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

Ch. 6 (Memory Processes)

Knowledge about memory processes can be very beneficial when trying to help students remember some specific information. Recently, we have been learning specifically about long term memory and things such as declarative vs. procedural knowledge and explicit vs. implicit knowledge. One important thing to remember when teaching students is that meaningful learning has proven to be somewhat more effective for long term memory storage than rote learning. For this reason, I will try to have my students complete fewer rehearsal tasks and more meaningful tasks such as organization, elaboration, and using visual imagery.
Below is a link to an interesting article about how to help students remember information.
Memory Strategies To Help Students Remember What They See And Hear In The Classroom
In addition to the strategies mentioned above, the article contains some great examples of memory strategies that can be used in the classroom. Some of my favorite strategies from the article include...
* Associate the information by linking it, finding a similar theme and/or finding what is similar between the items.
* Think of examples of what you are trying to remember.
* Change the information to a different format, that is, from words to pictures or from images to words.

Ch. 6 (Cognitive Learning)

Cognitive learning is a very important thing to keep in mind when designing lessons for students. There are a couple of things that I definitely want my students to be able to do that relate to cognitive learning. First, I certainly want them to be able to remember important concepts and topics. I will try to promote this by making lessons interesting and relating them to what the students already know. I will also try to be mindful of their cognitive load and not give them too much information all at once. I also want my students to be able to think logically and explain how they solved a problem or why they chose a certain answer. This is a crucial skill that they will need in the real world. I will try to encourage this skill by regularly asking the students to explain their answers.

Below is an article I found about different strategies that can be used to support cognitive learning.
Cognitive Strategies
I particularly liked the quote that, "A cognitive strategy serves to support the learner as he or she develops internal procedures that enable him/her to perform tasks that are complex" (Rosenshine, 1997). I thought that was a great explanation of what a cognitive strategy is. The article also gave some great examples of cognitive strategies that can be used in the classroom.

Assessment

Assessment is a very important topic, and I think it is crucial that teachers incorporate both formal and informal assessments into their lesson plans. I think this is especially applicable when teaching math and gauging whether or not the students are understanding the material. For example, I might be teaching a lesson about long division to a group of 5th graders. I would probably start out the lesson by explaining the concept of division and its real world applications. Next, I would give each of the students a post-it note and have them write down a way that they think division might be used in the real world. I would have the students come stick their post-its on the board, and we would discuss some of their answers. This would be an informal assessment to see how the students are thinking about the topic and if they understand the basic idea behind it. Next, I would tell them the exact steps for long division and work a few sample problems on the board. Then I would probably ask the class to gauge how well they feel like they understand it by giving a thumbs up, thumbs in the middle, or thumbs down. This would be another type of informal assessment. If they majority of the students gave a thumbs up then I would probably move on and give each of the students their own individual white board and dry erase marker. I would then give the students a problem to solve on their white boards. As they are working, I would walk around the class and watch them work the problem to see which students might still be struggling with the concept and provide them with some extra help as needed. This would be yet another type of informal assessment to gauge their understanding. I would repeat this process until all of the students had worked several problems individually. Finally, I would have the students complete an assignment about long division (probably a specific set of problems that I designed to test their knowledge). This would be considered a more formal assessment. In addition to the methods mentioned above, below are some informal and formal assessments that could be used with this lesson:
informal: long division game where the teacher observes the students playing and assesses how well they understand the concept, ask the students to explain long division in their own words, have the students work in partners where one student works a problem while the other student coaches them through it and checks their work
formal: give a quiz at the end of the lesson, give a test at the end of the chapter, have students complete a graded assignment consisting of several story problems that incorporate long division

Below is a link to an article I found about different types of informal assessments. Some of my personal favorites included: application cards, brainstorming, directed paraphrasing, and hand signals.

