Chapter 5 QTC

Chapter 5 (p. 137-149)

You have now read several views about intelligence. What do you think about intelligence?

Is it one trait or many? more heavily influenced by nature or nurture? a fixed capacity or a

modifiable ability? Articulate your views in a paragraph of 6-8 sentences.

I definitely think that intelligence can be more than one thing. As we discussed in class, there many aspects that could identify with intelligence. For example, the activity we did for the TP on Tuesday that had the Multiple Intelligence test. There are many different types. Some people are inclined logically, musically, interpersonally, etc. I think a person's intelligence is influenced by both nature and nurture. I feel like it leans more towards nature. To me, certain things come naturally to people. Like for myself, being social and interacting with others comes natural to me, and I think best interpersonally. Of course things come naturally but those things are learned more and more and you grow in those areas and that is how nurture is also apart of intelligence. I think that with the ability to grow in skilled areas, and in not so skilled areas, it makes intelligence a modifiable ability.

Chapter 4 Article Response

The article I read was called, "Working With Muslim Youths". I found this article to be very interesting. This article taught me many things about the Islamic faith and culture. The article focuses mainly on the conflicts that arise when Muslims are in public school settings. These people have such a hard time in public schools. This article really opened my eyes up to these conflicts and issues I had never really thought of before. Some of the conflicts they talked about were how secular western society is very open to "disrespecting religious values". This can obviously cause a problems for those of the Islamic faith. This is something that really interested me. Another thing the article talked about was how professional providers who may not know about the religion may engender negative outcomes. This worries me. I think that these children deserve the same chance at a schooling as other kids. The last thing that the article touches on is freely exercising their faith. The article notes that the free exercise clause in the Constitution protects students’ rights to freely express their faith. Then it goes on to say that school officials have the constitutional freedom to excuse students from classes for prayer and fasting. But do our schools do this today? That is what I struggle with the most. I think it is important to allow children of not only the Islamic faith, but even of other faiths to be allowed to exercise their religion freely in school. Just a thought.

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.

Elementary Case
You engage your third grade students in cooperative learning activities at least twice a day, changing heterogeneous group members once every four weeks. You have agreed upon routine procedures that your classroom community uses within their small groups, including the roles and responsibilities of group members. Lately you have noticed that one small group always seems to have difficulty grasping material and completing their project in an acceptable manner.  You observe this group carefully and find that Lisa seems to be the catalyst for their problems.  She gets angry with others if she does not get the job she wants and refuses to do her part in contributing to the group’s learning.  She constantly interrupts others in her group.  She does not pay attention when her group prepares for class presentations.

One of the first things I notice is that Lisa is definitely struggling in her social development.She isn't getting along with her peers and this obviously means there is a social problem going on. One thing I can think of would be that she may be acting out in a group to receive attention. She may not be getting attention at home and so she acts out. This ties into emotional problems as well as social. She may also not feel comfortable in a group setting with others and is used to getting her way. I think she may be used to being the one in charge and can't quite handle letting others take the control. I think there are a few ways that I can implement a plan to help her cooperate with her peers better. I think that I would take her aside and talk through what is maybe going on outside of the classroom to try to help the situation get better. If that doesn't work then I will try to work her into a smaller group and take it one step at a time. 

(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.

The ages I think I will be most likely teaching would be K-2. For Table 3.1 it says that children at this age have "Self-concept largely limited to concrete, easily observable characteristics." It is important to challenge these students to grow their already limited self-concept. It says to encourage students to extend their abilities by tackling challenging tasks they think they can accomplish. This is very important in allowing them to grow and not have such a limited self-concept. I would challenge my students to tackle things that I know are within their reach but may be a little challenging. For example, if I have a student that is always reading a certain series, I may challenge them to step outside the box and encourage them to challenge themselves to read something a bit harder. For Table 3.2 it says, ask questions about thoughts, feelings, and motives during storybook readings;encourage them to share and compare diverse perspectives and inferences. I think that this is vital for children at this age to do. Asking questions allows them to build their comprehension of the material presented and also about their own lives, and the other students. It also allows for the students to understand the different perspectives of their peers. For Table 3.3 is says, Make standards for behavior very clear. This is an integral part of my classroom. If I want respect then there must be rules. I will make sure that my children understand these rules up front. Having rules will help develop the children's moral reasoning skills. They need to know that rules are to be followed and will make the classroom a productive learning environment. Once they begin to understand this, their moral reasoning skills will grow.

Chapter 2 Questions to Consider

Chapter 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?

According to Piaget my students would most likely be performing at the Concrete operational stage of development. Some basic assumptions of the concrete operational stage are... For the students who are not functioning on this level, it is safe to say that they would either be in the preoperational stage or the formal operational stage. In order to accommodate all of these stages, its important to implement a multi-leveled lesson plan.  This type of plan allows for children who are functioning on different cognitive levels to be able to learn from the lesson.  For example, in a spelling lesson I would give the students a series of letters to make words.  There will be students who can only spell short words but there will also be those students who can make longer words. This type of lesson in geared towards the different stages of cognitive development.  This type of lesson also accounts for Vygotsky's assumption of instructor aided learning. 

(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. 

I will be teaching mostly k-2.  I think that having read-alouds are good for building their vocabulary.  Whenever we do read-alouds we would read books that are age-appropriate.  These books use words that they know but also have new words.  I can use these new words to expand on their vocabulary.  Read-alouds also allow the children to work on their attention skills.  This is important for them because it helps them to process what is being read to them and aids in retention of new vocabulary.