Standardized Tests

I agree that while standardized tests have many positive aspects to them, they can hold a very negative connotation. I've lived in Iowa my whole life, which means, that growing up it was mandatory for me to take the ITEDS. Throughout elementary school the teachers spent a few moments each day during the week before to prepare us for the test taking ahead of us. At first, these tests were viewed as just mandatory and held little significance but each year this significance seemed to grow. Therefore, each year more time and rules were devoted to them. So, each year my motivation seemed to decrease as a response to the added stress. My school began to offer prizes and other rewards such as a pizza party to those who raised their score. By the time I was in junior high, each person who raised there score by a given amount was given a school t-shirt for school pride. I was always a good students and did my best and yet was not the best test taker so, I was incredibly embarrassed because my name was not read as one who had raised their score enough. I can remember dreading these tests by the last year that we had to take them. Due to my experience; I tend to think very negatively about standardized tests. The stress involved with the ITEDS seemed to follow me when I needed to take the ACT. Though my experience with the ACT was not negative. I barely tried though I was afraid that I would do terrible. My score was average and I was content yet my school and parents thought that I need to do better for potential colleges. I retook the ACT a couple more times and finished with a score of 24.

Being able to take a step back and reflect upon my experience allows me to realize that standardized tests can create a lot of stress for students though they hold positive aspects. I think that standardized tests can be used in education if used appropriately. I do not agree with my elementary and junior high school because they gave rewards based upon a student's ability to raise their score so far. This causes students to focus on points alone and does not allow for much positive motivation. I think we also need to consider what each tests is assessing. Often it seems as though standardized tests are assessing how well a student can test take or connect the information within the test instead of how much they know about the actual material. I also disagree with schools who take extended time to learn material for these tests. Students should simply be taught the appropriate test taking skills. If we monitor what we are assessing with standardized tests and how we are motivating our students; standardized tests could be used within eduction.

Classroom Management Part 2

As I begin to think of things that could possibly go wrong within my classroom the first thing that comes to mind is the student who does not do their work. If my teaching was informed by the behaviorist learning theory then I would talk to that student about my concern for them and I would use intermitant reinforcement for their positive behavior with verbal praise or other objects the student may desire. I would not tell the student when they were going to get reinforced so that their positive behavior would not be a result of the reinforcement much like a bribe. In talking with a student I would show my concern with more than there school work. I would spend time checking to see why they are not motivated to finish their work or if there may be a reason behind this such as something going on in their home environment. With teaching that is informed by the constructivist learning theory than I would remember that most students have a separate schema for home and for school and that I may need to do a better job at finding what the student's school schema is. Then I can begin to rearrange or add to this schema. Within this conversation, I could also be informed by social learning theory by using language and things which are familiar to the student. I could give the student descriptive examples and let the student tell me how they should act. This would allow me to talk within the student's ZPD because their behavior may be a result of something that they simply need help in. Using a student's ZPD leads to the developmental learning theory because you have to keep in my the role of your student's age. Teachers need to be reflecting on whether or not they are giving their students the accurate amount of work and using this work correctly within their classroom.

Another behavior that is familiar to a classroom is the student who is a constant distraction to others because they talk out. In a circumstance in which the a student is talking out of turn while I or another teacher is talking I would need to be informed by the social learning theory because I will need to show that student that they are not respecting me or the other students within the classroom when they are talking out of turn. I can also be informed by the constructivist learning theory because this student's high rate of distractibility could be due to my ability to keep the class actively mentally engaged. I need to find away to keep students engaged by teaching information that they will find relevant in order to add to their schemas. I can also be informed by the developmental learning theory because I can reflect upon how appropriate their behavior is for their age and what the most concrete example that I could give them would be in order to help them reflect more positive behavior. Finally, I would need to be informed by the behaviorist learning theory in my decision on how I will use punishments and rewards to help this student. Within my classroom I should be able to manage in a way that allow to never need to single a student out. This means that punishment would be having that student come in for lunch to talk to me or things such as this. While rewards could be group discussion or things such as this.

Managing a classroom seems to not be something that is just black and white. It involves knowing your roles within your relationship to your students as their teacher and someone who truly cares beyond their school work to their well being. Clearly, as a teacher, their learning is at forefront but when dealing with behavioral issues we need to show that we understand what matters to our students as well. Classroom management isn't simply trying to a desired behavior from your students but also leads to your need for reflection upon yourself. When students do act out in class, we need to evaluate more than the behavior but also look to its function for the student and to how to aid the student with our teaching.

