Barb

I have been around a fair amount of children and adults with ASD, and I have seen all ranges on the spectrum. With that being said, I would have to say that Barb Rentenbach was exceptional; her writing shows her unique wisdom and surprises those individuals who doubt the mental capabilities of those with ASD.From the first sentence she communicated through typing to us, I amazed. She typed, "Autism is my prism, not my prison. Those words, that simple sentence resided with me throughout the entire presentation. She does not view her Autism as a hinderance; it will not cage her in and confine her to not exploring every aspect of the world. Listening to excerpts from her book was entartaining and enjoyable. I admired her sense of humor and silently cheered her on as she proved to doubters that she was not "stupid", but indeed a witty woman with great wisdom.

Poverty

Templeton: Understanding Poverty in the Classroom

            After reading this chapter on poverty, many ideas and questions were formulated in my mind regarding poverty and how to teach children who face these unfortunate circumstances. I am currently interning at an at-risk school with 100% of the children receiving free lunch. This chapter provided many examples of how to encourage and effectively teach children in poverty. In regards to high residential mobility, children feel insecure in their current environments and often have trust issues stemming from constantly moving. Once these children become comfortable in one school and one house, they must soon move and be introduced to a new environment with new, unfamiliar faces. Children in these circumstances may also be at-risk for needing additional interventions, but since they do not remain in one school district for enough time, they do not receive the proper help needed. Overcrowded living arrangements are often prevalent in the homes of children in poverty because some families need additional adults living in the home to help with bills and other responsibilities. This hinders the children in these homes ability to find a quiet space to practice school material and do homework. Lack of access to basic resources proves to be troublesome with children in poverty. Research has proven that children who read more books during the summer are more prepared to begin school in the fall. Children in poverty do not always have access to books; therefore, they are more susceptible to the “summer slide” than their middle- and high-class counterparts.

            Reading this chapter proved to be very beneficial to me in regards to my future teaching environment. I plan to work in at-risk, high poverty schools. Seeing these problems from a teacher’s perspective and examining successful ways to help combat these problems in the classroom will better prepare me for the future. The author, Templeton, wrote this with teachers in mind and wrote as if talking or discussing these matters with a teacher.

            I agree with Templeton that we, as teachers, should not continuously make excuses for children in poverty, and to also have expectations for them. I have found that when I have had expectations for a child, he or she strived to meet those expectations, and ultimately succeeded. Also, Templeton discussed that poverty does not have to be a prescription for academic underachievement. If we know the factors that contribute to academic failures by children in poverty, then we can adjust our teaching and work even harder to try to decrease the likelihood of these underachievements occurring.

Chapter 3 QTC

(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.

Early Childhood Education Case Study

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. 

1. Cognitive Development: Since nearly all of the other children grasp the daily routine just fine, I am going to state that this task is an age-appropriate activity. Since Willard has clearly demonstrated that he does not know the schedule, I am assuming that Willard is cognitively delayed in regards to the level that his peers are in. This task might not be currently in his zone of proximal development, meaning that the teacher must work with him on this task until it is something that he can fulfill independently. 
2. Language Development: Willard might come from a home that either does not speak English as a first language, or a home with taciturn parents who do not engage in conversations with Willard. Additionally, Willard might not have gone to preschool or been around many other children. All of these factors would limit his language development. 
3. Social Development: As mentioned above, Willard might not have the proper language development at this time. This would have a domino effect on his social development and cause him to act "socially inappropriate" in some situations. He might be responding to the fact that his peers are making fun of him, and he is considered as a rejected student. He might be experiencing a culture shock if he has never been in a formal schooling situation prior to beginning kindergarden. He might not know the proper way to behave in social situations.
4. Emotional Development: We never know what a child may be experiencing in his home life. Willard might need to release some emotions, and his way of doing so is playing outside. He might be trying to fulfill this prophecy by leaving the classroom in hopes to make it to the playground, or questioning the teacher about when it is time to go outside.
5. Moral Development: According to Kohlberg's stages of moral reasoning, Willard would be considered to be in preconventional morality. His stage would be the punishment-avoidance and obedience stage. He might be disobeying the rules at times when he is likely to not get caught, or so he thinks. 

