4/5 Case Study

1. What classic symptoms of a learning disability does Nathan exhibit?

He can't focus on one thing for very long, he can't remember if he has turned his assignments in or not, he is smart because he gets the answers that he answers correct, some teachers said that he is hyperactive, and the doctors put him on drugs to control him and help him focus; he didn't like them. I would say that this learning disability would be ADHD.

2. What accomidations has Nathan received in the past?

He recieved special services in his elementary resource room, from second grade on. The doctors also put him on drugs because the teachers said that he was hyperactive but he hated the drugs and says he doesn't want to go back on them.

3. What strategies would you recommend to help Nathan work with his learning disability? Why?

I would recommend modifying his schedule and work environment. She could move his desk away from distractions and put it by her desk; this would help him to focus more and the teacher would be there to help monitor his behavior. She could also provide an outlet for excess energy. Give him quiet work that also allows many times to do some kind of physical activity. She could also give him settling-in time after recess or lunch when he has been active. Instead of having the class come right in and start working on stuff, she could read a part of an interesting storybook to help him settle down and get ready to focus on something else.

I think if she did things with the whole class, other than moving all of their desks next to hers, that he wouldn feel like just another student but it would be mainly benefiting him and allowing him to focus more and get his grades up and help him learn different ways that he can manage and focus on his work; something that will help him throughout his life.

4. Is Nathan experiencing a cultural mismatch? Justify your response with examples from the case study.

I don't think that he is experiencing a cultural mismatch. A cultural mismatch is when a child's home culture and school culture hold conflicting expectations for child's behavior. There is one part that the father says that he is like Nathan so like father like son but his mother says that she helps him with his homework and makes sure that he does his homework everynight. At school the teachers expect the students to do their homework and complete the work in class. So I don't think that he is experiencing a cultural mismatch because he is expected to do his work in both places.

3rd Course Contract

1. What am I doing well?

I think that I'm still doing well or even better on my study guides. Still showing up to all of the classes so that I don't miss anything that's talked about.

2. What am I not doing well?

I'm not sure what I'm not doing well. I feel like i'm doing everything well or even better than I have been doing. I feel that my test scores don't show that though. I guess that I do need to stop guessing myself on the test questions. I also need to remember to do everyhting and once I start it, don't stop. I tend to forget to come back to it until really late the night it's due or the morning of...

3. Are you making sufficient progress on your goals?

I think that I am making sufficient progress on my goals. I still need to work on procrastinating things, well it's not really procrastination, I just get so overwhelmed and busy that I forget things. I do this will all of my classes, just not this one. If I don't write everything down and then cross it off when it's completed than I sort of forget about it...

4. List specific things I need to change in order to meet my goals.

-focus more on what i'm doing
-stop second guessing myself on test questions
-try to get things done early

Chapter 9 case study

1. Is Haley's fear of men most likely due to classical or operant conditioning? Justify your response (yes, it will all be hypothetical as we do not have enough information in this case)

I think that Haley's fear of men is most likely due to Operant Conditioning. I think this because the definition of Operant Conditioning is the form of learning in which a response increases in frequency as a reslut of being followed by a reinforcement. In other words, something has happened to Haley, dealing with a man, and there were some consequences that followed it. Some bad memories or something has happended, it could be her mother being beat in front of her, or something else.

2. How might you explain Meredith's aggressive behaviors from the perspective of operant conditioning?

I think that at home her mother gets beatin or hit by her father or some other family member. I think that Meredith sees her mother getting beat, yelled, or hit and ends up doing whatever she is told. Therefore, Meredith sees this and uses it to get what she wants. Even though she is just 6 years old, she sees her mothers and others weaknessess and takes full advantage of it to get what she wants. It's easy to see the perspective through operant conditioning because she has learned that hurting someone will get her the result of whatever she wants. Overtime, it's just become more and more frequent because she realized that it works.

3. What strategies from Chapter 9 might a teacher use in working with Haley? Be specific and describe how each strategy could be used.

I think that shaping could be used. This is the process of reinforcing successively closer and closer approximations to a desired terminal behavior. So when Haley goes into violin lessons, she could get rewarded with something. Not only would the reward work but she would realize that the violin teacher isn't so bad afterall.

Another strategie that could be used is the Token Economy. She could get a "token" for going into violin lessons or even just behaving every time a strange man would enter into the classroom.

I'm sure that there are more, I just can't think of anymore right now.

4. What strategies from chapter 9 might a teacher use in working with Meredith? Be specific and describe how each strategy could be used.

You could use the "token" method but I don't think that that will get anywhere with Meredith becuase she has been hurting people to get what she wants for awhile now. I think that the group contingency strategy may work. Just because when she's in a group that has done everything they need to get a reinforcment, so they may kind of peer pressure her into doing the right thing. Not that all peer pressure is a good thing but when it's a good response, it could be a positive thing.

