Chapter 5 Questions to Consider

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Chapter 5 (p. 137-149)

 You have now read several views about intelligence. What do you think about intelligence?

Is it one trait or many? more heavily influenced by nature or nurture? a fixed capacity or a

modifiable ability? Articulate your views in a paragraph of 6-8 sentences.

I think that embracing our students' multiple intelligences is key to successful instruction. I think coming up with new ways to present information and subject matter to suit those multiple intelligences is a major challenge, and sometimes we are intimidated by the amount of effort, work, creativity, etc. required to come up with those new ways. However, the end results are usually so beneficial that they definitely outweigh our own fears of trying to come up with something new. I think that intelligence can and should be measured in many different ways, not just how well someone can recall facts or whatever. We need to figure out new ways of assessing students' performance and progress that showcase their intelligences.

(Virtual) Field Trip: Video on Barb Rentenbach, an author diagnosed with nonverbal autism.

Stream of consciousness on Barb Rentenbach…

Whoever recorded this for the University did a horrible job with the audio….I can barely hear it… ok so maybe this is more about watching and seeing how she types? Maybe I don’t need the audio. It’s obvious she’s struggling. And she just yelled “Just a minute!” several times. I really wish I could hear more of what her assistant was saying. I feel like she’s probably giving a lot of information that would be useful for me to know about Barb’s writing process. Oh wait, I just figured out how to fix the audio. Just in time. That’s awesome how Barb uses facilitated typing and communication. I wish the presenter would just play the slideshow…aaaand there it is. HA! She’s motivated by hot guys. Me too girl. Wow, I can’t imagine taking hours to put together a PowerPoint. That has to be frustrating. The first video about justice (“Connection”) is starting and the narrator is talking about how Barb sees herself. That’s pretty descriptive and uses a lot of sophisticated language, but it’s rough too, really depreciating and raw. I wish I could see more of the video and not just hear it. It is interesting how these other people are reading her words… interesting emphasis on her truly poetic language…I don’t like that she refers to herself and others like her as “autistics”… that flies in the face of what we learn in our special ed classes and people first language… (She has autism…not she is autistic). So much of what she’s focusing on is her physical appearance. Interesting. Evolution’s effects on human friendships and relationships. “Autistics have a very hard time making unpaid friends” “It’s hard to find good help in dystopia.” Refers to people without disabilities as “normals.” Hm. Not sure how I feel about that. Okay, I’m going to watch/listen for a while….

“What is God? What is friends?”

Don’t be afraid to have genuine curiosity and get to know people with autism. Let them know you genuine want to know.

I hear her yelling off to the side…”Just a minute!” again… how appropriate considering they just talked about people with autism needing time

She tells them it won’t work if they’re all mute. Ha. What did people think about the friendship? She’s yelling again…I can’t hear what she’s saying…  I’m sure that the live audience is feeling a little tense… Nobody seems comfortable in asking questions. That could just be because they’re in a big auditorium full of people, but I’m sure part of it is also because they’re not sure how to interact appropriately. It’s interesting to watch the two interact with the communication support. TALK IS NOT CHEAP FOR BARB. Words are time consuming and expensive. Makes sense. She uses them well…speaks more eloquently in her writing that most people I know.

Part two: Teacher Please

I’m sure this segment will be really interesting since it has to do with teaching children with autism.

Supported typing/communication…accept and move on.

Don’t talk at. Be peaceful in companionship

Don’t shelter from the anxiety and effort that the rest of the class is required.

There sure is a lot of religion involved in her thoughts… I’m intrigued…but a little confused in where this is going. I’ve kinda zoned out a couple of times….Ahhh. enslaved by autism…interesting… religion vs. science/reason… right of life/quality of life?

Wow, overall that was really cool. I’ve always wondered about the typing/communication supports, so that was cool to see that in action. Also, I think Barb has a super spunky personality, and anyone would be blessed to have her as a companion.

