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).