Also, they could use cueing. The teacher could do a certain signal just for Meredith to show that her behavior is good/expected or even when it's bad/not desired. It's difficult to tell if this will work.

I'm really not sure what else would or wouldn't work with her. It's difficult to tell, especially with very little detail of really goes on with the home life. The same goes with the strategies to use with Hayley.

Chapter 7/8 Case study

1. Describe two similarities between the traditional lesson and the constructivist one as described above.

In both of the lessons, neither one of the classes knew what "measurement" was. Another similarity would be that both classes had teachers that understood that their students didn't know the concept of "measurement"...

2. What are two benefits and two drawbacks of the constructivist approach as described above? Why? In your opinion, are the benefits worth the costs? Explain your response.

Two benefits of the constructivist approach would be that they students get to explore on their own and they are having to start to think logically. Children have to think about different concepts and ideas. The teacher doesn't really give the students the answer, they are having to find and explore things on their own. Two drawbacks would be that the children may not have prior knowledge and/or experience and so the lesson will take longer than expected. Also, the students may not know how to get around to the correct answer and they my become frustrated and just give up. Students may also just decide that because they got frustrated that they hate the idea of "measurement" and that thought will stick with them throughout their lives and may even cause their brain to shut down anytime they hear the word "measurement" or something connected with their past experience.

3. How does the contructivist lesson described above promote critical thinking? Give specific examples of critical thinking from the case study to support your response?

It promotes critical thinking by making the students have to go back to past schemas and try to connect what measurement is so that they can tell the king how big the Mayflower is. The teacher really isn't giving them any anwers and is making them try to come up with their own ideas on how to get the exact measurement of the ship. Also, when the students decide to measure the ship with their hands all of the students have to tell Mark to not let there be any gaps between his fingers and his palm so that he gets an accurate measure. Then the teacher has the smallest person in the class measure the boat with her hands so that she can show the students that it's not going to be the same measurement without actually telling them that. So the students once again have to think critically about another way to measure the ship.

4. Would the constructivist activity be considered an authentic activity? Why or why not?

I would say that the constructivist activity would be considered an authentic activity because an authentic activity is described as an activity that uses real-world resources, experiences, and sharing. They are also problem-focused and the problem that the students are focusing on is trying to get the measurement of the Mayflower to the king. In the constructivist activity, they are using their hands, feet, and body. They are also using past experiences in order to come up with different ways to measure the boat. Beyond that, they are using each others thoughts and ideas to come up with their own thoughts and ideas...so they are sharing and using one anothers thoughts/ideas to come up with new ones.

Chapter 6 case study

1. I think that the students will remeber how it felt to pack all of the stuff and actually get to "act" out actual things that they would have had to do if they were in the war. I think that in "acting" out the war, they were probably more engaged and actually wanted to participate and learn more. Whereas if they would have just read about the war in the text, most of them would have been bored and disingaged. To many students, war/history is a boring subject. This is especially true when they are just having to read it...I think that getting to actually feel how it would've been is more interesting and gives them a better idea and they will want to learn more.

2. I think that his use of Civil War re-enactment engaged students' emotions because they were probably feeling tired, excited, nervous, ect... because they were actually having to experience things. I think that the relationship between emotions and learning is that when students actually get to experience things they connect it to the emotions that they were feeling. When they have to take a test or a quiz, they are able to go back to their emotions and think of what they were doing and then from that point they could connect to actual facts or things. When you read a text book most of the time you don't get those emotions so sometimes it's hard to recall some important information.

3. Well i'm not completely sure what dual-coding is, but I think that with him showing/having them participate in the re-enactment, that now he needs to do more of a lecture/verbal type of follow-up. So I think that maybe he could do a lecture but still make it more fun and in doing the lecture, the students will be able to connect to it more because they've already had the experience of the re-enactment/visually and physically getting to see what it was kind of like to be in the war.


4. My first thought was that Mr. Dunkin provided better instruction because his students knew what they were doing ahead of time so that if they were gone they could still get homework done, but all of his work is done by lectures and from the textbook. So my opinion is that Mr. Richards provides better instruction because although he isn't organized in anyway, he incorporates different types of learning strategies. That way all of the students will get to do certain things in the way that they learn best. Mr. Richards provides many different learning environments and that will allow all of his students to learn better than Mr. Dunkin's students...

5. Like I stated above, I think that the students in Mr. Richards class will learn more than the students in Mr. Dunkins class because they'll experience many different types of learning environments and they'll all get to experience their strongest types of learning (visual, hands-on, ect.)

Second Case Study-Chp. 3

1. I think that the most effective social skill they are trying to teach is when they are trying to get the more shy children to ask if they can play or join in. I think that this is more important than they more outgoing children asking because they shy children need that extra push to do something out of their comfort zone. It may be hard for them at first but it will eventually become easier for them to go up to a group of peers and ask if they can join in. They will use this skill throughout their entire lives, not just in school.