Chapter 4: Article Reflection

From “Modifying Child’s Racial Attitudes”

Quotes that “stood out” or “spoke” something to you:

•   “Very few preventative programs exist for 3-year-olds, and fewer still have been evaluated.” My reaction: Well, duh. They’re 3. How can someone at such an early stage of development truly grasp a preventative strategy like this? Odds are, the child is going to associate with and gravitate towards other people who look like the people he/she is exposed to most (i.e. his/her parents, siblings, extended family, etc.), and again, odds are, those people are going to be mostly the same race.

•   “While children are capable of learning attitudes from parents, particularly from parents who overtly express their prejudice, the attitudes of children in North American frequently do not match those of their parents.” How can we really say this? I would definitely think the opposite. I just saw the new film about Jackie Robinson this weekend, and one scene stood out to me in which this notion was directly challenged. A child is seen watching his dad at a baseball game yell out derogatory names like “Nigger” to Robinson on the field…then the child turns toward the field, thinks a minute, then decides to mirror his dad and yell the same names.  This child was about 10-12 years old.

Questions that you may have:

• Use of media as a strategy to modify attitudes… what a concept... but how counterproductive would that be considering the media is also feeding the opposite message?

Chapter 3 Questions to Consider

Chapter 3

(3.1) Personal and social development can have a major influence on both individual student

learning and the learning environment as a whole. Identify a case from the CSEL guidelines

that you would like to address in your paper. Then, examine the possible developmental

factors that could be influencing your target student(s) or classroom in the case study. Consider

all dimensions of personal and social development, including cognitive, language, social,

emotional, and moral development. 

There are several factors contributing to the undesired behavior being demonstrated by this senior English class. The first and most obvious (and probably most understandable) is the restlessness caused by the quickly approaching graduation. Another factor, though, that is contributing to their behavior lies beneath the surface. In accordance with Lawrence Kohlberg’s theory of moral reasoning and levels of morality, these students are most likely operating at the third level: postconventional morality (Ormrod 2011, p. 92-93). While they agreed upon a set of rules at the beginning of the year, the seniors have determined that the rules no longer apply as inflexible, dictated law. No one’s human rights or safety is necessarily being jeopardized, so the class probably sees no harm in their disruptive behavior and lack of cooperation with the established classroom procedures. While the three boys seem to be serving as the class’s three ringleaders, the rest of the class is most likely succumbing to peer pressure and demonstrating what is known as self-socialization, or “[adopting] the behaviors they think others will find acceptable” (Ormrod 2011, p. 76-77). As mentioned in the case vignette, the students have formed cliques, and the socially acceptable behaviors of the cliques are serving as the new standard for classroom behaviors, rather than the previously established and agreed upon classroom policies and procedures (Ormrod 2011, p. 77). Also mentioned in the vignette is that the three boys are laughing at other groups who are presenting projects and disrupting the few students in the class who are actually still engaged in learning. In this way, the boys and the rest of the class who are being disruptive are demonstrating the crowd mentality and behavior. As defined in the Ormrod text, “Crowds are …larger than cliques and may not have the tight-knit cohesiveness and carefully drawn boundaries of cliques. [They] tend to share certain characteristics and behaviors” (Ormrod 2011, p. 78). Overall, the presence of cliques and the crowd’s social attitudes have contributed to the shift of the classroom environment.

(3.2) Check out tables 3.1 (p. 75), 3.2 (p. 83) and 3.3 (p. 91) with particular attention to the age

ranges you are interested in teaching. Identify your personal favorite ways that an educator can

promote a child’s sense of self, perspective taking, and moral reasoning skills.

In table 3.3 on page 91, one suggestion for 9-12th graders is to "explore moral issues in social studies, science, and literature." I like this suggestion for a couple of reasons. I like that it gives me another opportunity to have my students explore the literature they're reading for class on new levels and in other contexts other than just the typical literary device conversation. Also, I think this would be an interesting place to maybe tie in some cross-curricular work. For example, I might be able to open up a discussion on moral issues in a science-fiction work we're reading (such as Brave New World or 1984) and tie that to something current going on in the science field that relates to morality issues or at least to the book.

