Maram+Al-Thumairi+(Fahad)

My Response Journal #1:

Hi,my name is Maram Fahad Al-Thumairi. I`m an Arabic Language/Culture teacher as well as a part time EAL teacher. I teach students from Grade two to Grade 10. I have a Bachelor`s degree in Education. And my major was English Language. I have lived my life and studied here in Saudi Arabia. Two years ago I had the chance to participate in creating the new Arabic Language and Culture curriculum. I had a wounderful and very beneficial experience. I believe that it helped me understand the curriculum more and to accomplish my goals faster. I expect to be able to have a full understanding of the process behind the curriculum planning and assessment. And that will help me systematize my own lesson planning and curriculum mapping through out the year in order to make the educational experience more constructive for my students.

My Response Journal #2:

Knowledge Alive: David Perkins believes that the knowledge art is a combination of facts, ideas and skills in addition to the ability to communicate those ideas strategically and creatively as well as to put the knowledge to work out in the “real world”. He summarizes knowledge in four “chapters”: creating it, communicating it, organizing it and finally acting on it. Perkins rated the four chapters in grades. He rated creating knowledge in schools with a D because most typical schools do not organize any inquiry-oriented projects. He also gave a D to acting on knowledge because school rarely ask students to apply what they studied outside it. I completely agree with him on that. I have been studying in conventional schools all my life and I witnessed the lack of applying knowledge outside the school’s building. Perkins suggests that teaching for understanding is one of the solutions. That means that teachers should go beyond the facts and try to figure out the reasons and the causes behind the facts with their students. I believe that this way can intrigue students and trigger their curiosity and that would lead to them to a deeper learning experience. That means that curriculum designers would have to establish a new curriculum based on the “teaching for understanding” designs that Perkins recommends.

Preparing for Today and Tomorrow:

In Eisner’s view, schools should work on preparing the students for the future by enabling them to deal successfully with the present. That means that in order for students to be proficient in their future lives they have to be able to be effective in their present one. In my experience, a lot of educators do not relate the curriculum they map with real life events that can create a practical learning skill that will benefit the students in the present as well as to prepare them for the future. For example, studying a cretin incident (like the establishment of Saudi Arabia and the Saudi national day) would include research for facts in the class room as well as going out there and investigating it by interviewing people. This will expand the communication and investigation skills that students need to be successful now and in the future. I think I will be able to practice Eisner’s aim more in my Culture classes and Language since they both demand real life contact and practice. I experienced the benefit of his aim closely since I started working in a school that adopted the IPC as an elementary curriculum, where we encourage the students to investigate more.

My Response Journal #3: I think that constructivism teaching energises curiosity in students which drives their eagerness to understand and learn more. From experience, the eager the students get the better they learn. Students tend to pay a lot of attention when they “want” to learn and making them take part of the learning process drives them to become skilled at any task given to them. It is really difficult to find any flaws in constructivism but educators have to keep in mind that the constructive way of learning has to be a well calculated technique and not just an arbitrary manner.

My Response Journal #4: **People learn what is personally meaningful to them.** Last year, my students had to learn about Arab and Muslim scientists and scholars. It was an obsolete subject and does not relate to their lives now. So I thought of taking a different approach to it and asked them to do a research about a scientist (in couples) and introduce the project as an interview that I will film for them. I gave them the freedom to have their own theme behind the interview and that got them interested enough to do a whole research on the scientist. My students are always challenged in the Arabic language part, I ask them to perform a conversation every week. But last year I challenged them more by asking them response in Arabic in a real live situation (in the market) where they had to use only Arabic and if they did not they will be asked to leave the shop. Teaching a language is always developmental. I begin with teaching the alphabet and phonics. Then reading and writing the letters. And during all that, they learn phrases and basic grammar instructions. Finally, students will be able to read, write, understand and speak the language. I often have different levels of Arabic speaking (or non- Arabic speaking) students in my class room. So I constantly try to teach the students in their own level individually or in groups. I use simple instructions to the beginners and more challenging ones to the already developing ones. In my culture classes, students frequently share the task of doing a project (in pairs or little groups). Group learning is also useful for me when I teach Arabic language. I use the form of contest to ignite the competitiveness in students. And then they lean to help each other more if they belong to the “same group” when I organize a contest. Students get daily assessments both verbally (in dialogue lessons) and written (through testing and daily quizzes). Usually that helps me to recognize where the weaknesses or strengths of each student are. My students are always involved in research projects where “they” can formulate their own idea’s and decide what is the best way to present it to the class. I believe in that very strongly. My students can act, perform or present in my classroom without being self conscious or feeling uneasy because I don’t tolerate any misconduct or demeaning attitude. So, they can present and be creative without hesitation. One of the best methods I used to teach students the Arabic alphabet (which considered really difficult) is playing a game where u have to remember and recite the letter quickly in order to move to the next level. It involves writing the letter really quickly on the white board as they hear it.
 * People will learn more when they accept challenging but achievable goals. **
 * Learning is developmental. **
 * Individuals learn differently. **
 * Much learning occurs through social interaction **
 * People need feedback to learn. **
 * Successful learning involves use of strategies-which themselves are learned. **
 * A positive emotional climate strengthens learning. **
 * Learning is influenced by the total environment. **

It is very clear to me that the first condition -people learn what is personally meaning to them- and the seventh one –Successful learning involves the use of strategies- are the very evident ones up till now.

My Response Journal #5: I believe that backward design is a great technique to provide all the necessary learning skills and facts in the desired amount of time. It is perfectly structured so the educator begins shaping the desired results first. That will present a particular idea of what students should know and learn. The educator in this case has the liberty to choose which section should have the central focus. The second step is to decide what the best approach to assess the wanted results of the learning process is and map it. Maintaining the focus on the section required. Last step is to produce the suitable learning activities that will help develop skills and gain knowledge in the chosen field. The 1st and 2nd steps will narrow the option of activities which will save time.  My Response Journal#6:   What behaviors do you associate with student understanding? I observe my students closely when we do group work and I noticed that many students help their classmates by explaining to them what we talked about in the class. Now I implement that as part of our daily task and have a few students come up and be teachers for the class. a nother behavior I noticed in my classes, is when students make connections between what we discuss in the classroom and what they see in their own personal lives. That let me now that they completely understood my subject of discussion enough to make it life related.   How do you distinguish between students "knowing" and "doing" versus understanding what they are studying? "Knowing" and "doing" can easily be assessed by tests,quizzes and activities but understanding needs to be ssesst by reflective communications and connections.
 * Justify the claim that the best lesson and unit designs are “backwards.”