Struggling Student

There are several students in my clinical class that seem to be struggling.  One in particular seems to be working soooooo hard, and really gets upset if she does not get the correct answer.  This little girl is one of the best behaved students in the class.  She always sets there quietly and pays very close attention.  According to the teacher she is involved in different programs to help with her work including after school tutoring.  On Monday 2/27/2012, I was asked to teach a math lesson on fractions.  I watched all the students very closely to see if they were grasping what I was trying to teach.  (This class is really struggling with fractions, so I paid close attention to be sure not to confuse them even more!)  During this lesson I asked several students to give me the answer, and this little girl tried several times to answer some of the questions.  I could tell just by watching her that she really wanted to solve these problems, but no mater how many times she tried, she still just didn’t understand.  Finally, toward the end of the lesson she seemed to be catching on, and I could see her smiling slightly as if she was proud of herself.  The problem is that today 2/29/12 when I attended clinical and the students were moving further into the fraction lesson, she seemed just as confused as she was before.  When I talked to her about what we covered earlier, she didn’t seem to remember what we went over.  Well, she remembered doing the fraction problems; she just could not remember the processes on how to solve the problems.  I discussed this with one of the teachers in the classroom, and she instructed me that this little girl is one of the hardest working students she has ever met, but there are many things and concepts that she really struggles with including math and reading.  

Double Journal Entry #9

“No human being can achieve his full potential if his creativity is stunted in childhood.”

“In a healthy kindergarten, play does not mean “anything goes.” It does not deteriorate into chaos. Nor is play so tightly structured by adults that children are denied the opportunity to learn through their own initiative and exploration. Kindergartners need a balance of child-initiated play in the presence of engaged teachers and more focused experiential learning guided by teachers.”

“The power of play as the engine of learning in early childhood and as a vital force for young children’s physical, social, and emotional development is beyond question.”

I chose these three quotes because they are stress the importance of “play”.  Each of these quotes (or paragraphs) discusses the fact that young children need to experience play in their education in order to promote creativity and imagination.  I really like the second selection that I chose, because it is straight forward in stating that children need to experience “play”, but that does not mean to let them do what ever they wish.  Children can have fun and play in a structured environment where they are free to explore and learn within reason and maybe with a little guidance (if needed). 

Kindergarten "Play"

Double Entry Journal #8

Inquiry based learning is often new to teachers and students; therefore it may cause a little confusing and difficulty in implementing these types of lessons.  Inquiry based learning requires simultaneous changes in curriculum, instruction, and assessment practices. 

Reinforcing Effort:  In this researched based strategy it talks about how student’s attitudes and beliefs affect how well they learn something.  This is similar to project based learning in a sense that students will be building off of what they already ready know and are already interested in.  If students are interested in something then they will be more willing to learn about it. 

Nonlinguistic Representation: In this researched based strategy it is suggested that students need to receive information both using linguistic and nonlinguistic methods.  This is similar to project-based learning because students are building or creating a project that can be learned from.  Students are not only verbally learning and describing what they are doing but they are building it as well, therefore it can be seen. 

Simulations and Games:  Throughout this article is discusses how the more students learn through multiple strategies the more they will become familiar with the new concept.  With project based learning students learn the information and then build something that represents what they have learned in order to reinforce their new knowledge.  This is giving them multiple ways of looking at an aspect and how to understand it.  When students observe other classmates’ ways of viewing things and the projects that they come up with, it will give them even more ways of viewing the information.  

Double Entry Journal #7

1. The instructional model of the teacher and the textbooks as the primary sources of knowledge, conveyed through lecturing, discussion, and reading.
2. Project-based learning approaches are broader then traditional approaches in a way that tries to get students to transfer their learning and knowledge to new situations, instead of standard memorization methods. In comparative studies of traditional vs. project-based approaches have demonstrated several benefits from projects, such as an increase in the ability to define problems (Gallagher, Stephen, & Rosenthal, 1992), growth in their ability to support their reasoning with clear arguments (Stephen, Gallagher, & Workman, 1993), and enhanced ability to plan a project after working on an analogous problem-based challenge (Moore, Sherwood, Bateman, Bradsford, & Goldman, 1996).

