Barb Rentenbach reflection

Here are my stream of consciousness thoughts and reactions to Barb Rentenbach's presentation:
She types really slow. Is her mind working that slow? Or is it full of thoughts? I'm wondering how she learned to read in the first place, or even what a letter is. Lois has to stand behind her and rub her back in encouragement, almost like a child. Why is it that she keeps repeating cuss words, not just any old word?

"Autism is my prism, not my prison."

Wow. Barb's words, as read by Lois, are incredible. Barb thinks the world is better with autism. She wants to disprove the idea that autism needs the world but the world doesn't need autism. Why do I think the other way?? I assume people with autism wish they do not have it, but Barb sees advantages in autism, or even ADHD. She sees herself as closer to God than a "successful" businessman. Her writing is so clear, so professional! It appears that she has done a lot of research for this book as well. She jokes a lot with Lois.

I wonder, who edited her novel and added the commas, capital letters, and flow?

Barb: there is no standard brain. She thinks "autism is a type of neurology"--no comparisons or judgments. WE need to be careful when we medicate away ADHD. We don't know what we're missing! There are strengths with even dyslexia! Barb: "Find out who you are and be that on purpose." As a teacher, I want to find where my students excel and go from there. How can I practically do this? Where can I find the time in a classroom to spend extra had with a student with special needs, just to relate to them or get them on the same page as the class? I would love to get to be able to have a cooking session with a student like Lois can, but the classroom dynamics are not conducive for this!

Barb sees herself as Mary rather than Martha--she is contemplative and sitting at the feet of Jesus. Barb: "Know your part, be your part, play your part with conviction." "Neurodiversity is not good; it's God."

Reading Response

The article that I read in place of Ormrod’s Chapter 4 was “Critical Race Theory, Multicultural Education, and the Hidden Curriculum of Hegemony,” by Michelle Jay. I was immediately captivated by her approach, especially since I have just gotten a grasp on Critical Race Theory through a couple of English classes I took last semester. As a high school student, I was always quick to pick up on the fact that every textbook inevitably had a diverse sampling of people from different ethnicities and races scattered throughout its pages in forms of images, personal narratives or blips, or other perspective-giving means. Through this article, I began to wonder for the first time: is that enough? Multicultural education is defined by Jay as having goals “to reduce prejudice and discrimination against oppressed groups, to work toward equal opportunity and social justice for all groups, and to effect an equitable distribution of power among members of different cultural groups” (3, italics mine). Does the multicultural education we implement in schools distribute power to minority groups—whether based on race, class, gender, or culture? If multicultural education rather simply attempts to spread tolerance or “just getting along,” then the status quo remains, which in turn means that a hegemony exists: white males still have a larger share of the power. It seems harsh to put it like that, but I believe it to be so. Jay is not surprised by this fact, for she admits that “transformative knowledge,” or putting multicultural education into action, “is dangerous. It threatens those dominant groups in our society who have a vested interest in the… maintenance of dominant structures, long-present inequalities, and the current power arrangements” (5).

How can I as a teacher bring about change? I may be unusual, for I will (hopefully) be working in a school where the minority groups are the majority. Of course this does not mean I will not encounter prejudice from dominant groups; indeed, every day I imagine I will be combating stereotypes against whites, or perhaps a student who is poorer or has a parent in jail, or “blacker” students than others, or even a student of a different religion or cultural background. One stereotype I am especially passionate against combating is that “to be intelligent is to be white.” This is perhaps its own hegemony—that to succeed in a “white world” would somehow “acting white.” Instead, I want to instill great pride in my students’ background and race, so that they are confident enough to work through the hegemony of the “white world” they inevitably live in.

Chapter 3 Song

You walked into the party like you were walking onto a yacht  
Your hat strategically dipped below one eye  
Your scarflette was apricot 
 You had one eye in the mirror as you watched yourself gavotte  
And all the girls dreamed that they'd be your partner  
They'd be your partner, and...

You're so vain, you probably think this song is about you 
You're so vain, I'll bet you think this song is about you  
Don't you? don't you?