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.

Grade Level K-2

1. Sense of Self: Encourage students to extend their abilities by tackling challenging tasks that they think they can accomplish. The main idea that I like about this is that children do tasks that THEY think they are capable of as opposed to something that a teacher provides for them.
2. Perspective Taking: I like the idea of having children frequently discuss their thoughts, feelings, and motives. Some children may still be in the preoperational egocentrism stage, and it is good for them to see that there are indeed other perspectives out there. Other people have feelings, thoughts, and motives, and children can only become truly empathetic by realizing this.
3. Moral Reasoning Skills: I like all of the strategies listed. I particularly like the strategies that allow the children to have autonomy in the decision making. Selfish behavior is typical in this age range, and when it occurs, prosocial behavior strategies can be modeled. When there is only one copy of a book but multiple children want to hold and read the book, the children can be responsible for developing a conflict resolution. 

Chapter 2 QTC

(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?

The children that I teach will be in the preoperational stage of cognitive development according to Jean Piaget. I will need to keep in mind that some children will be in the transitional stage, which means they may display characteristics of two adjacent stages simultaneously. To accommodate these students who are not currently at the working level of their peers, I will need to provide them with activities that are within their zone of proximal development. By having the assumption that since these children are delayed developmentally in comparison with their peers, this can lead some teachers to providing activities that are so easy for these children that they are stuck in the same developmental stage. Other teachers might provide activities that are too challenging and difficult in attempts to try to catch these children up with their peers. It would be most beneficial to provide these children with activities that support their current stage of development initially. As they become more efficient at these tasks, I would gradually provide more challenging activities to these children. 

Some children might not be on the same stage as their peers due to lack of experiences which contributes to their prior knowledge. In this case, my role would be to provide a stimulating environment that will build more experience for these children. I can engage children in more authentic activities as well to promote this.

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.

GRADE LEVEL K-2

1. Read age-appropriate storybooks as a way of enhancing vocabulary: I would be sure to read daily to my children, as well as have a block of time for them to independently read and read in reading groups with their peers. Books should be age-appropriate, however, books that have vocabulary words that are not familiar to the children is a great way to enhance their own personal library of vocabulary. 
2. Give corrective feedback when students' use of words indicates inaccurate understanding: This can be done primarily through modeling. Obviously, I need to model correct grammar and proper word usage to my children in order for them to grow and develop better language skills. Instead of correcting children, I can repeat what the children say in proper terms. For instance, in the classroom that I am interning in this semester, the children do not always use proper grammar. One child said to me, "I ain't got no more", and instead of correcting him I just restated what he said in question form by saying, "Oh, you do not have anymore?" After saying this he self corrected and responded, "Yea, I don't have anymore." 
3. Work on listening skills: In a responsive classroom approach, morning meetings and group circle time discussions are often implemented in the classroom. Children are expected to listen when others are talking, and to take turns doing so. This is established in the beginning of the school year and children should learn the expectations for listening during discussions. Also, providing activities that require children to listen to each other should be used often to practice their listening skills.
4. Ask follow-up questions to make sure students accurately understand important messages: I often ask children in the classroom I intern in to summarize the directions that I have just given. A lot of times there are children who enter the room from special education after I have already given instructions, and I have my children restate what we just went over. 
5. Ask students to construct narratives about recent events: For writing workshops in kindergarten and first grade, journals are typically used where the teacher asks a question about events in children's lives and have the children write about them. In a kindergarden class I worked in, the children would each get a chance to take home the stuffed animal that belonged to the classroom. The children would recap to the class what they did with the stuffed animal while they had him. 

Case Study #1

Case Study #1

One of your 4th grade female students is very well developed physically and looks as if she is 15 instead of 9 years of age .Today you heard a group of 5th grade boys commenting on her body in a lewd and humiliating manner. Two other teachers also heard these comments but blew them off as "boys will be boys," and "she needs to get used to it." Considering teacher ethics and responsibilities, describe how you might respond to and handle this situation.

