Week 3- September 8, 2010

Entry 3: Due: September 8, 2010

Guiding Prompt: Reflect on your own thoughts about how children learn. Address the following issues: interest, motivation, activity, exploration, and collaboration. What does that mean for you as a future educator of social studies?

I believe children are very concrete learners. Because young children have a hard time thinking abstractly, it is important to provide information to them in a fun, creative, and hands-on way. I have also observed (in field placements) that young students have an easier time learning and retaining information when they are able to relate to it. In order for students to learn they must first be engaged. Students will become engaged if they find some level of interest in the lesson. Thus, as a future educator of social studies, I will make sure I always begin my lesson with an interesting activity, statement, or idea that will draw students’ attention and engage them from the get-go. If students are not engaged from the beginning, it is likely that they will miss a good portion (if not all) of the material. Motivation is extremely important in order for students to learn at their full potential. If students lack this key characteristic, they will zone in and out and miss important information. As a future educator of social studies, I plan to motivate my students in a variety of ways: rewards (such as class parties, candy & games), verbal encouragement (“you’re doing a great job!” “keep up the good work!”), and relative information (information and activities that students can relate to). Young children learn very well through collaboration with peers (and sometimes teachers too!) In order to provide this in my future classroom, I will come up with activities that require group/team work and collaboration. For example, in studying different geographic areas, I will form groups of three or four students and have each group come up with a list of locations that have different types of geography and explain their characteristics. In this activity, students will explore different areas and locations while working with their peers at the same time. As a future educator of social studies (and any subject for that matter), I believe it is extremely important to engage students by capturing their attention and interest level through motivation, activity, exploration, and collaboration. Teachers need to provide different modes of learning in order to cater to a variety of students’ learning styles.