confidence built through the reviews. She has seen evidence of students teaching one another how to study and remember information. The entire process has become a student-directed and facilitated activity with positive and measurable results." (http://www.educationworld.com/a_curr/profdev064.shtml)
This sounds great but I don't think it would be a good idea here in school. Maybe primary kids would attend the club or student who arrive early in the morning buses, but truth is some people prefer to go and play or sleep. The idea of having food, however, is a good one to motivate students to attend.
2.Student Counseling Link
In the official webpage of Texas A&M university, there's a link that leads to Student Counseling and that link leads to another one called Self Help-Basic Study Techniques. Although they don't mention learning styles, I think it would be useful to have a link that explains students small tips of how they should study in the school's website (because this is a topic that will be very useful through all their academic life, so they could access the information in case they forget). (http://scs.tamu.edu/?q=node/74)
3.Laurel Springs School
This is a school located in California which uses Learning Styles a lot in their curriculum. They use parents, teachers and staff to determine each child's learning style and then settle him or her in a curriculum that fits their abilities. As well as the type of learner each child has, they also consider the child's likes and hobbies. (http://www.laurelsprings.com/high-school/learning-styles/)
This would be great! Imagine having a curriculum based in your own abilities and taste. However, it would be impossible to have this in a school as the Colombo because there are so many people! It would be impossible to fix the curriculum for each 80 students in each grade. What I thought was important about the school was that they really take learning styles into an account and it is one of the first things they teach their children when they enter the school.
Ideas for the curriculum
Before going into the planning of the proposal i'm going to make to include study teaching methods in the curriculum of the school, I've researched some examples of schools that have implemented, in a way, the teaching of applying learning styles in how to study.
1. The Breakfast Club
A 7th grade teacher, Kathy Dekmar (USA), formed a brekfast club in which students came in from 7:30 to 8:00 am to a review class. The thing is she taught them there are different ways to study and that they had to organize their study sessions to a better quality than quantity.
"Dekmar reports that more students join in her breakfast review sessions every year. They enjoy the relaxed atmosphere, engaging dialogue about subject matter, shared food, and the confidence built through the reviews. She has seen evidence of students teaching one another how to study and remember information. The entire process has become a student-directed and facilitated activity with positive and measurable results." (http://www.educationworld.com/a_curr/profdev064.shtml)
This sounds great but I don't think it would be a good idea here in school. Maybe primary kids would attend the club or student who arrive early in the morning buses, but truth is some people prefer to go and play or sleep. The idea of having food, however, is a good one to motivate students to attend.
2.Student Counseling Link
In the official webpage of Texas A&M university, there's a link that leads to Student Counseling and that link leads to another one called Self Help-Basic Study Techniques. Although they don't mention learning styles, I think it would be useful to have a link that explains students small tips of how they should study in the school's website (because this is a topic that will be very useful through all their academic life, so they could access the information in case they forget). (http://scs.tamu.edu/?q=node/74)
3.Laurel Springs School
This is a school located in California which uses Learning Styles a lot in their curriculum. They use parents, teachers and staff to determine each child's learning style and then settle him or her in a curriculum that fits their abilities. As well as the type of learner each child has, they also consider the child's likes and hobbies. (http://www.laurelsprings.com/high-school/learning-styles/)
This would be great! Imagine having a curriculum based in your own abilities and taste. However, it would be impossible to have this in a school as the Colombo because there are so many people! It would be impossible to fix the curriculum for each 80 students in each grade. What I thought was important about the school was that they really take learning styles into an account and it is one of the first things they teach their children when they enter the school.
