Chapter 5 (p. 137-149)

(3) 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 truly believe that intelligence is a vast collection of traits.  These traits are greatly influenced not only by nature but by nurturing the individual as well.  If your child is receiving poor nutritional care early on in their childhood and even during gestation then they will present lower IQ scores than individuals that were receiving adequate nutritional requirements (Ormrod 2011).  It is also important to take into consideration what we consider intelligence.  Different cultures view an individual’s intelligence in various formats.  Some view only academic knowledge as intelligence while other cultures view both academic and social knowledge as intelligence.  I really do believe that since we view intelligence in a fluid and crystallized state that there is really no limit to our capacity of intelligence.  The idea that if you don’t use it you lose it is different in understanding how we maintain our supply and reserve storage of our intelligence, but I do truly feel that there is no boundaries for our limit.

Autism is My Prism Not My Prison    

I found it very amazing to listen to the story of Barb and how by using the facilitated communication devices have allowed her to not only communicate but to write her own book on autism.  I do feel that with every disability there is an unspoken gold standard that the world feels like they must play by those rules, but when they have such an outstanding individual like Barb they really need to re-analyze their thinking.  I have read several articles over the controversial views on facilitated communication devices and have watched the movie Autism is a World.  After watching Barb and her “smiling shrink” work together I can see how some people view the output from the FC device as not truly being what the person with autism has to say but some influence from their communicator.  I found it very empowering when they expressed how important it is to let them have the chance to schedule their schedule allowing time to be lost within their autism.  You cannot structure the autism out of the individual but you can structure that individual through and around their autism.  I greatly agree with the use of Dolly Pardon’s quote “Find out who you are and do it on purpose”.  I view everyone as a snowflake; each individual is different in their own way which helps to structure the world into a better place.  If we were all the same then this world would be such a boring place and we need our unique snowflakes to brighten up our days!     

Cultural Differences

It is very important to take cultural differences into consideration when working with the students in your classroom.  What may be considered rude in one cultural setting can actually be considered completely appropriate in another.  One of the most important things to remember when dealing with cultural differences is that the differences you may not always be able to link to certain cultural stereotypes, for example if you are from the some general location and have the same general group as your neighbor but your family was a coal mining family or a farm family you are going to have different cultural roots then other families even within your same general area.

Take a few minutes to reflect on your experience preparing for your presentation.

    •       Provide rationales for your choice of activities. Why did you choose your activities? Did you consider other possibilities before deciding?

·         We thought it would be more powerful to point out how even the littlest difference/interaction from a student could actually be fueled by their cultural difference and each one needs to be taken into consideration in your classroom. 

·         The activities allowed us to not only show how cultural differences came to play a large role in the classroom, but how stereotypes can cause additional damage if steps to understanding there effect are not taken into consideration.

·         Truthfully, there was actually going to be more to the last activity but my husband accidentally ate part of my activity.  The activity was also going to include small bite sized candy bars of various types with different colored sticker dots on them.  I was going to have them open their candy to compare their differences within the same color groups.  This was going to show how even if you may look the same on the outside that the inside can still be different.  This would have been reflected in the image on the handout of the visible culture and the invisible roots.  I really wanted everyone to understand that even cultures have sub-cultures and sometimes those that appear different initially may share similar root structure.  I am just sorry I didn’t have the time to redo that portion before class since my classes started at 8 and I had 3 classes in a row.

    •       Describe how you chose what role each presenter would play in the development and delivery of your presentation. What personal strengths did you consider in the process? 

·         We both had certain items we wanted to focus on.  Catie had some really good experiences at TSD that allowed us to express how these little things can completely alter a classroom setting.  You should never jump to conclusions; you always need to interpreter the situation to understand what started the fire in the beginning.  I wanted to be sure to add in how it could be applied in the classroom to all cultural differences and groups.  We both work pretty well together.  Catie can be a little shy and nervous at times and I can normally keep things structured and on track, but am not great with technology that I have not used before.  

Take a few minutes to reflect on your presentation experience.

    •       Describe how your presentation most accurately reflected the instructional strategy you used. What criteria of your teaching style did you address?  How might you have improved your presentation? 

·         I think we did well at getting everyone to think about how culture and stereotypes can play a large role in the classroom.  Most students commented on how much they enjoyed learning how the Deaf culture was a lot different than what they expected.  While a few address that they felt a little lost on the stereotyping game since they did not feel like they could follow along with the idea of stereotyping those that where deaf/HH.  I wished we had more time to go into greater detail that allowed more discussion at the end since our technical error delayed the presentation a bit.

·                       

    •       Reflect on your learners’ responses to your presentation. What aspects do you feel worked well, what would you change, and why? 

·         I would have liked to have them add their own discussion as to how they pictured their own classroom being affected by different cultures and stereotypes.  Since not everyone will have a deaf/HH student or Hispanic student then we could have addressed a larger group in discussion.

How is your personal theory of learning demonstrated in your activities and the reactions of your peers? Use specific examples of your teaching as well as peer comments/responses as evidence for your analysis.

·         I strongly believe people will be building upon their current beliefs about cultures and stereotypes, but by allowing them the social interaction they can explore new ideas, theories if you will, of how they will alter their lens and biases.  One student responded with “I am now aware of cultural differences I was not aware of before” and they were pleased that they were “engaged the whole time though multiple visuals and activities”.

·         Also a lot of students remarked about how they enjoyed the video clips (including the ones given outside of class) and they felt like they were able to draw a lot from those resources that then will allow them to alter their own cultural lens and biases. 

