Principles of Teaching and Learning

This was a very interesting article, and made me reflect on not only how I present my lessons, but on my students as people.  The first part of the article "Students' prior knowledge can help or hinder their learning" made me reflect on what my students learn in their personal lives and how their personal lives influence their performance in the classroom.  Quite a few of our students in Winter are from lower income families where they aren't exposed to the life experiences that you would expect a middle school student to have,  In reading this article, I was made aware that in creating my lesson plans I need to be more cognizant of the lives that my students live.  For example, I recently taught a unit on maps.  I take for granted that my students have traveled throughout Northern Wisconsin  and are aware of the location of some of the towns and counties that surround us.  I was surprised when a few of the students didn't possess the knowledge of how far it was to our county seat, Hayward.  Since Winter is a very small town, most of the families have to travel to Hayward or Ladysmith to buy just about everything.  I read this article shortly after I taught my map lesson.  After reading the article, I rewrote my lesson, taking time to familiarize the students with the area, and making sure that all the students had the basic knowledge they needed in  order to succeed with the lesson.  I changed the lesson a little in order for the delivery to be a bit different, and retaught it.  I was surprised at the success that ALL my students had.  I learned a valuable lesson - I need to keep my students' life experiences, or lack of, in the front when creating my lessons.  By doing that, I can help my students not only understand what is being taught, but to have success with the assignments that are given.