Reflections Week 7
1. How can I summarize this reading in a few sentences?
Imagery is something we use all the time. I can see how both the analog and propositional code fit into the whole picture, but I would lean more towards the analog theory. There are several things that can affect our imagery – size, shape, and rotation. Visual imagery can interfere with visual perception. Cognitive maps are representations of the world around us and can be influenced by intervening objects, semantic categories, and landmarks. Things such as symmetry heuristics, rotation heuristics, and alignment heuristics also influence our cognitive maps.
2. How does it fit into what I have learned already in this course?
Right off the bat, the text talks about imagery being a top-down processing skill which refers back to chapter 1. This chapter tied in perception to this chapter. I also like how the author continually tells us how the themes of the book are tied into the current chapter we are reading.
3. What am I still not clear on?
I really didn’t understand what they meant by the masking effect when they were talking about it in relation to demand characteristics.
4. How would apply this to my own teaching/work?
I think it is important to imbed imagery and hands-on activities into my teaching. By adding the hands-on part, different parts of the brain are activated, making learning more all-encompassing.
5. What proof does the author offer that makes me believe this is valid? Do I believe it? Why?
The heuristic material was pretty convincing to me , not only because of the research but also because every demonstration that they had us do, I failed. I definitely have rotation and alignment heuristics.
6. Why is this important? What does it help improve or explain or predict?
The whole visual interference idea has me looking at things with a whole new perspective. As I mentioned in response to my discussion question, I think this might be part of the reason children cannot get punctuation in paragraphs. You know the old saying, “You can see the forest because of the trees.” I think that is what is happening many times in classroom lessons. We have children concentrating so hard on one little part of a concept that they miss the whole big picture. Or we have them concentrating on the big picture and they miss the little details. This tells me as a teacher that I need to break things down and build them up. I need to show the big picture and the little details. I also need to tell how they all relate to each other.
7. When would I actually use this – under what kind of circumstances and for what kind of students?
For instance, thinking about paragraph writing, I could first have the students write down their ideas and not really worry about the mechanics of the paragraph. Then I would have them trade papers and have another student put in the mechanics (because they wouldn’t be concentrating on generating the ideas).
8. Are there other ways to accomplish the same thing that are faster, cheaper, and/or better?
I am just wondering if using more imagery would make learning faster. Since it seems that imagery is such an integral part of our learning, it would make sense to use imagery in our teaching more often. I know the elementary levels use lots of imagery, but once students reach middle or high school, imagery is not used as often.
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It sure does seem logical that using imagery would be much more beneficial to all students no matter what the age. It is pretty sad when you think of it. Just because students are older we sometimes forget how helpful some of these strategies are to the learning and retrieval process. After all, we are expecting them to learn difficult material and apply things more to real life situations and events.
ReplyDeleteI also like your idea of editing the paragraphs by switching and letting another student add punctuation. It reminded me of a four block technique called "Who Took Our Caps." You show the students a passage they are familiar with like something from their reader, and dispaly it with no punctuation or capital letters. They try to edit the passage and then compare it with the original. I tried a variation of this combined with your idea today. I thought it might help the writer to hear their own writing being read to them. After a couple of groups reported they were finished, I read the first sentence of one paper and still found two mistakes. I think it was a good learning experience and it is something I will continue to do. Thanks for your idea!
I love your idea of having students switch papers after one student finishes their writing ideas, another is responsible for the grammar. I think that this would limit interference. I teach third grade and we write 5 paragraph expository essays and this is extremely difficult for 8-9 year olds. Between getting their thoughts organized, putting it on paper in a specific format, and grammar it is just to must going on. They typically loose the mechanics that they have been practicing since first grade because they are concentrating on the organization of the paragraphs. Great Idea!
ReplyDeleteHey Jill, I like what you said on your example in #7. That ideas makes extremely wise sense. I have never used that in what little writing i have done with my students. I will have to definitely work that one in out next writing exercise. So I backup what warnecke says on this one as well. Thanks, JJ
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