You had me several years ago when I was still quite naive 
Well you said that we made such a pretty pair 
And that you would never leave 
But you gave away the things you loved and one of them was me  
I had some dreams, they were clouds in my coffee  
Clouds in my coffee, and...

You're so vain, you probably think this song is about you  
You're so vain, I'll bet you think this song is about you 
Don't you? don't you? don't you?

I had some dreams they were clouds in my coffee  
Clouds in my coffee, an
You're so vain, you probably think this song is about you  
You're so vain, I'll bet you think this song is about you
Don't you? don't you?

Well I hear you went up to Saratoga and your horse naturally won  
Then you flew your Lear Jet up to Nova Scotia  
To see the total eclipse of the sun  
Well you're where you should be all the time  
And when you're not you're with  
Some underworld spy or the wife of a close friend  
Wife of a close friend, and...

You're so vain, you probably think this song is about you  
You're so vain, I'll bet you think this song is about you  
Don't you? don't you? don't you?

This is the song I chose to represent an idea from Chapter 3. Especially the bold lyrics exemplify imaginary audience, in which young teenagers believe themselves to be the center of attention and as a result are often obsessed with their physical appearance. I will witness this much in my high school classroom.

Ch. 2 QtC's

I cannot assume that all the high school students in my English classroom will have achieved Piaget’s developmental stage of formal operational stage. In fact, Piaget concedes that some adults never even reach this stage. For those who are not yet at the stage, I will need to exert patience and spend extra time working with them. I can model my own cognitive processes in front of the class to display the way one would go about thinking through the dilemma or complex issue. For example, if a student cannot grasp logic “if then” scenarios, I could walk through the way my mind solves the problem verbally, or in a visual diagram on the board. In regards to books, students who have not reached this stage may also have difficulty imagining a fantastic story plot, or putting themselves in the shoes of unusual characters, or understanding metaphors or symbolism. In this case, I believe it will be extremely effective to have peers who have reached this developmental stage model their own thinking processes to the students who have not.

After looking over Table 2.2 for grades 9-12, I began to think about how I can incorporate activities which will encourage language development in this age group. Especially if I teach in an urban setting, there will be a great need for the “language” of middle class and professionalism to be explicitly taught to students who may only hear the slang of their socio-economic class and culture. I want to impress that like it or not, there is a certain “dialect” that is expected in different situations, such as job interviews or in college. I could do an activity where I put the differences between classes out in the open and allow my students to say whatever they think about higher classes than them. Then we could “translate” a passage full of slang or terms they would know into “middle class, professional” language. It would be okay if the activity was slightly humorous. As an English teacher, several of the other strategies are necessarily a part of the classroom, such as exploring complex syntactic structures or consider the underlying meanings and messages in poetry and fiction.  I am looking forward to being able to aid in guiding my students’ language development.

Ch. 10 QtC's

Talking about modeling in class discussion this week has reminded me of one of the most effective times a teacher modeled a thinking process for me. It was a college professor, three years into my English major. I had spent all of high school and college getting good grades on my papers, and knew how to produce a piece of writing that would please my professors, while still not having to spend too much effort on it. But this particular college professor was not satisfied with my writing remaining stagnantly decent. She presented a very informal, very useful explanation into everything: exactly where to search for research and how to skim through articles, how to begin thinking about a topic (rather than searching through the book for evidence and then organizing a topic based on that, choosing a topic first and then close reading for evidence on that!), and most importantly how to formulate a thesis. The presentation has stuck with me ever since and has provided me with many resources for successful paper writing since. 

While this would be too complex of an issue to discuss with my students, I do think I can model a thinking process through something like writing in my future English classroom.  Many high schoolers do not know how to go about beginning a paper, and see a blank Word document as overwhelming. There is a definite process which can make it so much easier! I would have to present my tips as interesting and beneficial enough to motivate my students to give the correct amount of attention, retention, and motor reproduction to be able to later model this positive behavior.

In my case study, I want to encourage in the misbehaving students the importance of their own self-regulation and self-efficacy. After taking them aside and presenting a behavior and consequence plan, I want to relay to them that to succeed in future important contexts, such as college or the workforce, it is extremely important to be able to self-regulate oneself.  Additionally, I want to impart that the students CAN achieve in my classroom and do not have to revert to clowning around to gain attention or deflect my requirements.

