“We as teachers are unlikely to reach students cognitively
if we do not reach them affectively.”
Just after I wrote this quote, I saw in the learning blog
assignment where it says “Do not write several quotes from the readings.” So…..
this is my only quote from the readings! However, I used it because this stuck
out to me as the primary purpose of this chapter and made a lot of sense to me.
In my job in a Title 1 school, I see many students who aren’t motivated to
learn or do what is right, and my main concern as a teacher is how to get these
students to want to learn. I thought that the questions prompting them to
respond with their individual interest level was thought provoking. So often we
get into the habit of providing the information, getting them to learn it, and
assessing that they understand it. This
has caused me to rethink this approach and think of ways to involve them more.
The affective domain can certainly be utilized to reach
those uninterested and unmotivated students, and I have even applied this in my
small groups since the last class meeting. The difference in the response of
some of the students was very noticeable. I have a very difficult third grade
group that is easily distracted and very hard to get focused and stay on task.
Today I did a functional text lesson that, instead of reading a recipe and
answering questions, they created their own recipe, using what they wanted to
make and following the format. They didn’t want to leave! I know you can’t
always tailor lessons to what the students want to do, but being aware of
utilizing what excites and motivates them is huge.
The article addresses the introduction of vocabulary terms
before a content lesson, which I try to do with all of my groups from K-5. This
way we have a mini-vocabulary lesson, discuss how to decode or chunk the words,
and then when we get to the book we can read it more fluently without having to
stop for individual words. So I absolutely agree with this because I have seen
what an effective strategy it is.
In this time of heated debate over SOLs and the decline of critical thinking skills, it seems that concerns over appealing to the affective domain have gone away to make room for test prep. Would you agree with this?
Robin, I love how you have incorporated the reading into your work. Often times it seems that the readings we do in class give representations of an idealized and not a real world teaching environment. Or, the examples given do not seem to be easily adaptable for different age groups. I like that when you applied their strategies into an actually school setting you saw positive results. I think getting kids excited about a lesson by appealing to their affective domain is a small step in the right direction towards getting students excited about learning and school. But, as you mentioned, many teachers now feel the need to focus on teaching only SOL material because of the fear of the repercussions (ex. loss of job) if their students score poorly. This can be (and is) very dangerous as important skills (critical thinking, innovation, creativity, etc.) are pushed to the wayside as teachers attempt to cover all the material that will be on the SOLs. Teachers now stick to set schedules and routines that allow them to cover as much material as possible and this leaves little room for teachers to tap into a student's affective domain and help inspire them to learn more or increase their curiosity about a subject. Sadly, I do not see this changing much in the near future.
ReplyDeleteI would definitely agree with you that affective domain has been pushed to the waste side in order to prepare for the SOLs. However, I believe that if affective domain was given a little more thought, it would help the students learn the content in a more effective manner giving positive reasoning to put it into consideration in the long run. I love your lesson with creating their own recipe! The lesson allows the students to make their own choices while you get them to do what you want them to do. Having students work with recipes is also great, because it is something that they can relate to with real-life experience. Tapping into something that will be done throughout their lives (creating directions), gives the assignment purpose for the teacher and the student!
ReplyDeleteLike you Robin, I have experience in Title I schools. Although I am not a teacher yet, every field experience I have participated in throughout my teacher preparation has been in Title I schools. Interestingly, last semester I was placed in the same school for two separate experiences, one with a 1st grade class and one with a 4th grade class. I noticed significant differences regarding instruction and the importance of the affective domain in these two classes. While the 1st grade teacher regularly engaged the affective domain as an instructional strategy, the 4th grade teacher did not. I believe this was because the 4th grade teacher, unlike the 1st grade teacher, was constrained by the pressures of SOL and other district and state testing requirements. In fact, while I was in the 4th grade classroom, I observed just as much assessment as I did instruction, such as mock SOLs, practice writing tests, and a district mandated exam. With all of this required evaluation, the teacher had very little time left for instruction, and the instruction that did occur was always geared towards passing the required tests. However, in the 1st grade classroom, without mandated testing, the teacher was able to be significantly more creative with her instruction. Furthermore, she regularly engaged the students with “questioning in the affective domain” (Richardson, Morgan, & Fleener, 2012, p. 43). For example, students were often responding to questions and writing prompts regarding how the activity or learned concept makes them feel. My cooperating teacher always asked students what they liked or did not like, what their favorite part of a lesson or story was, and discussed which characters the students looked up to or did not admire. I do believe that because there are not testing requirements in the primary grades, these teachers experience greater instructional freedom that allows them to incorporate the affective domain in ways that other teachers of older grades sometimes struggle to do because of the pressures from above.
ReplyDeleteRobin, I definitely agree with you on the subject of SOLs interfering with affective domain. Teachers today are more worried about getting their students to remember the information long enough to take a test on it instead of getting them to truly comprehend the information by sharing it with them in a fun and meaningful way. I do think it is possible, even with the pressure of time constraints and staying on task for teachers to do this. It is just a matter if they want to do it. If students want to have a passion for what they are learning, teachers must have one as well and show it. You are a great example of this. You learned of a way to engage your students that would have normally been less than enthused to do an activity and you tweaked it to get them excited about the content. Great job!
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