 

Unfortunately, this case study is very realistic and a prevalent situation in today’s society. Many adolescent girls will develop rapidly, and in turn they will have features that resemble that of a mature adult. In regards to the boys’ comments, this is considered a form of bullying and I would handle it as such. I would need to immediately write down exactly what the boys said. I would not want to misconstrue their words and report that they have said something that they in fact did not say. I would take this matter to both the guidance counselor and the vice principal or principal. The guidance counselor would be able to offer support and give me ways to handle this situation. I would need to see things from a different perspective because I have zero tolerance for bullying so I would want to make sure that I did not react too strongly and that I have had time to cool off before speaking with the boys. I would ask the guidance counselor if she felt that I needed to speak to the boys, if she needed to speak to the boys, or if the teacher of the boys needed to speak with them. If I do not have a relationship with the boys I am afraid that they would not take me as seriously because they we are unfamiliar with each other. Regardless of who speaks with the boys, I would speak with my fourth grade female student. I would support her and let her know that her physical appearance is okay and absolutely normal! She may have feelings of low self-esteem from this event, and I would want to make sure that she was reassured and did not have any negative views on herself. There have been so many cases of children being bullied and harming themselves as a result of this, and I feel that if just one person could step in, it would make a positive difference.

10.1 & 10.2

10.1 Lower-level thinking (Knowledge, understand)
List some of the factors that aid in developing self-efficacy.

10.2 Higher-level thinking (Create, apply)
Create a list of helpful strategies to help promote students' development of self-regulation. These can be intended for your licensure area or for any grade level in general.

9.1 and 9.2

9.1 Lower-level thinking (Knowledge, understand)
Define positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement, presentation punishment, and removal punishment.

9.2 Higher-level thinking (Create, apply)
Create a case study involving a disruptive behavior in a classroom. Identify how you can use positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement, presentation punishment, and removal punishment in this situation.

Chapter 8

Lower order thinking (remembering, understanding) 

What is the illusion of knowing? Discuss a time in your learning when this has affected you.

Higher order thinking (creating) 

Design an ill-defined problem scenario for your children who are eager to find a solution to an issue looming at school. Give at least 3 examples of heuristics they might use to solve the problem. 

7.1 & 7.2 QTC

7.1 Lower level (Remembering, understanding, applying)

Define reconstruction error. Provide an example of a reconstruction error (can be made up or one from your own experiences).

Higher level (creating)

7.2 Create an authentic activity for a high school history class learning about the Civil War.

6.1 & 6.2

6.1 Lower order thinking (remember, understand, apply)

Recall that mnemonics are special memory tricks that can help students remember classroom material more effectively. Describe the three most commonly used mnemonics and give an example of one that would be useful to the students in your licensure area for a specified subject.  

6.2 Higher order thinking (analyze, create)

Refer to page 198 in the Omrod text. Table 6.4 lists suggested strategies to help facilitate long-term memory storage processes at different grade levels. Choose your licensure area grade level and develop at least three more helpful strategies that coincide with the age-typical characteristics.

15.1

It is very crucial for those who are not familiar with standardized testing to be informed about these tests BEFORE presenting any numbers to these individuals. Therefore, upon meeting with Ingrid's grandmother I would first explain to her the basics of standardized testing. I would tell her what I felt she needed to know about the tests in regards to Ingrid's grades, and I would inform her that she can ask any questions concerning these tests and Ingrid's scores. I would start off with Ingrid's strengths, which would be reading comprehension, science, and social studies. I would explain that the stanine column is the standard score that on average is a 5 with a standard deviation of 2. The score reflects a range of test performance and I would show her that Ingrid's scores in the three aforementioned subjects are well above average. I would show her the percentile that Ingrid is in for these three subjects. I would tell her to continue encouraging Ingrid in these subjects. She should continue using the same study habits that she has been doing in these areas because they are working for her. Also, I would have ready some new material for Ingrid to begin challenging her in these areas because she is so proficient in them already.   Next, I would show her the areas that Ingrid is struggling in.  She is struggling in spelling and math computation. I would not go into great detail about how her scores are below average in these categories, but rather I would show her some of Ingrid's previous tests in these subjects to show how she had been doing on the tests that I had been administering. For spelling, I would suggest that Ingrid spend more time studying her words and do so on a daily basis. She could practice the words in groups, and once she has mastered a group, study the next group in addition to the previous group she has already mastered. With math, I would have ready a lot of practice worksheets for her to take home, as well as some activities that can be done with her grandmother. For instance, she could have math games at leisure for Ingrid that would be a fun way for her to learn some math concepts that she may be struggling with. 