Student Motivation

In order to keep student's motivated in a classroom everything needs to be done with a purpose and informed. There are things that I would do in a classroom that go beyond a system of rewards and punishment so that my student's will stay motivated.

One key thing that I would do in a classroom would be knowing each of my student' s names and other key things about them. In an elementary classroom I will be able to find ways to know my student's interests and ways to use them within my teaching. Knowing my student's will help them to feel like they are real part of the class and using their interests will help them to see how the material is relevant in their lives. Teaching in such a way shows that I would be informed by social learning theory and behaviorist learning theory. It would be behaviorist learning theory because I am doing one thing in hopes to see a response in their behavior. It is informed by social learning theory because I am encouraging social interaction between my students and myself. I would also most likely be using language that is familiar to my students if I am using their interests within my teaching as well.

Another key thing that I would do in a classroom is that I would have a balance between authority and being the more knowledgeable peer. In the early years of elementary school, student's schema of school is being built. Students of preschool and kindergarten particularly need to see a steady balance of authority and a more knowledgeable peer. This way students will know that they need to follow directions and stay focused but they will also know that the teacher is there to help them. Teaching in this way would show that I am informed by the social learning theory. This is most evident through the use of a more knowledgeable peer but can also be seen in knowing a student's zone of proximal development. This meaning that in order for a teacher to act as the more knowledgeable peer she or he must be teaching within a student's ZPD. This allows for the student's to be challenged and use the teacher without feeling discourage/overworked or frustrated with the level of work due to the lack of challenge.

One more key thing that I would do within a classroom would be having high expectations for my students. Having high expectations for my students would challenge them to always be trying their hardest and trying new things. Hopefully, this would also lead to the students feeling confident; even confident enough to fail. Having high expectations for students, when used correctly, will lead to the students being able to try new things even when they are unsure of what to do. This would be because in correctly using high expectations students should be able to see how much the teacher respects them and their ideas. In return it may lead to the students having a high level of respect for the teacher. In having high expectations for students it is key to remember that mistakes are okay because holding students to high expectations does not mean expecting perfection. It is key to know each student's individual strengths and weakness when implementing your high expectations on them. Teaching in such a way would be informed by the behaviorist learning theory, social learning theory, and constructivist learning theory. Behaviorist learning theory is seen through the teacher's hopes a student's will try harder and hold them self to higher standards. It is also informed by the behaviorist learning theory because you desire that by respecting your students in such a way they will in return respect you and the other students within the classroom. This would be connected to the social learning theory because you are trying to use social interaction to work with students. Students will know not only from a classes work load but more so, through your relationship with them, that they are being held to high expectations. This is also social learning theory because when student's are held to positive high expectations, they are more likely to use their teacher as a more knowledgeable peer.

Classroom Management

Classroom management is something that I have been considering more and more through the year. I am generally quiet yet love to lead, which raises many questions in my mind as to how I would manage a classroom. I've decided to try to be specific in a few areas instead of general and talk about all areas.

One example would be that I wouldn't give my students any idle time. As a future elementary teacher I know that any time that the students are given to just sit or do nothing is not beneficial. I can say this keeping the behaviorist learning theory in mind. I know that the input of free time gets the output of distracted students and that leads to more behavior problems. If I can plan my time wisely than I will not only waste less of my student's time to learn but I will also spend less time dealing with behavioral issues.

Another example of how I would manage my classroom would be not using homework as a teaching tool or as something to do in my student's spare time. Homework will be something that students find useful in order to practice key things that have already been taught in the classroom. I will also not use worksheets to teach students. Things such as word searches don't teach students beyond a list of vocabulary words and do not keep them active mentally engaged. It also is text and not the most concrete to give a student. Though hopefully by the time students are doing a worksheet they have already had concrete representations of the material. This would be informed by the constructivist learning theory, social learning theory, developmental learning theory, and behaviorist learning theory. It connects to the constructivist learning theory because I would be doing my best to keep my students actively engaged and finding ways to connect new ideas to old ideas within their schemas. It also connects to social learning theory because I would keep in my the language that I am using to teach new information and review old information. Keeping the language familiar and not focusing on text alone can greatly aid students. For this to be informed by the developmental learning theory I would realize that worksheets are not a concrete representation and that text should (if possible) be the last thing that I use on a scale of representing any material. Finally, this would be informed by the behaviorist learning theory because giving students time to sit and do a worksheet that is not engaging for a certain amount of time can clearly lead to behavior issues.

