Reflections on Reading V

June 8, 2018

Actually I think this reading is more related to our current teaching situation in China. This includes more ideas that will change the way we do every day.

First, Helping student to accept that there is more than one right answer. En... This is interesting! It seems I never give students more correct choices to think about because they students in our school always have standardized tests. Students always have the only choice. I think I will try to design some exercises with more than one answers for practice.

Second. Lectures! Students hate lectures and it's also hard for all the teachers to have a successful lecture. I always prepare teaching objectives before I give a lecture, conclude with a 2-5 minute time to let the students recap of the most important points in the

lecture either through a classroom assessment technique or an oral summary

and think of creative ways to encourage students to take their own lecture notes. However, this still doesn't stop the absent-minded students. I agree the effective way is to divide the major topics into 10-15 minute chunks and plan student-active activities between the lecture chunks.

I also like the idea to get the students to read before class and engage more during the class through use of a communication form. Students are well prepared and come to class for discussion.

There are also good questions for me to think about to help my students for writing a good summary meta-cognition, and reflections.

Questions like:

Why would I have you read/write about this?

Why do you think we just did that exercise?

What about what we just covered is applicable to other subjects, to your life, to your career?

What is the bottom line message in what we did/read?

Try to ask my students very explicit questions.

These are very helpful and new to me , I will add them to my teaching when necessary.