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.

It has been one month since the school year began and most of your 25 kindergarten students know class procedures, such as the schedule of learning activities, where they are supposed to be for each learning activity, where they are supposed to keep their personal items, and how they are expected to move about the room and the school building in order to ensure a productive learning environment.  Then there is Willard.  He must ask 20 or more times a day, “Teacher, when can we go outside to play?”  In addition, he often does not stay where he should to work on a given learning activity.  Instead, you find him wandering around the room and getting into other children’s personal things.  Three times this past week you looked up just in time to see Willard walking out of the classroom without permission.  Some of the other children in your classroom community have started making fun of Willard.  Others are beginning to become less engaged in their learning. 

Although I am in the Elementary Education program, I decided to choose the Early Childhood case study since my certification will go down to Kindergarten.  In the case it appears as though Willard is having a very difficult time adapting to the ways of Kindergarten.  His actions are starting to affect others, so some action must be taken to assure that Willard starts to follow direction more carefully.  There are many different possibilities as to why Willard does not follow directions and stay on his tasks.  

• It is possible that Willard is behind the rest of the class in cognitive development and simply does not understand that he is supposed to stay in his area and do as the teacher says.  I think this possibility is very plausible.  If this is the case the teacher would definitely need to work more closely with Willard, and may have to look into some form of outside intervention in the future.
• Another possibility is that Willard is an English Language Learner and does not understand his teacher's instructions.  I do not think this is very likely though because in this situation Willard would probably be able to pick up on what he is supposed to do by watching other students.  If he is still learning English the ELL teacher will continue to help him as needed to get him up to par.
• Another possibility is that Willard is socially insecure and does not want to be around others in the classroom.  He may be getting up and walking around to get away from others.  It could also be a specific student that is triggering Willard's response.  We do not have enough information to know if this could be the case.
• Similar to the social problems above, it is possible that Willard is experiencing emotional hardships in his life because of a bad home situation.  If this is the case it could be that Willard is just wanting attention and acting out may be his way of getting that attention from the teacher.  If this is likely the teacher needs to make sure and give Willard attention in ways that do not require him to disrupt the classroom.  The teacher needs to give Willard attention for positive interaction and engagement to show him that attention can also come from good behavior.
• Another possibility is that Willard may be disobeying because he lacks proper moral development.  While this is possible I think it is unlikely in this situation since getting up out of ones seat and leaving class does not sound like a moral issue.

(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.

The suggestions that the book offers for grades 3-5 are really helpful.  For sense of self I really like the books suggestion to focus students' attention on their improvement over time.  I really like this because it takes some of the negative attention away from a student having a bad day. If looking at improvement over time every student will have something to be proud of.  For perspective taking I really like two of the suggestions.  I love the idea of asking students who are studying historical events what the characters may have been thinking.  I also like the idea of solving problems by looking at things from the opposite perspective.  I sometimes surprise myself when I look at conflicts in this way.  For moral reasoning I cannot agree more with the suggestion to discuss with students the importance of rules in making a better classroom.