Porscha Jones 14.2

(14.2) Consider norm referenced assessment and criterion referenced assessment. Are there advantages to both? Are there disadvantages?

Norm-referenced assessment compares performance to that of peers while criterion-referenced assessment indicates mastery or nonmastery of specific topics. There are advantages as well as disadvantes to both. Norm-referenced assessments are beneficial in seeing the differences among all of your students. When comparing the results to other classrooms across the state, it allows teachers to see where their students are compared to other classrooms. Teachers that know their students well enough would be able to see how the different types of learners performed as well. Students who do not take notes compared to students who do take notes can be looked at and evaluated by the teacher. By having this information, teachers can adjust their style of teaching to help the students who did not perform as well as the others. A major disadvantage would be that the scores do not specifically state what students have or have not learned. Also, when children are shown graphs and percentages that show them where they are and where their classmates are, this might create a negative self concept. They might not believe they are as smart or as competent as their peers and this could be detrimental to their self perception.

Criterion-referenced assessments are beneficial in telling teachers what students have and have not accomplished. The questions and tasks are closely tied to curriculum and to the particular knowledge that teachers expect or hope that the students have acquired.

I believe that both of these forms of assessment should be combined as one because the results will give teachers feedback and ultimately help to adapt ways of teaching based on these results.

Porscha Jones 14.1

(14.1) Think of a lesson plan from your licensure area. Knowing that assessment is an integral part of teaching, explain at least four informal and formal assessments that you will use in your lesson plan to provide you with feedback and involve the students in assessing their own learning.

For a lesson in a third grade classroom, there are many modes of assessments that can be used. Consider a lesson where the children are introduced to four different genres of stories: fables, folk tales, fairytales, and myths. First, the children would be given a pre-assessment worksheet to discover what they already know about these four different types of stories. Some children may have been previously exposed to these genres through reading books with parents or through watching movies. The worksheet would consist of different scenarios of stories and the children would have to select which genre of story the scenario is based on the description. This pre-assessment would allow me to find out where the children are in regards to their understanding of the four different genres. Next, based off of this assessment I would be able to construct activities that I feel will best help get the children to the level of acquisition that they should be at.

Following the pre-assessement, I would begin my actual teaching. I would create a document for the smart board that would go over the four different genres and demonstrate specific key points in the story that will determine which genre it is. For instance, I would have a slide that informs the children that fables always have a moral at the end of the story. Next, I would give specific examples of the morals. In "The Turtle and the Hare" the moral would be, "slow and steady wins the race". After my part of teaching, I would allow the children to come up and demonstrate their learning. I might have a game on the smart board where the children would have to drag the correct genre to the description offered. For instance, one blank would say, "this type of story contains a moral at the end of the story", and the children would have to drag the word, "fable" into the blank.

After this introductory lesson,  I would have the children make a flipchart. There would be four flaps that would have the four different genres written on the front flaps. Once they open up one of the flaps, underneath the genre that they have lifted they will provide examples of these types of stories, and anything else that would help them rememeber how to identify this story. There flipcharts would demonstrate what they know about each genre and also what clues they use to help them identify the genres.

Finally, I would test the children on the material using the same pre-assessment worksheet. I would hope to see significant improvement on the initial assessment due to the other activities that the children have done thus far to ensure aquisition of four different genres of stories.