Barb Rentenbach Presentation

I thought Barb Rentenbach's presentation was fascinating. It was so interesting to hear Barb's writing, and recognize her amazing language abilities. Her thoughts were so deep and she had a very unique perspective on life. I also loved her witty sense of humor that was so evident during the question and answer session. After seeing how long it takes her to type, I am amazed at her patience and dedication in writing an entire book. The main thing I took away from this presentation is how intelligent Barb is and how she does not let her autism hold her back. When I have students with autism in my class, I will work very hard allow them to communicate through whatever means necessary. I now fully recognize that verbal communication is no indication of intelligence and that someone can be extremely intelligent even without being able to communicate verbally.

Group Differences Forum

I thought the group differences forum was very interesting. I learned a lot from the article that I read about poverty. I was not surprised that poor White and Hispanic children were less likely to be involved in organized activities. However, I was surprised to learn that Black children were equally likely to participate in organized activities such sports or church choir, regardless of whether or not they were living in poverty. I would have liked to learn even more about the effects that poverty can have on children.

I was also interested in what the other groups talked about. The first thing that really stood out to me was the disability group's discussion about inclusion. I felt like this was a very important concept and it was nice to hear everyone's opinions. Secondly, I was very interested in the discussion about religion. It is such a controversial topic, and that was obvious even just from the differing opinions in our class. Honestly, I would have liked to spend even more time discussing that topic.

Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed the group differences forum. The only real suggestions I have to improve it would be to give more time for discussion. There was so much valuable information, and I feel like we could have easily discussed it for several class periods. However, I realize that this might not be possible because of everything else that needs to be fit into the semester.

PLE #10 Language Development

Language plays a very important role in cognitive development. I hope to work with 4th or 5th grade students, who would generally be in the 9-11 year old age range. According to Ormrod, students in this age range have knowledge of about 80,000 words, have the general ability to understand figurative language, and are working on subtle refinements in syntax (mostly as a result of formal instruction). Ormrod suggests several strategies to use when teaching language arts to students in this age group. Some of these include: distinguishing between similar abstract words, exploring complex syntactic structures, and considering underlying meanings and messages in poetry and fiction. I hope to someday incorporate all of these techniques in my classroom.

Below is a link to an article with some great tips for teaching language arts using basic office supplies
Everything I Know About Teaching Language Arts I Learned at the Office Supply Store
Some of my favorite suggestions from the article include...
* Use post-it notes to mark figurative language in a text. Write each one on an index card and allow students to select one to use as the first sentence in a piece of fiction that they are going to write.
* Use post-it notes to mark new or interesting vocabulary words.
* Have students highlight "hot spots" when writing. For example, anytime a student has to pause to guess how to spell a word, or to wonder if they need a comma, or if they should use "I" or "me," they highlight that spot in the draft and keep writing. Later, when they're ready to consider mechanics, they go back to the "hot spots" and double-check their guesses with a dictionary, grammar handbook, or proofreading partner.

Post #9 (Self-Efficacy & Self-Regulation)

My intervention plan for Lisa in the CSEL case study is mainly going to focus on Cognitive Learning theory. I do think that this could include some aspects of self-regulation if you consider it from the perspective that I would strive to provide Lisa with the cognitive tools to regulate her own behavior. Promoting metacognition and encouraging Lisa to carefully think through her behaviors would be a type of self-regulation.

However, self-efficacy and self-regulation are more closely tied to social cognitive theory. Self-efficacy is defined as a self-constructed judgment about one's ability to execute certain behaviors or reach certain goals. It would certainly be a good idea to try and provide Lisa with a high self-efficacy by encouraging her and emphasizing that she is capable of working productively with her group. Self-regulation is defined as self-chosen and self directed behavior that leads to the fulfillment of personally constructed standards and goals. From the case definition it definitely sounds like Lisa would benefit from improving her self-regulation, and to do this the teacher could provide her with specific criteria to assess herself. It would also be beneficial for the teacher to model positive self-efficacy and self-regulation.

Below is a link to a very interesting article that I found about the importance of self regulation in at-risk children. "A key finding in that study shows that at-risk children who can self-regulate have higher reading, math and vocabulary achievement."
Self-Regulation Key to Academic Success for At-Risk Children

