Artifact 9 Analysis
Context:
Students had been learning about Gregor Mendel and his contributions to the field of genetics, so to have them sum up all of thatinformation, I had all of my students create a comic strip entitled “Mendel and his Peas.” They were instructed to "Create a comic strip on Mendel and his Peas—tell the story of how he came to his conclusions. You must include the following: the 3 steps of Mendel’s experiment, the results of Mendel’s experiment, Mendel’s 4 hypotheses”
After this activity, I wrote a reflection on how this activity went in first period, which is the artifact that I will be analyzing.
Artifact Analysis:
This artifact was very interesting, because it gave an insight into what students were thinking during lecture. A lecture mainly incorporates the audio and visual/spatial intelligences, as there is mainly a teacher talking and showing PowerPoint slides, and the students are either listening or copying down notes. Yet according to this artifact, it seemed that most of the class did not learn anything from those slides—the whole class had to go back in their notes and review what it was that they had actually copied down when they began their comic, which leads me to conclude that in those two days that I lectured on Gregor Mendel, students did not learn much because they were copying down the information but they weren’t absorbing what they were copying. This became very obvious when they would read aloud a sentence in their notes to me, and then ask me what that meant. If they didn’t understand the words that they were writing down, why didn’t they ask me about it?
This leads me to wonder how I can relay this information to them in a non-lecture style—is there a way to have them get it on their own and still learn it? Or, on the flip side, how can this lecture be modified so that students are absorbing what they are writing as they are writing it? When I use PowerPoint, I mainly have them copy down what is one the slide, and then I talk about what they just copied. Yet maybe that chain of events is not good for students, because according to the reflection, they did not absorb anything. Sometimes, I’ll switch up the lecture, and write down all the notes on the board along with them, which seems like it helps them understand more, when I’m doing it with them. Maybe this should be my future practice.
The other part of this that intrigued me was that when students had to go back over their notes and actually create something with them, they took the time to try and understand it. They either asked me what it meant, or they talked to their partners about what they meant. Another aspect of this was that they had to illustrate what they notes meant, which really made them think over the information, and try to analyze how to illustrate the concepts as well. This leads me to conclude that when students are forced to create something from their notes, they are more likely to absorb what it is their notes are telling them.
Relationship to Focus of Inquiry
This artifact demonstrates the intelligences used in both lecture and in an activity after the lecture. In lecture, the main intelligences that are being drawn on are the audio and the visual/spatial intelligences, as the information is being delivered verbally and visually (on the PowerPoint). In this sense, the only differentiation being used is that students are potentially getting the information in 2 different ways. Yet according to the artifact, there was not much student retention of the content material after the 2 days of lecture, judging by the fact that many students did not know what they were writing down. On the other hand, when the students were instructed to create a comic that basically had them re-write their notes with illustrations, they went back to their notes and tried to comprehend what they said, and then what they meant. After this process, I felt that more students comprehended what their notes meant, and what it was that Mendel did, thus leading me to conclude that differentiating instruction to include having students create something from their notes increases the level of comprehension at least in comparison to just copying down notes from a PowerPoint slide.
Dimensions of Teaching and Learning: Self as Learner and Teacher
I thought that creating a comic strip of Mendel and his Peas would have been easy for students, as they were basically just re-writing their notes, however it dawned on me that this was not as easy as I had expected because they did not understand what their notes meant in the first place. I had assumed that by writing notes down, they were absorbing what they were saying, because this is how I learn best, yet as it turns out, the students did not know what their notes were telling them. However, maybe the disconnect is that when I was in school, teachers did not use PowerPoints very much—most times they were talking about the material as they were writing down the notes on the board and we were copying them down. In this sense, the teacher both talking and wrote at the same time, which may have helped the notes stick in my head. On the other hand, when I have students take notes, they copy down the notes from the PowerPoint and then I talk about them, which means that the audio and visual senses are not stimulated at the same time, as they were when I was in school. Maybe I need to revert back to what my teachers did in order to get students to understand what they are taking notes on as they are taking notes.
Implications for Future Teaching
In the future, I will modify my lecture strategy so that I am writing down the notes as students are taking them, and only use the PowerPoint for visuals that I can’t draw. This way, students might be more likely to absorb the information as I’m going over it, instead of just copying it down like robots. Furthermore, I like the idea of having students create something from their notes, because this makes them go over what they just wrote down and comprehend what it means, which may increase their retention of the material for a bit longer than if they just had to write down the notes.
