I have been able to see Information Processing in several ways during my student teaching experience. One example, during a one on one session with a student who had missed quite a bit of school and I was helping the student pass off a standard. As they went through an assignment, I would try to make connections to how they were relevant today, and keep going over them. Going over the information, going over it together, and then having the student explain the information to me. This was a form of Maintenance rehearsal as they were going over the information over and over again. There were also examples of elaborative rehearsal by making connections from how that information in history is still relevant today. For example, immigration, as they discussed the alien act and how that is still in play in today's political sphere. The more and more these ways of rehearsal are used and connecting prior knowledge with new knowledge, those connections in the brain get stronger and easier to remember. When the student was rehearsing back the knowledge, as the teacher, I still worked as the MKO, but gave him plenty of time to think through the information and question. I would then also assist when needed. Another example, was while conducting their research, students could not sort between what information they needed to know, and what they did not need to know. So, I did a mini lesson having students sort out "need to knows" vs "nice to knows" when it came to sorting information that was essential to the unit.
The way that this unit is set up, the students are respsonible for finding information and creating a stance on the subject. In this case, the question of the unit is "was Manifest Destiny worth it?" My biggest question for these are how can we be sure that they are really retaining the information. I believe that in theory, it should work that the students are creating their own arguments and thoughts on manifest destiny. However, I am worried about the long term success of learning the information. In the end, they are still filling out study guides and answering questions. How can we link the students interest to the topic and let those connections become strong and relatable to today? I think that there needs to be some more "checkpoints" throughout the lesson to gage the understanding of the students and where the class needs are. Spacing out how the topic is done so that it is not a lot of information at once would be helpful.
When I do my mini lesson, I feel that I will need to focus on lots of rehearsing and finding ways and methods of helping the student go over. I really like having the students think about it themselves, discuss with a partner, and then a large group. This way they are strengthening and making many connections with what they know, and then what others know and can add to their own learning. I also believe this takes away anxiety and the students can actually learning something no matter what their previous level of knowledge on the content was. This can be a way of using controlled/ focused attention where the students focus together on what the question or goal is, go over it together, and prepare to contribute to a classroom discussion on the subject. I also believe that make relevant connection in history to today really helps keep those connections and have better understanding of the subject.
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