(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?
Secondary English would include students from the age ranges of 13-18, which would coincide with Piaget's Formal Operations stage and assumes that children of this age have more abilities for logical reasoning. Another aspect of this stage is understanding of more abstract concepts and not requiring a visual representation to be able to grasp an idea. For students who are not yet working at this level, I would first observe how close to this level their current standing is, as Piaget's theory must not be viewed as an absolute, but more as a guideline for children's abilities. If the student is beginning to establish these concepts, I would take the steps necessary to help them reach this stage faster, possibly by experimentation activities or by working through some more difficult critical thinking problems. Drawing connections between abstract and concrete ideas would be another method for helping students to cross over to the next level of understanding. One way to do this in an English classroom might be to draw a concept map for a story, highlighting elements such as themes, symbolism, and imagery, and adding pictures to represent the different components. If students were evaluated and found to be at Concrete Operations stage or lower, I would accommodate them by using similar techniques as those discussed above. In terms of Vygotsky's theory of human development, he believed that a child could only reasonably function within their zone of proximal development, and were incapable of anything beyond this level of difficulty. Assuming that the student in question's zpd was lower than their peers, the primary method I would use to accommodate them would be to differentiate assignments that would fall within their level, and also provide support for them during these tasks. Although I would choose assignments that they could perform with some support, I would still need to ensure that the tasks were difficult enough to push them to the outer levels of their cognitive abilities so that they will be able to keep advancing their zpd even further.
(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.
In English classes, language plays a huge role in students' abilities to perform well and learn the content. Students that are over the age of 12 should have a very extensive vocabulary at this point, which is necessary for reading the higher level literature that will be introduced in the high school English curriculum. They should also have the ability to learn new words consistently, not only those used in English classes, but across the different subjects. One method of building vocabulary is by using the appropriate terminology during class discussions. For example, when teaching literature, it is necessary to learn the correct terms for all of the various literary elements and be able to show students how to apply those terms to the text. In order to focus on these new terms, I would focus part of class discussion each day on defining and talking about the meaning of these words. I would also allocate a portion of the classroom to putting these terms up after they are covered in class so that students can look at them when they have trouble remembering what they mean.
Syntax is another component of language that is vital in English classes because it drastically changes the meaning of student writing and disrupts the flow of a written work. Many students struggle with sentence structure and how to rearrange words within their writing to express their point more clearly or to make the language flow more easily. One method to strengthen this ability in students is to provide students with a number of short sentences and ask them to combine them into one more complex and longer sentence without changing the meaning. This can help students to consider how the syntax of words affects their meaning and also to help them build writing skills.
Figurative language is difficult for a great number of students to understand at any age, but is very important to finding the underlying meanings in works of literature, especially poetry. Without a grasp of figurative language, many students may miss the messages in what they are reading. A strategy to help students build this understanding would be to have students read a poem and first underline any words or phrases that they believe may represent figurative language. As they underline, have them note by their selection what type of figurative language it is (metaphor, simile, etc.). Afterwards, conduct a class discussion to see if students agree on the instances of figurative language and have students explain why they selected certain words and why they chose each type of figurative language.
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