Chapter 2 QtCs

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Chapter 2

• (2.1) One of the most cited theories of human development is that of Swiss biologist Jean Piaget. After reading about Piaget’s basic assumptions (p. 27-32) look with particular attention at the stage of child development you would like to teach. The other most cited theory of human development belongs to Russian developmentalist Lev Vygotsky. Vygotsky’s theory of cognitive development leads us to expect greater diversity among our same-aged students than Piaget. Given these two influential theorists’ ideas on cognitive development, how might you accommodate students who are not yet working at the level of their peers?

 This is where differentiated instruction comes in, and it is so, so important to our daily teaching techniques. Even if students don't have IEPs but are two reading grade-levels behind (a common occurrence), we still need to make adjustments to our teaching styles. For example, if I had a student in one of my high school English classes who was below grade-level reading, I would perhaps provide him/her with a list of definition of confusing words that I know he/she will be coming across during the night's reading assignment. Other adjustments like using graphic organizers and other visual aids are great for developing stronger word association, etc. Making small adjustments like these will meet your students' needs while still pushing them to develop further.

• (2.2) Theories in educational psychology promote the idea that language plays a critical role in cognitive development. Examine Table 2.2 (p. 51), paying particular attention to the age range that you are interested in teaching. Consider how you might incorporate or adapt the strategies presented for use with your own students. 

  I plan on teaching 9-12th grade. Since most of the elements presented are embedded in the curriculum I will be teaching, those strategies are really going to be second nature to my teaching techniques. One that I found interesting and that I actually hadn't thought of was the one about students with a native dialect different from Standard English. I had not thought about allowing them to use this dialect in their informal conversations and writings. I think that I could easily incorporate this strategy into an exercise like daily journaling. Since these journal entries will mostly be opportunities for self-reflection and creative writing, they would also make excellent opportunities for using their personal "voice" in an informal context.

Chp. 10 QtCs

Chapter 10

• Which of the learning activities/skills can you think of that lend themselves to learning through modeling?

An example of this might occur during a lesson on new vocabulary. I could take one of the new words; break it into segments of prefix, root word, and suffix; and then think out loud as I walk through the steps, to something of this effect: “Ok, the prefix is ‘in-’… I know that means ‘not’…the root word looks like ‘decide’ or ‘decision’…the suffix is ‘-ive’…that usually indicates that the word is an adjective… so the word ‘indecisive’ must mean ‘unable to make a decision.’” I would then walk my students through a similar process. They would then follow the same process independently as we cover new vocabulary words each week. This is an example of cognitive modeling. During cognitive modeling, I would demonstrate not only how to do something, but how to think about doing something.

• How might self-efficacy and self-regulation contribute to the intervention plans you use in your case study?

As for the 3 disruptive, senior boys, I would explain to them that their behavior is disrespectful and rude to me and to the other students. First, I would encourage them to be good examples and practice positive modeling for the lower classmen during their remaining time in the school. Seniors are looked up to, and their behaviors can have a resounding effect on the school's overall atmosphere. Then, since the former consequences have not been working, I would warn them that the next infraction would result in a meeting between them, the principal, possibly their parents, and me (rather than a detention write-up, the formerly stated punishment). I would also remind them that roughhousing is unacceptable classroom behavior, especially for senior gentlemen. Since this is a group of graduating seniors, they should be operating in at least Kohlberg’s second level of moral reasoning and have a handle on and respect for proper school behavior by this point. I would acknowledge that they must be feeling restless and excited about graduating, but that graduation is still a ways off and that their behavior now can affect their graduating. I would advise them that many schools will hold diplomas if the student has outstanding discipline issues to resolve. This warning serves as an example of vicarious punishment. The text states about vicarious punishment, “When learners see [or hear about, in this case] someone else get punished for a certain behavior, they are less likely to behave that way themselves” (Ormrod 2011, p. 327).

Chapter 9 QtCs

Chapter 9

• How would you define successful mastery of your lesson objectives from a behavioral view of learning?