Ch. 9 QtC's

Since we have been talking about behaviorism in class, I have finally been able to formulate an idea of this as a learning theory—something beyond behavior modification. I have been able to pinpoint some aspects of learning that behaviorism may be missing, but I have also found many positive attributes I hope to use in my high school classroom. One of my fears is to get to the point in an extremely disruptive classroom where the students do not listen to what I say and I feel stuck in a rut of being disrespected and disliked. Through this chapter I’ve been able to think through how I can prevent getting to that point, and can redirect attentions and behaviors when they do get out of hand.

It seems to me that behaviorists are continually assessing the progress of their students by the number of times a student repeats a behavior. As a teacher, my lesson objectives will be successfully mastered when I have reinforced them (through positive or negative reinforcement) enough times that a student is naturally inclined to repeat a behavior or remember a learning goal.  

For my CSEL case study, I could certainly apply behaviorist tools to modify the disruptive behaviors of Tony, Jeff, and Morris. It appears that these boys are seeking attention, but I cannot think of a way that ignoring them would be beneficial in this situation—as the Teacher Project from today encouraged. The behaviors of passing notes and text messaging would only increase if I ignored them, and roughhousing is simply not acceptable and would garner the attention of the other students in the class even if I chose to ignore it. If the behavior has truly gotten to an unmanageable point, and the students simply refuse to follow the rules, it may be necessary to enact a form of punishment—either by adding something undesirable, such as In-School Suspension, or by taking away something desirable, such as free time at the end of the class. For encouraging the productive and on-task behaviors of the other students, I can use smaller-scale reinforcers by expressing praise or, most significantly in my opinion, by instilling intrinsic motivators. There’s nothing like a well-earned feeling of satisfaction after doing well on a test or performing well on a choir song to reinforce studying hard or practicing much!

Ch. 8 QtCs

Teaching writing may be one of the hardest but most useful things I will have to address in the classroom. Unfortunately, I will not have the privilege of guiding individual students through the entire process of improving their writing; rather, I will have a group of students for only one year to either introduce or refine their writing skills.  Thus, I do not want to take lightly the importance of using my time in a classroom down the road efficiently.

I have always enjoyed writing, down to young elementary school when I was writing books and printing them off for my entire family to see. Throughout high school—my first experience with a teacher grading my work other than my mother—I always received exemplary grades on papers, a trend which has typically continued and perhaps led to my English major. I can’t help but wonder…what led me to this point? Perhaps I had some natural ability, but I also believe the way I was taught writing benefited me greatly, if not completely formed the way I write. The actual program was called Institute for Excellence in Writing, and its main goals were to initially—think Elementary years—instill ideas about structure and drill rules about how to formulate sentences, paragraphs and essays, until as an older student one would use these practices naturally.  One day, I would like to require some of these ideas in my own students. For example, I will require a checklist to be turned in with each paper, indicating exactly what I am looking for. There will be items dealing with technicalities such as “MLA format used,” or “Do not use first person such as ‘I’.” There will also be items dealing with stylistics, such as “Use at least two vocabulary words we have studied in class,” or “Thesis sentence is arguable and at the end of your introductory paragraph.” This checklist will give a structure and focus for my students to begin thinking about the way they are writing—which, essentially, is thinking on a page.

I hope to encourage and foster metacognitive and problem-solving skills in the way I compel my students to analyze their own writing. The organizational pre-writing process is extremely vital to the creation of a paper, especially for students who feel as if they have never mastered the writing process in the first place. To improve this, I hope to create a classroom culture in which taking notes, making annotations or summaries, and highlighting important information within the books or other works of literature we read will be necessary for success.

The final step I will use in teaching effective writing skills to my students will be to organize small-groups of peer reviewing.  This will require convergent thinking, as several minds will be put together to try to come up with the best possible way a paper could be organized or bettered. However, it will also involve divergent thinking, as one paper—seen through the eyes of multiple students—could potentially take on several different forms. In the same way, this activity will involve both algorithmic and heuristic problem-solving strategies, the students can use the checklist and other resources to go through a sequence of steps to eliminate errors, but will also be asked to improve the quality of the content of the paper—a task which may or may not fully be achieved.

