Reading Reflection #3

Sarah Betzold

EDT 3470

Reading Reflection # 3:

            When creating a project and finding “the big idea,” the curriculum should be considered. It’s important  for teachers to look over the standards as well and make sure they understand exactly what they want the students to learn. Working together with other teachers can help teachers find “the big idea for a project.

            It is also important to consider 21^st Century skills, which includes attitudes, habits of mind and important skills. Using Bloom’s Taxonomy is a great way to promote higher-order of thinking.  Bloom’s Taxonomy helps teachers organize objectives from a lower to higher-order of thinking. 21^st century literacy is also important. According to Boss and Krauss, “literacy boils down to learning to be independent, aware, and productive citizens.” It’s important for students to develop 21^st century literacy skills so that students can learn new information and be able to understand and apply it.

            Essential learning functions support student learning. For instance, making things visible, discussable, sharable, and researchable are great ways to help students learn. Students should have opportunities to plan, organize, express themselves and reflect on all points of view relating to what they are learning. The concepts in this chapter relate to our projects because we are incorporating many of these ideas into our project. For instance, in our unit we will a keeping in mind the “big idea,” using Bloom’s Taxonomy, exposing students to literature, research, and giving students opportunities to work together and engage in learning.