Chapter 1: Education in the Digital Age Reflection from week 2

A School District in Transition Hatching baby chicks is a regular part of the 2nd grade curriculum in the Concord, New Hampshire, public school system. But this year, instead of writing reports about the activity, 2nd graders are expressing what they are learning in many different media: creating clay sculptures, drawing and coloring pictures, recording the chicks' sounds, and writing text. Some students are using computers as they draw, record, or write; others use paper or conventional recording devices. At the end of the project, all work will be digitized and incorporated into the class "Chicks" Web page. This weeks readings where very interesting. I am going to reflect on the above. This school has taken a hands on activity and normal I would assume that the end result was a conventional paper pencil report. Everyone looked the same and was grade the same. Each students observed and perceived the information differently but had to record, "reflect" on the information the same way and the students where grade and compared against each other.  I am assuming that this year the teacher identified  the TEKS,  the curriculum  Knowledge & Skill Statement - 2.2: The student develops abilities necessary to do scientific inquiry in classroom and outdoor investigations.  The student is expected to:Student Expectation 2.2A: Ask questions about organisms, objects, and events during observations and investigations. 2.2B: Plan and conduct descriptive investigations such as how organisms grow. 2.2C: Collect data from observations using simple equipment such as hand lenses, primary balances, thermometers, and non-standard measurement tools. 2.2D: Record and organize data using pictures, numbers, and words. 2.2E: Communicate observations and justify explanations using student-generated data from simple descriptive investigations. 2.2F: Compare results of investigations with what students and determined the objective of the lesson. The WHY do we do this project. When looking at the above TEKS you can see that most of these as met the traditional way.  However, if you want each and every student to dig as deep as their brains will let them you have to offer different ways in which they can show you what they learned. As a teacher we have to always keep the objective at the center. What do we want the students to learn. Push each and every student to their max. Each students max is different than the next. My student with low IQ might take pictures through out the experiment and then place the pictures in order and form  complete sentences with correct capitalization and punctuation or might  color pictures to show what he learned and orally present the information to the class. However, my GT student could do the same, take pictures and order them. However, I would expect the sentence to be more in depth with more vocabulary. Also I might open power point and show the student how to insert pictures to create a digital presentation. The bottom line is that you push each student to their highest ability and give each student the chance to construct their own learning.   "Chapter 1: Teaching Every Student TOC: Information & Ideas." Chapter 1: Teaching Every Student TOC: Information & Ideas. N.p., n.d. Web. 08 Sept. 2013.