Group Differences Forum

I think the group differences forum has been interesting and has sparked a lot of conversation. I enjoyed hearing people's opinions on different topics. One thing I learned from the discussion is boys tend to be given more attention than girls in school, which caused some good discussion. Also, I learned that there is talk about a program that requires your child to be in school and do well in order to receive welfare  There were great points on both sides of the argument and it is a really tricky situation. The gender and disabilities group was not as interesting because I believe many of us have already learned so much about building self-concept and self-efficacy in our students with special needs. There was no really great discussion over this topic, but rather everyone stating facts from our special education classes, and nothing that lead to debate. I would have like to see more on this topic. I would suggest taking this article out. Since I am unaware of the other articles, I would not necessarily say take out the topic.

I learned many things that could help me in my classroom such as to pay attention to boys and girls and be aware of any biases I may have. I also learned I need to understand where families in poverty are coming from and how I can best serve them and help their child succeed. I also need to be aware of my misconceptions of different groups because there are many parents who are trying but still fall within the poverty line. Like we discussed, most parents really do want their child to succeed. Last, I learned that it is important for teachers to be prepared to teach ELL students and to be equipped with the proper skills. These students are going to be in every classroom at all different levels, and since not all schools can hire ELL teachers, each general education teacher needs to be prepared.

Overall, this forum was enlightening and covered many different issues. Many topics I had discussed before, while other conversations brought a new perspective. 

Linguistic Characteristics & Abilities

I am going to be interning in 2nd grade next year, so my focus on this PLE will be K-2 grades in the Table 2.2 on p. 51 in Ormrod's book. At this age, they know about 14,000 words by age 6, still have difficulty understanding complex sentences, and have mastered most sounds. For the most part, they understand basic etiquette in conversations but are reluctant to initiate conversations for adults. 

Some strategies that you could use to help students would be to read age-appropriate books to enhance vocab. The teacher can talk about new words, show pictures, and explain them. They could even go on a word wall or in a word journal. Another way is to ask students to construct a narrative about what they did over the weekend, over the holidays, etc. 

Another way to expand this that I have seen in a kindergarten classroom is every weekend, Clifford, the stuffed animal, goes home with a special friend in the class who has been great all week. On Monday, the student brings Clifford back along with a summary in Clifford's journal of what Clifford did during the weekend. Even though the student is unable to write, the student tells the parents. Then, the student can verbally summarize it, or read it, aloud to the class.

Self-Efficacy & Self-Regulation

Self-efficacy and self-regulation can contribute to the case study with Lisa. Self-efficacy is "a person’s self-constructed judgment about his or her ability to execute certain behaviors or reach certain goals." I do not think that Lisa has a high self-efficacy because she is always disruptive and does not strive to learn and work together with her groupmates. As the teacher, it might be a good idea to help boost Lisa's self-efficacy by talking to her about her previous experiences with groups. Maybe she has had a bad experiences with groups because if a student has low self-efficacy then it is possible it is due to one's previous failures or previous failures within a group. It would also help to build Lisa's confidence in her group-working ability. Maybe she does not think she can be good at a different position within the group, and it is important to highlight her strengths to build her self-efficacy. Also, help her build skills that will help her work in a group better.

Self-regulation is watching and monitoring one's personal progress and being motivated to learn. Teaching Lisa how to self-regulate would help her become a better group member because she would understand that even though she is working in a group, she is responsible for her part, her attitude, and her motivation. She can monitor her progress and participation and cooperation within the group. She can also learn where her strengths and weaknesses are so she can be aware of what areas she needs to pay extra close attention or work extra hard at. In addition, each group member can self-reflect and see what he/she did great and what areas might need to be improved. In addition, it may be helpful for Lisa to set goals to work towards so she can see her progress. 

I found an article about goal-setting and self-efficacy during self-regulation that has many great suggestions and further explanations. You can check it out below by clicking on the title. 

Goal Setting and Self-Efficacy During Self-Regulated Learning

Behaviorist vs. Constructivist Case Study

My case study is about Lisa, who is a student in a small group who is causing problems. She gets angry if she does not get the job she wants and will not cooperate if she does not get her way. Here is a list of a few behaviorist views that may work in encouraging productive behaviors or discouraging undesirable behaviors. Later, I will list cognitive or constructivist view points that may work in this scenario. 

Behaviorist

• Positive reinforcement: any time Lisa does something good in a group, reward her
• Presentation punishment: Make Lisa do something, like silent lunch, no recess, to make her cooperate in her group work
• Removal Punishment: take away points from her grade to make her cooperate

Cognitive/Constructivist

• Meet the Lisa where she is: ask Lisa to reason why it is important to be a part of a group and to do her part, relate it to a real world situation.
• Ask deeper questions: Try to find out if there is something else going on that is causing Lisa to act out. Is there some thought, feeling, or emotion going on that is causing the misbehaving? 