Post #8

There are many different ways that a teacher could address Lisa's behavior in the CSEL case study for elementary education. Below are some possible ways to address the situation from a behaviorist, constructivist, and cognitive viewpoint.
Behaviorist: 
* The teacher could use positive reinforcement by giving Lisa a piece of candy if she cooperates and works well with her group.
* The teacher could use negative reinforcement by not requiring Lisa to do homework if she cooperates and works well with her group.
* The teacher could use punishment by removing Lisa from the group and requiring her to do all the work herself or even making her work during recess if she refuses to work cooperatively with her group.
Constructivist:
* The teacher might speak with Lisa privately and ask her to think about what is going wrong, why it is a problem, and how she can fix it.
* The teacher might refrain from intervening and allow the group of students to resolve the problem on their own.
 * Below is a website with some great examples of how constructivism can be used in the classroom...
Guidelines for Implementing Constructivist Alternatives to Discipline
 Cognitive:
* The teacher could model how to effectively work with a group and resolve disputes within the group.
* When disputes arise, the teacher could have Lisa practice identifying the problem, generating possible solutions, evaluating solutions, implementing a solution, and evaluating the outcome.
* Below is an article with some excellent examples of how cognitive strategies can be used in the classroom...
Cognitive Behavioral Interventions

These three viewpoints are all very different. Behaviorism basically treats Lisa as if her brain is a black box and the motivation behind her behaviors are irrelevant. All that matters is her behavior. Constructivism revolves around the theory that students construct their own knowledge. Cognitive strategies strive to provide students with the necessary tools to control their own behavior. There are certainly positives and negatives to each of the theories. I do not like the way that behaviorism totally ignores the reasons why a student is behaving a certain way. I work with a lot of students in an urban environment, and I have learned that it is often very important to find out why a student is behaving a certain way. For example, if a student is falling asleep in class, it is important to know whether that is because they chose to stay up to late playing video games or whether its because their family was kicked out of their apartment and spent most of the night trying to find a place to stay. The second scenario was totally out of the student's control and I do not believe that they should be punished for that. However, I also do not like the fact that constructivism does not explicitly tell the students what behavior is appropriate. I have known some students who thought physical violence was the appropriate way to handle a dispute. Based on their experiences and the environment they had grown up in, this is what they found to be true. They fight in order to defend themselves and others. However this behavior is obviously unacceptable in school. Yet, students shouldn't just be expected to know that if it is totally contradictory to what they have experienced outside of school. In cases like this, I think students do need to be directly told what is and isn't acceptable behavior. Overall, I think my personal theory of learning aligns most closely with the cognitive viewpoint. I like that it encourages students to think about their behavior, but it also teaches them explicit strategies for managing that behavior.

Post #7 Problem Solving Skills

As an engineering major, I've done quite a few problem solving activities over the years. I always really enjoyed them, and I think that problem solving activities teach kids a lot of valuable lessons for the real world. For this reason I will definitely try to include some problem solving activities in my future classroom. One activity that I remember doing as a kid and really enjoying was called "balloon race". We were divided into groups of 3 or 4 and each team was given...
* a roll of masking tape
* a balloon that had not been blown up
* a drinking straw
* a 20 foot piece of fishing line
* a pair of scissors
The instructions were that we had to figure out how to get the balloon from one end of the room to the other. There was a piece of masking tape on the floor near one wall of the room and we would not be allowed to touch the balloon after it crossed that line. (Therefore, the balloon needed to travel 10-15 feet without anyone touching it!)
I can definitely see myself using this activity in a 5th grade classroom. It could be used when teaching simple physics, but it also teaches valuable problem solving skills because the students are required to solve an ill-defined problem. It is considered ill-defined because there is no single correct answer. However, this is the case with most real world problems, and it is an important skill for students to learn. The activity also requires meta-cognition because the students will use their prior knowledge of how straws and balloons work. However, the students will need to get creative in order to figure out a good way to solve the problem. Below is one example of this activity and one possible solution.
Balloon Race Activity
Below is a great article I found about how to encourage problem solving in young children. It talks about the importance of providing young children with open ended materials and giving them time and space to practice problem solving. It also listed the steps for problem solving as...
1. Identifying the problem,
2. Brainstorming a variety of solutions,
3. Choosing one solution and trying it out, and
4. Evaluating what has happened.
Problem Solving in Early Childhood Classrooms

Chapter 7 - Constructivist Approach

For this post, I chose to look at a lesson that I am preparing for my SPED 402 class. It is a 4th grade science lesson about magnets. There are several things that I would do to teach this lesson using a constructivist approach.
1. Activate the students' prior knowledge about magnets by having a class discussion about anything  they already know about the topic.
2. Allow students to individually experiment with magnets and different objects. This would allow them to come to their own conclusions about how magnets work and what kinds of things they attract or repel.
3. Have students discuss their conclusions with their classmates. This group interaction would allow them to compare their ideas and build off of each others' knowledge.
4. We would wrap up the lesson by having a class discussion about their conclusions. I would also ask students to give some examples of how magnets are used (or could be used) in daily life.

Below is a link to an interesting article that I found about how constructivist theory can be applied to mathematics. I think this is important because teachers often encourage students to memorize formulas without actually understanding the reasoning behind it. Constructivism emphasizes the importance of building off of prior knowledge and utilizing real world examples.
Constructivist Learning and Teaching