Chapter 8 Marzano - Jacobs' chapter in Marzano was not much of an easy read. I read it twice and came away with more questions each time. It may be her writing style or possibly the issue that it is unclear as to whether she has had any experience in the classroom, or is she another scholar with theories? The difficulty I found in this article was it appeared to me as though Jacobs failed to target a specific audience. Is this directed at administration, teachers, or students? However, some of her points I found interesting. Thanks to Hyerle and Alper, I had a frame of reference as to what mapping was and the incorporation of thinking maps. Page 197 held an interesting assertion in that Jacobs claims, "Problems arise when teachers are unclear about the precise direction of the path the year before or when teachers make assumptions about the path that may not be accurate (Jacobs, 197)". However, by page 200, Jacobs associates her theories with architecture, and by doing so, confused me a bit. Again, by pages 202-204, Jacobs discusses the benefits of teachers and technology for the purposes of mapping, and appears back on a track. Through her seven phase outline, Jacobs outlines the Review and Revision models. Phases three and four resonated with me because of my discipline in that they attempt to address the cruciality of cross-collaboration. I am a form advocate in cross-collaboarations across curriculums in that they aide in serving the student interests and aide in success because teachers will be closer to the same page regarding the monitoring and nurturing of the specific student. The challenge this article presented for me most of all was the complete failure by Jacobs to address students with special needs and the processes of mapping. Because more and more students are being diagnosed with special needs and exceptionalities, it could very well behoove Jacobs to spend a more considerable portion of time in her theories. Thats not to say she does not address the issue. She merely glances over something that serious with a very aloof and brisk conceptualization. I agree with her theory, but the application of the theory seems very convoluted. Chapter 12 Marzano - Unlike Chapter 8 by Jacobs, I felt Brophy hit on an issue that some shy away from. As a teacher of history, some students are less than excited to partake in the discussions and class activities because of the age old notion that history is boring. In essence, there is an issue with motivation. What I like about Brophy's article is that he states the motivation begins with the teacher. If the teacher is truly motivated to teach and encourage and develop students, this motivation can be contagious! In an age of hedonistic student pleasures - napping, television, and video games, little attention is paid to the necessity to define and shape and practice the eudaimonic pleasures - success from work, success from accomplishment, etc. As the technological classroom is beginning to unfold more and more with the passing years, the need to encourage eudaimonic pleasures should be at a fevered pitch. These successes are the merits of work, retention, and motivation. The student can achieve far greater tasks with this pleasure being honed. As a future history teacher, gaining motivation and retention of my students will ultimately culminate in autonomous projects and assignments such as: WebQuests. These can challenge the students to exert effort otherwise not potentially challenged by traditional teaching methods that may lack focus on student motivation. However, Brophy does beg the question of what is worth learning based on the quality and content of the curriculum. Being an age of high-stakes testing, the standards should be adhered to, but in some cases the frills and anticdotes of a particular discipline should be counted. These, especially in a history class can aide in motivation. I can discuss the relationships Thomas Jefferson and George Washington held with each other via thinking maps, lecture, discussion, etc. It is the story, not covered on the SOL of their arriving at Natural Bridge in Virginia at two separate points before their respective notoriety as Founders, that can trigger a motivation for the student to see the history on a summer vacation or actually touch the bridge and see where Washington carved his initials. A juxtaposition such as this in which the student can become physically connected to two leaders of the country incites motivation to learn more begins with a five minute segment in class. So, yes, I feel some frills must go, however, teaching to the standards fails to capture the mind and imagination of the student. Chapter 19 Alper - The final chapter of this book culminates with a recap of the applications of thinking maps and their alignment with Blooms' taxonomy. Page 213 to me was the most useful in that Alper and Hyerle discuss the rubric for the thinking maps. Page 215 outlines the Mapper rubric, thereby giving a novice to the maps, like me, and idea of what will be constructive in accordance with Bloom in the classroom, and what will have a more diminished chance of success. Obviously as teachers, we would all aim for Reflective on the rubric grade, however, that may not always be the case, in which a proposed Map may require tweaking from one year to the next. - James Cheatham
I found a lot of insightful information in chapter 8 by Jacobs. I specifically want to focus on a few points, as James has summarized the chapters pretty well. On pg 204, Jacobs mentions, "...a fifth grade teacher might see something that the first-grade teacher misses and vice versa.". I found this to be particulalry interesting because I seem to be experiencing this daily at my school. I am constantly consulting past teachers of current students, or current teachers on my tean that teach the same student. It is very helpful when you can contact these colleagues because they may tell you something about a student that you have not seen yet, or have yet to experience with the student. I find it very helpful to talk to fellow teachers who have experienced the students you have, because they have given me very helpful tips and ideas to make learning more successful in my classroom. On pg 205, Jacobs makes a connection between mathematics and physics. Seeing as I am a physical science teacher, I cannot see the connection more clearly than she has stated here. The math application in physical science is deep and complex. Many of my students complain about how they do more math in science than they actually do in math class. I am in constant contact with my students' math teacher to get tips and ideas on how to get my students to grasp concepts that can translate back into their math class, making the transition between the subjects easier and less abrupt. In