MeaningfulEngagedLearning

=Meaningful Engaged Learning (MEL)=

Research
Below are resources to read or to watch. Some are digital, some are not. Any with an asterisk are required for you to use. Otherwise, select 3 or more to read/view/absorb. Additionally, using appropriate college-level research skills, you must find a resource not on this list that gives you additional insights to this topic. A professional interview with an expert-in-the-field is an appropriate resource. (3 of mine and 1 of yours is the required minimum...feel free to use more resources...see me if you want to substitute some of yours for mine.) What aspect of the Meaningful Engaged Learning Model would you like to know more about? Your additional research could be on that. Do you disagree with "avoid rewards" or another aspect of MEL? Your additional research could be on studies/theories that counter what Mike Muir has in his model.
 * *Original article on Meaningful Engaged Learning (MEL) by Mike Muir
 * *View your classmates' presentations on MEL
 * [|Richard Curwin's thoughts] on believing in students (which part of MEL is he describing?)
 * Sara Briggs' (at OpenED) suggestions on [|25 ways to cultivate intrinsic motivation] (finding resources on any of the research she references would be appropriate for a personal resource on this topic)

Reflect
Create a reflection (write/record/document) in your personal digital classroom management kit that captures your reflections on your research. It should be apparent from your documentation that you actually took in information from the 4 sources, i.e. don't just list the book you read or the video you watched, but include some actual information from the resource. In your reflection you can agree and/or disagree with the author/creator(s) of each resource. Be sure to include your blog entry (either a link or copy the original text) with your personal MEL experiences.

Resolve -- Proactive
Now that you have this information on this classroom management topic, what are you going to do with it? How will you apply it to how you want to manage your classroom? Describe one or more proactive approaches related to this topic that you hope to incorporate into your classroom management.

Resolve -- Reactive
Now that you have this information on this classroom management topic, what are you going to do with it? Even though you have a great proactive approach to dealing with this topic, there will come the day when the unexpected situation will arise. Using the given scenario or creating one of your own, describe one or more reactive approaches you might take. Be sure to document how/why you know this is an effective reactive technique (i.e., cite one or more of your research sources).

Scenario

 * MEL encourages teachers to encourage intrinsic motivation instead of extrinsic motivation. What will you do when you get a room full of students (let's say at least half the class) who have been "bribed" throughout their school career up until the year they had you.
 * "Fair Isn't Always Equal" is the name of the book you're reading about assessment in Dr. Grace's class. But the quote is often applied to classroom management. When you are establishing positive student relationships and making adjustments for individual students based on their specific learning styles or other needs, chances are good that you'll have a student who says, "That's not fair! You're treating that student differently than me." How do you respond?