Barb

Before attending the Barb Rentenbach presentation, I held a somewhat narrow idea about autism, and although I have a close friend whose child has autism, I had never had the opportunity to note the differences in severity from personal experience. Barb is inspiring in that she has been able to rise above the views of others regarding her abilities and has proven that she is more than her autism. Having the type of disability such as Barb's that interferes with a person's ability to communicate must be more frustrating than most of us can possibly imagine, but Barb has put an enormous amount of time and effort into building alternative means of communicating with others. 

As someone who has studied literature for years in college, her writing is comparable with all of the writers that I have been exposed to, and I am excited about the prospect of having time to read her book as soon as classes are over for the semester. From the excerpts that we heard in the presentation, Barb has a type of descriptive language that is unlike anything that I have read in the past due to her ability to view the world differently through her "prism" of autism. This connects to one of my favorite parts of the lecture in which Lois discusses the idea of neurodiversity and how our differences in the way that we perceive the world should be seen as an advantage, not a weakness. When we think about disabilities, we often consider the negative aspects, or the things that a person is unable to do, rather than considering how a disability can create a strength for an individual. Lois and Barb are both able to look beyond that and have instead chosen to view Barb's autism as a powerful force within her that enhances her gift of writing and her creative energy. 

The most important thing that I am taking from yesterday's presentation is the mindset that despite our differences, we all bring our own unique abilities to the world, and like Barb, all of us have something to contribute. I think as future teachers, this is a perspective that should be ingrained in all of us, as we will encounter diversity in our students every day that we are in the classroom. We should learn not acceptance, but gain the ability to welcome these differences in our students and to consider how each of them can enrich the learning experience for everyone. 

Poverty and Education

             The article "Poverty and Education" by R.W. Connell discusses a topic that is a very controversial one for me personally, the impact of poverty on children's education. The discussion on poverty and education begins with the concept of power and education, and the author relates that schools are institutions of power, and this idea of control primarily effects lower class students. This portion of the article presented an argument that I had never considered, nor do I agree with. Although it is true that the dominant classes control the education system, I do not feel as if those in power have developed our nation's schools as a means to exclude the poor, as the article implies. One example of this power that the author provides is the creation of programs in more affluent schools that children of poverty do not have access to, such as talented and gifted programs. While it is true that a great deal of programs such as this depend on the school's funding, which is based on the tax income for the area, a large number of schools in poverty stricken areas are now receiving more funding than the wealthier ones. My son attends a Title I school and the students there have access to greater resources than many of the schools in the more affluent areas, and situations such as this seem to eliminate this argument of wealth determining power in education.

            The article also discusses some different strategies to help address the issues of poverty in the education system. One point that the author makes is that a whole school curriculum should be developed in which diversity is embraced, rather than a curriculum developed by the dominant, or middle and upper classes. I personally don’t feel as if this will produce any significant changes in regards to the issue of academic struggles among children living in poverty. In contrast, I think that beliefs such as this only reinforce the stereotypes of lower socioeconomic classes. Creating a curriculum that caters to a diverse group of learners is beneficial for many reasons, but I cannot see how accepting the differences between these students and more affluent ones will help them perform better academically. 

On a personal level, I generally disagree with a great deal of what I have read that addresses the topic of students in poverty and their academic performance. Most of the information I have encountered provides the typical stereotypes of those living in poverty and rarely gives viable solutions. There are a number of reasons why students in poverty struggle academically, and I frequently see these reasons generalized in education literature. Many assume that the parents are not involved in their children’s education, the children are rarely exposed to any type of educational resources outside of school, and that the schools in less affluent areas do not receive enough funding to support their students. While these are all valid reasons, they are not necessarily always the norm, and I think that although this article does express some very useful information, it is only a small portion of the whole picture of poverty and education. 

QTC 3.1 and 3.2

(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.

High School Case Study

You have started to dread your fifth period class.  It is made up entirely of seniors who are counting the days until graduation and seem to care very little about learning.  Most of the students are obviously members of one clique or another.  Whenever they think your back is turned, they start passing notes and text messaging.  Worse, three boys have started disrupting those engaged in learning.  No matter what you say, they laugh at the students who present their group projects to the class.  Yesterday, Tony, Jeff, and Morris started roughhousing; then all three of them refused to sit down and follow the class procedures that the classroom community agreed upon at the beginning of the year. Although you have been using a set approach to handling infractions of rules, you decide it is time to change these procedures. 

 The aspect of environment within this classroom plays a major role in the behavior taking place in this case study, as many of the students are not motivated to learn and are already anticipating graduation.  Although it is understandable that they are restless and bored at this point in their education, it is up to me as the teacher to find ways to engage them, regardless of their disinterest. It is also important to consider how their social environment is affecting students’ behavior, and whether the class is feeding off of the actions of their peers. Piaget’s theory of cognitive development assumes that children at the Formal Operations Stage have a higher sense of reason, and taking this into account, it is possible to adjust the mindsets of the students by providing explanations as to why behaviors should be modified. Students at this stage also have the ability to perceive alternative behaviors, but may not be able to determine what is appropriate for specific situations.

Although only three particular students have become a disruption, the rest of the class is not participating according to the expectations that were agreed upon at the beginning of the semester. Perhaps this is due to the students’ level of moral development, and by Kholberg’s theory, at this age many students may only be in Level I: Preconventional morality, and by this standard, may only be acting on the basis of punishment-avoidance. In acknowledgement of the students who are acting out only when they believe the teacher is unaware, it is noted that they are only disobeying the rules because of a lack of fear of consequences. For the other three students, they are exemplifying this stage in their lack of regard for other students’ feelings. Looking to the students’ level of moral development may assist in determining an intervention plan to eliminate problematic classroom behaviors. 

(3.22) 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.

Sense of self:

Help students to build a portfolio of their writing so that they can see how they have progressed throughout the year. 

Provide consistent praise for students' efforts, as individuals and as a group. 

Perspective taking: 

During class discussion, encourage students to consider others' viewpoints and why they are also valid. 

Have group activities in which students collaborate towards a common goal, using critical thinking problems so that students can debate their perspectives in a respectful manner. 

Moral Reasoning

Model appropriate moral behavior for students. 

Point out moral dilemmas in literature and discuss alternative solutions to the issues. 

QTC 2.1 and 2.2

(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.

9.1 and 9.2 QTC

9.1 (Lower Level: Remembering: Define, Understanding: Describe)
List five assumptions of the behaviorist perspective.

9.2 (Higher Level: Analyzing: Compare, Differentiate)
Compare classical conditioning and instrumental conditioning. Provide an example of a possible occurrence of each in the classroom, and also give a method for changing the responses.

QTC 7.1 and 7.2

QTC 7.1 Lower-Level Thinking  (Knowledge - Define, Identify, List,)
What is task analysis and how can teachers use it to break down complex topics and skills?
List three different approaches to task analysis and for each approach, provide a broad skill and two smaller, more manageable skills that coincide with it.

QTC 7.2 Higher-Level Thinking (Analysis - Compare, Differentiate, Examine)

Describe how construction in storage works and then compare it to construction in retrieval. Provide an example of a way that reconstruction error may interfere with the accuracy of information. Differentiate between individual constructivism and social constructivism and determine which of these methods of knowledge construction might be more effective and explain why.

QTC 15.1 and 15.2

Chapter 15
(15.1) Turn to p. 559 in Ormrod’s text.  Now, imagine that you are meeting with Ingrid’s grandmother today to explain her scores on the recent standardized achievement test pictured at the bottom of p. 559.  What will you tell her about Ingrid’s performance? her strengths? her weaknesses? Even though this is not a criterion referenced test, if Ingrid’s grandmother asks you what she could be doing at home to help strengthen Ingrid’s skills, what will you suggest?

    In the meeting with Ingrid's grandmother, I would begin by discussing how the assessment is scored and what each different portion of the results means. One very important thing to inform Ingrid's grandmother of at the start is that the assessments are norm-referenced, which means that Ingrid will be scored by a comparison to her peers' performance on the same tests. To further explain, I would show her the left side of the printout, which shows the subjects for each portion of the test and the percentile score. This section shows Ingrid's ranking among her peer group. For example, Ingrid is in the 92nd percentile for Reading Comprehension, which means that Ingrid has performed as well as or better than 92% of her peers.
    At the top of the sheet, it shows the different National Percentile Bands, or confidence intervals, which show the amount of error that may be affecting Ingrid's performance. What this means in simple terms is that for any particular subject, Ingrid's scores may actually fall from one end of this line of x's to the other. So, the margin of error for Reading Comprehension may be anywhere from 85 to 97. There are many factors that may affect Ingrid's test results and these numbers can help to account for this.
    I would begin discussing Ingrid's actual scores by starting off with her strengths, explaining to her grandmother that her scores in Reading Comprehension, Science, and Social Studies were well above average. Generally, when a student has performs well in Reading Comprehension, it may also contribute to their performance in other areas, especially subjects like Science and Social Studies, where a large portion of the information comes from reading and interpreting texts. This is actually one of the best subjects to have skill in because it affects performance in so many other academic areas.
    Next, I would show Ingrid's grandmother the content areas in which Ingrid's scores were not as high, and explain to her that she did not perform as well in Spelling, Math Computation, and Math Concepts. The results from these three subjects fall under Average or Below Average, and show a wide variance based on the results from the other three subject areas. However, there is always a margin of testing error, and this can be viewed on the confidence intervals section of the assessment printout.