            According to the behaviorist principle of operant conditioning, learning takes place when the subject forms an association between a stimulus and a consequential response. Since behaviors should be observable and measurable, I would define successful mastery of lesson objectives in the following terms: when a student is able to form accurate and desired connections between ideas and concepts in a way that is measurable using an assessment method.

• Consider your CSEL intervention case study.  Are there tools from a behaviorist view for either encouraging productive behaviors or discouraging undesirable behaviors that you could apply to the case?  What are they?

            One of the behavioral issues included in my CSEL intervention case study involves the unpermitted use of cell phones during class. By using methods of punishment and reinforcement, I could attempt to end this issue. One strategy would be to give students who are breaking the cell phone policy an additional homework assignment in order to discourage their using the cell phone in class. This is an example of positive punishment (adding something to discourage a behavior). This might be my first step. After this, I would reinforce the student’s discontinued use of the cell phone by taking away a portion of the next night’s assigned homework. This is an example of negative reinforcement (taking something undesirable away to encourage/continue a desired behavior).

Chapter 8: Metacognition

Questions to Consider:

Consider a lesson plan you might use.  Which metacognitive skills/abilities are involved as students gain facility/knowledge in this domain?

Think of an activity or lesson component that explicitly teaches one or more metacognitive and one or more problem solving skills.

As a high school English teacher, I plan on having my students begin most days engaging in a brief, creative writing assignment (i.e. journaling). A topic will be provided, but I hope that students will use their own experiences, backgrounds, and interests to shape their writing into something that is uniquely their own. 

As for broader use in a lesson plan, I believe that any time I teach a literary work, students' discussions will be examples of verbal reasoning and argument analysis. Literary interpretation and analysis is a major venue for metacognition as we are taking different viewpoints represented in the text, using evidence within the text, and then using logic to determine how the evidence works to support those viewpoints.

Chapter 7 Questions to Consider

Chapter 7 QtC:  

Describe a constructivist lesson you would teach.  

 

The lesson I have in mind for this would be for a tenth-grade English class. Most tenth graders (at least at my high school) were required to read Night or The Diary of Anne Frank as an introduction to a Holocaust unit. I think that this is an excellent place for some cross-curricular learning, but it is also a good time to expand students' knowledge and their conceptual understanding through the use of project-based learning. 

 

According to Ormrod's text, project-based learning is a "classroom activity in which students acquire new knowledge and skills while working on a complex, multifaceted project that yields a concrete end product."

 

The project would include a mini-research paper/reflection (2-3 pages total) covering an article found on the United States Holocaust Memorial website (<-- link). After researching and writing (probably the following week), students will begin reading the chosen, related novel. This will help to build the conceptual understanding (a constructivist notion) students have of the Holocaust and how it relates to the literature. Plenty of class discussion time would happen during the course of the unit and the novel. 

 

 

Chp. 6 Questions to Consider: Learning and Cognitive Processes

What are the essential skills and/or learning outcomes you want your students to know and be able to do that relate to cognitive learning?

One of the "basic assumptions" of cognitive learning that is mentioned in the text is that students should be able to construct meanings and understandings. The book then states that the "eduational implication" is that students should be able to make sense of learned topics. To me, this means that as a teacher, I should guide my students as they form their own meanings and understanding of themes in literature (for example). I want my students to be able to identify a theme, but then take that to a new level in their cognitive learning process by analyzing that theme, figuring out how it fits into the work as a whole, and then make recognitions about how that theme applies to their own lives and, on a larger scale, to our society.

How might your knowledge of the memory processes guide your instructional decisions?  

I think that in getting students to analyze and apply learned material through constructing meanings and understandings, it is important to implement "meaningful learning" (recognizing relationships between new and preexisting information) as well as "hot cognition" (when thoughts and memories become emotionally charged). If I can make instructional decisions that promote these strategies and are conducive to students making connections, then hopefully my students will better learn the material. For example, if I can get students to make a connection between what they already know about Puritan culture and newly presented information about the themes of hypocrisy in Scarlett Letter, then they will better understand the text as a whole. Within that same lesson, if I can channel hot cognition by stimulating student memories of a time when they were publicly embarrassed or ridiculed, then they will be able to relate more with the character of Hester Prynne, and thus, become more interested in her outcome.