3. Problem-based approaches have students taking an active role in building their own knowledge.  Instead of the normal lecture and memorization, students get to come up with meaningful problems and strategies on how to solve those problems. This approach has been found to be better, though, in supporting flexible problem solving, application of knowledge, and hypothesis generation (for a meta-analysis, see Dochy, Segers, Van den Bossche, & Gijbels, 2003).  Students who participated in problem-based experiences are better able to generate accurate hypotheses and coherent explanations (Hmelo, 1998b; Schmidt et al., 1996).  Students experience larger gains in conceptual understanding in science (Williams, Hemstreet, Liu, & Smith, 1998).

4. Learning by design asks students to design and create an artifact that shows their conceptual knowledge of the idea being taught, instead of the standard evaluation or assessment.  Designing an artifact or object can lead to a positive effect on motivation and sense of ownership over their designs (Fortus and colleagues, 2004). Design activities are particularly good for helping students develop understanding of complex systems, nothing that the systems can be presented as a united whole whose structure is adapted to specific purposes (Perkins, 1986).  A research conducted by Fortus and colleagues (2004) found that both higher and lower-achieving students showed strong evidence of progress in learning science concepts, by applying key concepts into a design; their design. 

5. Project-based learning is completing a task or project while learning new information.  Problem-based learning is coming up with different strategies to solve a problem.  Learning by design involves creating an artifact using knowledge or information they have already learned, this helps show an understanding. 
6. With these three approaches students get a better understanding of what they are doing.  With traditional teaching students may learn or memorize the factual information but when you ask them the question why?  More then likely their response will be “I don’t know”, or “because that is what I was told”.  When students complete “hands on minds on” learning, they are getting a way to actually understand what they are being taught.       

Research Based Strategies

It is kind of hard to compare the power point quiz and my reading assignment.  The quiz had nothing to do with homework or practice.  However, if you look at the information given on the site and compare how the quiz was given and received then a comparison can be made.  The power point quiz did not support anything in my assigned project-based reading strategy, which was Homework and Practice.  According to the project based strategy you need to give homework and practice that expands on what students already know.  They need plenty of time and practice in order to obtain the proper understanding.  Students need lots of feedback, and not only when they are making mistakes.  The power point quiz did not explore or touch on any of these aspects.  We were not allowed to get help from anyone other then the teacher, we were rushed, and all instructions were completely the same even, though we all learn differently.  To improve this assignment more time needs to be given.  Better or varied instructions need to be given and, allow students to interact with each other.  According to the article students need lots of time and practice to learn new concepts and strategies, therefore more time needs to be given and make sure students have an idea of what is going on before to rush them through something and then test them on it.

citation:

 Focus on effectivness: Homework and practices. (2005). Retrieved from https://online.fairmontstate.edu/webct/urw/lc15057011.tp0/cobaltMainFrame.dowebct

