Its funny how easily we forget what it was like to learn something for the first time. The misunderstood minds activity helped me to remember what its like to see something and experience all of the trials and tribulations of learning something you haven't mastered yet.
Obviously now that I am older and more educated I can look at the activities posted and use another tool I have learned throughout my education to help me decipher what is the best way for me personally to solve each problem. However, it truly showed me how difficult topics can be to a student who is learning them for the first time.
Going through each of the topics activities I found that I was more successful in some areas than others. This made sense because these also happen to be the topics that I am strong in still to this day. The attention activity to me was the most educational. I can see how as a student I suffered from too much attention or being slightly "insatiable". I have always been someone who fidgets in my seat but it was never too much of a distraction for me personally. The reading with distractions activity was seemingly impossible to complete. You don't realize how overstimulated a child can be. This opened my eyes to both ends of the spectrum with attention, either the child can have too much or too little and you need to find a way to accommodate for both.
Reading was another area that was fascinating. Trying to decode what each letter and sound was was extremely time consuming and confusing. Also, recalling what I had read after seemed out of the question. Writing was similar for me. Trying to put ideas in a sequence after they were so jumbled in the directions made the presentation very hard to follow.
Lastly was the math portion. I can see how using a table to recall basic facts could be helpful to a first time learner, but I found that it actually made it more difficult for me personally. The spatial piece was interesting too. Trying to understand how shapes fit into or form different shapes with no real hands on experience is very difficult to do even for me at this age. The sequence activity was difficult as well. There were numerous steps to take to find the right answer and it would be easy to get lost along the way. Not to mention that if you mess up on one step it will alter your entire answer to be incorrect.
I felt very similar on the Misunderstood Minds activities as you did. The experience felt like we were learning something for the first time again. It made me feel as if I did not have all the skills I needed to master or complete the activity. Between the reading, writing, and math activities it was hard to feel successful with every activity. Not everyone is skilled in every subject. I like how you mentioned that some of the activities were over stimulating and can be difficult to accommodate all children. For any student to complete the activities at hand, I think they should be given resources and tools to supplement the task. This way each student has a better chance at being successful. I like how you related all the activities to your learning and prior knowledge of being in school. Nice job!
ReplyDeleteJanelle, I also liked your reflection on what it is like to learn something for the first time. I think that is something we often forget about. I am glad that this activity gave you so much to reflect on.
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