Definitions of Teaching and Learning

When one is asked to define teaching and learning, reaching for good old Mr. Webster won't do the trick. There is so much more to these concepts than part of speech and word origin. Actually, there is so much more to teaching and learning than their listed definitions provide.
The definitions of teaching and learning will surely vary depending on who you ask. In fact, here is an article from Education Week: Teacher Professional Development Sourcebook containing the thoughts of various leaders in today's education system about their beliefs on the definitions of teaching and learning:

"How Do You Define 21st-Century Learning?"

Personally, my definitions of teaching and learning are tightly interwoven, and they are as follows:

Teaching: Teaching is the opportunity to deliver information in such a way that students are able to process the information clearly and then synthesize that basic information into a living, working knowledge. Teaching is creating an environment that is stimulating while implementing the available tools for learning, as well as creating or bringing new tools to the environment. Teaching is recognizing potential, fostering its growth, and leading the learner to achieve his or her fullest potential. 

Learning: Learning is taking in facts, cues, stimuli, ideas, and symbols and then synthesizing, evaluating, and applying those gained materials to new problems. Learning is the process of thinking critically and utilizing skills those new problems. Learning is a process of exploration, inquiry, and discovery. Learning is using available, shared technology and resources to seek out new perspective. Learning is doing all these things in order to reach a more fulfilled and realized potential, and thus achieve.

Chp. 14 Questions to Consider

Questions to Consider:

(14.1) Think of a lesson plan from your licensure area (feel free to use the same topic you used for Chapter 6, 9 & 10). Knowing that assessment is an integral part of teaching, explain at least four informal and formal assessments that you will use in your lesson plan to provide you with feedback and involve the students in assessing their own learning.

(14.2) Consider norm referenced assessment and criterion referenced assessment. Are there advantages to both? Are there disadvantages?

 

14. 1

*Side note, starting off:

I found this interesting article from Scholastic.com that explains formal vs. informal assessments, particularly with Language Arts/English in mind:

 http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/article/formal-versus-informal-assessments

In my example lesson, I will be assessing students' comprehension of Act 5 of Macbeth, and the "Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow..." speech in particular. 

For English classes, I think that there should be more emphasis placed on informal assessment rather than formal assessment, at least where reading comprehension/application is concerned. That being said, for my form of (1)formal assessment in this lesson, I would probably give a pencil-paper quiz over vocabulary from the reading selection. This would let me know which of my students are really understanding the language of Shakespeare and what they are reading. A score of 80% correct (8 out of 10 questions) would be considered "competent." The vocab quiz would also demonstrate which of my students are reading at their grade level's average (12th grade reading level in this case).

For informal assessment, (2)I would like to have my students perform some type of activity involving memorization of the "Tomorrow" speech. That could be by having them individually recite the monologue. This assessment might require more than one class session due to time limitations. (3) Another assessment could be to have a "fishbowl" session with discussion from the assigned reading. This method generates discussion that will give me as the mediator an idea of how well students comprehended and thought about their reading. (4) Finally, I'd like to end the class with a fun, group activity. I think it would be good to do a game of Jeopardy with cumulative questions from the entire play. Since the 5th act of Macbeth is at the end, it would be likely that the following class would contain an exam over the play. This way the students can see what type of questions they need to review and study for the exam. That will also give them an idea of how much they personally need to study, which is a good form of self-evaluation. 

14.2

Since norm referenced assessments are used to compare a student's progress to that of his peers, they can be useful for placement. This type of assessment is advantageous in the case of a struggling student who may need to taken out of an honors English class and placed in the "basic" English class. One disadvantage is that if you're comparing a student to the rest of his class, and the rest of the class is performing at the same level, you may not see that there is a need for improvement.

As for criterion referenced assessments, the student is being tested based on his/her mastery of a particular subject. These are more specific and are not comparative to his/her peers. This type of assessment is much more practical than norm referenced assessments, which is probably the reason why teachers use criterion referenced assessments much more often than norm referenced. They are also much better at measuring individual improvement in an area.