2. I think that children's literature would help with Erikson's stage of Industry vs. Inferiority. Teachers use literature to help with social skills/making friends; Erikson's stage of Industry vs. Inferiority is when elementary age children are looking to gain self-confidence and get the recognition of parents, teachers, and peers. They do that by making things like drawings and other things. So I think that by teaching those skills, by using literature, that once they learn those social skills they will be able to get more recognition from their peers and teachers because they will be more willing to reach out and try new things.

3. Children's literature could help children develop moral reasoning by the teacher reading stories with different circumstances. After reading the book, or even stopping during reading, the teacher could ask the students what they would do and then continue reading so they would know what/how the character of the book resolved the circumstance. This will help the students becuase if they encounter a problem or circumstance that they had previously read about, they will be able to look back on the book and react how they said they would or remember how the character dealt with it.

4. The children are having to think about someone elses problems, although they are really problems that they are dealing with or have dealt with, so they are using assimilation to help Mr. Stone with his questions. I also think that they students are looking at this letter and going back to things that they've experienced so they can feel how Mr. Stones daughter feels, disequilibrium. I think that this letter is a good idea because it's allowing the studendts to go back and think about things and then encorporate them with new ideas, of how they would handle the situation. It will be a useful thing when/as the students get older; they can use this in the future for school or anysituation.

Second Course Contract

1. I'm still doing well on keeping up on the assignments and doing the study guides and reading.

2. I really should be doing better on the study guides, go more into depth on some things. Also I think that I need to be memorizing the theorists and what goes with them. I thought I was doing good but apparently I'm not.

3. I think that I'm making some progress, probably not as good as I should be but I'm slowly making progress...For me anways.

4. Well apprently I need to memorize which things go with which theorists, also I need to break up certain time for reading/studying still. I thougth that that study strategy was working but I don't know... Maybe I just need to come up with another study strategy... I'll try other things like different note takin strategies and ways to break up the reading so that my brain doesn't get overloaded...

First Case Study...

1. An episode in the case study that demonstrates disequilibrium: When the fish dies and thet teacher tells the girls that she will give him a good burial. The definition of disequilibrium is the state of being unable to address new events with existing schemes; typically accompanied by some mental discomfort. Amy was confused because she went back to when her grandpa died and went to heaven. She thought that because her grandpa didn't come back he was really gone in heaven. She didn't understand how the fish could go to heaven because she was still physically seeing it. Describe and episode that demonstrates assimilation: Well I think that it was when Amy rembers her grandpa going to heaven and her wanting the fish to go to heaven too. But the more I think about it and read through the case study I want to say that it's when the girls are walking home and Lucy asks if you have to go potty in heaven and Amy replies back by saying "Of course not, silly! You know our mommies and Ms. Bowman make us go potty before we go anywhere!" Amy is conecting the schema with not having to go potty in heaven because in real life, she knows that people make her go potty before they go anywhere, and the definition of assimilation is: process of dealing with a new event in a way that is consistent with an existing scheme. The new event is the fish dieing and heaven which is going somewhere to her and the fact that anytime they travel she has to go potty.

2. Identify a possible instance of preoperational egocentrism in the case. I would say that an instance when this happened would be when it's Amy's turn to feed the fish and she thinks that because the fish isn't eating the food and laying on it's side that it's just sleeping. Lucy then says that she thinks something is wrong and goes to get the teacher. Although, i'm really not sure because the definition of preoperational egocentrism is the inability of children in Piaget's preoperational stage to view situations from another person's perspective... I'm still a little cloudy in what part of the story that this applies to... I guess with my answer Amy is having a hard time understanding Lucy's perspective, because Amy just thinks that the fishy is sleeping and Lucy thinks that something is wrong with the fish.

3. How might a Vygotskian theorist suggest Ms. Bowman address the death of the class pet? Some of the children in the class may not understand what death is. So she may have to ask them if they have ever had something that went to heaven. That way she can use assimilation by allowing the students to connect something they know with what has happened to the classroom pet.

4. How might taking care of pets in the classroom promote students' cognitive development? Having a pet within the classroom would allow the students to get an understanding of why you have to take care of a pet or something that isn't able to feed itself or clean it's own cage. They probably can feed themselves and clean their rooms so they may not understand why other things can't do that. Also, if something happens to happen to the classroom pet, the teacher may talk to them and explain what has happened so they will be able to reason why it happened...

Course Contract #1

1. What am I doing well: I think that i'm doing in well in keeping up on assignments, doing the reading that we need to. I also think that I did ok on studying for the test.

2. What am I not doing well: I think that I still could work on doing the reading in timed incriments... because although i'm staying up on the reading, sometimes I don't remember ALL that I do read.

