What an interesting assignment. This week we were asked to sketch our action research journey. It was interesting to think over the successes and failures...although in a learning journey they should all be considered learning moments no matter the outcome. I have learned quite a bit so far and now I'm learning even more about transliteracy and the power of sketching as a tool for learning. I took a class on European politics in Spain a few years ago...while you might think it must have been the most dry and boring class ever, it ended up being one of my favorite classes. Ok, yes I find politics interesting, but that's not why I loved the class. I loved the class because of the professor and his teaching style. Each day, he told the story of politics with drawings. We were spell-bound as he drew out our own three branches of government and made comparisons between the U.S. balance of power system and how it is viewed in Europe. If he had only lectured, there is no way I could have followed all the way through his classes, but with the drawings he made right in front of us, I found myself on a journey right through the European Union political system.
I noticed in my own teaching, how engagement increases when I stop screen sharing and have kids get out their whiteboards and follow along with me in a little writing or drawing exercise. It's better for too because I can just change my video output to my document camera and tell them to pin my video while I keep watching all of them at once...which is virtually what another screen would help me do too. In the past, I've also watched the power of the GLAD pictorial work on students. The idea is to draw a large poster of your topic in front of them, not share a finished product. I've noticed that student engagement is very high at this time. I can see the importance of including more sketching in my lessons, especially now during virtual learning. There is so little time with students and their screen attention is limited. So why not get them involved in sketching what they are learning? I think this is especially helpful for the little guys who struggle with writing, especially quick note taking. I always thought definition writing defeated the purpose of learning new words for primary aged students. I'm excited to try more of this in my classroom. Take a look at my first sketch research story.
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Minna NummelinLife-long learner and dual language 2nd grade teacher. Archives
April 2021
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