Informal Assessment Strategies: A-Z for the Math Curriculum

Chapter 13

There are certainly a lot of factors that go into creating a productive learning environment. In class we discussed the importance of the physical arrangement of the classroom, maintaining positive relationships with students, and setting limits for behavior. I plan to use all of these strategies within my future classroom. Below is a link to an article I found about classroom management in urban schools. The article is rather long, but it is worth reading because it contains so much valuable information about working with students in urban schools.
Urban Teachers Professed Classroom Management Strategies
I have done a fair amount of volunteer work with urban students and I can relate to so many of issues raised in this article. I think some of the most important quotes from the article are...
*"Urban students may experience a greater need than suburban students for developing close relationships with teachers."
*"Students preferred teachers who displayed caring bonds and attitudes toward them, and teachers who establish community and family type classroom environments."
*"Urban children expect much more direct verbal commands than perhaps suburban or rural students may expect or receive."
*Students said that effective teachers adhered to the policy that, "There were no acceptable reasons why every student eventually could not complete his or her work, and there were no acceptable reasons why a teacher would give up on a child."
*"Always follow up and keep your promises to them. Doing exactly what you say you'll do means something to students. They experience so many empty promises."
I think this article makes it clear that relationships with students are an important (perhaps the most important) component of creating a productive learning environment. As a teacher, I want my students to know that I care about them and want to help them be successful. I want them to know that I believe in them and will maintain high expectations for academics and behavior. I think this will be an important factor in my classroom management strategy.

For the Elementary Education Case Study, I would handle the situation in several steps.
1. First, I would try cueing Lisa and see if that is enough to get her working with the group appropriately. I would try to remain in close proximity to that group and use subtle cues when I notice Lisa causing problems.
2. If that does not work, I would speak with Lisa privately about the problem. I would ask her about the issues her group has been having, and discuss with her some general strategies for working with a group. For example: listen when others are speaking, remember that sometimes you have to compromise, everyone must work together in order to succeed, etc. I would also give her a printed list of this information as a reminder of our discussion. Finally, I would make it clear that I expect her behavior and participation to improve.
3. If steps 1 and 2 did not alleviate the problem, I would meet with Lisa again. I would discuss with her the fact that her group is still having problems, and this time I would give her much more explicit instructions. From now on, I will give her an assigned job since she was unable to cooperate with her group in deciding who gets what job. She will be expected to complete this job without complaint. I will also make sure that she receives very specific instructions about what her job entails and how she is expected to interact with other group members. If this strategy works, then we will try and gradually work back towards less structured group participation.
4. If Lisa still chooses not to cooperate, then I would give her an individual assignment covering the same material, but that is much less fun and requires a little more work. Hopefully this would motivate her to want to go back to participating in the group work.

Motivation

In class this week we learned about different theories of motivation. We specifically learned about extrinsic motivation, intrinsic motivation, expectancy theory, value theory, behaviorist theory, self-efficacy theory, goal theory, attribution theory, social cognitive theory, cognitive theory, and socio-cultural theory. I was most interested in the value theory of motivation. This theory states that people must believe there are direct and indirect benefits for performing a task. As a student, I constantly found myself wondering when I would ever need to know this information in real life. I absolutely hated the idea that I simply had to learn things to pass a test and then I would never use that knowledge again. I have always been much more motivated to learn topics when I felt like the information was useful.
My goal is to someday work with urban elementary school students. For these students especially, I feel like it is important for them to understand why it is important that they learn the material. They need to know how the information is applicable to their everyday lives. Below is a link to an interesting article I found that talks specifically about ways to motivate students in urban schools.
Rethinking Learning and Motivation in Urban Schools

Initial Thoughts about EDPY 401

Overall, I think EDPY 401 is going to be an interesting class. I have taken one Educational Psychology class in the past, and I was surprised at how much I actually enjoyed learning the material. I think a lot of what we are going to study will be very useful in the classroom setting. My personal goal for this class is simply to learn as much as possible in order to help myself become a better teacher. In looking over the syllabus, some of the topics that really stood out to me were: motivation, complex cognitive processes, and cognitive and linguistic development. I am especially looking forward to learning more about these specific areas of Educational Psychology.
Below is a link to an interesting article I found about why it is important for teachers to be knowledgeable about Educational Psychology.
What is the Importance of Educational Psychology for Teachers?