Module 2: First Person Language, Stereotyping Dangers, and Elaboration for Memory
In Module 2, Chapter 4 focused on IQ, intelligence, and how to measure it. It also goes in-depth about learning disabilities, gifted learners, and considering student's learning styles. Chapter 5 focuses more on language and it's diversity. It mentions dialect, languages, and the difference between immigrants and refugees, and how their different styles are developed as ELL students. Chapter 6 is all about diversity. It talks about the different cultures in America and how it affects the classroom. It clarifies the differences between race, ethnicity, gender identity, sexual orientation, and all of these aspects in the teaching world. Chapter 8 focused on the different cognitive views of learning, specifically information processing, long term memory, and strategies to have more long-lasting knowledge.
Concept 1: First Person Language
Summary: Chapter 6 of the Woolfolk text is centered around Culture and Diversity. Page 222 brights light to the ideas of how stereotyping can damage a student's interpersonal view. It mentions the idea that even if they are citizens, Asian-American students are typecasted as just Asians. These students take these stereotypes and start to feel more foreign, even if they had been born here. They start to try to "Americanize" themselves to fit into American standards.
Reflection: Stereotyping is very damaging to the self-esteem of adolescents. It's imperative that we accept and celebrate other cultures. It's very sad to hear of kids and teens that are embarrassed by their ethnic family and background. At the high school level, I think that stereotyping is something that kids do, thinking it is funny, and not really understanding the gravity of their bad jokes. It's important to continually and regularly talk about the importance of diversity.
Concept 1: First Person Language
Summary: Chapter 4 of the Woolfolk text focuses on learner differences and learner needs. Page 123 mentions the importance of specific language that's used when speaking about your students. Instead of saying "an autistic student", we must shift our narrative. We have "a student with autism". In this way, we're not limiting them to being labeled by their disability. At the same time, the text mentions that some people with disabilities choose the identity-first reference in a way to take back and have pride in who they are. The text states that we should use first-person when we write but ask people how they'd like to be described.
Reflection: I think that this is extremely important to do when speaking about/to people with disabilities. This is something I try to do regularly because, in the culture of my school district, it's our preferred choice. I think it has a lot to do with respect, especially because slurs are used so frequently and without thought of how it may make others feel. Having a physical/mental disability is the same as having a physical illness and it should be treated as such.
Reflection: I think that this is extremely important to do when speaking about/to people with disabilities. This is something I try to do regularly because, in the culture of my school district, it's our preferred choice. I think it has a lot to do with respect, especially because slurs are used so frequently and without thought of how it may make others feel. Having a physical/mental disability is the same as having a physical illness and it should be treated as such.
Concept 2: Dangers in Stereotyping
Summary: Chapter 6 of the Woolfolk text is centered around Culture and Diversity. Page 222 brights light to the ideas of how stereotyping can damage a student's interpersonal view. It mentions the idea that even if they are citizens, Asian-American students are typecasted as just Asians. These students take these stereotypes and start to feel more foreign, even if they had been born here. They start to try to "Americanize" themselves to fit into American standards.
Reflection: Stereotyping is very damaging to the self-esteem of adolescents. It's imperative that we accept and celebrate other cultures. It's very sad to hear of kids and teens that are embarrassed by their ethnic family and background. At the high school level, I think that stereotyping is something that kids do, thinking it is funny, and not really understanding the gravity of their bad jokes. It's important to continually and regularly talk about the importance of diversity.
Concept 3: Elaboration
Summary: Chapter 6 of the Woolfolk text focuses on the different cognitive views of learning. On page 324, one of the ways to deepen and add information to what we already know is called elaboration. We pull from the schema we already have and then construct new ideas from it. Generally, we take the old ideas we already have, and mix them in with the new. When we do this, we can process deeper because we're linking to existing ideas. Students can elaborate by translating information into their own words, making examples/metaphors, explaining something else to a peer, drawing a diagram, acting out what they're learning, and applying that new information to new problems.
Reflection: After reading this chapter, I can remember a lot of situations from school that are deep in my memory, because of the way it was taught to me. I really like the idea of creating assignments that can be reused because they are really remembered by students. This is a great concept because sometimes teachers can get frustrated, but it just may be the way the work is presented to the students, not the actual topics. The tips that were given are great because if I ever feel that my students are struggling to grasp and remember a topic, I can use one of those ideas, like acting out what they learned.
Reflection: After reading this chapter, I can remember a lot of situations from school that are deep in my memory, because of the way it was taught to me. I really like the idea of creating assignments that can be reused because they are really remembered by students. This is a great concept because sometimes teachers can get frustrated, but it just may be the way the work is presented to the students, not the actual topics. The tips that were given are great because if I ever feel that my students are struggling to grasp and remember a topic, I can use one of those ideas, like acting out what they learned.
Emily I think its very important to practice first person language. I work in the special education department and i base many of the lessons learned in the teaching to my job today. It is alarming how insensitive people can be to others that have disabilities. First person language is a small but effective step in helping prevent negative culture towards the Sp.Ed community. While I believe its important for students to be aware of their disabilities I don't think these students should be reminded everyday because a persons inability to make a good choice in words. Another topic that you described well was diversity. Its very important to create a learning environment that is safe for students. stereotyping is something that happens very frequently in the school setting and its important for teachers to manage this behavior.
ReplyDeleteWhat is one way that you would manage students behavior if they began stereotyping in your classroom?
The way that we treat all students is important, but there are students through no fault of their own that have been hurt by society's view of them. It is important to understand our students with different abilities and understand how they would like to be seen and presented by the world. It is also important to note that students are very sensitive about their image. I was in a class with my cooperating teacher and prior to being in the class she informed me of the fact that one of students had a teacher aide. However, this young lady, this was either a class of sophomores or juniors, absolutely hated the fact that she needed an aide, she had the aid sit on the complete opposite side of the room. I was unfortunate to have only been there one day as I do not understand how the young girl would ask for help when she began to need it especially since she was in such opposition of having an aide. One piece of advice that a professor at Trinity gave to me was to not comment on a student's appearance. This goes more specifically with middle graders, but the idea is that anything can make a student embarrassed and as the teacher it is best not to draw a big amount of attention to a child we may not know was teased at the beginning of the day for an outfit they liked. All of this to say that as teachers we need to respect our students and how they desire to present themselves as they are navigating the world.
ReplyDeleteI think as a teacher it is important to learn how to effectively communicate with our students, so that they can learn to the best of their abilities. With elaboration I feel that it is very connected with shaping as they both seem to go hand in hand. In shaping it is very easy to understand where someone went wrong as we would look back to the steps that were completed. That being said I do believe that it is important to be over-prepared for a class with multiple different activities that allow for different ways for the students to understand the same lesson. This allows for students to both understand the concept, but to also understand it in different ways and perhaps to use previous concepts to deepen their understanding of the lesson. It is my personal experience that it is better to be over-prepared than under-prepared.