The behaviorist tools are make Lisa more extrinsically motivated and reward or punish her for what she does. She may learn to behave but will not understand why it is important. This may lead to repeated behaviors later on in life in a different situation. Constructivist approaches require Lisa to think about her cooperation and help her to be intrinsically motivated to participate. If it works, it will help her set a good way for the rest of her life when she works in groups. 

Here is an article of by a teacher who explains how his school is trying to move from behaviorist behavior management to constructivist behavior plan. 
http://davidwees.com/content/restitution-guide-classroom-management

Barb Rentenbach Presentation

I went to Barb's presentation on Friday and it was very different from what I expected. I did not realize that she is mute and had a sever type of autism. It was interesting to see her type out what she wanted to say and to see her story behind her book. I was really amazed at how great of a writer she is, her high vocabulary, and witty humor. Even though she needs a little bit of extra help writing, she still does a phenomenal job.

The presentation by the psychologist, Barb's friend, was enlightening of what it is like to be an individual with autism and how it affects you. She also gave me a lot of insight of how I can help the students with autism in my class. A main point she said was learn from those you serve. This is true of all my future students; I should learn from them in all situations and all types of people. It is important to make connections to our students with autism because if we can find a connection to something they are interested in or like, then they will become more successful. Where is the student comfortable? Take them to that place, whatever it is, whatever they are good at, and it will help them to succeed.

Also, build on their strengths that they already have and develop them further. For Barb, her strength was writing, but it took awhile for anyone to notice because they looked at her disability and not her as a person. As a teacher, it is important to seek the motives of every student and to help build on what they are good at. Treat the person, not the autism. That is something that will not change, so it is crucial to focus on the person because they desire friends, companionship, and success just like anyone else. It is also important to remember that students with autism may be hyper-sensitive to things around them, whether it is knowing if you are honest or if it is a noise in the room.

The presentation made me feel a little bit uncomfortable at first because I have not really been around anyone with autism and the ones that I have been around have been young students. It was neat to see how much her friend cared about her and how many friends she had. It was so sad when she was asked what her childhood was like and her response was lonely. Unfortunately, this is probably true for a lot of students. As a teacher, I feel like it is part of my responsibility to make sure a student with autism, or any child for that matter, feel included and accepted into the classroom.

It was a great presentation and I am glad I had the opportunity to go. It was very insightful and very different from anything I would have ever gone to.

Metacognitive Skills

Reading lessons are a great place to use metacognitive skills to help students better understand what they are reading.  If I were teaching reading lesson, I would introduce the basic topic to students and then have them read a page or two (or read it out loud to them) and then use some metacognitive skills. I would have students ask themselves if they understood what they just read by asking them to talk about what they read.  Then I would ask them to make predictions about what will happen in the story and make connections within the book or to other subject areas. As they continued to read, I would ask them to make inferences and use context clues if they did not understand a word or the material they read.  As the students finished reading, I would have them think about what they have read and summarize it. It is important for readers to think about what they have read and to mentally check to see if they have understood. Then, to check for comprehension I would have students complete an activity such as a graphic organizer. If the story focused on cause and effect, I would have them write down causes and effects from the story and support it with evidence from  text.

Here is a great website that has sample lessons that incorporate metacognitive skills.

Constructivist Lesson

For my lesson I will do second grade vocabulary. Let’s say the students have ten vocabulary words in their unit that they need to know. One activity I would have them do is play charades with the words. They would break up into small groups, have one player choose a card with a vocab word on it, have the player act it out while others guess, and then take turns doing this game of charades. Before I broke them up into groups, I would first go over the vocabulary words, such as how to pronounce them and what the definition is to make sure they didn't come across any words they had no clue what they were. I think it is good for the teacher to give a brief introduction first. After they acted in groups, they would, as a group, write the word, draw a picture, and write a sentence using the vocab word. This may not be as much of a constructivist approach, but I feel it would be help to see that they mastered the content. Another option would be to have students explain why they chose to act a word out a certain way or what made the guesser guess the word in order to check for understanding.

These activities are social activities where students would work in a group. The student does have to work individually to think of a way to act out a word. If they cannot act it out, it might mean they do not know the word. I think charades allows for guessing and conversation about what the actor is doing which is a good way to structure activities. Conversation about the content and verbalizing it is a good way to help learn it. If they practice, they will learn these skills and do them automatically over time.

Check out the following website for additional ways to incorporate constructivist lessons in the classroom. It might also clarify or reinforce the ideas you have about it. There are several additional links on the website to learn more. Click here to go to Classroom Applications of Constructivism.