Carrie Sun The Story of How I Am Learning to Teach (2015)

What Expert Teachers Do

Chapter

Information

Connections (e.g. between what

learnt and how I plan to use it to
support student learning)

Extensions (e.g. further

questions, extensions, other
applications, improvements)

2 - Thinking
About Learning

Many different views on learning and education

Piagets stages
Vygotskys zone of proximal development
Gardners MIs
Golemans emotional intelligence (selfawareness, self-management, social
awareness, relationship management)
Sternbergs 3 intelligences (analytical,
creative, political)
Blooms taxonomy

I have always been a fan of using

Blooms taxonomy in teaching. If I
am stuck for a summative or
formative, using Blooms charts, I
can pick a word and use it in an
assessment way (e.g. create,
evaluate, manipulate, etc.)

The only thing about those

online or paper tests of your
learning styles or your multiple
intelligences is they are usually
just for fun, and are not
psychometrist approved.

Memory
Short-term: holds 7 elements at a time
Tips: Selection, chunking, processing
Deep: Integrating new info with existing info
Surface: Remembering facts (bad)
Metacognition ability to monitor and control ones
own processes of thinking, using questions
Elements of memory
Strings
Propositions
Images
Episodes
Intellectual skills
Motor skills
Cognitive strategies
Teaching needs to be responsive to the different

I am also a fan of Gardners

multiple intelligences. I think it
would be fun and insightful for
students to not only take a
learning styles inventory for
visual, kinaesthetic, and auditory,
but also an MI test, as part of
their intro-profiles.

http://www.bgfl.org/bgfl/custom/
resources_ftp/client_ftp/ks3/ict/
multiple_int/index.htm

I remember my grade 5
teacher once made ALL of us
have to memorize a part of
Martin Luther Kings speech.
He actually graded us on how
many times we looked at the
Surface learning is bad because
paper and how many times we
you just rush through the material forgot words and stuff like that.
and are not focusing on its
He emphasized practicing your
deeper meaning. I myself am a
memory was important. Yes,
product of that system!
thats true, but looking back on
that exercise, what a useless
Metacognition is basically thinking thing to make us waste our
about thinking. This is where bio
time and do there has to be
blogs or math journals will come
better and more meaningful
in handy, as well as selfways to practice our memory.
assessment rubrics on
E.g. Buzzfeed does cool
summatives.
videos on memory hacks
This would tie back into the idea
of having the students and I give
each other feedback on how best

https://www.youtube.com/watc
h?v=hsr2-UFtlTE

Carrie Sun The Story of How I Am Learning to Teach (2015)

elements of memory in appropriate ways in order to
enhance students understanding of the content. Both
teachers and students have a script that influences
how they approach their work, and thus what
teaching and learning stereotypically look like.
Constructivism
Learning by doing, regulating own learning,
building individual meaning in a situation or
experience, learning with and from others
4 - Prior
Knowledge

Knowledge prior to formal testing

Teachers answers appear to be designed to elicit a
particular response (bad)
Withholding judgement decrease the effect of
guess whats in the teachers head.
- Neither affirming nor negating students
responses
- Use non-judgemental language and neutral
non-verbal cues that encourage students to
honestly offer their own ideas
Probe of prior views
e.g. students can attempt to convince others about
their explanation of the studies/phenomenon and
what they know
Card sorting for beginning to investigate a
particular topic, theme, or unit.
e.g. matching concepts within categories and then
explaining choices to class
Concept map use cards of terms or concepts on
sheet of paper, with relationship links and arrows,
and write what is the relationship between concepts
on links

to learn from each other in the

class.

https://www.youtube.com/watc
h?v=UbKQ6eStPa8

A learning environment built on

constructivism, paired with tiered
stages like Blooms taxonomy,
would be ideal.

The activity basically was

surface learning, because I
dont remember any of it today.

I know for sure I need to work on

this I am no good at keeping a
poker face, and my expressions
usually give the students clues on
whether they are close or not. I
want to steer away from this, and
I have been getting better. For
example, some strategies I now
use include: I have all students
who wish to contribute answers
contribute them. We do a secret
vote of science or math, and then
explain all the answers and come
to a conclusion together, or we
have one of the answers put up
on the board and the students
can compare their answer to the
one on the board, and then we
discuss any discrepancies.

Our plant workshop actually

focused on this the Sweller
Questions/ Challenge Each
Other activity. The idea of
having students challenging
each other and convincing
each other of their knowledge
is a great one in theory, but it
may not always work in
practice. Theres always
students that sit there and do
nothing and dont say anything
how can I get these students
to speak up?

Also, for neutral cues, instead of

my expressions, I am working on
trying to do small nods and mmhmms for every response,
instead of exaggerated ahhs and
expected looks.

