Running head: TEACHING IDEAS
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Teaching Ideas
Sandrine Munoz, Nazish Noor Khan and Caren-Carissa Tapia
McGill University
Teaching Idea Related to Chapter 2: Cognitive and Linguistic Development
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Description:
After a first grade elementary teacher finishes reading a shortened version of “To Kill a
Mockingbird,” the students are asked to adopt the perspectives of Boo Radley, Scout and Jem.
Boo Radley is a character who is mocked and scrutinized for staying in his home. Scout, the
protagonist of the story, and her brother Jem believe the adults of the town of Maycomb when
they say that he is dangerous and mentally unstable. Also, they never express gratitude in
response to Boo’s acts of kindness. He leaves gifts for them in the knothole of a tree. Instead of
showing appreciation towards him, they try to ridicule him by imitating his strange behaviours.
The educator places the students in groups of three. The students choose which role they
wish to enact. There are three roles: Boo Radley, Scout and Jem. Then, they write a short
dialogue and choose a few props. Finally, they present their brief play to the classroom. After
their performances, they are asked to think about how they felt while playing the role of a victim
of bullying, that is, the one of Boo Radley, and the role of bullies, that is, those of Scout and Jem.
Hopefully, they will realize that they should think about other people’s feelings before
performing certain actions. Therefore, they will learn to think less egocentrically. Egocentric
thinking is a defining feature of the preoperational years according to Piaget.
Idea Suggested by and Date of Entry:
Sandrine Munoz contributed this idea to the teaching file on September 16th, 2013.
Idea Development:
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Nazish and Carissa proposed that the students can connect on a deeper level with the
characters by recalling times in their own lives in which they were victims of bullying or
perpetrators of bullying. They also proposed that role playing could be replaced by writing a
story from a character’s perspective during the secondary and even university years. Students
must learn to sympathize and empathize with others regardless of their age.
Rationale:
The rationale behind this idea can be found in Chapter 2: Cognitive and Linguistic
Development. Piaget considers egocentric thinking as a defining feature of the preoperational
years. Children between the ages of 2 and 6 are not capable of assuming another person’s
perspective when analyzing situations. However, teenagers and even university students are
prone to formal operational egocentrism at times.
Resources:
Book: “To Kill a Mockingbird”
Play: props
Teaching Idea Related to Chapter 3: Personal, Social and Moral Development
Description:
In Ms. Jones’ 6th grade class they were asked to bring in an object or food dish that
represents their culture or life at home. However, students are not allowed to bring anything that
can injure someone and they must bring in food that is peanut free. Later on in class, students
would engage in a brief show and tell about their object or food item. Also, if students are able
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to speak another language that is not French or English than they can teaching the class how to
say a friendly phrase in their language.
She used this as an introduction to express that Montreal is very multicultural and then
discuss the Parti Quebecois’ preposition of Bill 60 - Quebec’s Charter of Values. This allows
students to engage in a community of learning and discuss a global issue which they are
potentially going to live in. They are asked to discuss how they feel about their own personal
reactions and feelings towards Bill 60.
Idea Suggested by and Date of Entry:
Caren-Carissa Tapia contributed this idea to the teaching file on September 18th, 2013.
Idea Development:
Nazish and Sandrine proposed the idea of introducing the issues in Quebec because it
does not only relate cultured people but everyone who lives in Quebec. This allows students to
feel the impact of their potential reality a lot more. After the discussion on the controversy Bill
60 presents; students can sympathize and take a stance on a moral issue.
Rationale:
The rationale found behind this can be found in Chapter 3: Personal, Social and Moral
Development. In the first part of the chapter the textbook discusses Student Development and
Diversity. The home life of a student can often contradict beliefs or values learned in school
which can cause conflict n their personal development. This activity allows students to engage in
an activity that fosters Moral development because Ms. Jones is encouraging her students to
discuss about moral issues and dilemmas within their community.
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Resources:
Recipes from their parents.
Teacher uses an article from the Gazette about the Charter of Values.
Teaching Idea Related to Chapter 4: Individual and Group Differences
Description:
Mrs. Rogers decided it was time to teach her Grade 3 students, about the topic of
individual differences. She introduced this subject by showing her class several clips focusing on
the different forms of intelligence and learning. Afterwards, Mrs. Rogers asked students to
determine differences among themselves. She stated that being unique is a good thing, because
everyone can bring something new to the classroom environment. For example, students can
contribute different methods to solve a problem or complete an activity. To make sure her
students understood the lesson, Mrs. Rogers decided to have them play a creative game, called
Charades. She divided her students into group of 4 and gave them all the same quotation to
enact, without them knowing. At the end of the game, she told her students that they all had the
same sentence to enact. They all witnessed each group’s interpretation of the quotation.
Idea Suggested by and Date of Entry:
Nazish Noor Khan contributed this idea to the teaching file on September 23rd, 2013.
Idea Development:
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Sandrine and Carissa mentioned that, instead of having the groups act out different
words, we should make them act out the same quotation without them knowing. This way, the
students would have a better understanding of individual differences. They would be able to see,
how everyone’s enactment of that specific sentence was different.
