3. Constructivist Classrooms

5. What is “Meaningful”?

6. Meaningful Significant, serious, important or useful quality or purpose- Webster Dictionary

7. Meaningful Victories

8. Reflection #1 In the context of your classroom, how would you know you achieved a meaningful victory?

9. Meaningful Victories “ Everyday that we as educators, stimulate and challenge our students to focus their minds on meaningful tasks, to think about important issues, and to construct new understandings of their worlds, we- and they- achieve a meaningful victory”. - Pg. 120

10. Librarian: Ava, you seem far away. Is anything wrong? Ava : Why do we have to spend so much time talking about this? Librarian: We’re talking about it so that you’ll understand better. I want you to learn about it Ava : We don’t have time to learn it. We have to get the assignment done. Mr. Smith is going to collect it. Meaningful Victories

11. Turn and Talk 1. What strategies can be used to alter Ava’s motivation? 2. How do you feel about Ava’s comments, do you think that this situation exemplifies the mindset of {some, majority, none} of your students? 3. Have your definition of a meaningful victory in the classroom changed? 3. Have your definition of a meaningful victory in the classroom changed?

12. “ Schools throughout america are filled with students like Ava, students who have been acculturated to devaluate thinking, to feel uneasy about in-depth analysis and to view anything other than the rapid coverage of the curriculum as a waste of time”- Pg. 120 Meaningful Victories

13. How do we obtain meaningful victories?

14. 1. School Reform “ Meaningful school reform must address the central unit of the entire enterprise, the classroom, and must seek to alter the ways teaching and learning have traditionally been thought to interact in that unit” - Pg. 120

15. 2. Bold Change A. Structure preservice and inservice teacher education around contructivist principles and teacher B. Jettison most standardized testing and make assessment meaningful for students. C.Focus resources on teachers’ professional development than on textbooks on workbooks. D. Eliminate letter and number grades E. Form school-based study groups focused on human development principles F. Require annual seminars on teaching and learning for administrators and school board members

18. C. Focus resources on more on teachers’ professional development than on textbooks and workbooks “ Well educated and supported, teachers are mediators between students and the environment as students come to understand complex concepts... structure the environment and set the intellectual and social tone for the classroom. Ill-educated and unsupported , teachers merely disseminate information and distribute supplies in a fixed curriculum” “ Fitting the curriculum to the child”

20. E. Form school-based study groups focused on human development principles “ To create schools that recognize, value, and respond to the cognitive, social and emotional needs of students, educators need to carefully study those factors in the context of their own settings on an ongoing basis”

21. F. Require annual seminars on teaching and learning for administrators and school board members Administrators as the observer

22. 3. New Image New norms need to be established “ A new set of images, reflective of new practices, is needed- images that portray the student as a thinker, a creator , and a constructor.”