Affinity Spaces

1. A community practice that I am currently engaged in is within the 75 hour clinical. Through these classes and the classroom experiences I am learning how to become a better teacher.

2. The author suggests to look at community in terms of space because you can see the extent to which the people of the community interact. To think of a group of people, it is often thought that they share the same views and feelings. However, this is generally not the case. Therefore it is better to think of community as a space rather than a group.

3. A generator is what the space is "about" Its counterpart in school would be the content being taught.

4. A content organizer is how content is designed or organized. In school this would be the lesson plans created by the teacher.

5. A portal is how we gain access to content and to the interactions related to the content. In school we can relate this to books, internet, whole group or small group discussions, etc.

6. People have an affinity for what they can relate to or what they are interested in. This informs me of good teaching because you need to know what your students interests are. Knowing this will help the teacher develop lesson plans that foster meaningful learning.

7. Affinity spaces support inclusive classrooms because:

• having a sense of community is created when students can feel that they are not discriminated against for their interactions within the space
• a common vision is often found in inclusive classrooms and affinity spaces.

8. In traditional classrooms students are often separated by academic level and other factors. In affinity spaces, students are  interacting with each other and other tools so that learning is occurring in a meaningful way.

Learning and Gaming

1.) The main argument that the author is making in chapter five is that there is a relationship between learning (well-created) video games and academic learning.

2.) Gee refers to "patterns and principles" that make a theory of learning. He says, "Learning is not infinitely variable and there are patterns and principles to be discovered-patterns and principles that ultimately constitute a theory of learning. Indeed, what I am offering her is a case study meant to offer suggestions for a theory of how deep learning works".

3.) The author struggled to learn how to play Warcraft !!! because he didn't interact with it in a way that the game was designed for. In his own words he says, "...Failed to engage the good learning principles that are built into the games". What needs to happen before good learning principles is the "motivation for an extended engagement with the game".

4.) The authors' struggle to learn the game can be compared to a struggling learner in school. In a school setting, his struggle would have been interpreted as failure.

5.) "Horizontal" learning might be a better way to approach at risk students. This strategy implies that leaning experiences do not progress up or down but stay on level for an ample amount of time. Not until exploring the concept will the students' learning progress onward.

6.) The schools' interpretation of "at risk" only leads to a "dumbed-down" curriculum. It is basically interpreted by the student as not having faith in their potential to learn. Therefore, this leads to a bad experience for them.

7.) In order for schools to function more like a good game, they need to implement lessons that encourage students to take on identities in another "world". Students can then see and think like the "character" they are playing to see the concept in new ways.

8.) In the school system, students are assessed by taking tests, quizzes, presentations, etc. The teacher then assigns them a grade by looking at how they think the learner should handle the problem. Games on the other hand allow the student to do a self assessment and then decide on how they want to proceed in the game.

9.) A fish tank tutorial is one that (when finished) is a simplified version of information that can bring out "basic and important relationships". Information is given at crucial times and is shown to meet all learning style needs (visually, linguistically, and orally). Schools however don't give much verbal information up front, but are expected to remember it when needed in the future.

10.) A sand box tutorial allows the player to explore and have "free roam" with the game at your own pace. However, the game doesn't allow anything "bad to happen" because it offers hints and explanations. This is effective because it puts the player/student "in the game" but they can't lose without giving a good effort. Duirng school based learning students can fail because they don't want to explore or take risks because they could fail.

11.) Genre refers to a specific type of something. For example there are different types of books and music. It is crucial for good learning because students need to know what "type of thing they are being asked to learn and do". Learners also need to experience this in action and not just be given a set of rules.

12.) Gee says, "For humans, real learning is always associated with pleasure and is ultimately a form of play-a principle almost always dismissed by schools". Learning and gaming also have the sense of "pleasurable frustration" when succeeding.

13.) The skills tests in games are developmental whereas the skills tests in school are evaluated by authority figures.

14.) RoN supports collaborative learning by providing websites and online groups where learners can share their experiences and knowledge with peers.

