“We can see the variability. And because we can see it, we design for it.
Rose, 2012
And when we design for it, we end up being able to recognize talent that
would have otherwise gone unnoticed.”
Prezi: https://prezi.com/view/yhyHFbBCB2tFSDeYu9GP/
Being an expert learner to me means to do a task very well and with minimal errors. After going over this week’s numerous resources it taught me that being an expert learner is an ongoing process of practice, adjustment, and refinement. We must have purpose and motivation of why we’re learning, we must have resources and knowledge, and we must be strategic and goal oriented. There are various ways to show learner variation, such as the Rubik’s Cube example from Todd Rose’s video on Variability Matters. I found many variations of the Rubi’s cube online that supports different participants. Prior to this week, I thought you must be gifted to complete a Rubik’s Cube, and a genius to compete and win like Feliks Zemdegs (Meyer, Rose, & Gordon, 2014). It takes the process of expertise of practice, adjustment, and refinement to be an expert learner.
In my classroom of preschool students, we focus on literacy skills throughout the day and through play plan. My students are provided with various ways of representation with the use of physical items, visual and language support. My students also engage in literacy through our morning message of the day; I come up with a message related to our current study and draw a picture and write a message. On the picture on the presentation, students were able to engage to draw parts of the picture and write words and letters they know, such as “to,” and “p.”
To enhance their literacy skills, my students play plan in their individual journals. Similar to that of the morning message, play planning is based on their zone of proximal development (ZPD), students are able to draw, say what they will do in centers, write one word for each line, and use initial sounds to write their message. I support where scaffolding is needed, and that varies on every student. Part of learning to play plan is letter recognition and fine motor skills. To support various learners, I have used sand to practice writing letters and support motor skills and hand-to-eye coordination. I have also used tiles for letter recognition in their names. These are a few ways I support learner variability to engage my students in learning. When students are engaged in their environment it intrigues their affective, recognition, and strategic primary networks in their brain (Meyer, Rose, & Gordon, 2014). This allows my students to engage in activities, perceive information and translate knowledge to create new schemas; and supports to organize and engage through actions in their environment, such as recognizing the letter “s” at the stop sign.
I hope you enjoy the presentation, I’m new to Prezi, so it was a challenge but was satisfied with the process, the more I edited I navigated the site with ease; using the expert learner strategies, I conquered (semi) prezi. Feel free to reach out with questions and cannot wait to read your comments!
Ivonne
Ivonne's Blog 
Looks like you’re ahead of the game —great! I however cannot see this on your blog or open it??
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Hi Professor Smith,
I pressed published before I was ready by accident. But I have updated the blog. Thank you, and sorry for any confusion.
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Ivonne,
I like you stepped into the word of Prezi this week. You did a great job, and I’m trying to be as positive about the experience as you are. I am embarrassed about the results of my attempt. I found it highly frustrating to complete. I feel like now I have first hand experience of how frustrated my student’s must feel as they tackle the written word every day in their lives. For me the experience of making a Prezi highlighted that not every task is something that I am going to be proficient with. Learning the nuances of the system, gaining knowledge of the system, building upon prior knowledge as I created it. I honestly felt myself going through many of the qualities listed in our text.
As Rose, Myer, and Gordon (2014) relate ” Everyone can become an expert learner because everyone can develop the motivation, the practice, the reflection, the self-efficacy, the self-regulation, the self-determination, the executive functioning, the comprehension, and the situational awareness that help to make experts what they are” (p.22). As I worked through the Prezi, I had motivation to step outside my comfort zone. I practiced creating the Prezi, and I created each slide it did get easier. I comprehended the subject matter, however I am not sure the a Prezi is the best manner for me to express that. I also had the self-efficacy the self=determination. I struggled in the arena of executive functioning. I found myself unable to manage my resources. My internet was slow. I had a lot of difficulty maintaining my frustration as I created the Prezi. I am not a fiddler, I do not like editing. Perhaps its related to my fine motor issues, but the resizing of text boxes added another layer of frustration for me.
I could feel the strategic networks within my system being stressed. I had a plan for what I wanted to do. I tried to execute the plan, however my motor cortex found difficulties with the appendages it was sending signals to. I felt the true disparity. This exercise truly showed the weaknesses I have.
I really enjoyed your Prezi. You created a very succinct product, that was enjoyable to view. I appreciate the ways in which you encourage interaction with the development of letter recognition and writing. For many students, there is a struggle of letter recognition with different mediums. I found the one picture you included intriguing. The child that was using the letter tiles to create their name. The child had the first and last letters with missing letters in between. It was evident that the child was reaching for more letters, as she or he knew more needed to be added to her name. The activity within itself called for so many systems to be fired on.
Thanks for sharing,
Jeannine
References:
Rose, D. H., Meyer, A., & Gordon, D. (2014). Universal design for learning: theory and practice. Wakefield, MA: Cast Professional Publishing.
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Hi Jeannine,
Thank you for your compliments, it came at a cost–I spent at least 3-4 days figuring out Prezi, it was frustrating. I had to start over several times because I knew what I wanted to write, but I was overwhelmed with the information from this week that I had a hard time putting into a presentation. All I wanted to say was too much, so I had to manage work through it, but it was hard. Also, I am with you, I feel as though writing is a better outlet for me to express myself. Although I enjoyed Prezi, it had a lot of limitations, it really takes practice and trial and error to figure out what each feature does on Prezi. Regarding our content, it was hard for me to visually put it all together and connect. It felt like a big project and I am more used to writing to express my learning. Interestingly enough, I like learning with audio and visuals, though as I present express to the class, I find it best to write. We are growing to become expert teachers too, and we have a growing mindset as we’re in this class learning.
Regards to the picture with the letter tiles, it was an ELL student with limited language, and still working on letter recognition. I ended up supporting this student for the middle letters U and C as if you flip them in the eyes of a 3/4 year old they can be similar. This activity also required identifying letters in large fields. One way I supported this student was to isolate 4 letters right side up. Quickly, the student was able to identify the letters. But without the support number of field of tiles made it difficult for this student to find the letters in her name. With a minimal field she was able to complete the activity. The next step was to mix the letters of her name on the board to see how many letters she would be able to put in order (without the visual support of her name), and reintroduce her name card if she needed support.
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Ivonne – Well done and I can see you have quite a creative side! Nice job in learning how to use Prezi. You also isolated the key point across your presentation and supported these with core components from the readings. I love the personal examples from your classroom and yes, these are right in line with the information you explored in this week’s materials!!
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Hi Professor Smith,
Thank you for the compliments, Prezi was a challenge; it took me several days to figure it out and manage what I wanted to add to it. This week had great information, it caught my interests and loved the explanations. Personally it made me feel better to learn about learner variability in depth. From my first week I shared I was an ELL student, seeing the variability has helped me support my students be contempt that I needed variability in learning English. I love to seem my students excitement for learning when I provide variability to their learning and seeing the moment they understand things, it’s amazing.
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Ivonne, I loved your Prezi and how interactive it is! You posed questions and engaged the viewer to actively learn the material you were presenting. Great job!
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Hi Monica,
Thank you, I wanted to make sure we were able to relate to learner variability and how some things seem difficult for some of us that we think we do not have that ability. However being able to share strategies to support becoming an expert learner can help us feel like we can achieve what we perceive as impossible and to support our students in their times when they need variability in learning.
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