chapter 12, Brophy talk about motivation in the classroom. On pg 306 he mentions that students value learning because they recognize it is enriching and empowering. The enrichment aspect of this is very important. If students believe the learning situation is worthwhile, the motivation will be there. The empowerment that learning provides to students is endless. If students realize learning is empowering, the learning will never have an end. The empowerment is intoxicating and addicting and will lead students to never ending success and knowledge. The importance and worth of an education is priceless, and as educators we have to show our students the importance of this treasure. In Hyerle chapter 19, they talk about the "new" Bloom's taxonomy. We have learned about the new Bloom in many of our masters courses, but I was particularly drawn to one section of this reading. On pg 207, "But students don't need more handouts. They need tools they can use on their own when the teacher isn't there." This statement cannot be any more true. We as teachers are responsible for providing our students with tools that they can use when we are no longer in the picture. Thinking maps are a good example of a tool that we are giving our students. These maps can be used in every day situations just like we use them in the classroom. As we teach our students how to use thinking maps, they will be able to use these in applicable real life situations, like when working in an office, or trying to compare and contrast two scenarios or two jobs, or classifying organisms if they land a job as a biologist. The tools we give our students today will be forever in their hands to use as they leave school and enter the workforce later in life. --Caitlin Unterman
Jacobs discusses curriculum mapping and its' benefits in Chapter 8. Jacobs describes curriculum mapping as a real-time database of curricular operations in the classroom. Her explanation of the the "generic" curriculum guidelines compared to mapping clearly explains how mapping is more beneficial in that the curriculum is constantly adjusting to everyday changes and inevitably veers from the path of the previously set guidelines. Her shipping analogy was very helpful and true. Wen I was hired, I was handed a pacing guide and told where I could find the curriculum frame work for biology online. I have been following it, meticulously making sure I cover everything, but the pacing guide not so much. I find that my students understand some subject better than others and I do not need to spend the time on those subjects. Other times, they struggle with a topic so I have to extend it past the suggested week and half. I also go into greater detail than required for the framework, because these student will need to know it for AP biology and it is interesting. Jacobs uses fabulous examples; I wish all of the authors in this book did the same thing, because I feel I truly understand her steps for curriculum mapping at its core thanks to her mapquest example. I can see the benefits of having a broad scope of the curriculum at the nation and state level while having access to individual teachers lesson plans and students grades to better make decisions about how you are going to teach. I love that this suggests sharing ideas, because I never really had a good examples of that saying "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" until I began teaching; if a teacher has a good way of teaching a topic, why not share? The phases for curriculum mapping Jacobs discusses are clear and obviously effective. I especially like mixed-small group reviews, because my mother is a history teacher, but she has helped me with fabulous ideas of teaching biology and has constructively critiqued my work. It is also important that Jacobs noted that curriculum mapping is cyclical and must be started anew each year and that across county access is essential for mapping to run be most beneficial(again I like her medical reference.) Brophy begins chapter twelve by discussing an obvious problem in today's educational system. It is common sense that most people having difficulty committing to a task if they are unmotivated. We have read several times in this MAT program the importance of making students feel like they belong in the classroom to create a positive "self-efficacy" as well as giving them a sense of purpose in committing to the material at hand, i.e. making it revelvant in some way (autonomous motivation.) This chapter finally adresses the issue that making the curriculum relevant is difficult and how to do it. Brophy's discussion on subjective task value and the differences between eduiamonic and hedonic pleasures help set up his push for articulating knowledge and skills, determining how they can be represented, and then determining how the information can be scaffolded to encourage realization of intended outcomes. He breaks it down to scaffolding as the key, not just catering to students interests, which is refreshing because I find it difficult relating the equation of photosynthesis to my students' interests. It is not going to happen. Teaching for appreciation through scaffolding seems like an obvious idea, but it wasn't to me. Scaffolding engagement suggested by Brophy may mean a bit more work than most teachers want to invest, but as I am reading the idea, I can't see how it couldn't help students find value and become invested in their learning. Brohpy's discussion about hands-on experiences providing aesthetic experiences and new insights provides great examples, especially the school play relation to personal life. I found this chapter to be very very helpful, clear, and well-written. In chapter 19 Hyerle discusses how thinking maps are essential tools for tackling the modern revision of Bloom's taxonomy'higher order thinking. Thinking maps are essential because most concepts that are learned in school are non-linear and today's access to technology/media greatly expands the amount of knowledge students are required to take in and organize. Thinking maps helps students layer information they have learned in positive and constructive ways to help develop deeper understanding. I like how Hyerle addresses the issue of teachers utilizing thinking map/graphic organizers in a kind of archaic manner, where they are very easy to fill out and do not allow thinking beyond the scope of the organizer. I have seen this in some of the material I have found online or been given that has included graphic organizers. They are helpful with organizing the steps of a scientific process, but they do not develop that deeper understanding that Hyerle suggests thinking maps naturally invoke.Concept mapping is discussed at length and I agree with their benefits. I have been doing research on study guides for another class and concept mapping as a form of study guide have been found to increase scores on higher level thinking essay questions. The key is to "create" and usually the student does this from a blank page, not simply filling in boxes. Hyerle notes that using maps frequently results in the students developing a fluency with using them and then they can use them to actually learn. Teachers also develop a fluency in assessing their students understanding, which is encouraging and good to see on the other end of the spectrum. I like how Hyerle gives examples of how the maps can be used like sharing them in paired or class discussions. The authors are very persuasive for the use of thinking maps.-Helen Phillips
