Wk 14: Engaging Students

Pg 386 of the text indicates that "culturally responsive teaching encourages student participation, critical analysis, and action. Classroom projects should focus on areas of interest to the students and the communities in which they live." It has been my experience that this style of teaching in few and far between in NE Ohio. Teachers today are test driven, and time limited, and therefore tend to avoid any activity that is project based and/or open ended. Because of testing and time constraints, student interests are often abandoned for "drill and kill" teaching methods designed to increase test scores.

I am guilty of this as well. In my life science classes, I feel pressured to prepare my students for the upcoming OAT, knowing that any life science that my students get will come from me and me alone. Yet, in my Gateway to Technology class, I feel liberated. I have designed the entire class around Constructivist Theory. I do not have a looming test to worry about, I do not have common assessment deadlines to meet. I can afford to spend 2 weeks on Rube Goldberg because my students saw it on a field trip and thought it was cool, or spend 3 weeks on Autodesk inventor because the students really like the program and want to design more challenging items than was originally required. Will Rube Goldberg be on the OAT? Probably not. But in the real world, my students will need to solve problems on their own with only materials available. In the real world, they will need to be able to work together to make something work/achieve a goal. And because of this, I'm willing to spend 2 weeks on a project that gives them real world skills AND that they enjoy.