Video Post

  

  I found both of these videos to be very insightful and uplifting. I have never personally known or worked with someone who has autism; so, it was very beneficial to watch these videos. All of the information presented helped me to better understand what it really means to have autism. I felt that these videos really communicated the saying, 'don't judge someone unless you're in his/her shoes.' As with any individual, we need to be aware that everyone is different and has different needs.

    I really enjoyed watching the first video, Here We Are World. The real life footage and people made everything that was presented hit home. I learned a lot about facilitated communication that I did not know before, and watching these individuals with their facilitators brought new insight. I did not realize all of the different ways that facilitated communication can be used. It was inspiring that these individuals were able to show their competence, stay engaged in a discussion, and even be humorous with their friends. It did a good job of showing how real these individuals’ thoughts and feelings are, and this is something we need to remember when becoming a teacher. How our students feel when they are in our classroom can have an impact on their learning, as well as things like their self-esteem and self-efficacy.

   The second video I watched, Autism Teacher Please, was also very inspiring. I enjoyed hearing quotes from Barb Retenbach's book being stated from these individuals. One in particular that stood out to me was, “We are all diverse, yet all important to this world.” I felt that a lot of the information in this video would be beneficial to know when having my own classroom. One thing that really stood out to me was about how individuals with autism do not always like to be alone. I feel that this is a common misconception because individuals with autism can come off as very shy and to themselves at times. I also found it interesting to hear that school systems need to be more accepting of facilitated communication. The special education class that I took this semester really helped me to see how important it is to think about all of your students and how you can differentiate to meet everyone's needs. There are ways of doing this, whether it is peer assistance or allowing them to use resources to make sure that they feel engaged in the class and with their peers.

   I took both of these videos as another learning experience towards my goal of becoming a successful teacher. Being exposed to videos and information like this can help prepare teachers (and others as well) when they are working with children who have autism. 

Group Differences Forum-Gender

I really enjoyed completing my group differences forum and participating in the discussions today. I felt that it all went really well, and I learned a lot as well as had the opportunity to give my thoughts and opinions. Some of the points made and talked about have been addressed in my other classes, so I felt that most of us were able to bring many examples into the discussion. This helped me to see how gender, disabilities, and poverty could affect my classroom and the students in it. Being able to bounce ideas off of each other made our discussions meaningful and we were able to go more in depth. 

Focusing just on gender, I learned a lot from reading our article. It made me think about things that I had not previously thought about, like how we do not want to ignore gender just because we want a gender-free education. I liked having the opportunity to ask questions to get my peers' input on topics or statements that stood out to me. For example, should there be single sex classrooms according to subjects? If we were not cut short due to class time, I felt that our discussions could have gone on. 

Ir  

PLE 10

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.

Although I found all of the strategies to be useful, some that stuck out to me for the K-2 age range were:

• Read age-appropriate storybooks as a way of enhancing vocabulary
• Ask follow-up questions to make sure students accurately understand important messages
• Ask students to construct narratives about recent events

      In my Reading Education 430 class we discussed how reading, read alouds specifically, is the single most important activity leading to literacy achievement. Read alouds can be used across content areas to help children gain new vocabulary. It can also help the teacher to model behavior that he/she expects from their students. Read alouds, using quality literature, can help engage the students and keep them motivated in the content being taught. New vocabulary stemmed from read alouds can also assist the students in gaining a deeper understanding and constructing more meaningful questions and conversations.

    Follow-up questions allow the teacher to asses whether or not their students are coming to a full understanding of the material being presented. Teachers will be able to see if they can move on or if they need to review material again. Follow-up questions can come after reading a book, after a whole group discussion, after modeling a problem and/or material, etc. Questioning keeps both the teacher and students engaged and give the students an opportunity to also ask questions. 

    I also like the idea of asking students to construct narratives about recent events because it makes it more personable and meaningful. Students will be able to learn from their peers as well as work on other skills, like sitting quietly and listening. As we have talked about many times, students learn so much more when they find it meaningful to their own lives. 

