Design Thinking: Lessons for the Classroom
What I found most important in the article on Design Thinking: Lessons for the Classroom was that the students are involved in solving their own problems, whether is be school related, or just a problem they may have. I think that is a very important skill for them to practice because they will use it their entire life. While reading this article the quote "Invite them to be inspired by each other and build off of each others ideas" stood out to me. This step in the design thinking process can teach the students a life long valuable lesson. It teaches them to work together, and it also teaches the students that it is okay to listen to one another and build off ideas from others. Sometimes students can be very narrow minded, as well as teachers, and this lets them open up to the views of others. Ones question that remains for me after reading the article: What if you have a student or students that do not want to work in a group or with another person? Some students only want to work on their own. The design thinking process involves much group work, so what do you do with a student such as this?
Making a case and a place for effective content area literacy instruction in the elementary grades
What I found most important from this article was that content area literacy is being introduced as young as kindergarten. I think this is a great thing, because it is a win win situation. In kindergarten, students are just learning to read, so it is a great time to introduce to informational texts to them. By the time these students get to high school and are having to read difficult chemistry textbooks, it won't be a problem for them because they will have been reading informational texts for many years. Also, in the reading something that stood out to me was the "fourth grade slump" and how there is in many students a sudden drop in reading scores from third to fourth grade. So my question is why is their such a increase in the content difficulty from third to fourth grade? Why is it not gradually increasing from 1st to 4th?
I agree with you about the informational text being introduced to students in kindergarten. If they are introduced to the format of these texts at the beginning of their education, it won't be such a transition when they are using these texts for research. It will also help them to better comprehend this type of text throughout their education. Not to mention, many students would rather read an informational book instead of a fictional story.
ReplyDeleteAs for as the Design Thinking Lessons, I also thought it was important that the students are able to solve their own problems. Learning skills to solve their own problems will help them to be more independent and self-confident.