Students had been learning about Gregor Mendel and his contributions to the field of genetics, so to have them sum up all of thatinformation, I had all of my students create a comic strip entitled “Mendel and his Peas.” They were instructed to "Create a comic strip on Mendel and his Peas—tell the story of how he came to his conclusions. You must include the following: the 3 steps of Mendel’s experiment, the results of Mendel’s experiment, Mendel’s 4 hypotheses”
After this activity, I wrote a reflection on how this activity went in first period, which is the artifact that I will be analyzing.
Artifact Analysis:
This artifact was very interesting, because it gave an insight into what students were thinking during lecture. A lecture mainly incorporates the audio and visual/spatial intelligences, as there is mainly a teacher talking and showing PowerPoint slides, and the students are either listening or copying down notes. Yet according to this artifact, it seemed that most of the class did not learn anything from those slides—the whole class had to go back in their notes and review what it was that they had actually copied down when they began their comic, which leads me to conclude that in those two days that I lectured on Gregor Mendel, students did not learn much because they were copying down the information but they weren’t absorbing what they were copying. This became very obvious when they would read aloud a sentence in their notes to me, and then ask me what that meant. If they didn’t understand the words that they were writing down, why didn’t they ask me about it?
This leads me to wonder how I can relay this information to them in a non-lecture style—is there a way to have them get it on their own and still learn it? Or, on the flip side, how can this lecture be modified so that students are absorbing what they are writing as they are writing it? When I use PowerPoint, I mainly have them copy down what is one the slide, and then I talk about what they just copied. Yet maybe that chain of events is not good for students, because according to the reflection, they did not absorb anything. Sometimes, I’ll switch up the lecture, and write down all the notes on the board along with them, which seems like it helps them understand more, when I’m doing it with them. Maybe this should be my future practice.
The other part of this that intrigued me was that when students had to go back over their notes and actually create something with them, they took the time to try and understand it. They either asked me what it meant, or they talked to their partners about what they meant. Another aspect of this was that they had to illustrate what they notes meant, which really made them think over the information, and try to analyze how to illustrate the concepts as well. This leads me to conclude that when students are forced to create something from their notes, they are more likely to absorb what it is their notes are telling them.
Relationship to Focus of Inquiry
This artifact demonstrates the intelligences used in both lecture and in an activity after the lecture. In lecture, the main intelligences that are being drawn on are the audio and the visual/spatial intelligences, as the information is being delivered verbally and visually (on the PowerPoint). In this sense, the only differentiation being used is that students are potentially getting the information in 2 different ways. Yet according to the artifact, there was not much student retention of the content material after the 2 days of lecture, judging by the fact that many students did not know what they were writing down. On the other hand, when the students were instructed to create a comic that basically had them re-write their notes with illustrations, they went back to their notes and tried to comprehend what they said, and then what they meant. After this process, I felt that more students comprehended what their notes meant, and what it was that Mendel did, thus leading me to conclude that differentiating instruction to include having students create something from their notes increases the level of comprehension at least in comparison to just copying down notes from a PowerPoint slide.
Dimensions of Teaching and Learning: Self as Learner and Teacher
I thought that creating a comic strip of Mendel and his Peas would have been easy for students, as they were basically just re-writing their notes, however it dawned on me that this was not as easy as I had expected because they did not understand what their notes meant in the first place. I had assumed that by writing notes down, they were absorbing what they were saying, because this is how I learn best, yet as it turns out, the students did not know what their notes were telling them. However, maybe the disconnect is that when I was in school, teachers did not use PowerPoints very much—most times they were talking about the material as they were writing down the notes on the board and we were copying them down. In this sense, the teacher both talking and wrote at the same time, which may have helped the notes stick in my head. On the other hand, when I have students take notes, they copy down the notes from the PowerPoint and then I talk about them, which means that the audio and visual senses are not stimulated at the same time, as they were when I was in school. Maybe I need to revert back to what my teachers did in order to get students to understand what they are taking notes on as they are taking notes.
Implications for Future Teaching
In the future, I will modify my lecture strategy so that I am writing down the notes as students are taking them, and only use the PowerPoint for visuals that I can’t draw. This way, students might be more likely to absorb the information as I’m going over it, instead of just copying it down like robots. Furthermore, I like the idea of having students create something from their notes, because this makes them go over what they just wrote down and comprehend what it means, which may increase their retention of the material for a bit longer than if they just had to write down the notes.