R#3

R #3

William James suggested teachers join uninteresting information a child must learn to an interesting topic. James stressed the importance of classroom teachers to keep in touch with the interests of their students. James pointed out items dealing with blood, living things or dangers are objects natively interesting to children.  Silly bands are popular among many children today. Children purchase them, trade them and in a since, create an economy of silly bands. A teacher could connect a lesson about supply and demand to silly bands. The teacher might ask a child, "Why did you trade four monkey silly bands for one glow in the dark unicorn silly band?" The child might respond, using his own language, the difficulty of obtaining the unicorn over the monkeys. The silly band question provides a level of interest to the child, capturing their stream of consciousness and allowing for the connection to the idea of supply and demand.

James makes an excellent point discussing the role passion or motivation plays in learning.  He remarks that a person passionate about a subject can get better results than another who is less passionate but more attentive. As a parent, I made a connection to video gaming and children.  Children are passionate about gaming and work consistently within a particular level to beat it.  I did not see this determination to conquer long division.  James’s statement adds light to this idea, “The prescription is that the subject must be made to show new aspects of itself, to prompt new questions; in a word, to change” (p. 82). Video games change frequently.  Animation, music and difficult challenges draw a child into virtual world.  Teaching long division does not lend itself to excitement.  A teacher need to connect long division to something of interest to a child and change the pace of the lesson or questions asked to maintain a child’s attention. Within the 5 E Model of instruction, the ideas of interest and attention represent the engagement phase of instruction.

As I read James’s thoughts on memory, I agreed with the relationship between a good memory and the forming of diverse and multiple associations.  James points out the importance of thinking over your experiences and making connections in your mind.  In what ways do classroom teachers provide the opportunity for students to think deeply?  When faced with the mass amount of content to cover in a short amount of time, teachers fall into the trap of cramming information.  I believe additional techniques assist with the retention of information and the ability to recall it, including chunking and presentation of material.