My associate used Frayer

models often when introducing
a new overarching concept
(e.g. linear model or
polynomial). She would use a
non-white colour and give them
blank copies, and encourage
them to fill it out and keep it
handy for their survival guides,
and also as a good study tool
to come back to.

Carrie Sun The Story of How I Am Learning to Teach (2015)

this can assess prior knowledge too students
can choose some concepts they think are related to
the topic being studied and then add them to the
concept map or make their own from scratch
Semantic map
Can be individual or in a group
Has central theme or idea in middle, then
relevant categories from that point
Students asked to make bullet point list with
as many possible things they know about it
Frayer model graphic organizer like Semantic
map, but with defined structure. (e.g. Definition/
Characteristcs/ Examples/ Nonexamples)

I think this is a great diagnostic

activity to see students prior
knowledge. And then, at the end
of the unit, or even just the
lesson, I might also have students
make their OWN card sorting
deck, with the terminology and
categories they learned, and
students can play each other card
sort game, with their own rules.
This is also really great for
diagnostic assessment and I
like how it is a twist on regular
mind maps: it can be modified in
many different ways, including
based on how much prior
knowledge the students know.
This looks really fun to do in my
future classroom. I could make a
game out of it, I could use these
papers and revisit them and add
stuff to them as we go through the
unit, etc.

5 - Processing

Fun and interesting teaching procedures to

encourage processing to enhance learning
Jumbled text arrange the cut out
paragraphs in order so it makes sense
Question Grid Students write the 5 W and 1
H question they have as a result of thinking
about the info
Question Dice 5 Ws and 1 H on one die,
is, did, does, can, would, will, could, might
on other die
Chunking Grid Chunks of info or pictures
from a theme or topic, and place them on a

I am not a huge fan of this idea

because again, it subscribes to
the idea that precreated ideas or
text is what is to be believed it
might be a better idea to have
students make their own
summary text about a newly
learned concept and swap with
another student to try and figure
out each others text
I might use these to also
complement summative and

Obviously the point would be to

aim and answer the questions
on the grid, but I feel like some
students would just do the
easiest possible questions for
each, so that way they can
easily answer it (cuz they
already know the answer), and
thus complete the activity. (I
would probably do this, who
was a product of this student).
Thus, how can we stimulate
curiousity and helping these

Carrie Sun The Story of How I Am Learning to Teach (2015)

grid (1-15 cells). Students asked to determine
which cells help to answer certain focus
question(s) or prompt(s).

formative assessments, including

carousel type activities, or final
projects, or part of jigsaws.
This looks so fun! Again, I would
also encourage students to make
their own and play with each
other, after I do the initial
facilitated example with them.

types of students think of and

create meaningful questions?
We used this in bio curr class,
and I also used them at
Leadership Camp when I was
a program facilitator, to help
me as the facilitator guide
debriefs.
My only concern with this (and
all the activities listed in this
chapter) is how to continue
keeping them engaged after
the initial interest wears off.

6 - Linking

Important to store, structure, and retrieve ideas

Making connections across ideas so that prior and
new knowledge can interact in ways that will further
develop a students understanding on the topic being
studied.

Make What if? questions and answer them

From There to There (What I know Links

I made to get to What I know now)

Linking cycle: What are the critical events in

this cycle? How are they related? Why must
they follow this order?

Linking to real life: Write in own words any

links that they can make between content
theyve been studying and their own everyday
experiences.

Sweller Questions: e.g. For a math class, give

These are great questions to

focus on when teaching cycles or
patterns or flow of events types of
topics which there are many in
biology. (water cycle, circle of life,
photosynthesis, Krebs cycle). It
really encourages students to
engage in metacognition, and
really think about what is going on
here. Furthermore, it helps
solidify and understand each of
the steps in the cycle.
Another question I might add to
focus on is What is the point of
this cycle? gets the students to
think what is really going on here
and the big picture of where this
cycle fits in. We can then do
linking to other components of the
course.
This could be a good journal or
blog entry prompt, or maybe a

This book was where I

originally got the idea of
Sweller Questions (before
PEEL Web for the workshop
and before using it in my math
practicum)

Carrie Sun The Story of How I Am Learning to Teach (2015)

students a geometric-shaped object (like a
box) and ask them to explore and calculate as
many things as they can about the object.

Creating analogies (e.g. Cell City or

Circulatory System public transit)

Thinking hats with specific delegated roles

Synthetics: Teacher picks a topic (e.g. apples)

Student instructions:
1. Describe the topic
2. Create direct analogies (teacher picks another
topic, like rocks e.g. how are rocks and
apples alike)
3. Describe personal analogies e.g. imagine
being the object and describe what it feels like
4. Identify compressed conflicts e.g. how are
fruit and animals different?
5. Create a new direct analogy e.g. how are
fruit and animals like a poem, a sporting
event, or a film?
6. Re-examine original topic construct a
description based on ideas generated in the
synthetics process
7 - Translation

When ideas and info presented in one way are

processed and then used in another form.