Chp. 13 Questions to Consider

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Questions to Consider---> 

 How will you create a learning environment that is conducive to learning?

Personally, I think that one of the most important elements in creating a productive learning environment is providing an environment that features a good balance of structure and flexibility. From the first day of class, it is important to establish set procedures and expectations. However, it is also important to remember that not everything always goes according to protocol. In those cases it is necessary to have some level of flexibility. When you are willing to accommodate special circumstances, I think that your students will be appreciative of your respect for them as human beings with other needs and issues outside of the classroom. On that note, establishing a mutual respect in your classroom should help with plenty of arising problems other than and in addition to disciplinary issues. 

Now consider your CSEL case study.  Develop a full continuum of responses for dealing with the misbehavior of your case (ignoring through dealing with serious and repetitive infractions)...

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High School Case Study

You have started to dread your fifth period music class.  It is made up entirely of seniors who are counting the days until graduation and seem to care very little about learning.  Most of the students are obviously members of one clique or another.  Whenever they think your back is turned, they start passing notes and text messaging.  Worse, three boys have started disrupting those engaged in learning.  No matter what you say, they laugh at the students who sing tenor and soprano, especially when they are practicing their parts.  Yesterday, Tony, Jeff, and Morris started roughhousing then all three of them refused to sit down and follow the class procedures that the classroom community agreed upon at the beginning of the year. Although you have been using a set approach to handling infractions of rules, you decide it is time to change these procedures.

If change is needed, which it seems to be in this situation, then I think it is important to inform the students why you are changing the procedures and what exactly the new procedures and resulting consequences will be. As for in the moment, I believe the following actions would be appropriate:

Note passers & texters: Remind students that texting is against classroom and most likely school policy and that if caught again, the phone will be confiscated. As for note passing, let the students know that there is a time and place for talking with friends during breaks between classes and occasional down time in class. Then warn that any notes seen being passed will be taken up and thrown away. 

As for the 3 disruptive boys, explain to them that their behavior is disrespectful and rude to you and the other students. If the former consequences haven't been working, then I would warn them that the next infraction would result in a meeting between them, me, and the principal, and possibly their parents. Roughhousing is unacceptable. 

Since this is a group of graduating seniors, they should have a handle on proper school behavior by this point. I would acknowledge that they must be feeling restless and excited about graduating, but that graduation is still a ways off and that their behavior now can affect their graduating. Many schools will hold diplomas if the student has outstanding discipline issues to resolve. I would even go so far as to encourage them to be good examples for the lower classmen during their remaining time in the school. Seniors are looked up to, and their behaviors can have a resounding effect on the school's overall atmosphere.

Chp. 11 Questions to Consider: Motivation and Affect

Questions to Consider:

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How might you enhance motivation and affect in your students using the theories of motivation?

Which theories of motivation are most helpful and instructive for you?

 One of the biggest challenges facing today's teacher is finding ways to engage their students and generate motivation for the class and its requirements. There are many ways to accomplish this, but first we have to understand some preliminary factors. For starters, it helps to understand what "motivation" really means. According to our textbook, "Motivation is something that that energizes, directs, and sustains behavior; it gets students moving, points them in a particular direction, and keeps them going." In my own terms, motivation is students becoming engaged in their learning. Affect, by our book's definition, is the mood or emotion with which a student approaches a task in order to complete that task. 
 In order to enhance the motivation and affect in my students, I would think that addressing each student's basic human needs, their learning styles, and their tendencies to be either intrinsically or extrinsically motivated would be necessary. This could be accomplished by including activities and lessons within my lesson planning that are varied and that are adaptable to each student's learning and motivational needs. Not every lesson is going to appeal to every student 100% of the time. But by using different teaching methods (instructional, participation, hands-on, multimedia, etc.), I believe that I would be able to encourage students to become engaged in the lesson and more motivated to perform well, regardless of the subject matter. Catering to the students' needs gives them the tools they need to do better and to gain confidence in the classroom, thus improving their affect.