Rationale:
The rationale behind this idea, can be found in Chapter 4: Individual and Group
Differences, of the textbook. More specifically, in the “Creativity” section. It is stated that
people express themselves creatively in unique ways. Creativity can be seen through Convergent
thinking or Divergent thinking. Convergent thinking is defined as “pulling several pieces of
information together to draw a conclusion or solve a problem,” whereas divergent thinking, is
“taking a single idea in many different directions.” In this activity, the students took the same
quotation and expanded its meaning in different ways.
Resources:
Teacher: Uses Youtube clips on Individual Differences.
Teaching Idea Related to Chapter 6: Learning and Cognitive Processes
Description:
One afternoon, Mrs. Reynolds decided she wanted to play a memory game with her
Grade 3 class. Last week, her lesson consisted of explaining the water cycle to her students. She
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described the following: evaporation, condensation, precipitation, solidification and other related
processes. The students identified the differences between the different stages in the cycle. To
test her students’ memory on the features of the water cycle, Mrs. Reynolds provided flash cards
that students had to use to create a concept map. Some flash cards have a picture of the
arrangement of water molecules. For example, when water solidifies, the molecules are close
together. On other flash cards, activities that can be practiced during each phase of the water
cycle are illustrated. For example, when water solidifies, people can go skating. Therefore, one
card has a picture of a skater.
Idea Suggested by and Date of Entry:
Nazish Noor Khan contributed this idea to the teaching file on September 30th, 2013.
Idea Development:
Sandrine and Carissa helped Nazish make the memory game meaningful. They proposed
that students could create concept maps with illustrated flash cards. They also suggested that
students could provide a short explanation for placing the flash cards in a certain way and could
draw other activities that they associate with each phase of the water cycle. They also stressed
that students should explain the features of each stage of the water cycle.
Rationale:
The rationale behind this idea can be found in Chapter 6: Learning and Cognitive
Processes. In the section of the chapter on short-term memory and long-term memory, learning
strategies, such as organization, elaboration and visual imagery, are described. In Mrs. Reynolds
activity on the water cycle, students use visual imagery to organize the stages of the water cycle.
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They also explain why they organized the flash cards in a certain way and can provide other
examples of activities that can be performed in each phase of the cycle. Therefore, they engage
in organization and elaboration.
Resources:
Flash cards, a flat surface to organize the flash cards, a paper to write explanations and blank
flash cards for students who wish to draw other activities that they associate with each stage of
the cycle.
Teaching Idea Related to Chapter 7: Knowledge Construction and Higher-Level Thinking
Description:
Mr. Irvine has brought a puzzle for his class to solve. The puzzle he has brought is the
River Crossing problem where:
There are 3 men and 3 girls. lets name them ABC, A's daughter X, B's Daughter Y, C's daughter
Z.
Rule to cross the river:
1.
Only a maximum of two people can go on the boat.
2.
Only Men know how to drive the boat (So there has to be at least one man on boat)
3.
No girl crosses river with strange man, (that means, only father can take a girl on boat)
4.
No girl stays with strange men on shore, (that means, father should not leave his daughter
with other men, either she should be alone, or with other girls or with her father)
How do they cross river?
In groups of 4-5 students they must discuss the steps to solve this problem.
Idea Suggested by and Date of Entry:
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Caren-Carissa Tapia contributed this idea to the teaching file on October 7th, 2013.
Idea Development:
Sandrine has proposed to give the students a problem and have them discuss it in groups
because this can promote in the creation of a community of learners. Nazish added in that the
activity should be a fun and really makes them think and I brought up the river crossing puzzle.
Rationale:
The rationale behind this idea can be found in Chapter 7: Knowledge Construction and
Higher-Level thinking. The puzzle promotes students to engage in higher-level thinking because
they have to think of different combinations that follow the rules of the game. Mr. Irvine is
promoting dialogue among his students and engaging them in distributed cognition.
Resources:
Teacher can find this game online:
(November 3rd, 2012). Father and daughter river crossing puzzle. Retrieved from
http://math.stackexchange.com/questions/228073/father-and-daughter-river-crossingpuzzle
Teaching Idea Related to Chapter 8: Social Cognitive Views of Learning
Description:
After having students conduct research on a positive role model who has developed an
original project, a high school teacher invites the role model to the class. The guest speaker will
talk about the challenges they had to face in order to make a difference in other people’s lives
through their work. The speaker will encourage students to show compassion and to connect
with other people in their community and around the world. After the conference, the teacher
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will ask students to think about a project that they would like to accomplish and that would have
a positive impact on other people’s lives. For example, they can make Christmas cards and send
letters to less fortunate families.
Idea Suggested by and Date of Entry:
Sandrine Munoz contributed this idea to the teaching file on October 9, 2013.
Idea Development:
Nazish and Carissa proposed that the teacher could even act as a role model. The teacher
could talk about charities that he/she is affiliated with or show interest in humanitarian projects.
The teacher could plan projects such as tutoring children in schools that have fewer educational
resources or building schools in other countries. Obviously, the administrators of the school
would be involved in the planning of some of these activities.
Rationale:
The rationale behind this idea can be found in chapter 8: Social Cognitive Views of
Learning. In this chapter, the behavioural effects of modelling are highlighted. Students imitate a
model when they are intrinsically motivated to perform similar actions. Also, they must identify
with the model. If a model explains that he/she has faced similar challenges in youth in order to
be successful, students will relate to the model and believe that they can overcome their own
obstacles.
Resources:
Computers for the research
TEACHING IDEAS
Role model: Uses a powerpoint and presents pictures.
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