Курсовая работа: Independent work of students on practical employments

Another technique is for the teacher to select an educational objective from the "scope and sequence" curriculum guide and to pursue it for a stretch of days or weeks. The educational objective is displayed in the classroom and is referred to by the teacher as the unit or task underway.

Students benefit from seeing their progress. When handwriting exercises, spelling tests, creative writing, and math tests are saved in folders or notebooks, students can see their progress over time.

When a notebook containing new vocabulary words or a notebook containing new sight words is kept, students can review the words they have learned and see their progress.

3. Mastery: Is It Practical?

Mastery is the goal of all teaching. In a classroom there is a special problem: the students vary so much in knowledge and abilities that it is impractical to expect all students to master the material taught.

Even in first grade not every student masters the material for the grade. When it was common practice to "hold back" students, many students failed first grade. Although nowadays few students are held back in first grade, nevertheless not all students master the material for the grade.

As students grow older, the gap in knowledge and abilities among them widens, and getting all students to learn the basic materials for the grade or course becomes even more difficult than it was in the early grades.

Should teachers throw up their hands and give up on the slower learners? This is a mistake that some teachers make.

Slower learners respond to conscientious instruction. There are several strategies that teachers employ:

1) The teacher teaches a single student or a small group during class time or after school.

2) A faster student is assigned to help a slower student.

3) The teacher finds special instructional materials for slower students to work on independently either during school time or at home.

4) The teacher enlists the parents to teach the child at home using instructional materials supplied by the teacher.

5) When mastery is sought, as it should be, the importance of testing is readily apparent. With test results in hand, both teacher and student can see how well the student has learned, and plans for next steps can be made.

4. School Work: Do Students See It as Purposeful?

Can anyone argue with the idea that students should feel that their school work is meaningful/purposeful/ important? Everyone recognizes that they should see it that way. Nevertheless, it is commonplace in classrooms for students to work on assignments day after day just because the teacher says to. These students do not see the long-range purposes, such as these, provided as examples:

In first grade, learning sums to 12, recognizing a basic list of words, knowing the parts of our bodies, etc.

In fifth grade, learning meaningful long division with decimals, understanding the meaning of a paragraph, understanding the contributions of ancient Bactria and Khorezm to our culture, etc.

When students do not see their school work as meaningful/purposeful/important, they rely on the teacher to urge them to work. When they do see their school work as meaningful/purposeful/important, they are self-reliant - they learn for themselves.

What can a teacher do to make school work purposeful to students?

1) Talk up the goals and objectives of a course or unit of study or school subject at the beginning of the year and periodically as appropriate - before work is begun.

2) Let students know, through pre-testing and other means, what they don’t know so that, as they progress, they have a sense of learning and of having learned.

3) Keep folders of work completed so that they can see their progress.

Class instruction is the norm virtually everywhere, even though students vary enormously in their abilities and knowledge. Beginning reading is taught in kindergarten and first grade, long division with decimals is taught in fifth grade, Uzbekistan government and law is taught in ninth grade, and physics is taught in eleventh and twelfth grades.

Why is this so? Anyone who has taught a class knows the answer.

It is beyond the capacity of any one teacher to teach a whole class of students each at his or her own learning edge. Can you imagine teaching the intricacies of long division by decimals one student at a time?

Much important information would remain untaught if there were no standard curriculum grade by grade.

Many students benefit from learning in the company of other students - together they hold discussions, plan and present programs, etc.

However, there is still room for individuals' needs and interests. Advanced students are given extra projects and assignments, sometimes as a group, while slower students are given make-up assignments or are put on a separate track with their own workbook. Help is enlisted from home.

What about grades? No one has learned how to prevent slower children from comparing themselves unfavorably with advanced children. However, teachers don't have to reinforce these unfavorable comparisons by a harsh grading system. Parents (particularly, those of the most able children?) will probably always pressure schools to parcel out the A's and the F's, but teachers can soften this harsh system:

- Report home the results of standardized tests.