Here are examples of different classrooms http://www.readingrockets.org/article/40991/

Chapter 10 (#9)

    There are a couple of ways that self-efficacy and self-regulation can be contributed to the intervention plans with Lisa. Since Lisa seems to not like to work with her group, she could be provided the opportunity to set her own goals for the activity or lesson. This would make it more meaningful for her, and she would hopefully want to strive to reach these goals. I would also provide Lisa the chance to monitor her own behavior. This puts it more in her control.


    In this situation, I believe it is important to build confidence with Lisa. If she is confident in the jobs and work of the group, she will want to be more active. It will help her to do a sufficient job in all of the different roles of the group. It is important to point out positive behavior and reinforce it. When she feels like she is making a difference and learning something meaningful, I feel that this will make a difference.

Chapter 9 Post #8

Through the case study with Lisa, there are many ways/tools from a behaviorist view that could encourage productive behaviors or discourgae undesirable behaviors. As a punishment (remove positive reinforcer) Lisa can be given less recess/free time. This would show that her behavior is unacceptable and has consquences. To encourage good behavior at the times she presents it, the teacher should give a positive reinforcement by praising her for her good work ethic.

From the cognitive viewpoint, the teacher's role is to focus on learning based on how people perceive, think, speak and problem-solve. Behaviorists do not take this into consideration. The teacher could take the time to talk to Lisa and understand what she is thinking. This would help the teacher to realize why she is acting the way she is. Certain factors could be causing her behavior, and talking about it or providing choices could help.

I believe both outlooks could provide benefits to the situation. I do not think that things should always be taken away from students, but sometimes just communicating with them does not work either. A balance of theories seem to be a good way of looking at this. The way we 'deal' with students depends on the individual. I do however find myself to lean more towards the cognitive theory when comparing these two.

http://www.lifecircles-inc.com/Learningtheories/learningmap.html

PLE Post #7

Think of an activity or lesson component that explicitly teaches one or more metacognitive and one or more problem solving skills.

      I found there to be many skills taught in one of my lessons I did in my math and science methods classes. It was a lesson about an oil spill and how spills can affect our environment. The students are able to explore a real life situation through this hands-on activity and decide on the best ways that we could clean up the spills. We are able to get the students to start thinking before the lesson by questioning them. What happens to animals when oil gets on their skin/feathers? Do we think the oil will mix into the water? (some examples) The students are able to see where they stand with this knowledge at the beginning, and then at the end of the lesson they are able to reflect on what they learned. Children are able to reflect by both a journal entry as well as incorporating a whole group discussion. Students are able to think about their thinking. 

     This real world situation provided an ill-defined problem. The students can come up with many different solutions on what they think the best method of clean up would be, and then they are able to discuss this with their peers. I liked how this activity focused on a real world problem and allowed for social interaction. The students are able to problem solve by manipulating different tools/materials to see what works best to get the oil out of the water. I can see where these metacognitive and problem solving skills are essential in learning activities. 

 This link provides good examples of how to get children to think about their thinking.

Chapter 7

      We focused our lesson around Social Studies. Being in the social studies method section of our Elementary Ed 422 course, we have discussed the benefits of activities being hands on and collaborative for students. Social studies, as well as learning in general, is so much more than just memorizing names, facts, dates, etc. For our lesson we chose the topic of presidents. Whole group discussions would allow students to express what they already know as well as the chance to learn from their peers. This would also provide time for questioning from both the teacher and the students. The goal of social studies is to help students become aware of their society and to become better citizens. We would take this opportunity to discuss elections and assess prior knowledge of this topic as well.  

        Students would then be in groups to collaborate and design a campaign brochure for their president. Students would have prior knowledge of some presidents from discussion as well as our other activity of doing research. They would come together as a team to present a brochure and make a poster about their president. This would allow the students to demonstrate their knowledge and understanding of the concepts. We also discussed the idea of incorporating a timeline. This timeline could be used to visually see when the presidents were in office, but could also be used for students' personal lives. We could have each individual student make their own life timeline or see how everyone in the class fit on one timeline. This can make everything more relatable. 

      I found this journal article to be an interesting read dealing with social studies and the constructivist approach..."I believe the importance of technology lies in its ability to leverage constructivist approaches to the teaching of social studies"