 

Ch. 7 QtC's

Ever since taking Educational Psychology 210, when we discussed how to encourage critical thinking among your students, I have been planning a lesson, constructivist in nature, which I want to teach one day in my high school English classroom. This activity will best work for upperclass high school students. Much of the period will be spent with me teaching false information yet presenting it as fact, giving extreme opinions and expecting the students to agree with them, and making broad statements and then quickly brushing past them without explaining. The key will be in not varying from my teaching style so that the students do not suspect that I am giving completely wrong information.  The goal is to see if any students stop me, question the veracity of the material, or simply begin to critically think for themselves. If no student picks up on the idea, I will distribute an assessment to see what is going on in their minds: I will ask them to write a question about anything I said on a sheet of paper and turn it in anonymously.  Finally, I will reveal that everything the students learned today was completely wrong. I will hit it home hard that critical thinking is vital, both now and especially in high school.  All the time one is surrounded with opinions of family, friends or community, and is bombarded with [often contradictory] pieces of information. 

In line with the Ormrod text highlighting knowledge construction, this activity would provide opportunities for firsthand observation and experimentation, as the students themselves are the variables in the experiment. Secondly, I will present experts’ perspectives by joining the class in figuring out the true facts of every false statement or information I gave. This encourages conceptual understanding because all the knowledge we uncover will now be a part of a meaningful memory to the students. One of my passions is encouraging classroom dialogue, and so this activity is no different.  I will be genuinely pleased if a student speaks up and stops me in my tracks. Also, after the truth is revealed, I want to check in with each individual student and see how importantly they now view critical thinking. The lesson itself could be described both as an authentic activity, for its meaning-making capabilities, and as an exercise in scaffolding for its nature in encouraging—in fact requiring—the students to ask how and why questions. Finally, the lesson will create a community of learners, for the collaborative effort and unique way of pushing the students out of their comfortable idea of the classroom will ideally create bonds both between student-teacher and student-student relationships.

High-Stakes Test Stress

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/10/magazine/why-can-some-kids-handle-pressure-while-others-fall-apart.html?_r=1&

Here's an interesting article about why some kids are extremely test-anxious in high-stakes testing situations, but others can take that same test without any anxiety.

Ch. 6 QtC

Especially during the Teacher Project today, I realized how false of an idea I have had about how students will learn from me. I can present information in a certain way, but that is not necessarily the same way they will retain that information (if they even do at all!)  In fact, I will have to work to create connections so that the information I present my student is not lost but rather transported from short to long term (or the “barn”). With every piece of new information I present, my students will be encoding it and changing it depending on other stimulants.  If I can make something meaningful and of interest to a student, it is much more likely that they will remember it in the way I want them to.  A good example is the name exercise given to us—I will probably always remember how to pronounce “Sohn” because of the phrase “can’t make it to the Phone leave your message at the Tone.”  As an English teacher, I hope to be able to connect much of what we discuss in class to the real-life situations of my students.  If I can convince my students that the feud between the Mercutios and the Tybalts is not so far from their own situation, they will probably never forget the story line and meaning of Romeo and Juliet. Another effective way to aid in the storage of information in long-term memory I could use is making connections between new knowledge and prior knowledge. I want to be on the same page as the English teachers in different grades so that I can be familiar with what my students should have talked about last year. Ideally, I would also like to be on the same page as teachers across different subject areas so that I would be able to make connections between, for example, Spanish and English grammatical functions or History and literature! In the absence of prior knowledge, I will have to work extra hard to offer mnemonic devices or some other way of remembering trite information. Once I put in my part as a teacher, the rest is up to the students. Ultimately, I want my students to have the skills necessary to do well on assessments testing both recall and recognition.

QtC's Ch. 15

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zdCzwvWH0VQ

Here is a link to a video of another way a school is encouraging positivity about standardized tests that the TCAP Idol video reminded me of.