Double Entry Journal #6

First Speaker

1. Why is this video helpful for teaching in West Virginia?  It discusses how to help teach children who use a different dialect.  This may help with the urban language we experience in West Virginia. 
2. What evidence is presented that supports the credibility of the speaker?  She shows different works or stories created by students in different grades making the same repeated mistakes. 
3. Describe the traditional approach to responding to student writing?  Correction!! Teachers correct mistakes or errors in student’s grammar and overall writing. 
4. Why does the traditional approach not work in improving student writing?  Because students are following the grammar patterns of home and/or community speech.  This is what they know.
5. Name the three strategies associated with the linguistic approach to writing instruction     1.  Scientific method applied to grammar discovery                                                            2.  Contrastive analysis Marzano’s #1 strategy                                                                           3.  Code switching as meta cognition
6. How do you know the cat and Taylor go together?  They are right next to each other.
7. What is different between the two patterns of possessives for informal and formal English?  The owner and what they own!  Informal pattern= could be the owner plus what they own.  Formal patterns= could be the owner plus‘s plus what they own.
8. What strategy is being used for teaching the second grade students the different patterns between informal and formal English?  They are using code switching.  They are set for where you are at the time.  For example, the way you should write or speak in school versus they way you speak in your community.  We adjust our language to fit the setting.  Another example is text messaging. 
9. Describe how the scientific method is used to teach students to code switch.  Instead of seeing writing as mismatched we need to collect data (student writing as data) and then get students to observe and seek patterns.  Next have student describe the patterns (form hypothesis).  Then check the hypothesis.  Last have students modify their hypothesis. 
10. What question is being asked to engage students in the comparison and contrast strategy?  What changed?  This will led them to discover a pattern. 
11. How does code switching support Meta cognition?  As they think about where they are, they will think about what they need to do to fit into the setting or situation in which they are in at that moment. 
12. What evidence is presented the code switching approach works?  Describe one of the studies?  Taylor in 1991:  English teacher found that developmental students were continually failing.  She set up two different class rooms.  (A traditional classroom and a contrastive analysis classroom.)  The traditional classroom, after one semester of learning produces 8% more vernacular in students writing.  In the contrastive analysis classroom there was a 59% decrease in vernacular features. 

Second Speaker

1. How did the students respond when asked how they felt about being corrected when they talked?  They felt stupid, angry, and confused. 
2. Give an example of a "fund of knowledge" the teacher drew on to help students learn to code switch?  She asked students what they wore when they dressed up.  What they wore when they weren’t dressed up.  She explained that this is an example of formal and informal.  She went on to discuss where they would go or where it would be appropriate to where formal and informal clothes.  Then she moved onto language.  
3. What are some added benefits aside from raising test scores that stem from using contrastive analysis?  Students begin to recognize language differences.  They begin recognizing these differences on their own, they pick them up easily.  They begin to understand that people do not all sound the same but they can learn. 

Contrastive Analysis is comparing the structures of two different languages.  It is an example of both of these because to make an hypothesis you have to look at and consider many different things.  When you look at something and find its similarities and differences then this is a part of contrastive analysis.  

Double Entry Journal #5

According to this article, teacher attitudes can affect a lot.  If a teacher has a stereotypic attitude toward “standard English” and views all other variations as incorrect, then they are basically dooming those students that do not fit into the “norm”.  According to the research teachers view students with different languages variations, as not necessarily incompetent, but behind the normal level.  They did this without even actually talking to, or meeting these students.  If just collecting data is this drastic then it makes me wonder how bad these teachers are doing with these students in their classrooms.  Because of these attitudes a student’s entire schooling could be compromised.  They will not be judged or graded fairly, which means that assessments will be effected.  It doesn’t always have to be from a bad attitude either.  If a teacher is overly easy on students with different dialects or assumes that they need more help because of their dialect, then this is also affecting the students because it is hindering them from doing their best.  

Three approaches are awareness approach, critical pedagogy, and critical awareness approach.  

I am not entirely sure how I feel about it.  I want to be certain that I am teaching to all of my students and not just the “norm”.  I feel that students should be judged or graded based on their abilities and not on how they speak or anything else.  Also I want to reach all of my students, so if that means adjusting my plans or learning a language or dialect, then so be it.

Where I'm From Video

Where I'm From

WHERE   I’M   FROM

I am from ribbon and lace; the only girl of four

I am from the backwoods of Holly River, the running water and hanging rocks.

I am from family reunions and cabin gatherings, from Sloan, Eagle and Moats.

I am from the smell of mud after four wheeler rides and friendly family competitions.

From ancient Indian Burials, Snip Hunting and jokes at my expense.

I am from small town gatherings and fun in the streets.

I’m from West Virginia where we cook over open fires and eat what we catch.

From the thread that holds a family together, the one’s we remember and the one’s we  lost.

I am from motherhood, from basketball, baseball, dance, choir, cheerleading, football, and family time. 

I am from FAMILY