Initiating Students to New Learning

1
Initiating Students to New Learning

• Ideas for Today and Tomorrow
• By Kristina Cary
• May 2003

2
How can teachers initiate students to new
learning?

3
Captivate Students Interest and Motivate

• Explain- What will be taught and how the topic of
  study relates to the students. This will
  motivate students to want to study topic.
• Participation- Allow students to voice their
  opinions and ask questions. Make students feel
  needed and keep their interest.
• Visual Aids- Show the students objectives for the
  new unit that they will be studying. This will
  help them develop a mental framework that will
  motivate them and help them remember.
• Teach Inductively- Present examples of topic, and
  ask students to make sense of them, to generalize
  them, and draw their own conclusions. This will
  help a teacher captivate and maintain students
  interest.
• Satisfy students needs- Primary method of
  keeping students interested and motivated. Give
  students choices and introduce new learning with
  fun activities.

4
Sports and MotivationMost unmotivated students
have plenty of motivation for playing a sport.
What is motivating about a sport?

• The following suggestions will motivate students
  to work hard and do well in the classroom just as
  they do when playing sports
• Teamwork- Students learn better if they can teach
  each other.
• Fun- Learning can be fun, and it should be.
• Enjoyment of Success- Set goals that students can
  strive to accomplish.
• Active- Require both mental and physical
  activity.
• Flexibility and Creatively- Let students make
  their own choices.
• Tangible Thinking- Connect ideas, concepts, and
  examples.

5
Activate and Build Prior Knowledge

• Students generally fall into three categories,
  much, some, or little prior knowledge.
  Therefore, teachers may choose to use the
  following activities to observe what prior
  knowledge exists for each student about a new
  topic, idea, or concept.
• Brainstorm- Have students tell you what they know
  about the new topic.
• Ask questions- Be general and specific. See what
  responses are given.
• Post a problem or a scenario- Use their answers
  or solutions to find out what students know about
  the presented topic.

6
Use Organizers to Initiate New Learning

• Examples of introduction organizers to use
  when initiating a new unit
• This is an example of a Spider Map.
  This is an example of a Continuum Scale.
• Used to describe central ideas.
  Used for timelines, shades of meaning,
• Key Frame Questions
  or ratings scale.
• What is the central idea? What are its
  Key Frame Questions
• Attributes?
  What is being scaled?
• 
  What are the end points?

7
Use Anticipation Guides to Initiate New Learning

• 1. Write some statements concerning the main
  topic about which students
• will be reading. Include some statements
  that are common misconceptions
• that many children will think are true, and
  some statements that are so silly and ridiculous
  that students will know they are not true.
  Stack the deck so that there are many more
  correct statements than incorrect ones.
• 2. Read each statement with students and talk
  about what it means.
• Emphasize names and key vocabulary.
• 3. Have students write yes or no for each
  statement. Encourage
• risk-taking and guessing by saying something
  like, You have a 50-50
• chance. Take a guess!
• 4. After students read the selection, go through
  each statement and have
• students indicate whether or not it is true.
  When there is a disagreement, refer students back
  to the text and let them explain their reasoning.
• 5. If possible, have students help you reword
  false statements to make
• them true.

8
KWL Charts Initiate Students to New LearningKWL
charts help students categorize what they know,
what they want to know, and what they have
learned.   Listed below are directions of how to
create A KWL Chart

• 1. Before beginning the chart, lead a
  general discussion about thechildrens
  experience with the topic.
• 2. After the general discussion, ask students
  what they know about the topic. List the facts.
• 3. If children disagree, turn the fact into a
  question, and put it inthe Want column.
• 4. When you have recorded all the facts that
  the children know about the topic in the Know
  column, show the students what they will read,
  and ask them to come up with questions they think
  that text will answer.

• 5. After reading, begin with the questions
  first, and add answers to the Learned column.
  Then, add other important facts.
• 6. If students are going to continue reading
  about the topic for anotherday, ask them if what
  they have read so far has helped them think of
  anyother questions that might be answered in the
  remaining part of the text. Add these questions
  to the Want Column.

9
Web Quests Make New Learning Fun

• A Web Quest is an inquiry-oriented activity
  in which most or all of the information used by
  learners is drawn from the Web. Web Quests are
  designed to use learners' time well, to focus on
  using information and to support learners'
  thinking at the levels of analysis, synthesis,
  and evaluation. Web Quests assignments are
  exciting and fun, and they help initiate student
  learning. They also help students with the
  following areas of learning
• Comparing
• Classifying
• Inducing
• Deducing
• Analyzing errors
  
• Constructing support
• Abstraction
• Analyzing perspective

10
Remember to always introduce a new topic in a FUN
and EXCITING manner

• Go to this website, http//www.education-world.com
  /, and discover the many exciting methods and
  examples of introducing new topics to students.