15.)

•  Dewey: They allow learners to practice enough so that they routinize their skills and then challenge them with new problems that force them to re-think these taken-for-granted skills and integrate them with new ones. 
• Vygotsky:  They offer supervised fish tank tutorials. (simplified versions of the real system)
• Piaget: They let learners create their own unsupervised sandboxes
• Gardner: They give information via several different modes.
• Bandura: They ensure that the learners have and use an affinity space wherein they can interact with peers and masters.
• Skinner:They allow learners to practice enough so that they routinize their skills and then challenge them with new problems that force them to re-think these taken-for-granted skills and integrate them with new ones.

Fostering High Quality Formative Assessent

1. Formative assessments are informal or formal  assessments that occur during the learning process.

2. The purpose of formative assessments are to provide feedback to the teacher of student achievement. This will help the teacher modify and re-teach lessons if needed.

3.A best practice in formative assessment can be linked to summarizing as well as advanced organizers. When students make an organizer they are creating and summarizing the content of a subject into one area. This allows the teacher to see what they student know and what they need to work on.

4. You can use a rubric or formative and summative assessment. Students can look at the description and know what is expected. You can also calculate a grade from the point values.

5. Each morning the students have an activity to complete before their day starts. The activity is usually a worksheet that reflects a concept they were taught the day before. If the teacher sees that the students did well she uses it as a summative assessment. If they still need some work, she provides feedback and allows them to re-do the assignment.

6. For formative assessment to be effective the teacher needs to provide feedback in a timely manner so that students stay motivated with their work.

7. Two advantages of formative assessment are:

• teachers are better aware of student achievement
• students are aware of their work success

8. Some challenges are:

• teachers do not know how to implement high quality formative assessment
• this type of assessment isn't supported by those outside of the classroom

Simulations and Bodies

1. When the author says " Learning does not work well when learners are forced to check their bodies at the school room door like guns in the old West", I interpret this as him saying that many classrooms expect students to only bring themselves to class. When students enter the room, they should be able to bring not only themselves but their experiences as well. Gee says When people learn something as a cultural process their bodies are involved because cultural learning always involves having experiences that facilitate learning, not just memorizing words" (Gee,____). Lessons should be hands-on and incorporate the "funds of knowledge" that a student has.

2. The best way to acquire a large vocabulary is having experience with words. Reading books and then engaging in conversation opens the door to a world of new experiences.

3. The meaning of a word depends on the context in which it is being used. For example, the author uses : "Joe is really working the system", "Relationships take work", "I managed to work my point in". All three sentences present a different definition of work.

4.

a. My sister broke up with her fiance, so I'm off the hook for buying her a wedding present.

• In this sentence "off the hook" means that the sister no longer has to buy a gift.
  

b. Them shoes are off the hook dog.

• Here, "off the hook"  means that "those shoes are awesome!".
  

c. Man that cat was fighting 6 people and he beat them all. Yo, it was "off the hook", you should have seen it!!

• In this instance, "off the hook" is standing for crazy/insane/amazing.

5. In the author's opinion, a child's work is play. I agree with Gee because it is through play that children gain experiences that they can bring to the classroom and foster meaningful learning.

6. By not reading the directions, students are gaining a better understanding of the task that is before them. They are able to think at a critical level and refer or relate back to the concept when needed.

 

7. Knowing the literal meaning of a word basically leads to a dead end. By only knowing this meaning students can not relate the information to other concepts.

8. When the author refers to the terms "games" and "identity" he is meaning that there is a role to take on in being noticed as a reader or other "identities".

• Being a teacher requires me to act professional.
• As a finance I am to be loving and supportive.
• As an aunt I am funny, loving, and caring. 

9. Good learning is being able to take on the roles that different identities requires. 

10. This completely supports my view of teaching because I believe that meaningful learning is made by having hands-on, real world experiences.

 

11. Peer to peer interaction is important for children's language experience because they get to interact with each other and engage in conversation to create experiences.