3. Am I makin sufficient progress on my goals: I think that I am making progress on my goals. They are goals so I will still be improving on them throughout the semester...

4. List specific things you need to change in order to meet your goals: I need to change how I read still. I need to work on reading for certain amounts of time instead of just trying to read it all just to say that I read it. I also need to try working on different ways of studying... Just because I have never had very good studying habits.

Cool Brain Research

What?

I chose to read about Dr. Judy Willis. She is a neurologist who decided to get a degree in education as well. She now teaches, writes books, articles, and give presentations. Judy is currently researching the RAD teaching strategy. The R in RAD stands for Rectangular activating system, the A in RAD stands for Amygdala, and the D stands for Dopamine.

So What?

Her research has to deal with how the brain works and how we can better teach things in the core curriculum/in general to bring all test scores up, keep the students interested and yet have them get a better understanding of all the information that is being taught. It also talks about ways that we can make our classroom very low stress/non-threatening.

In order for students to learn, they must be engaged in a relaxed and enjoyable way. The reasons that most students don't learn is because they have a fear of failure and they become bored.

Now What?

In reading about RAD, I can try to do my best to make the environment/classroom a low stress/non-threatening place. I am going to try to make learning and what I teach as fun as I can and still teach the curriculum/information that I need to be teaching. I always learned better when it was a hands-on or interesting activity. I know that you can't always teach that way but you can do something more fun in everyway that you teach, you just need to be creative...

WebQuest Step 3

What?

I really didn't know or remember anything about these types of research until we discussed them in class. It was a very nice refresher for me... I learned that the Action Research uses any of the other types of research. In descriptive and correlational research, there isn't any change or it will become experimental because you would be changing one of the variables. We also talked about that if you were to do some type of research with your class that part of the class would feel left out or that you would have parents that didn't appreciate that their child got the not so pleasant side of the research study. This really made me think because i never thought of things like that. I guess I have never really had to think of ways that would be fair for the whole class or that students wouldn't feel left out. This was very important because now I can be thinking about it and be thinking of ways that I could incorporate diffrent things but still have every student not feel left out.

So What?

I'm still not way sure of why we had to learn the different types of research. I know that it will be useful knowledge one day but I'm still not 100% sure of what I can use this information for. I'm sure i'll have to use it in the science section of my teaching, hence why i'm learning in Psychology(science class), but I can't think of a way that i would be able to describe the processes or what they are to elementary students. I know that there is a way, I just can't think of it at the moment. There are going to be ways that i'll probably have to do one of these types of research my class without them knowing it. That way I can get more accurate answeres because the students won't be trying to do what they think I want them to do.

Now What?

1) I'm not exactly sure what I still need to learn about educational research. I'm sure, well I know, that there is a lot that I need to learn because I really can't think of what I don't know or that I do know. I do know that there is a lot of information out there and i'm not sure if i'll be able to learn or comprehend everything but i'm going to try!

2) Well sometime in my teaching career i'm pretty sure that i'm going to have to do some type of research, which will be the Action research and Action research can involve any of the types of research. So it's very good to know all 4 types and what they involve or how to go about doing them. I'm sure that i'll be doing the other types of research with my students as well. That's really all that I can think of right now...

Course Contract-First Assignment

1. 2-3 specific goals for this course: I want to get a better understanding of how children learn. I also want to pass this course but still retain some of the information that is discussed during class.
2. Describe weekly preparation plan: I would really like to read for a half hour each day so that i comprehend what I read; and i'm not just hurrying to read the chapters and get the study guide done. I will aslo work on all of the assignments that are due and get them done early so that the day before class I can skim over the everything and refresh my memory.
3. I'm going to try to study in a group, I have a crazy schedule so it will be hard to meet with people when it's time to study for a test or something. I'll also just read for certain amounts of time instead of trying to read so many pages; I'm hoping this will help my brain understand what I have just read.
4. If i don't understand a topic, i'll try to research the topic. If that doesn't help then i'll ask a classmate what they think of the topic and maybe i'll get a better understanding of it listening to them. If talking to a classmate doesn't help, then i'll talk with the instructor and see if she has any ideas to help me understand the basics of the topic.
5. I will reach my goals in this course by...Trying my hardest to stay on top of the homework, reading, and study guides. Hopefully by doing these things, I will stay on task and not stress. Not stressing will help me to pay attention during class time and retain most of the information that i'll need to pass the tests.

About me...

My name is Brandee Behling... I grew up in Heber until i was 10 years old and then moved with my dad until i was 15. I then moved back from Ferron and finished High School here in Heber.

I have 6 brothers, 4 half brothers and 2 step-brothers. I love to be outdoors and I especially love to rodeo and ride my horses.

I also have a 2 year old son that is the love of my life and he loves to help me with homework!