This week we learned about interest approaches or
anticipatory sets. The purpose on interest approaches is to guide students into
the new lesson by having them recall past information. It is not a review but a
strategy used for the students to see how what they learned and what they are
about to learn will tie in together.
I am learning a lot of right now and it is difficult to
manage all of the information so I decided to use an interest approach to a
subject that I feel confident in as opposed to a content area that I would have
to learn and then learn to teach. I decided to teach about grafting from the
propagation unit in the horticulture course. And to be honest, I am pretty
happy with how it went. I feel like the students were engaged, I asked
questions that made the students think about what they knew and they were able
to arrive pretty close to the answer that I was leading them to answer.
One struggle that I have is gauging the appropriate
difficulty level at which to teach. I want it to me challenging and to make the
students think hard about what I am asking; however, I don’t want it to be too
difficult that they will not be able to completely comprehend what I am
teaching. From what I have heard from other teachers is that the cognitive
level of students varies widely and changes from year to year as well. I guess
that is just another one of those skills that teachers pick up on as they
acquire more and more experience: to be able to quickly discern the level of
individual students and the class as a whole and adjust the content rigor
accordingly.
I will leave you with some links to some great resources
about primary and secondary principles
of interest (Principles and Practices to Secure and Hold Interest by Kirby
Barrick and Andrew Thoron) and a book that I am reading that has some great
examples of interest approaches that they call engaging
moments (Strategies for Great Teaching by Mark Reardon and Seth Derner,
2008)
And a quote from Dr. Foster that I thought was very true, "the most effective classroom management tool, is an engaging lesson." #KIR
And a quote from Dr. Foster that I thought was very true, "the most effective classroom management tool, is an engaging lesson." #KIR
Matthew,
ReplyDeleteOh the infamous interest approach! They can be tricky. In my freshman classes I choose interest approaches based solely on their excitement and felt-need creating capability. You need to "hook" your young students. They love anything that makes them go "wow!" Interest approaches, in my opinion, do not have to be super cognitively engaging in intro classes. It is more important to get them engaged and interested in the lesson. That comes first!
In my upper level classes I do definitely challenge them with my interest approach. They have a lot of prior knowledge and I tap into that with my interest approach to get them geared up for the day's lesson.
Keep it up!