Talking about standardized tests in class this past week got me thinking about the role that they are (most likely—unless Ken Robinson gets elected president in 4 years) going to be playing  in my classroom.  Not only I will be affected by the scores; my students will be graded based on these achievement tests. I will want to be able to fully communicate both the significance of and the meaning of the score results.  If I was explaining “Ingrid’s” example score sheet on page 559, I would tell her grandmother that it appears Reading Comprehension, Science, and Social Science appear to be her strengths. You can tell this because she is in a high percentile—average to above average—for each of these subjects.  For example, Ingrid’s raw score in Reading Comprehension of “8,” which correlates to the 92^nd percentile, means she had a better performance score at this subject than 92% of students in her grade level who took this test.  Her weaknesses are Math Concepts, which still ranks in the average 57^th percentile but could still be improved, and most clearly Spelling and Math Computation.  These are the subject areas which have below average percentiles and need to be strengthened at home to help her catch up.  I would suggest that her grandmother involve Ingrid in daily computations at home, the grocery store, and the gas station, to name a few. She could also give spelling drills and quiz Ingrid on the spellings of random words throughout the day.

By the way, now that you got suckered into watching the video, I will admit that I am biased because the principal in the movie is…..my dad. But hey, I’m proud of him and the positive environment he’s built at his school! Whether educators like it or not, TCAPS are still a required aspect of Tennessee public schools, so the best way for an individual teacher to cope is to adjust and make the most out of what has been given.

Ch. 14 QtC's

In my experiences leading an ACT prep program at Austin-East High School, I have run into many students repeating the same thing: “I hate standardized tests.” I am a naturally good test-taker and got a high ACT score in high school, so at first—to my shame—I judged their comment and simply brushed aside what they were saying as basically equivalent to “I’m not that smart.” However, in truly breaking apart what the ACT is asking, I realize that it truly is merely assessing a student’s ability to take a test. Perhaps besides the Math section, none of the sections require knowledge as much as they require being able to discern what the test writers are asking and finding that within a passage. In my career as a high school English teacher, I want to rather assess my students on what they are LEARNING. I am of the mindset that if a future student comes to me and imparts everything they have learned and applied and thought about in my class, they could convince me to raise their grade. I would like to incorporate many authentic assessments (as opposed to traditional assessments) in which I measure real-life skills. For example, I could administer a “thought journal” assignment in which a student is supposed to free write on everything they know about a novel we read and connect it to any real life situation. My goal could also be realized through giving performance assessments, such as presentations of a topic from a book or oral reports. However, I am also aware that I am responsible for preparing my students for “the real world” of college, in which success is measured by how well you can take a test; in in a huge lecture room a University professor cannot assess how much a student has learned. Thus, I do not want to neglect paper-pencil assessments and, unfortunately, standardized assessments. Through this, students must learn study skills, understand how to read the questions, and figure out how to answer questions based on what the test writer is looking for.

As for norm-referenced and criterion-referenced assessments, there are pros and cons to both. For high schoolers, norm-referenced assessments are clearly important for college admissions boards to compare the education of a certain student to those around the country. However, they really don’t give any feedback to the teacher how a student is doing in their class; a criterion-referenced assessment is necessary to break down a student’s specific performance. Each type of assessment is useful in its own way, but each is also vulnerable to error, such as a teacher creating bad criteria, or a test being too standardized.

Chapter 13 QtC's

When we discussed in class different ways to transform a classroom into a learning environment, I couldn’t help but think of the classrooms which simply can’t be much improved. I will probably be in a situation at some point in my teaching point where the room is too small to rearrange the desks, there are too many “trouble kids” to place them all at the front, or disorganization cannot be avoided because materials which are not mine are in the room. I thought of Hardin Valley High School, which has teachers moving from classroom to classroom with their teaching materials on a cart because of overcrowding. I thought of classrooms in rural or urban areas which do not yet have the funding to put new desks or technology in their rooms. Ultimately, I had to come to the conclusion that what matters more than any perfect classroom arrangement is the teacher. I have the final responsibility to work around a less than ideal classroom setting, keep students in line, be interactive and enthusiastic enough to keep their attention, and be able to cue when problems are on the verge of ensuing. 