A final example of how I would manage a classroom would be through establishing a sense of routine. Students need consistency and need to understand what is expected of them. In this routine the rules will be clearly laid out. This is connected to the the constructivist learning theory because I have to keep in mind that students use two different schemas for home and school. I would need to build positively on the school schema and learn to connect that to the home schema when possible.

Teaching Reflections

As I try to reflect upon the lesson that my group used I can see both the good and bad of the way we chose to teach. For example I can see that keeping the students active by making it a race is helpful but I am questioning the social interaction. I can see that it would be a good opportunity to teach about teams and sportsmanship but allows for little one-on-one interaction. Also, with the booklet of words that start with each letter of the alphabet we were able to connect things that are familiar to the students and use the appropriate language. For younger students we could connect the letter M to the word mom. I'm not sure how concrete our lesson was or how we could have made it more concrete. I suppose if the students had to draw the letter that might have been more beneficial. Trying to teach and be informed by the learning theories leaves endless possibilities for how to teach the needed material. I feel as though my group did a good job of keeping what a kindergartner's ZPD could be in mind and tried to make connections to what would be familiar to the student's schema. Of course, based on the learning theories there is always much to improve on.

Lessons

Group 1: Something that I thought group one did well was starting with words that are familiar to the students. Though I felt that the words that were given were so often misspelled that the students knew how to spell them correctly from previous repetition. Two things that I felt this group could work on was classroom management and time management.

Group 2: I noticed that group two started with a video to be more concrete and then followed that with group work. This was helpful to keep the students actively mentally engaged but later on we went quickly from videos to text which was a jump from concrete to more abstract ideas.

Group 3: This group was good as using concrete examples and keeping students actively mentally engaged by using something that could be applicable in their own lives. Something that this group could work on would be to remember to start with the concrete examples and the students zone of proximal development.

Group 4: Group four started with things that are familiar to the students and used pictures for concrete representation. They allowed for the use of a more knowledgeable peer by letting the students work together. This group could work on keeping students actively mentally engaged and finding a way to help the students truly learn the information instead of restating the facts.

Group 5: It was evident that this group tried to start concretely by starting with what is familiar to the students, english. They also used a diagram to make it more concrete and let the students try to conjugate for themselves. One thing that group five could work on would be making the "clothing" less abstract. Once it was explained that the stem was "naked" without a conjugation than it became more clear and understandable but was a pretty abstract idea to start with. Maybe draw the stem on the board and "add clothes" to it while explaining how to "put clothes" on the stem.

Class Thus Far

As I take a step back to reflect on class until this point, I am drawn to reflect on how I think that I am doing. This class is really challenging how I view learning and grading. Ninety-nine percent of my classes are or have been the usual of do the work, remember the key points, take a test, and get an accumulative grade. Yet it seems ironic that the class to teach me assessment does not involve any of this. I could typically tell you how a class is in a given semester due to my resent assignment and test scores though I may not be able to tell you how much I have truly learned. At times I wish that we were given some sign to show our progress but then I have to consider how that would affect my motivation and focus. I'm also still trying to figure out how I am doing in this class and how this grading system should affect my future classroom.

I've been pondering the questions of what we could do more or less of in class and the first things that typically pop into my head just don't work. In most of my classes I would say that we could use more activities or concrete representations instead of a teacher simply lecturing to the class. Less lecturing and more activities seem to be my most common response but does not fit here. So, my thoughts if any, would be that we are given a few take home questions. Just a few things that we could think about. I understand that our blogs and readings are a helpful way to keep us thinking but it really helps me to process, relate, and connect information with specific questions. I think that this is one reason I see the blogs as a helpful tool. Not only do they help me to assess what I already know but they also help me to search and add to my knowledge or understanding.

Planning Questions

A few questions that I would ask myself to ensure that my teaching is informed by all learning theories would be as follow:

In order to ensure that my teaching is informed by the developmental learning theory I would ask myself how each topic is represented. By doing this I would ask myself what the most concrete form of information would be and if I can accurately use this. I would also ask myself how I can move into more abstract ideas to challenge my students. I may ask my students open ended questions that don't rely on one straight forward answer. This may allow for the class to move up and down the spectrum of concrete to abstract. I may use abstract ideas to see how much of a grasp my students have on the information I am giving them or if they are simply trying to rearticulate the information in a way that would earn my praise or a good grade. I would need to ask my ask myself if I am teaching students to label their ideas or truly learn what I am teaching.