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. *CSEL guidelines can be found under CSEL Artifact. Cases

are included at the end of the document. Choose the case that best suits your desired grade level.

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 rough housing 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.

There could be a few things going on in this situation.  For one theory it could be that the boys are going through cognitive dissonance which Piaget referred to as disequilibrium (Ormrod, 2011, 400).  A second theory could be that one boy is having this cognitive dissonance while the two other boys are in a state of peer pressure and they then follow along with the original instigator (Ormrod, 2011, 76).  At this age and state it appears that the boys are just trying to find where they belong and their method of discovering themselves has produced this current behavior.  The boys may consider themselves to be “cool” by acting in this manner while excluding other students or they could be trying to present themselves as being “cool” in order to impress other students with hopes of being able to join or feel like they then fit in with that other peer group that they are desiring to be a member.  

(3.22) 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.

I really like how they suggest to “give students opportunities to examine and experiment with a variety of adult like roles” (Ormrod, 2011, 75).  If you provide a student with an outlet and help them to see how they can behave in this new manner then they can express their feelings in a better format.  Also I highly agree that you need to “Explore the possible origins of people’s perspectives and motives in discussions of real and fictional events” (Ormrod, 2011, 83).  If you can understand their feelings and where they come from then you can work on altering this structure to better the individual and their presentation of themselves as a better individual.  I would definitely want to address “moral issues in social studies, science and literature” with my students and by “encouraging performing community service” and “having them reflect on their experiences through group discussions or written essays” I think they will be able to have a better understanding about the world as a whole (Ormrod, 2011, 91).    

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?

(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 find the concrete operational stage to be of great interest.  This is the period where children are starting to function with adultlike logic.  At this state they can also tell the difference between their own perspectives and that of others.  They are still limited though to concrete reality and their cognitive development has not completely developed at this time.

With viewing both Vygotsky’s and Piaget’s theories I would plan to provide peer tutoring in my classroom.  Since each student is going to be at different levels in different areas they can work together and rotate the role of tutor and tutee.  Also I would be sure to provide various methods in order to teach the same material ideas in order to allow students that may be visual, tactile and verbal learns all equal access to the course materials.  Scaffolding can be a great way to bridge the gaps that a student may have in order to provide them with everything they need in order to grasp the material at hand.

Since I will be teaching science at a high school to middle school level I would be sure to include time in my classes to cover the academic terminology.  Students may have never been exposed to this new terminology before entering my classroom, so attention will be paid to helping them understand the meaning of the new terms and pointing out how to distinguish between that term and similar abstract words such as the difference between velocity versus acceleration.  

Chapter 10

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

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

There are many learning activities and skills that one can learn through modeling. Two of the most important skills in my opinion would be how a student can learn self-efficacy and self-regulation through modeling. When a student can witness a good role model practicing self-regulation that student can open their mind to the idea. If they look up to this individual and can view how self-regulation has improved the over all skills of their role model then the student should be able to take this one skill and build upon it to form their self-efficacy.

Let's say I have a student that is having a hard time focusing in class, for example they are having a hard time staying focused on their assignments. I would point out to the student that their attention span is wandering and set up a focus plan with the student. I would set up a focus plan for the student aiming that for every 5 problems completed the student can then take a 10 to 15 minute break as a reward. This will help the student learn how to self-regulate while working on homework problems. I would also be sure to use classroom activities that the student can participate in and feel good about in order to help build her self-efficacy. Using activities and topics the student enjoys will also help by making the task more interesting which in turn will give a better chance for increasing their self-efficacy.

    

Chapter 9

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

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?

Even if I do not plan to focus my classroom material on a behavioral approach there will still be a behavioral agenda underlying all aspects of my classroom environment. When I use authentic activities in my classroom I am still conditioning the students on methods that they can use later on in life. I also hope that by all of my classroom interactions from lab experiments, reports, tests or science bowls can be used to help mold the students into individual's with a strong desire to learn. If my methods work then since learning is a behavior change from providing a long-term mental change from access to experience the students should be able to retain some of the course material. (Ormrod 286)

One behavioral view toward a classroom activity could be from a science bowl. Since I plan to quiz students in a science bowl setting instead of the usual quiz format I think the students should be able to develop their skills to a higher level. This will be a small team effort and each team would not only receive points for all correct answers given but if their team wins they would get to pick an item from the Schrödinger box. They may never know what the reward would be from the box but it could range from 5 minutes of down time, a pass which would allow them to skip one question on the upcoming test without loosing points or a snack price. This activity teaches them how to work together as a team and they will learn that even if work can be hard it can also be rewarding.

I really think that rewarding productive behaviors such as allowing a chance to pick from Schrödinger's box would help reinforce all their good work. Discouraging behaviors may be a little bit more difficult as I would like to have a very positive classroom. Let's say I have a student being destructive during a lab experiment. This student is slamming the cars used for the friction ramps down the ramps excessively hard and recklessly. I would first point out to the student that method is too rough on the lab equipment and they need to handle it with less force. If this does not correct the behavior then the student will be asked to sit out of this lab experiment and just observe unless they would like to alter their current method. If the student decides to sit out and observe then I would contact the students parents to explain what occurred and why the lab grade is reflected a lack of participation in this lab grade. (Side note the student would still be responsible to collect the data from the other students method, do the calculations and report their findings.) If this occurs again I would then plan a meeting with the students parents to discuss the behavior farther.