In my classroom this week I decided to take note to how my mentor teacher created third space, or the fusing of primary and secondary spaces. In other words, bridging the gap between school environments and social environments. There are many uncovered questions that educators have to face to unhinge the self produced iron bars of the classroom. There may be safety there, however to create a natural learning environment for students, one must learn how to both incorporate secondary spaces in the classroom, and primary spaces outside the classroom.
This is often much easier said then done. But, to make memorable learning experiences that are useful and relevant to students everyday lives is vital to impressionable and continual learning.
I am disappointed to report that I did not see any third spaces in my experiences these last two weeks. The two classes I observed were practicing grammar skills. They had packets that had questions similar to those on the ACT. There has to be a way to make this content more relevant to students lives either through an activity, or creating secondary contexts.
There are a lot of football players in this class. So, I was thinking of creating a game that incorporated the rules of football, and grammar. This would make it more relevant to the students and...it may just be fun.
Making material relevant to students is very important and can be a motivating factor in order for them to learn. I think it is a great idea to connect a lesson to football because many of the students will be able to connect this to their outside lives. Maybe you could some how connect completing the right structure of a sentence grammatically is like scoring a touchdown, while each correct piece of the sentence leading up is a first down. This could really get students to start thinking and make grammar easier to understand for some. The general idea of getting to know your students in and out of the classroom is crucial to be able to not only design instruction, but to have positive interactions with them during class. Maybe a good idea before you teach your lesson could be to do a exit slip to see the students hobbies and interests outside of class. This could allow you to get a general idea in order to make adjustments to your lesson to implement third space during your teach.
ReplyDeleteThe idea of 3rd space is amazing. Relating content to the students lives is important in gaining and keeping their attention. This could be as simple as using IPad's in the classroom or letting them use their smartphones just to give them something new to use in the classroom. I like your idea of trying to use the rules of football to work on grammar. I have had teachers in the past use sports as a way to bridge the gap between home and school. For example, in accounting when the NCAA basketball tournement comes around in March we can do a project involving stats/wins and different teams/players. This is having them keep up on something they are interested in and look at updates on their phones anyway. Why not use it to your advantage as a teacher and apply it to the classroom? These types of activities make learning fun and they are willing to do the work for these types of assignments. Great pictures and its good that you want to implement the idea of 3rd space in the classroom. If we don't have a way to relate the material to the students they won't learn and we can't teach.
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