Chapter 8 by Heidi Hayes Jacobs discusses curriculum mapping and its changing role on the teacher. I particularly like a sentence in the introduction of the chapter. "Curriculum mapping has dramatically altered teachers' practice and the way they navigate the journey they make with their learners by giving a clear picture of students' educational experiences (p. 195)." Over the course of this MAT program there has been some focus on the students' educational experience but in my own personal beliefs it should be the main focus of teaching. So many students drop out of school because of their experiences with the education system. It isn' t that they cannot do the work but its the way it is paced and presented that makes the difference. Jacobs' curriculum mapping blueprints reminded me a lot of KUD's and Backwards Design because she talks about the essential questions and big ideas. Chapter 12 by Brophy discusses cultivating a value of learning for the students. Which I think is very important, especially in today's world. Many students do not understand why they have to learn some things or how this effects their lives. If the teachers do a better job of getting their students' to appreciate learning then I think we could see a change in the education world. I think Brophy hits the point right on, "Despite widespread student complaints of meaningless and irrelevant curriculum, reform efforts have focused on pressuring students to work harder, not on improving the curriculum (pg. 301)." Educational reforms have seemed to prove that they want the student to know more and be able to do more but with a lack of improving the curriculum that the students' learn. I think that the expectancy x value theory is very important and very true with students. "This theory postulates that voluntary engagement in a task (such as a learning activity) requires both sufficient valuing of the task (seeing it as worthwhile) and sufficient confidence in one's ability to meet its demands (success expectancy) (pg. 305)." Students need to see the value in what they are learning and what they are doing. Like James posted above many students are less than thrilled about history. Many think it is a thing of the past and why do they need to know about it. Implementing the expectancy x value theory makes complete since to me in the history world. Creating a way to let students see why history is important and to make it exciting for them. I thought that ch. 19 in Alper was a good way to wrap up the book on Thinking Maps. I especially like the assessment and rubric part of the chapter. My practicum teacher uses Thinking Maps both in a summative and formative assessment way. It was nice to see that the authors also believe that Thinking Maps can be used both ways. The transfer of content learning I also found to be important because that seems to be a big focus in the MAT program. And I believe that Thinking Maps allow for that transfer of knowledge. An interesting side note about Thinking Maps. A girl that I work with is in 11th grade at JF and told me today that Thinking Maps have helped her grasp subject matter a lot easier than before with just regular notes. Especially in math. Which I find very interesting because I keep trying to think of ways to use Thinking Maps in Math but apparently her teacher has got it down. -AK
In Ch. 8, Jacobs speaks about curriculum mapping, specifically in relation to technology, and how it can help students and teachers alike. While I think it would be useful to have records of students grades, any learning style profiles they have, any behavioral things that should be noted, I think the way she wants to go about it is a little too much. Honestly, the first problem I thought of when I began to read this chapter was the fact that she wanted all these personal records to be on the internet. The internet is a scary place in general - once something's on there, it never goes away - and as a television show once told me - nothing is completely secure. If you had children's curriculum maps available on the internet for someone to view (I say someone, because she speaks about a someone, though I am not entirely sure who she means), who says that others who should not view it won't be able to get to the information? Honestly, I get why she advocates for some type of curriculum mapping, since it seems like it would be a good way to link individual students to what they know, how they learned it, where gaps are and so on, but the way she wants to go about it, by sharing very personal information about students somewhat openly on the internet, is something I just cannot get behind. Ch. 12 discusses the importance of students being autonomously motivated in their schoolwork throughout their entire school careers. I feel like this is a very important concept in order to get students to really be focused on a subject and have them get what we want them to get out of the class. This idea harkens back to when we discussed how to make learning interesting to students and how to connect it to the real world in order for them to see it as worthwhile. Being autonomously motivated is hopefully the aftermath of connecting your subject to the real world and making it interesting enough for the students to really learn. I think autonomous motivation is something that is very hard for a student to learn and probably even harder for a teacher to teach - usually students just don't want to be at school at all, thinking that anything they do there is a waste of their time. It takes many, many years, usually not until sometime in high school, for students to recognize that learning is important and will help them in their future endeavors (sometimes, unfortunately, students never learn this lesson). What is important in this chapter is how Brophy described the need for learning to be "minds on" and not necessarily "hands on", to encourage students to think that this particular subject is interesting and worthwhile to their future. In Ch. 19 of the Thinking Maps book, it describes how thinking maps can be used as a form of assessment. I think this is a really interesting use of the thinking maps that, I'm not sure why, I've haven't thought of yet. But it makes perfect sense to do something like this, where you can see and assess not only what the studnet knows but how they know it. This shows definitively how the student builds upon their previous knowledge to grasp the current knowledge being taught. I like this means of assessment because if a student doesn't entirely know the correct answer to a question, using a thinking map would show how much they do know and where there is a gap in the information or processing of the information. ~Erin Caracappa
