InTASC Standard 4: Content Knowledge
The teacher understands the central concepts, tools of inquiry, and structures of the discipline(s) he or she teaches and creates learning experiences that make these aspects of the discipline accessible and meaningful for learners to assure mastery of the content.
When it comes to content knowledge, as a teacher, I have to look beyond my students simply having knowledge of the facts that I am teaching. I have to look for ways in which to make the information that I am trying to impart as meaningful as possible for students. To do this, I have to give the students opportunities to explore and make connections with what we are learning in that area. These opportunities can come in a variety of activities and experiences.
One such way to capture students’ interest is to switch up the tools of inquiry for the information being taught. I received a great opportunity to switch up the way the content was presented when I did the History of Dubuque project with 3rd graders at St. Columbkille’s school. To capture the students’ interest, we decided to create WebQuests to help make the learning of their information more interesting and fun. My WebQuest that I created for this project can be seen in my first artifact. The WebQuest allowed the students to do their own exploring, but because I created it myself, it was structured around the content that I found most important for them to know.
The next two artifacts are the pictures I presented to the students when working on this project. The pictures helped to peak the students interest (with only words, students can lose interest) and help them make connections. They were able to see places they had been before or that they had connections to or to get an actual visual of how something they had never seen before looked.
The final artifact I provided was my reflection of how the whole project went with my students. Through taking time to reflect, I am able to contemplate how everything went in the project, whether the students interest was captured, how well the students learned the content of the lesson, and what changes may be needed to better help teach the content of the lesson.
These types of active lessons for teaching content knowledge will continue to be important in my teaching. In switching up the tools of inquiry for the lessons, I can make the learning more student-centered and meaningful for the students as they gain knowledge about the content presented.
One such way to capture students’ interest is to switch up the tools of inquiry for the information being taught. I received a great opportunity to switch up the way the content was presented when I did the History of Dubuque project with 3rd graders at St. Columbkille’s school. To capture the students’ interest, we decided to create WebQuests to help make the learning of their information more interesting and fun. My WebQuest that I created for this project can be seen in my first artifact. The WebQuest allowed the students to do their own exploring, but because I created it myself, it was structured around the content that I found most important for them to know.
The next two artifacts are the pictures I presented to the students when working on this project. The pictures helped to peak the students interest (with only words, students can lose interest) and help them make connections. They were able to see places they had been before or that they had connections to or to get an actual visual of how something they had never seen before looked.
The final artifact I provided was my reflection of how the whole project went with my students. Through taking time to reflect, I am able to contemplate how everything went in the project, whether the students interest was captured, how well the students learned the content of the lesson, and what changes may be needed to better help teach the content of the lesson.
These types of active lessons for teaching content knowledge will continue to be important in my teaching. In switching up the tools of inquiry for the lessons, I can make the learning more student-centered and meaningful for the students as they gain knowledge about the content presented.
Artifacts: