Learning Environment/CSEL Contiuum

In order to create a learning environment that is conducive to learning, I would make sure that my classroom was very inviting and warm. I believe that in order to learn, students have to feel comfortable in their learning environment. I would want my students to feel that they could share with their peers and work together effectively. I would also make sure that I, as a teacher, did everything I could to promote academic success for my students. I want my students to enjoy learning and I would encourage them to reach their full potential constantly. I think that a conducive learning environment also has to be neat, colorful, and visually stimulating. I would  cover the walls in my classroom with helpful charts and posters that the students could reference when needed, and have tons of books for them to read.



The case study that I am working with for my CSEL is the one about Lisa, a third grade student who is having trouble working in a cooperative learning group. In order to deal with the misbehavior in this case, I would first try to identify the source of Lisa's behavior. I would look back and see if Lisa misbehaved before this particular small group activity. I would also take into consideration what I know about Lisa's home environment and community. A student's life at home could play a big role in how they behave at school and how they interact with other students. It can also be a distraction and hinder their ability to learn.

In order to begin the process of restoring the classroom environment and ensuring that the other students in Lisa's cooperative learning group can complete the project they are assigned, I would pull Lisa aside and address her behavior. I would remind her of the purpose of the cooperative learning group and let her know that I am disappointed in her behavior. I would also let Lisa know that her behavior has a negative impact on the other students. I would ask Lisa why she has been misbehaving. I would let her know that this discussion should be considered as a warning and that I expect her behavior to improve.

If Lisa's behavior does not improve, I might remove her from the cooperative learning group so that the other students can at least complete the assignment. I would give Lisa a task to do on her own in the meantime. Depending on how Lisa adapts to this new arrangement, I may send a note home to her parents and set up a conference to discuss Lisa's behavior and/or enforce some disciplinary action.

My goal in this situation would be not only to understand why Lisa is misbehaving, but to use that information to work with Lisa and get her to a place where she can enjoy learning and working with others.

I found this article, "Parental Perceptions of Cooperative Learning," very interesting. I think that parental influence can impact a student's behavior greatly so it was nice to see that so many parents supported cooperative learning in this study.

PLE Post: Chapter 11 - Motivation

After our discussion in class today, I believe that the theories that are most helpful and instructive for me are the expectancy vs. value theory and goal theory.

The expectancy vs. value theory is very important to understand because it can explain what motivates an individual. When people expect that they will do well, they are more likely to succeed in reaching their goals. Also, when people place value on something because they know that it will benefit them, they are more likely to want to learn about it and/or work hard towards it. As a future educator, I could encourage my students by letting them know that they can do well and become proficient in whatever topic they are being taught. I can also show them how valuable the information they are learning is by presenting real life examples that they can relate to.

The goal theory is important to understand because when you specifically set a goal, you are innately motivated to accomplish it. I think that the difference between performance goals and learning goals is very helpful to know, especially when working with students. Performance goals are externally determined, for example doing well on a test to assess one's competence. In contrast, learning goals are internally determined, for example seeking to understand a topic in order to increase competence. If you know what a student's goals are and what drives them, you can use that information to target how to motivate them and to figure out what techniques you can use with them.

Overall, I think that motivating students to learn is a crucial aspect of a teacher's role. Knowledge of all of the theories that we discussed in this class will definitely help me in the future when I am working with students.

The following video presentation supports what we learned in class about goal theory and expectancy vs. value theory. It also shows some disadvantage of performance goals and strategies that teachers can use to motivate their students.

PLE Post 1

My personal objective for Educational Psychology 401 is to learn as much as I can about teaching so that I can be well prepared for my intern year and my career as an educator. The topics that really interest me are classroom management/critical thinking, learner diversity, and teaching in the real world. I am also looking forward to the Teaching Projects aspect of our course and seeing the different techniques that everyone presents to the class. I definitely would like to explore learning theories and motivation to gain a deeper understanding. I think that these are very important concepts to understand as a teacher. I am concerned about the PRAXIS exams and what they will cover. I am really excited that this course will help me prepare for them!

Reading Intervention

 

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In the article, “A Child’s Response to Intervention Requires a Responsive Teacher of Reading,” Lose discusses how early identification of a child’s literacy learning difficulties should be followed by assessments and interventions. Interventions should be adjusted to fit each individual child’s needs and “show accelerative learning and steady progress.” One thing that I really like about this article is how it stresses the importance of struggling readers getting help that is tailored to them. 

The article states that “children come by different paths” in order to develop literacy. Therefore, a generic, one-size-fits-all type of intervention is ineffective when working with students with learning difficulties and may actually do more harm than good. I agree that focusing on the needs of each individual child is very important. By using assessments, educators can target what each child needs help in and focus on improving that skill. 

The article also mentions how teachers of low achievers should have quality professional development. Research found that when more money was spent on the teachers’ professional development, the achievement outcomes were much greater. This supports the idea that “the lowest-performing learners need the most skilled teachers.” 

Do you agree with this idea?

Guided Reading

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In “Guided Reading: A Research-Based Response to the Challenges of Early Reading Instruction,” Anita Iaquinta discusses the importance of guided reading in order to offer students’ balanced literary instruction. One of the benefits of guided reading is that teachers can match up the material that the students are learning with their current level of ability. As time goes on, children can move on to reading more difficult texts and are continuously challenged to find meaning in the materials they are reading. The role of the teacher during guided reading activities was explicitly stated in the article, which gave instruction on what to do before, during, and after guided reading instruction. The author also mentions how “guided reading reinforces problem-solving, comprehension, and decoding” (418). I agree that guided reading is very effective and I got to witness a teacher using guided reading instruction during my real-life reading inquiry. It was obvious that the guided reading helped a lot and it was interesting to see how the students worked at each leve.

• Do you remember having guided reading instruction when you were in elementary school?

Iaquinta, Anita. "Guided reading: A research-based response to the challenges of early reading instruction." Early Childhood Education Journal 33.6 (2006): 413-418.

Real-Life Reading Inquiry

For my Real-Life Reading Inquiry, I decided to investigate how a student’s culture, home environment, and community affect their reading development skills and proficiency.  I visited Ms. J’s 1^st grade classroom at a local elementary school to observe a reading lesson and gather more information on this subject. I personally believe that exposure to literature at a young age is great for young learners and will help them significantly when they begin their formal education. 

The two readings from our course that inform my topic are “The Jones family’s culture of literacy” article by Johnson and “Building the Literacy Foundation,” which is the 3^rd chapter of our textbook, Classrooms that Work. Both of these readings discuss how it is essential for children to be introduced to reading at an early age. Parents can influence the children at home and when they start school, teachers can continue to help students develop a literacy foundation. 

I noticed many things while visiting Ms. J’s classroom. When I first arrived, Ms. J was telling her students about “Mouse Tales.” Every day a student would get to take a stuffed mouse home and journal about what mouse does. I thought that this was a very creative way to encourage students to practice their writing skills. Ms. J also has a very large word wall in her classroom. Throughout the lesson I observed several students referencing the word wall when they couldn’t think of a word or needed help spelling it. Ms. J also used interactive activities to keep students engaged such as “clapping” words to figure out how many syllables there were and “grabbing” a word to sound it out. After a general lesson, Ms. J spent time with students in small reading groups. While working with one group, the other students in the classroom were given the task to look for verbs in a book that the class had recently read as a whole. I noticed that Ms. J spent time going back over the lesson for that day with the lower level reading group to give them extra practice. After about 20 minutes, this lower reading group left the classroom to get extra help from specialists in the school. Ms. J worked with two other groups in the class, they read aloud, did partner reading and discussed the text. Other things that I observed in Ms. J’s classroom were multiple sections of books, lots of colorful posters, punctuation tips, several pocket charts, and flip charts.

When the students went to their special areas, I got a chance to interview Ms. J. She told me how she thinks that a literacy background helps a great deal. Recently, the demographics at her school have changed and ELL students have been integrated into her classroom. Instead of having an entirely separate curriculum, these students spend the majority of their time in Ms. J’s classroom and go to an ELL lesson for about 30 minutes a day. Ms. J believes that these students do make progress at school but when they go home they do not receive much help. Home environment makes a big difference and Ms. J can clearly see that with her students. In order to help these students get extra assistance at home, Ms. J sends a weekly newsletter to parents to let them know what their children are expected to learn each week.

This experience relates to my future teaching because I will have to work with students from various backgrounds and home environments. Ms. J definitely gave me a lot of insight on the challenge of working with students on so many different levels. She also helped me see that although it may be difficult, it is rewarding to know that you can make a difference and see the progress that students can make while in your classroom.

Vocabulary!

 

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“The Vocabulary Rich Classroom” provided some great examples of how teachers can encourage vocabulary knowledge. Students need to be exposed to words that they don’t know in order to develop comprehension. I really liked the activities that Ms. Barker and Ms. Rivas used in their classrooms. They were both great examples of how to get students to actively practice vocabulary. I thought that the way Ms. Barker changed the vocabulary she used with her kindergarteners to include more difficult words as the school year went on was a really awesome technique to promote incidental learning. Ms. Riva’s classroom descriptions activity during the morning meeting greeting was also a good way to challenge students to search for more difficult words. I especially think that this activity is great because the descriptions of their classmates help the students understand the meaning of words that they can associate with their classmates.

While reading this article, I thought about how my aunt always tells my little cousin to “use his words” when he wants something. Just like my little cousin, the only way that students can develop vocabulary knowledge is to use their words. Teachers can help students accomplish this goal by giving them tasks like the one’s mentioned in this article. 

• Can you think of another activity that students could do in order to increase their vocabularies?