You have all read about the Learning Cycle (LC) and its 6 E's:
1. engage
2. explore
3. explain
4. extend
5. evaluate
6. e-search.
Below, please write a 250-500 words COMMENT about what you think about the application of the LC (which was originally developed for science classes) in English classes.
I think that it is very important to try and incorporate all of the aspect of the learning cycle. The learning cycle is a good model because it is a cycle and learning is a cycle that students go through. I think that all of the aspects of the learning cycle are important because they help get the students involved and engaged in learning. When students are engaged in learning, then they will retain more information and it will be more interesting for them. I really like how they added “e-search” to the learning cycle model. Today, technology is very predominant in everyday life. I think that if we incorporate technology into the classrooms, it will make learning more fun and interesting for the students. Not only will it make learning more fun, if we incorporate technology in our classrooms, it will teach students how to use the technology. This is important because technology is so predominant in our everyday lives that it would be useful for our students to know how to use technology. They are going to come across technology in higher levels of education and in different job areas so they need to learn how to use technology. I also like the “e-search” aspect because it incorporates different learning strategies and methods into the classroom. I think that by using different methods that include technology will keep the students engaged in the learning which will help them retain more information.
ReplyDeleteThe internet is an incredibly useful tool for teachers in the classroom. However, I think it can relied upon too much. The idea of incorporating the e-search into the learning cycle seems a little excessive. Admittedly, I am not a big technology user. I believe that there is real value operating in the analog world of pencil and paper. I can't believe I'm doing this, but I am going to compare ELA to mathematics. Our grandparents were taught to do multiplication, division, addition, and subtraction in their heads.I can barely add double-digit numbers in my head, because I am so accustomed to using a calculator. Calculators make the information I want extremely easy to find. I feel this relates to ELA and the internet. The internet makes the information we need accessible at the click of a button. There is relatively little work involved. Could it be that we are making ourselves to reliant on internet technology? I think we are. Cracking a book to find an answer may be harder, but I think that is okay. Gallagher says that writing is hard work. Maybe research should be a little more difficult as well. Our students may have a wealth of knowledge, but how much depth is there to that knowledge.
ReplyDeleteI really like the idea of applying the 6 E's to English classes as it provides an interactive environment in the classroom. By engaging students, the teacher will determine what the students know about the subject that they will learn about (like a certain text), thereby addressing what really needs to be taught and allowing the students to feel “in control” of the topic. Exploration will continue the illusion of the students guiding class discussion, as they provide solutions (or even more questions) for the open-ended discussion about a text. Explanation could be a larger part of exploration, whereby students start answering some of the questions that they have posed and getting down to the “nitty gritty” of what students are unsure of and have trouble answering. This is where the teacher may come in with elaboration, providing assistance for the questions students have posed that the class is not able to answer.
ReplyDeleteThe sixth ‘E’ -- E-search – is also very important and can be used in tandem with other steps in the process. However, in my experience, it is very important not to rely on technology for the “engaging” step. I was a TA for a professor who used nothing but power-points for lectures during a summer education program for high school kids. He used all of class-time to lecture, very often not moving on to different E’s, thereby alienating students from the learning process. This just goes to show that it is important to use technology with each of the E’s -- and to use it well.
The addition of the “e-search” to the five E’s of the learning cycle was a vital and, perhaps, necessary addition. Today’s age has advanced so far technologically that to not include technological means in one’s instruction will hold students back from learning at the same level as students who do have technology used in the classroom. The e-search also provides an expansion to the five E’s of the learning cycle, as students have access to a larger base of knowledge. No long are students confined to what is in the textbook and what the teacher knows. Students, with the help of this technology, now have the ability to search anywhere on the World Wide Web for information that can be and is helpful to what is being studied. The e-search allows an expansion to the engagement, exploration, explanation, extension, and evaluation portions of the five E’s of the learning cycle. While the e-search can be looked at as the sixth E, it goes beyond that. It is not simply another component of the learning cycle, but it improves each of the other five. The e-search is used in each and every portion of the five E’s of the learning cycle, which greatly benefits the students.