15.2

Even though this is not a criterion referenced test, if Ingrid’s grandmother asks you what she could be doing at home to help strengthen Ingrid’s skills, what will you suggest? Provide at least three areas where the grandmother could help Ingrid.
In order to ensure that Ingrid does need assistance in those three subjects that she did not score higher on, I would need to first assess her work in class due to possible testing issues. There is the possibility that perhaps Ingrid's lower scores in these areas may be due to the format of the test, test anxiety, or other factors. In regards to what Ingrid's grandmother could do at home in order to strengthen her skills, there are many different ways that Ingrid can enhance her performance in Spelling and Math. Regardless of the fact that this assessment was norm-referenced and not based on knowledge of the curriculum, there is still the possibility of improvement in these content areas. Keeping a portfolio of Ingrid's work is a great place to start, as it shows the level of improvement over a specific length of time. By looking at previous performance and comparing it to more recent work, Ingrid's grandmother may be able to determine what particular areas in these subjects that Ingrid is struggling with. In terms of spelling, Ingrid's grandmother could help by making flash cards or going over spelling lists with her. I could provide additional math practice homework for Ingrid that her grandmother could work on with her, assisting her as needed. Another way of building math skills at home would be to provide Ingrid with some type of math website or game in which she could practice working out problems and learning new concepts.

Tabitha Cartwright 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.

My content area is English, which makes integrating a variety of assessments a little more challenging. The majority of English education revolves around presenting a work of literature for students to read, class discussion, and then a means of assessing what students have learned.

Informal Assessments
1. One method of informal assessment I would likely use in the classroom would be journaling. A way to utilize journaling would be to provide students with a few options to get them started on an entry based on the reading for the day. Some possibilities for starter topics would be to write about one major theme in the work, to consider the motives behind the actions of one character, or to consider the writing style of the piece and to create their own work of creative writing in a similar style.

2. Grading for thoughtful participation in class discussions is another method of informal assessment that can be used by English teachers. Discussion is a vital part of teaching literature in the high school classroom, and in order to have a successful conversation, students must be motivated to join in.

Formal
1. Testing is an obvious method of formal assessment, and this would work well in an English classroom. Types of questioning on a test can vary widely for English, especially when testing literature. Tests can contain multiple choice questions, true or false, and also short answer to test for reading comprehension, but can also use essay questions to check for understanding of larger themes within the work.

2. Essays are another major method of formal testing in an English class, and these can be staggered throughout the semester. For example, for each major work of literature to be read, such as for a unit on Shakespeare, different essay topics can be given for students to choose from. Essays are an excellent way to test both students progress on the course readings as well as to test writing skills.

Tabitha Cartwright 14.2

(14.2) Consider norm referenced assessment and criterion referenced assessment. Are there advantages to both? Are there disadvantages?
          Both types of assessments have advantages and disadvantages, but are also both extremely useful in the classroom.Criterion referenced assessments are based on the standards from the curriculum, and measure how well students are performing when judged against these predetermined standards. These types of test are important to determining how we are doing as teachers, and let us know what students have learned or what they might be struggling with. Criterion referenced tests also help us to set a level for minimum performance, such as establishing standards for students to pass on to the next skill level, or their need to stay on their current level for more practice. Basically, criterion referenced assessments allow for teachers to measure the progress of their students against predetermined standards, as well as to measure their own success as educators. The advantages of this type of test are that they are easily implemented in the classroom, they give educators insight into what students may require special services, and that they promote students' motivation for learning as they can be used to determine grades in a particular class. Some disadvantages may be that criterion referenced tests do not allow for varying abilities, may not account for students' various test taking abilities, and may not be a completely reliable means for testing for mastery.
          Norm referenced assessments are designed to test how well students are performing in comparison to their peers. An example would be the TCAP, which is scored by measuring which percentile a student falls into. The advantage to the norm referenced assessment is that it allows teachers to see where different students stand in terms of their mastery of a topic compared to their classmates. If there is a low variable in their particular class, but a high variable when compared to other students in the same age group, it may show the teacher's need for adapting their methods for the particular subject. However, if there is a high variable in that class, it may mean that some students may benefit from a different teaching style being implemented. It can also give teachers some insight into which students may require additional help or resources. Some disadvantages to norm referenced assessment would be that they do not account for differences in students' learning abilities, diverse backgrounds, or the fact that some students learning styles may not be in sync with the teaching methods being used.