I like how Jacobs consistently related curriculum mapping to other concepts such as cartography and architecture, especially when she explains how curriculum mapping reflects what is happening in real-time as an “original itinerary would only surmise a likely scenario—it could not anticipate the realities” (198). I understand curriculum mapping as an active process that allows teachers to review where students have been, where they are now, and provide direction for where they are going, but I would love to see a real-world example of this database in use because it all seems a bit overwhelming. Having every teacher’s lesson plans, project maps, and diaries along with every student’s progress reports—trying to sort all that out seems impossible. Fortunately, Jacobs maps out the seven phases of the mapping and review process. Allowing teachers to see what students have or have not already learned will help in providing continuity of concept development. I have seen this in the middle school art classes I am observing. Students in seventh grade learn drawing skills and work on applying the art elements to their drawings throughout the year. In eighth grade they continue in the same direction combining elements and using new materials now that they have the basic skills and concepts. The same teacher teaches the seventh and eighth grade classes so she knows what students have been taught, which students have or have not progressed, and has insights into why so that she can focus on delivering what students are lacking. In her World Cultures class, students are creating presentations they have researched online and she has discovered a gap their research and writing abilities. Some students simply copy and paste online content into their presentations, some lack any formal writing skills, and some cannot distinguish between relevant and unimportant information. This is an instance where I think curriculum mapping would be useful. Reviewing what these students have and have not learned would help the teacher design scaffolded projects and instruction.
What struck me the most from Brophy’s chapter was this: “Despite widespread student complaints of a meaningless and irrelevant curriculum, reform efforts have focused on pressuring students to work harder, not on improving the curriculum” (301). There are many different theories about the types of motivation that inspires students to learn, yet as Brophy explains, intrinsic-motivation theories have found that when learners are more autonomous in choosing activities they perform better because they see the value in doing so. I do agree with this, yet I don’t believe students have an innate sense of what has value. I have been considering an article I recently read which concerns a study done on classroom blogging to develop self-reflective practice in students. There was no structure, no guidelines, no expectations, no formal consequences, and no rationale given to students for why they should participate; they were simply given a space to self-reflect through writing. By the end of the study, participation dropped from 95% to 30% and only those who continued using the blog became more self-reflective. It could be that without formal consequences students were not motivated to participate, as the researched concluded, but I feel it could also be that students could not see the value in what they were doing and were given no support in understanding the value of self-reflection. Students will not simply perform better because they choose an activity that interests them. Brody emphasizes that teaching for value must be modeled; students must first come to understand what value is inherent in a certain activity and in what way. ~Joanna Bourque
Regarding Chapter 8, I share Erin's concerns about the amount of information Jacobs encourages sharing via curriculum mapping--not so much because it will be online, but because sometimes one can drown in data. If you have everything, it can be like having nothing because there is simply too much to sift through. I am also reminded of the 1950s exhortations for housewives to have documented systems of all the work they did to "improve efficiency in the home"--in the end, it was more trouble and less effective than just letting them get on with it. I normally don't read the author summaries, but a few pages into this and I checked--Ms Jacobs is indeed selling something. I do think a well-implemented system that enables online, visible records of what students have been taught, how they were assessed, how they performed on that assessment, and what they will be taught will lead to a more collaborative, effective schools as well as possibly (and I think beneficially) serving as a district-wide mini-pinterest. My fears about this stem from the misuse of this potential--Ms Jacobs refers to having a leg up on standardized tests so one does not feel ambushed, but I see a constant, real-time system to see how teachers are handling the test as sadly but understandably degrading into a way to push teaching to the test even harder.
In Chapter 12, I was immediately pleased to see some less-conventional vocabulary on motivation. I'm researching it during student teaching, so I'm really quite used to seeing extrinsic and intrinsic motivation on a daily--or hourly--basis, but I was immediately struck by how controlled and autonomous motivation are not just new names for the old framework. I can imagine "autonomous motivation" encapsulating what might be labelled "extrinsic motivation" because it is student-driven, like wanting to impress a teacher. In almost all of the reading I've done, that would be labelled "extrinsic" but I think it is very autonomous--the student may have a good reason like needing a recommendation letter. (I spent my senior year only working hard for the people I needed letters of recommendation from--the rest, pfft.) After working in SPED, where motivation seems to be thin on the ground and I can't say I've learned a lot of techniques at Heritage for improving it, reading about the model for scaffolding appreciation was revelatory. I see elements of it in what I'm doing with the students already, but this way I can KNOW I'm doing them.
Chapter 19--I don't think I've hidden this very well, but I haven't always appreciated the Thinking Maps approach--it's seemed overly religious, and never seemed to adequately provide options for students, like those who suffer with NVLD, who do not read graphic organizers nearly as easily as they do more traditional lists and outlines--but this chapter I read while saying "Yes!" a lot. I think, after all the reading, I finally understand why they refer to Thinking Maps as a language. Hyerle and Williams discuss how by asking students how to think, we are really trying to teach them how to think when we, their teachers, are gone from their lives. In the Novice to Expert section, they discuss how by repetition, assistance, and guidance, students develop automaticity with the maps, which is a function all fluent speakers of English have with words, but one I could never quite get about the maps. But I taught a lesson using a character chart--not a Thinking Map--in SPED, assuming that 10th and 11th graders would know how to use a chart. Most of them did, but enough did not that I realized this was not an obvious task. My chart had open-ended blanks for students to fill in categories of their choosing, and while the students participated, the results made it clear they did not understand the way a chart sorted things. Without being able to independently select and implement a function, it's not entirely known, and Thinking Maps, by virtue of their repeating forms and flexibility between content areas, are a way for all teachers to work collaboratively to teach fluency in thinking skills while also teaching content--because they can put whatever content they need to into the maps.--Noren Bonner
Chapter 12 Marzano - Unlike Chapter 8 by Jacobs, I felt Brophy hit on an issue that some shy away from. As a teacher of history, some students are less than excited to partake in the discussions and class activities because of the age old notion that history is boring. In essence, there is an issue with motivation. What I like about Brophy's article is that he states the motivation begins with the teacher. If the teacher is truly motivated to teach and encourage and develop students, this motivation can be contagious! In an age of hedonistic student pleasures - napping, television, and video games, little attention is paid to the necessity to define and shape and practice the eudaimonic pleasures - success from work, success from accomplishment, etc. As the technological classroom is beginning to unfold more and more with the passing years, the need to encourage eudaimonic pleasures should be at a fevered pitch. These successes are the merits of work, retention, and motivation. The student can achieve far greater tasks with this pleasure being honed. As a future history teacher, gaining motivation and retention of my students will ultimately culminate in autonomous projects and assignments such as: WebQuests. These can challenge the students to exert effort otherwise not potentially challenged by traditional teaching methods that may lack focus on student motivation. However, Brophy does beg the question of what is worth learning based on the quality and content of the curriculum. Being an age of high-stakes testing, the standards should be adhered to, but in some cases the frills and anticdotes of a particular discipline should be counted. These, especially in a history class can aide in motivation. I can discuss the relationships Thomas Jefferson and George Washington held with each other via thinking maps, lecture, discussion, etc. It is the story, not covered on the SOL of their arriving at Natural Bridge in Virginia at two separate points before their respective notoriety as Founders, that can trigger a motivation for the student to see the history on a summer vacation or actually touch the bridge and see where Washington carved his initials. A juxtaposition such as this in which the student can become physically connected to two leaders of the country incites motivation to learn more begins with a five minute segment in class. So, yes, I feel some frills must go, however, teaching to the standards fails to capture the mind and imagination of the student.
Chapter 19 Alper - The final chapter of this book culminates with a recap of the applications of thinking maps and their alignment with Blooms' taxonomy. Page 213 to me was the most useful in that Alper and Hyerle discuss the rubric for the thinking maps. Page 215 outlines the Mapper rubric, thereby giving a novice to the maps, like me, and idea of what will be constructive in accordance with Bloom in the classroom, and what will have a more diminished chance of success. Obviously as teachers, we would all aim for Reflective on the rubric grade, however, that may not always be the case, in which a proposed Map may require tweaking from one year to the next. - James Cheatham
I found a lot of insightful information in chapter 8 by Jacobs. I specifically want to focus on a few points, as James has summarized the chapters pretty well. On pg 204, Jacobs mentions, "...a fifth grade teacher might see something that the first-grade teacher misses and vice versa.". I found this to be particulalry interesting because I seem to be experiencing this daily at my school. I am constantly consulting past teachers of current students, or current teachers on my tean that teach the same student. It is very helpful when you can contact these colleagues because they may tell you something about a student that you have not seen yet, or have yet to experience with the student. I find it very helpful to talk to fellow teachers who have experienced the students you have, because they have given me very helpful tips and ideas to make learning more successful in my classroom. On pg 205, Jacobs makes a connection between mathematics and physics. Seeing as I am a physical science teacher, I cannot see the connection more clearly than she has stated here. The math application in physical science is deep and complex. Many of my students complain about how they do more math in science than they actually do in math class. I am in constant contact with my students' math teacher to get tips and ideas on how to get my students to grasp concepts that can translate back into their math class, making the transition between the subjects easier and less abrupt.
In chapter 12, Brophy talk about motivation in the classroom. On pg 306 he mentions that students value learning because they recognize it is enriching and empowering. The enrichment aspect of this is very important. If students believe the learning situation is worthwhile, the motivation will be there. The empowerment that learning provides to students is endless. If students realize learning is empowering, the learning will never have an end. The empowerment is intoxicating and addicting and will lead students to never ending success and knowledge. The importance and worth of an education is priceless, and as educators we have to show our students the importance of this treasure.