Meeting with head of Sections
Like the space cant be given in physiology, I'm simply going to ask the head of both primary and bach sections to consider including the theory at least once a year (In bach it could be done in 7th and 9th grade and in primary it could be done in 5th or 6th grade) by showing them the results of my surveys and of my investigation. Here is the file in which i'm planning what i'm going to say:
action.docx | |
File Size: | 173 kb |
File Type: | docx |
08/05/13
5th meeting with supervisor:
I asked Mrs. Felicity to help me clarify which should be my action because I have so many ideas in my head I couldn't organize them. She told me to do the meeting with the head of sections and she agreed on what I was going to tell to them. However, we were discussing about what their answers could be and we noticed that another branch of investigation arose: How to study depending on each subject. It is something important I haven't had taken into consideration, which is why before the meeting with the head of sections I need to ask my teachers how they recommend we should study for their subject.
5th meeting with supervisor:
I asked Mrs. Felicity to help me clarify which should be my action because I have so many ideas in my head I couldn't organize them. She told me to do the meeting with the head of sections and she agreed on what I was going to tell to them. However, we were discussing about what their answers could be and we noticed that another branch of investigation arose: How to study depending on each subject. It is something important I haven't had taken into consideration, which is why before the meeting with the head of sections I need to ask my teachers how they recommend we should study for their subject.
Studying according to the subject
I made a video of the responses each teacher told me and I mixed it with the interviews i've done before so I only had to upload one video to youtube. Here's the link to the video:
http://youtu.be/pbuob0qmn5A
I made a video of the responses each teacher told me and I mixed it with the interviews i've done before so I only had to upload one video to youtube. Here's the link to the video:
http://youtu.be/pbuob0qmn5A
Basically every science and math teacher told me to do the same: Review the concepts and then do exercises about it. For humanities I didn't get a lot of detailed information but I think that because it's a subject which requires a lot of memory, the studying according to your learning style is very relevant in this subject specially.
SKILLS
The ATL skills I've showed in this part of the process are:
Thinking skills:
Creativity and innovation
- Create novel solutions to authentic problems. (As my action couldn't be done in LP, I now have to approach to the head of section directly to make her aware of the problem so we can take some action).
- Design new machines and technologies that do not exist yet (I designed a webpage with a mixture of the main things I learned and considered important to transmit to my peers. What I have included, in the way I have included it, isn't found anywhere else)
- Create original works as a means of personal expression (the posters (and the drawings for 3 of them) were designed and made by me. Including the way I organized them so they could be catchy).
- Explore conceptual learning across multiple subject areas;use knowledge, understanding and skills across subjects to create products or solutions. (I was able to produce the webpage and the posters with all of the knowledge I had acquired with my survey, investigations and interviews, and use communicating skills and others to carry on with my action).
Social Skills:
- Delegate and take responsibility, as appropriate. (I went directly to Mrs. Patricia's office and asked for a meeting with her).
- Respect different opinions and others’ points of view. (By accepting the fact that some students think that the best way to study is simply re-reading their notes, and by reflecting on what Luz Helena told me I could do to improve my inquiry).
- Exhibit leadership for digital citizenship. (I was the creator of a webpage which I'm sure it will help a lot of students from around the world looking for better ways to study).
Research Skills:
Information and media literacy
- Demonstrate awareness of the effects of different modes of information representation and presentation. (I was aware of this when I designed my posters and my webpage, because I know that they couldn't have too much text and, in the webpage, it should have catchy things that would leave the reader in the page).
- Utilize appropriate multimedia and multi-modal technology for effective presentation and representation. (The webpage uses different multimedia (pictures and videos) to make the information clear and easy to understand, but at the same time it can be use with different audiences).
- Negotiate ideas and knowledge with peers and teachers. (While making the interviews to the teachers about how to study for their subjects and with Luz Helena, I exchanged the knowledge I had and they gave me new one. I also discussed with them ideas of how to explain the topic in my webpage).
- Structure information correctly in summaries, essays and reports. (I did a good summary of the things i've learnt in my investigation in my web-page)
- Use active listening techniques to understand others. (While listening to the interviews to teachers and talking with Luz Helena).
- Learn and use techniques to reduce anxiety. (I was kind of nervous for my meeting with the head of section but I planned the meeting (what I was going to say and the report I was going to hand in to her) so in the end I was very confident and relaxed and my anxiety went away).