Chapter 7 Questions to Consider

Describe a constructivist lesson you would teach.

 So if you think about some activities that would help students with what Ormrod identifies as constructivist: theory formation, concept generation, addressing misconceptions, etc.  And then she mentions a few strategies: authentic activities, problem/project-based learning, observation/experimentation, etc.  pp228-236.

 I think the Scaffolding theory would work very well for my elementary class. (232). It even talks about in the book how young kids are always asking the why and how questions. I know from personal experience that when I was young I didn't do well with math and I didn't understand why I had to do it. I think it is really important to instill the why into the children I am teaching because it might motivate them to work harder and want to do the tasks. I could implement this into a lesson in several ways. I think that specifically for a reading lesson I could pick a book that is about maybe cooking something. Then I could do a real world problem with the kids and show them how to make the certain dish that the book is talking about. For example a book about making cookies, I could bring in the ingredients and show the kids how to make the cookies.

Which of these learning activities/skills lend themselves to student’s individual or group construction?  How might you structure learning activities that lead students to discover these skills/these principles?

Still focusing on the scaffolding, I could put the kids into groups and then have them mix up the different ingredients for the cookies. For individual learning, I could give the kids another type of food and have them come back to school the next day with ingredients that go into that food. By doing these types of activities with the students, I think it will help the students discover the importance of these principles  If they are doing something that is fun yet they are learning, then they will be motivated to use them.