In Hyerle chapter 19, they talk about the "new" Bloom's taxonomy. We have learned about the new Bloom in many of our masters courses, but I was particularly drawn to one section of this reading. On pg 207, "But students don't need more handouts. They need tools they can use on their own when the teacher isn't there." This statement cannot be any more true. We as teachers are responsible for providing our students with tools that they can use when we are no longer in the picture. Thinking maps are a good example of a tool that we are giving our students. These maps can be used in every day situations just like we use them in the classroom. As we teach our students how to use thinking maps, they will be able to use these in applicable real life situations, like when working in an office, or trying to compare and contrast two scenarios or two jobs, or classifying organisms if they land a job as a biologist. The tools we give our students today will be forever in their hands to use as they leave school and enter the workforce later in life. --Caitlin Unterman
Jacobs discusses curriculum mapping and its' benefits in Chapter 8. Jacobs describes curriculum mapping as a real-time database of curricular operations in the classroom. Her explanation of the the "generic" curriculum guidelines compared to mapping clearly explains how mapping is more beneficial in that the curriculum is constantly adjusting to everyday changes and inevitably veers from the path of the previously set guidelines. Her shipping analogy was very helpful and true. Wen I was hired, I was handed a pacing guide and told where I could find the curriculum frame work for biology online. I have been following it, meticulously making sure I cover everything, but the pacing guide not so much. I find that my students understand some subject better than others and I do not need to spend the time on those subjects. Other times, they struggle with a topic so I have to extend it past the suggested week and half. I also go into greater detail than required for the framework, because these student will need to know it for AP biology and it is interesting. Jacobs uses fabulous examples; I wish all of the authors in this book did the same thing, because I feel I truly understand her steps for curriculum mapping at its core thanks to her mapquest example. I can see the benefits of having a broad scope of the curriculum at the nation and state level while having access to individual teachers lesson plans and students grades to better make decisions about how you are going to teach. I love that this suggests sharing ideas, because I never really had a good examples of that saying "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" until I began teaching; if a teacher has a good way of teaching a topic, why not share? The phases for curriculum mapping Jacobs discusses are clear and obviously effective. I especially like mixed-small group reviews, because my mother is a history teacher, but she has helped me with fabulous ideas of teaching biology and has constructively critiqued my work. It is also important that Jacobs noted that curriculum mapping is cyclical and must be started anew each year and that across county access is essential for mapping to run be most beneficial(again I like her medical reference.)
Brophy begins chapter twelve by discussing an obvious problem in today's educational system. It is common sense that most people having difficulty committing to a task if they are unmotivated. We have read several times in this MAT program the importance of making students feel like they belong in the classroom to create a positive "self-efficacy" as well as giving them a sense of purpose in committing to the material at hand, i.e. making it revelvant in some way (autonomous motivation.) This chapter finally adresses the issue that making the curriculum relevant is difficult and how to do it. Brophy's discussion on subjective task value and the differences between eduiamonic and hedonic pleasures help set up his push for articulating knowledge and skills, determining how they can be represented, and then determining how the information can be scaffolded to encourage realization of intended outcomes. He breaks it down to scaffolding as the key, not just catering to students interests, which is refreshing because I find it difficult relating the equation of photosynthesis to my students' interests. It is not going to happen. Teaching for appreciation through scaffolding seems like an obvious idea, but it wasn't to me. Scaffolding engagement suggested by Brophy may mean a bit more work than most teachers want to invest, but as I am reading the idea, I can't see how it couldn't help students find value and become invested in their learning. Brohpy's discussion about hands-on experiences providing aesthetic experiences and new insights provides great examples, especially the school play relation to personal life. I found this chapter to be very very helpful, clear, and well-written.
In chapter 19 Hyerle discusses how thinking maps are essential tools for tackling the modern revision of Bloom's taxonomy'higher order thinking. Thinking maps are essential because most concepts that are learned in school are non-linear and today's access to technology/media greatly expands the amount of knowledge students are required to take in and organize. Thinking maps helps students layer information they have learned in positive and constructive ways to help develop deeper understanding. I like how Hyerle addresses the issue of teachers utilizing thinking map/graphic organizers in a kind of archaic manner, where they are very easy to fill out and do not allow thinking beyond the scope of the organizer. I have seen this in some of the material I have found online or been given that has included graphic organizers. They are helpful with organizing the steps of a scientific process, but they do not develop that deeper understanding that Hyerle suggests thinking maps naturally invoke.Concept mapping is discussed at length and I agree with their benefits. I have been doing research on study guides for another class and concept mapping as a form of study guide have been found to increase scores on higher level thinking essay questions. The key is to "create" and usually the student does this from a blank page, not simply filling in boxes. Hyerle notes that using maps frequently results in the students developing a fluency with using them and then they can use them to actually learn. Teachers also develop a fluency in assessing their students understanding, which is encouraging and good to see on the other end of the spectrum. I like how Hyerle gives examples of how the maps can be used like sharing them in paired or class discussions. The authors are very persuasive for the use of thinking maps.-Helen Phillips
Chapter 8 by Heidi Hayes Jacobs discusses curriculum mapping and its changing role on the teacher. I particularly like a sentence in the introduction of the chapter. "Curriculum mapping has dramatically altered teachers' practice and the way they navigate the journey they make with their learners by giving a clear picture of students' educational experiences (p. 195)." Over the course of this MAT program there has been some focus on the students' educational experience but in my own personal beliefs it should be the main focus of teaching. So many students drop out of school because of their experiences with the education system. It isn' t that they cannot do the work but its the way it is paced and presented that makes the difference. Jacobs' curriculum mapping blueprints reminded me a lot of KUD's and Backwards Design because she talks about the essential questions and big ideas.