In order to ensure that my teaching is informed by the social learning theory I would ask myself how I can encourage each student to act as the knowledgeable peer in their own way or subject. I would want to find a way that no student or group of students is singled out as being like a teacher or needing help. Instead I would want to find strengths in my students that allow my for classroom building and a better understanding of the knowledge to be grasped. I would also need to ask myself what some examples of language would be that the students may use or recognize involving each topic. Using familiar language will be a key way to making new information not seem so foreign and keeping their attention or away from frustration. To be informed by the social learning theory I would need to consider how the students will be able to interact with me as the teacher and with each other. I would also consider questions or activities in which I can find common experiences among my class. Finding these common experiences will be one way that I can try to understand my students zone of proximal development. Lastly, I would need to ask myself what my students background for a specific topic is and how that will affect their understanding of it now and I will need to share it.

In order to ensure that my teaching is informed by the constructivist learning theory I would need to ask myself how much and what background knowledge or experience my students have in each specific topic. Based on this information I will need to ask myself whether or not the information that I am giving them will be able to neatly fit into their schema or I will have to find a way to restructure their understanding. I need to ask myself how my students will be able to connect the new information to any background or older knowledge they may have in this topic. I would ask myself how this topic relates to their lives in order to make it more real to them and easier to build into their schema. Lastly, I would ask myself how and if I need to make my students self aware of the knowledge or maybe misconceptions that they have about the topic. Allowing my students to think about what they already know will help them to add and build upon that.

When teaching is informed by the learning theories, there may not be a clear set of steps to take yet each aspect of teaching will have a meaningful purposeful behind it.

DLT and SLT

The subject area that I chose is science and the topic is weather. Due to the fact that I will be in elementary education, I will need to begin by focusing on the most basic of facts.

If my teaching is informed by the developmental learning theory I would start with the most concrete idea for my students. In knowing this, the first task that I would have my students complete would be to watch and record the weather as a whole class. I would most likely give them three broad options to choose from. From there I would begin to move to more abstract ideas such as how the weather affects us and what we need to wear or learning about the seasons. I may connect subjects by placing weather vocabulary words on a spelling test or a word wall within the room.

If my teaching is informed by the social learning theory I would allow students to work together and help each other when needed. So, I would most likely begin by allowing the whole class to choose what the weather is for the day and then asking a specific student to tell me what would be the appropriate clothing for recess or so on. If the specific student struggled to answer a question I may allow them to call on one other student who would serve as the more knowledgeable peer.

Combined together, I would keep in mind the zone of proximal developmental and the most concrete of ideas for my students in order that they may truly learn the information that they are being given.

Developmental Learning Theory (DLT)

The developmental learning theory is a theory that I have heard about in classes here and there. Yet it seems as though I have missed quite a few details. Perhaps this is due to the fact that the very theory itself was used to teach about it this time through. In class we started with a concrete topic and slowly moved to the more abstract. In recent classes, I was given an overshadow of the way that this learning theory uses concrete things to lead into the more abstract but they lacked in specific examples and patterns. Knowing to start with what students already know and then using things such as a video or pictures will greatly increase my ability to not assume that because I'm teaching my students are learning. Teaching is said to create useful members of society not just people who can correctly answer a few test questions for the time being.

I'm surprised by the things that I once "knew" but am now only able to use the correct vocabulary to explain. I can see how many teachers desire for their students to learn and yet fail to use the more concrete ideals of the developmental learning theory to aid their students. This often results in a good grade for the time being but forgetting soon after. For example, I once had an english teacher who would only allow to read the text given, such as Romeo and Juliet. I remember struggling through this book, not clearly understanding all of the language, and trying to find many ways to ease the struggle. After we had finished the book my teacher showed us a few clips from different versions of movies from Romeo and Juliet. Today I could probably give the basic outline of the story but only because someone explained it to me without using the text. Also, more than the text I remember those clips from the different videos. I was almost shocked by the idea of playing the movie before reading the text because this teacher had nearly engrained it in my mind that you must focus on the text.

Though this was not focusing on the concrete and leading to the more abstract, I now better understand some of my teacher's reasoning behind certain activities they had our class do. For example, one of my history teachers once had my class watch a short film on the Boston Tea Party. After watching the movie we had to draw an advertisement for someone who would want to take part in the tea party. The advertisement had to include a picture and a phrase that summarized your drawing of what took place. I can still remember what mine looked like and I believe that because of this I also remember some of the more abstract ideas involved with the tea party.

Overall, I am beginning to better understand how to teach in a way that allows students to grasp abstract ideas by using what they already know in a concrete form. Though it contradicts the way that some of my teachers have taught me it also helps me to clearly understand and appreciate other teacher's reasoning behind the way they teach.

Erin VanderSchel