sparta

After reading this tale of two classrooms I could not help wondering if and how many teachers will become more like Mrs Reed in the future. Her approach to teaching is totally different to the traditional, didactic, instructivist teaching methods, I am sure we are all familiar with. Inviting guest-speakers to share their own personal stories is a great way to get the students interested as they can see the connection of whatever the topic we want to teach with real life is. Getting the students to plan and design the multimedia presentation is a clever and certain way to engage them in meaningful learning. Mrs Reed allowed the students choices to suit their own individual learning styles, provided different levels of scaffolding and support. Applying this approach to the extend that Mrs Reed did, in a language classroom, I think, is probably unrealistic mostly due to lack of time ;we normally have 2 teaching periods a week, which is simply not enough. However, by reading this article teachers (including myself) can get a lot of practical ideas they can use, by tailoring them to their own circumstances, to the students’ and their own benefit. This article is definitely worth to read and get inspired by!

Attribution:photo be steev-o