Chapter 12 by Brophy discusses cultivating a value of learning for the students. Which I think is very important, especially in today's world. Many students do not understand why they have to learn some things or how this effects their lives. If the teachers do a better job of getting their students' to appreciate learning then I think we could see a change in the education world. I think Brophy hits the point right on, "Despite widespread student complaints of meaningless and irrelevant curriculum, reform efforts have focused on pressuring students to work harder, not on improving the curriculum (pg. 301)." Educational reforms have seemed to prove that they want the student to know more and be able to do more but with a lack of improving the curriculum that the students' learn. I think that the expectancy x value theory is very important and very true with students. "This theory postulates that voluntary engagement in a task (such as a learning activity) requires both sufficient valuing of the task (seeing it as worthwhile) and sufficient confidence in one's ability to meet its demands (success expectancy) (pg. 305)." Students need to see the value in what they are learning and what they are doing. Like James posted above many students are less than thrilled about history. Many think it is a thing of the past and why do they need to know about it. Implementing the expectancy x value theory makes complete since to me in the history world. Creating a way to let students see why history is important and to make it exciting for them.
I thought that ch. 19 in Alper was a good way to wrap up the book on Thinking Maps. I especially like the assessment and rubric part of the chapter. My practicum teacher uses Thinking Maps both in a summative and formative assessment way. It was nice to see that the authors also believe that Thinking Maps can be used both ways. The transfer of content learning I also found to be important because that seems to be a big focus in the MAT program. And I believe that Thinking Maps allow for that transfer of knowledge. An interesting side note about Thinking Maps. A girl that I work with is in 11th grade at JF and told me today that Thinking Maps have helped her grasp subject matter a lot easier than before with just regular notes. Especially in math. Which I find very interesting because I keep trying to think of ways to use Thinking Maps in Math but apparently her teacher has got it down. -AK
In Ch. 8, Jacobs speaks about curriculum mapping, specifically in relation to technology, and how it can help students and teachers alike. While I think it would be useful to have records of students grades, any learning style profiles they have, any behavioral things that should be noted, I think the way she wants to go about it is a little too much. Honestly, the first problem I thought of when I began to read this chapter was the fact that she wanted all these personal records to be on the internet. The internet is a scary place in general - once something's on there, it never goes away - and as a television show once told me - nothing is completely secure. If you had children's curriculum maps available on the internet for someone to view (I say someone, because she speaks about a someone, though I am not entirely sure who she means), who says that others who should not view it won't be able to get to the information? Honestly, I get why she advocates for some type of curriculum mapping, since it seems like it would be a good way to link individual students to what they know, how they learned it, where gaps are and so on, but the way she wants to go about it, by sharing very personal information about students somewhat openly on the internet, is something I just cannot get behind.
Ch. 12 discusses the importance of students being autonomously motivated in their schoolwork throughout their entire school careers. I feel like this is a very important concept in order to get students to really be focused on a subject and have them get what we want them to get out of the class. This idea harkens back to when we discussed how to make learning interesting to students and how to connect it to the real world in order for them to see it as worthwhile. Being autonomously motivated is hopefully the aftermath of connecting your subject to the real world and making it interesting enough for the students to really learn. I think autonomous motivation is something that is very hard for a student to learn and probably even harder for a teacher to teach - usually students just don't want to be at school at all, thinking that anything they do there is a waste of their time. It takes many, many years, usually not until sometime in high school, for students to recognize that learning is important and will help them in their future endeavors (sometimes, unfortunately, students never learn this lesson). What is important in this chapter is how Brophy described the need for learning to be "minds on" and not necessarily "hands on", to encourage students to think that this particular subject is interesting and worthwhile to their future.
In Ch. 19 of the Thinking Maps book, it describes how thinking maps can be used as a form of assessment. I think this is a really interesting use of the thinking maps that, I'm not sure why, I've haven't thought of yet. But it makes perfect sense to do something like this, where you can see and assess not only what the studnet knows but how they know it. This shows definitively how the student builds upon their previous knowledge to grasp the current knowledge being taught. I like this means of assessment because if a student doesn't entirely know the correct answer to a question, using a thinking map would show how much they do know and where there is a gap in the information or processing of the information. ~Erin Caracappa
I like how Jacobs consistently related curriculum mapping to other concepts such as cartography and architecture, especially when she explains how curriculum mapping reflects what is happening in real-time as an “original itinerary would only surmise a likely scenario—it could not anticipate the realities” (198). I understand curriculum mapping as an active process that allows teachers to review where students have been, where they are now, and provide direction for where they are going, but I would love to see a real-world example of this database in use because it all seems a bit overwhelming. Having every teacher’s lesson plans, project maps, and diaries along with every student’s progress reports—trying to sort all that out seems impossible. Fortunately, Jacobs maps out the seven phases of the mapping and review process. Allowing teachers to see what students have or have not already learned will help in providing continuity of concept development. I have seen this in the middle school art classes I am observing. Students in seventh grade learn drawing skills and work on applying the art elements to their drawings throughout the year. In eighth grade they continue in the same direction combining elements and using new materials now that they have the basic skills and concepts. The same teacher teaches the seventh and eighth grade classes so she knows what students have been taught, which students have or have not progressed, and has insights into why so that she can focus on delivering what students are lacking. In her World Cultures class, students are creating presentations they have researched online and she has discovered a gap their research and writing abilities. Some students simply copy and paste online content into their presentations, some lack any formal writing skills, and some cannot distinguish between relevant and unimportant information. This is an instance where I think curriculum mapping would be useful. Reviewing what these students have and have not learned would help the teacher design scaffolded projects and instruction.