Role-play a process like mitosis, electricity,

etc.
Storyboarding (text pics)
Fortune Lines Create own list of events for
a topic, write a story, with the events could act
like episodes (e.g. plot Event vs. Happiness
level of Marie Antoinette)
Creative writing e.g. imagine if you were a

group of them as a theme for the

week.
I might use this in the classroom
to help delegate student roles and
make sure everyone gets the
opportunity to speak or participate
in a collaborative learning
exercise.
What an interesting idea to help
support student learning,
consolidation, understanding
relationships, and thinking
unconventionally and outside the
box. I would like to use this in my
future classroom, but not sure
how best to facilitate an activity
like this to maximize engagement
and learning. Although the
principle behind it is great, a
discussion could get boring,
especially if the same people
answer each time, or if no one is
answering, or no one thinks its
relevant.
A tried and true method, but can
be so fun! I would incorporate a
game style or collaborative
learning style to it as well.
I might provide this as an
opportunity for students to
demonstrate their learning
through a summative or
formative. Great for visual
learners and artistically inclined
students.

I remember one of the bio blog

entries, we had to do
something similar for it, in
relation to our practicum
experiences. It felt really great
to show my happiness level
using a graph and explain in
words what was happening in
relation to the events that went
on. Everything was organized,
and I engaged in pretty good
reflective thinking as well.

Carrie Sun The Story of How I Am Learning to Teach (2015)

molecule of water, describe your journey

Writing your own method (e.g. for a lab
experiment)

I love this idea, because it

incorporates so much thinking
and really understanding. I would
use it to support student learning
by encouraging metacognition
and reflection in a bio blog entry,
or I could use it to support student
learning by incorporating it in to
assessments, and much more.
Another great idea for a bio blog
entry or for a whole-class type of
activity. I may also provide
students an opportunity to do this
in other ways, like via pictures or
a drama performance or a news
article, etc.

8 - Synthesizing

Putting together all the parts of something together to

make a coherent whole.
Bring the pieces of a topic together and joining them
in learning so that each of the elements interacts in
such a way to build on one another.
The learner creates something new.
Suchmann technique
Teacher gives a situation
Students ask yes/no questions to gather data
Students hypothesize possible solutions
Together, the class reflects on and analyses
the process

As a product of the system,

this is probably one of the
hardest things to do. If
someone told me to make a
certain compound or perform a
certain experiment and gave
me a bunch of equipment and
materials, I most likely would
not know what to do, much
less write instructions for what
to do! Students have such a
difficult time with this, because
they are taught and
encouraged to follow
instructions, but not able to
think critically and apply their
knowledge. I would like to
know how best to help
students become critical
thinkers and really understand
what theyre doing.

I think I would incorporate this

activity in my classroom, but
again, encouraging students to do
it for students, instead of me
being the sage on the sage with
all situation details. I think the
learning and anything that comes
out of it would be a lot more
meaningful and I can say that
about a lot of these activities

Even though these chapters

were meant to be tiered and
structured to get more and
more advanced in learning
(from just thinking
creating), its interesting how
all of these activities can be
modified or adapted to support
any stage of a students
learning.

I think I will be using the Youtube

channel Seeker Daily to help me
with this activity! They actually do
this exact idea, only in Youtube
video format. They show a picture

Cool idea, but my perplexment

comes from why have the B
people watch the A people
while theyre discussing? It
seems kinda boring and an

Carrie Sun The Story of How I Am Learning to Teach (2015)

Before-Now-After
Show a photo, text, or video to represent the
now, the students then hypothesize the
before and after.
Extension idea: Before-Before/After-After
Fish Bowl Discussion
2 questions on board (A & B)
Students form pairs, each pair brainstorms a
possible answer to both questions
Each member of the pair chooses question A
or B
All A members talk to other A members in a
circle about their answers, their B partners
stand behind watching
A and B people can then switch places

of something unusual taken by a

photographic journalist, and have
viewers think about what the
context is. Then they explain
whats going on, and then also
implications for the future, if
applicable.
(e.g. they recently had one where
a man looked like he was cruelly
standing on a submerged
elephant, but it wasnt abuse, and
the full story was so much more)
This can tie in with so many
curriculums current events,
relevant science, discussions
about media and perceptions and
portrayal, understanding the big
picture, etc. Students can also of
course include their ideas in their
notes/record of their learning).

easy opportunity for the people

standing behind the chairs to
get distracted and disengaged.
It might be worthwhile to find
some other meaningful task
that the B people can do while
the A people discuss, and vice
versa. Maybe they can be the
note takers, or the B people
can do their discussion at the
same time, and then bring it
altogether for a debrief. Thus, I
wonder what the best way to
approach this activity would be.