On September 26th, I observed a Biology Class that I felt was overly didactic, followed by a weak attempt at “project based learning”.

1. She entered the room, and immediately started to instruct the children on their expectations. She not only gave verbal instructions on what needed to be complete by the end of class (three things), but she also proceeded to tell the students what she expected for the rest of the week (A lab needed to be finished, a worksheet that they started last class, and the “pogl” that they were to start that class. They could then study for the quiz that they would be having the next day, followed by the end of the chapter, a chapter review that would be done the day after, and therefor the chapter test the next class after that.) It was exhausting listening to, and I, as a student teacher not completing the course, felt overwhelmed by all the tasks to be complete.
2. The POGL: Project Oriented Guided Learning. It sounded promising to me, a project to end the unit. But, it looked a lot like a worksheet. I’t not 100% what made it a “project”, there were diagrams, and the goal was to answer questions about these diagrams.

The block was spent mostly working quietly, the students who understood well worked quickly, and others seemed less engaged. I think structured work is important, and I also think that it is great to give students a chance to complete work in class is great, but an 80 minute block, working on 3 different assignments seemed like a poor way to spend a class.

Throughout our course so far, we have been discussing the importances of honouring multiliteracies, using multimodal instruction, and learning by design to ensure deeper learning.  First, the biology class is structured as lectures to teach the material, a worksheet to enforce it, and a test to assess knowledge. This structure works well for some students, but not all. “Educators and policy-makers have begun to incorporate multimodal literacies into the curriculum for a variety of reasons, including to improve equity and meet the new learning needs of today’s adolescents” (Smith, 2017). Observing this class really enforced how important it is to incorporate different modalities and options for assignments. I was a little bored in class, and I am a adult. Adding some visuals, and option for a project at the end is a better way to honour different learning styles. As a someone with a degree in Biology, it didn’t seem right. Biology is so applicable to our lives, and we have learned that it is important to make course material relatable. “Situated practice suggests using students’ life experiences to create meaningful classroom activities within a community of learners” and “teaching critical framing guides students to derive their own meanings from classroom activities, which encourages them to think, understand, observe, interpret, negotiate, and apply their ideas in problem-solving (Biswas, 2014). Situated practice and critical framing in biology can enhance the level at which our students learn.

References:

Biswas, S., (2014). How to teach multiliteracies. Canadian Journal for teacher research. 1, 38-46

Smith, B.E., (2017) Composing across modes: a comparative analysis of adolescents’ multimodal composing processes. Learning, Media and Technology, 42:3, 259-278, DOI:10.1080/17439884.2016.1182924