What struck me the most from Brophy’s chapter was this: “Despite widespread student complaints of a meaningless and irrelevant curriculum, reform efforts have focused on pressuring students to work harder, not on improving the curriculum” (301). There are many different theories about the types of motivation that inspires students to learn, yet as Brophy explains, intrinsic-motivation theories have found that when learners are more autonomous in choosing activities they perform better because they see the value in doing so. I do agree with this, yet I don’t believe students have an innate sense of what has value. I have been considering an article I recently read which concerns a study done on classroom blogging to develop self-reflective practice in students. There was no structure, no guidelines, no expectations, no formal consequences, and no rationale given to students for why they should participate; they were simply given a space to self-reflect through writing. By the end of the study, participation dropped from 95% to 30% and only those who continued using the blog became more self-reflective. It could be that without formal consequences students were not motivated to participate, as the researched concluded, but I feel it could also be that students could not see the value in what they were doing and were given no support in understanding the value of self-reflection. Students will not simply perform better because they choose an activity that interests them. Brody emphasizes that teaching for value must be modeled; students must first come to understand what value is inherent in a certain activity and in what way. ~Joanna Bourque
Regarding Chapter 8, I share Erin's concerns about the amount of information Jacobs encourages sharing via curriculum mapping--not so much because it will be online, but because sometimes one can drown in data. If you have everything, it can be like having nothing because there is simply too much to sift through. I am also reminded of the 1950s exhortations for housewives to have documented systems of all the work they did to "improve efficiency in the home"--in the end, it was more trouble and less effective than just letting them get on with it. I normally don't read the author summaries, but a few pages into this and I checked--Ms Jacobs is indeed selling something. I do think a well-implemented system that enables online, visible records of what students have been taught, how they were assessed, how they performed on that assessment, and what they will be taught will lead to a more collaborative, effective schools as well as possibly (and I think beneficially) serving as a district-wide mini-pinterest. My fears about this stem from the misuse of this potential--Ms Jacobs refers to having a leg up on standardized tests so one does not feel ambushed, but I see a constant, real-time system to see how teachers are handling the test as sadly but understandably degrading into a way to push teaching to the test even harder.
In Chapter 12, I was immediately pleased to see some less-conventional vocabulary on motivation. I'm researching it during student teaching, so I'm really quite used to seeing extrinsic and intrinsic motivation on a daily--or hourly--basis, but I was immediately struck by how controlled and autonomous motivation are not just new names for the old framework. I can imagine "autonomous motivation" encapsulating what might be labelled "extrinsic motivation" because it is student-driven, like wanting to impress a teacher. In almost all of the reading I've done, that would be labelled "extrinsic" but I think it is very autonomous--the student may have a good reason like needing a recommendation letter. (I spent my senior year only working hard for the people I needed letters of recommendation from--the rest, pfft.) After working in SPED, where motivation seems to be thin on the ground and I can't say I've learned a lot of techniques at Heritage for improving it, reading about the model for scaffolding appreciation was revelatory. I see elements of it in what I'm doing with the students already, but this way I can KNOW I'm doing them.
Chapter 19--I don't think I've hidden this very well, but I haven't always appreciated the Thinking Maps approach--it's seemed overly religious, and never seemed to adequately provide options for students, like those who suffer with NVLD, who do not read graphic organizers nearly as easily as they do more traditional lists and outlines--but this chapter I read while saying "Yes!" a lot. I think, after all the reading, I finally understand why they refer to Thinking Maps as a language. Hyerle and Williams discuss how by asking students how to think, we are really trying to teach them how to think when we, their teachers, are gone from their lives. In the Novice to Expert section, they discuss how by repetition, assistance, and guidance, students develop automaticity with the maps, which is a function all fluent speakers of English have with words, but one I could never quite get about the maps. But I taught a lesson using a character chart--not a Thinking Map--in SPED, assuming that 10th and 11th graders would know how to use a chart. Most of them did, but enough did not that I realized this was not an obvious task. My chart had open-ended blanks for students to fill in categories of their choosing, and while the students participated, the results made it clear they did not understand the way a chart sorted things. Without being able to independently select and implement a function, it's not entirely known, and Thinking Maps, by virtue of their repeating forms and flexibility between content areas, are a way for all teachers to work collaboratively to teach fluency in thinking skills while also teaching content--because they can put whatever content they need to into the maps.--Noren Bonner