Reflection 1: Concept Mapping in My Classroom

Reflection 1: 

Concept Mapping in My Classroom

1.      Description

I am very excited to express my great pleasure that my students are using technology for their organizing of ideas, and writing out of these ideas in the form of a story.  I have observed many students having a great difficulty presenting their ideas in an organized way in their writing assignments. This is important because students are expected to meet the Provincial Learning Outcome expressing their ideas clearly in an organized manner. I am able to maximize the learning by using technology.  In this reflection I discuss implementing software called Kidspiration to maximize their learning!  I have made consistent attempts throughout my school year to implement the use of technology, in particular, computers to create motivation for the student’s to write. This software called Kidspiration is that the student is able to use the program to begin organizing their thoughts for future writings within this program using a concept map tool.  This application of the program is easy to use and very intuitive, so that the students are able to access different features of the program by recognizing picture cues (icons) or hearing the program “read” what the student is selecting with their mouse.  I have observed students actively engaged and enjoying their learning while using this technology.  Students are optimizing their learning for their future, by developing these 21^st Century learner skills of sharing and creating concept maps to begin writing.  Students are successfully able to work together and create their writing while using Kidspiration. It is my role to assist the students navigating through the software and programs.

2.     Analysis & Impact

As a teacher I observe and analyse my students having difficulties using the computer successfully.   Further analysis indicates an issue:  The students are having difficulties meeting an expected grade level Language Arts outcome to express their ideas in a clear and organized manner.  I am very concerned that my students are having difficulties meeting this outcome.  I am able to assist the students, as the teacher’s role being that of a facilitator.  I am able to help the students work together and successfully develop their writing skills. The Cognitivist Philosophy states that the students learn best by connecting their “schema” or prior knowledge, to new knowledge and experiences, by the use of concept maps.   The Cognitivist believes that the transfer of knowledge happens effectively and efficiently by the use of a concept map. According to Piaget they already have a schema.  The students learn well using the computer because they can create concept maps to organize and expand their ideas and have fun while they do this activity. This means they have a general internal knowledge structure and new information is compared to the existing structures that they have. The schema can be combined, personalized customized or added to for the accommodation of new information which they add to their content map.  I have discovered that I am able to assist the students overcome ongoing social conflicts by continuing to provide time for students to work together. I have learned that the students are developing their computer skills, and writing skills, while using the computer.  Furthermore, the social conflicts have been reduced.

v Reacting: 

I reacted with concern that the students were not going to be able to maximize their learning through the use of Kidspiration because they were having difficulties organizing their ideas before they began to write a story. I was feeling frustrated at first because I felt that the students should be able to express their ideas and construct a story in an organized way.  I felt that the students should just do as they were asked and to automatically begin to organize their ideas.  After reflecting about the difficulties the students had with writing their students in an organized manner.  I realized that the students did not organize their thoughts in a logical order or group their ideas together.  I was feeling happy that I came up with a solution that appeared to work-more time to practice using concept maps using Kidspiration to organize their ideas.  It appears that the students came to realize that if they were able to use the concept maps to organize their ideas logically and clearly that they could optimize their writing and learning.

v Elaborating:

As I was able to discover a major problem with the students learning, the students were having difficulties organizing their ideas as well as expressing their ideas in a clear manner.  I was able to provide instant feedback to the students based on the theories of Behaviourism, instant positive or negative feedback to inform and develop the expected behaviour.

v Consolidating and Contemplating:

One difficulty that I see is that the students were struggling with expressing themselves clearly when writing.  I have had to respond to this issue by implementing the use of technology and directly discuss how to use Kidspiration to create concept maps enabling the students to visually see all of their ideas, then to organize the ideas together into groups at which point the students can begin to create their writing.  At this point if I am able to reward the students who are doing the concept mapping of their ideas I reward them with a sticker. This reward or instant feedback is based on the Behaviourist theory, rewarding behaviour with a stimulus.  Certainly at the ages of 7 and 8 the students respond well to positive and negative feedback.   I see that the students are in need of opportunity for growth and discussion and development regarding how to organize thoughts and ideas, and present them in an organized manner in their writing.  The students would train themselves to use Kidspiration to create concept maps regarding particular subjects of interest collecting their ideas and developing them into organized chunks on similar ideas for transferring the ideas into a complete piece of writing.

3.       Intent

 I intend to provide further instructional time discussing the desired techniques in writing, which are the expectations or outcomes that the students are expected to meet.  What I will do is begin to have activities with the students, sharing a book, with different age appropriate subjects that can be easily organized into groups then demonstrating how to use Kidspiration to create a concept map organizing the ideas that are presented in this book.  At which point, the teacher would create a concept map using Kidspiration.  I will use stickers to reinforce the use of Kidspiration concept maps in their writing based on the Behaviourist theories of learning.  I will use the program called Kidspiration to help the students learn how to create concept maps adding to their knowledge which reflects the Cognitive approach to learning.