Reflection Journal 8

What are the five E's in Constructivism
This week I am researching how to evaluate or assess the learning in a constructivist classroom. Once source I ran across has some really good information on how to assess this type of learning. The Miami Museum of Science published a webpage called "Constructivism and the five E's." The E's consists of engaging, explore, explain, elaborate, and evaluate. Each E is a different stage. The first E engage is the part of learning where the student identifies past learning and makes connections present learning objectives. The second E explore is done by getting students to participate in hands on learning. Students may do this stage in small groups of teams. The third E explain is when students develop their ideas based on the learning experiences done while they were exploring. The fourth E elaborate means the students will expand what they have learned and try to apply it to real world experiences. The final E evaluate is done when students fill out their own assessments over what they learned from a particular lesson. Teachers will also conduct an assessment such as a rubric or a checklist to determine the students learning.
After reading about the five E's I realized this method is something we are taught in school on how to really help students learn the curriculum. Even though constructivism seemed like a new subject to me i am starting to realize how close to my classroom it is. I use the five E's when teaching many of my classroom objectives.