CEDO 525 Entry Five

Reflecting on Instructional Strategies:
Identifying Similarities and Differences:
This strategy is one I use frequently to help students develop deeper understandings of topics. In my World Cultures class, which focuses on studying different regions around the world, I spend a great deal of time having students compare and contrast different things such as countries, religions, governments, culture, and more. My experience has taught me that this strategy allows students to connect more with a topic. For example, many students do not have a great understanding of different religious beliefs around the world. I always have students research and complete and advance organizer comparing the world's major religions. This activity has helped provide meaning and understanding of the different beliefs and practices following by Christians, Muslims, Jews, etc. Technology has provided great resources for information and also great tools as advance organizers.

Homework and Practice:
My focus on homework and practice has changed through my teaching experience. Initially when I started teaching, perhaps too fresh from college and still having a bitter taste in my mouth from homework, I did not assign a lot of homework and sometimes in class would have students engage in "busy work" just to survive on certain days. When reflecting back I understand why there were times that I did that as all young teachers have "survival" days but there is no doubt that my practices have evolved. When assigning student homework or practice I give it a great deal of thought. Everything that my students do I align with learning objectives and try to create structure and organization. Technology has allowed me to create activities that are more engaging, because they are often interactive and provide instant feedback, and I feel that students are getting a great deal more out of them as a result.

Generating Hypothesis:
There has been a recent movement in history education that encourages students engaging in historical inquiry, which requires them to generate a hypothesis to answer a historical question. Many people do not realize that much of history is open to interpretation and it is a changing and evolving phenomenon. This has led to many history teachers to move away from simply being sources of content, to becoming facilitators as students research, analyze, and investigate historical questions. Technology provides access to a seemingly unlimited library of primary source documents, which are the basis of historical inquiry. There are also many websites that allow students to interactively engage in inquiry and it is easy to create activities like webquests that allow students to explore documents and information.