ReplyDeleteI personally believe that the e-search is both negative and positive. E-search takes away key learning items that students need to learn to be able to interact with one another in the classroom. E-search also is able to teach them in a better, more organized fashion that potentially could grasp their attention in a better way. Student should be able to interact with one another and with the teacher constantly and consistently without the use of electronics. Although this is seen in the article, I believe that teachers rely too heavily on electronics to provide for them. Teachers should be able to teach without software or the use of the internet. If the internet was teaching us, there would only be a supervisor for the students, not a teacher. This could be a potential downfall in teaching because a student may not have the funds to be able to have the material possessions. The first grade students are using e-search as a tool as well as a guideline, which is completely fine. Since the students are so young, this could potentially influence their work in the future. I believe it is a great tool to help students learn, but not this young. Students this young will form a habit of relying on the internet to help them do their homework and help them learn. While the students progress in age, it could potentially lead to distractions which can cause problems.
ReplyDeleteI completely agree that the 5-E Model works just as well in an English class as it does in a Science class. For the first step of the 5-E Model, Engage, an English teacher could introduce the class to word that is commonly associated with a text, such as the letter ‘A’ is associated with the novel, The Scarlet Letter. Students can engage in discussion with the either the entire class or amongst themselves to determine what they believe the letter ‘A’ could also symbolize. When students explore a particular topic, they could easily incorporate the idea of an e-search by compiling several ideas of what other people believe the significance of the letter ‘A’ is through blog posts and book critiques. Students can then explain relationships between their initial knowledge and the knowledge of other students/scholars that they found through e-search and outside readings. Students can then extend their new knowledge of the symbolism of the text to other written materials and/or form new relationships with various texts that can better explain what kind of information the student is attempting to convey. Students will then evaluate their own findings by talking with their classmates to find common ground on their topic. A student may find that their initial beliefs must be altered once they communicate with another student that proves a valid point in the opposite direction. The goal in this stage is to help make the student most confident in what he/she believes.
ReplyDeleteI found the article on the 6th E added to the learning cycle to be a very useful resource to be used in the future. When one refers to using technology in the classroom, I usually think of computer software often used in elementary classrooms and the internet used for research. However, I had never thought of using E-mail or digital cameras in the English classrooms. In the process of engaging my students, I could have the students use the internet to research a book, theme, or author for a paper or as an introduction to a unit. I could also use computer programs to create K-W-L's or other graphic organizers. Exploring could also incorporate the internet for research. Digital cameras could also be used to take pictures of objects relating to the topic to be discussed. I also liked the idea of using e-mail. My students could e-mail each other in peer review exercises and local authors. Even in an English classroom, I can see the value in using technology. Students will all at some point in their education or career will need to know a wide variety of basic technology skills. It is a good idea for teachers in every subject to teach and model these skills for the benefit of their students' futures.
ReplyDeleteI think as teachers in our era, we must embrace all forms of technology that can aid us in the classroom. That being said, this article relayed some creative implementations for classrooms. I think the camera idea is interesting since my other degree is Cinema (think about the implications of video cameras for recording live learning and projects). The use of email and the internet in general I think is a good thing to have implemented for classrooms. Emails can help with students forwarding drafts to each other for revision and sending other work to the teacher, and the internet is the biggest database of knowledge available. Of course, teachers shouldn't abandon some of the old school things like having and using real books. I think right now, teachers have a unique position where they need to be able to be in touch with the older traditions of teaching and be savvy technology that continues to be released and that students are being raised with. The 6 E's are a good tool for classroom learning - encouraging students to take the learning into their own hands and run with it. It engages students rather than have them be passive learners like in the all too common lecture styled classroom. I remember doing projects like this in my schools before college, and I always enjoyed them because they usually allowed me some sort of freedom and forced me to take action in order to learn something.
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