The misbehaviors in the Secondary School CSEL case study sound to me like the result of boredom.  These problems could be ameliorated by making sure the students are always productively engaged in some activity, rather having down time while certain students are practicing their soprano or tenor parts.  Having the other students involved in anther activity would disallow them to make fun of the practicing students. Disinterest in the course is also most likely a factor for texting and passing notes, but this is no excuse for bending the rules. The case study teacher seems to have enough withitness to catch on to the fact that these actions are going on, so the consequences established at the beginning of the year simply need to be consistently doled out. The behaviors of Tony, Jeff and Morris have escalated to the point where private conferences with each are necessary.  In these meetings, the teacher should express her concern for the student, re-state the rules and consequences, and work out a behavior contract with the student which lays out further consequences for further misbehaviors.  

Chapter 11 QtC's

Of course, I see positive aspects in many theories of motivation and believe that implementing a combination of several of them in my classroom will be the most effective way of reaching all the students with various levels of intrinsic or extrinsic motivation. To meet the students’ need for arousal, I could find out what interests different students and allow them at appropriate times. For example, I could have 30 minutes of free reading every Friday, or let students listen to music while they take tests if they want.  To instill self-efficacy in my students, I could begin the semester with easy topics such as grammar and progressively move on to more difficult subjects after the students feel competent and confident in the easy subject. To encourage self-determination, I could offer many choices; for example, I could have a list of good literature with a summary and background information so students can individually choose what sounds interesting to do a book report on. Maslow’s Theory of Hierarchy of Needs was also helpful in aiding me to break down the different facets of needs that must be addressed when I think about motivating my students. Finally, the focus on having students create goals was particularly instructive. In high-school, I remember my swim coach’s most effective tool in motivating me was to get me to physically write down goals I had for the next meet, by the end of the month, and by the end of the season.  There was nothing more enjoyable than meeting a goal, and nothing more motivating than just missing a goal. These were examples of performance goals, but I have also experienced mastery goals by being proud of myself for understanding a concept or achieving a level of knowledge about a topic. I would like to be intentional about having my students and I join in a contract of goals so that I may keep them accountable and can celebrate with them when goals are achieved.

First Week of Class

http://thehawnfoundation.org/mindup/

I looked up the MindUp organization after it was mentioned in class yesterday. The Foundation seems like an interetsing and successful establishment, but I am not sure how if at all it is implemented in high schools. From the Curriculum page I gathered that they are trying to instill: Let's Get Focused; Paying to Our Senses; It's All About Attitude; and Taking Action Mindfully. These are of course great topics, but I am considering how to make a simplistic topic like "being optimistic" appeal to a high school student. Just from being a student myself and from observing the high school students I teach ACT prep to, I am all too aware that stress and anxiety is a serious and prevalent issue. But the question is, how can I address and resolve these issues while coming across at their grade level? I am sure MindUp has specific approaches, but since the website did not go into too much detail I began brainstorming on my own.

There is a fine line that each student must discover between taking school seriously enough to study and care about his or her grades, and taking school so seriously that any bad grade or perceived failure deeply affects the student's mood and stress level.  I believe that before test anxiety or stress can even be addressed, a teacher needs to establish the idea that learning will MATTER in this class. This will be different for each student, as one could understand that concept immediately and others will need to be praised continually for performance or questioned and challenged about their apathy.  I have observed students who need their view of the meaning of education wholly flipped on its head.  As an example, there was a group of three boys who were on the wrestling team that started coming to the ACT prep program because of their friends that came. It seemed like it was merely a social event for them, so I was surprised when I discovered that in one-on-one tutoring sessions, I could tell they each had a secret craving to improve their test taking skills, probably because of fear of taking the ACT for the first time and making a shamefully low grade. As soon as they were in a group setting, though, a different dynamic was established. If someone raised his hand and answered the question correctly, the other two boys smirked and made comments about him trying to act so smart or sucking up. It was clear that the attitude, at least in front of peers, was that school is not to be taken seriously and "nobody should care about the ACT." I don't believe that a program like MindUp would necessarily mean anything to or affect these boys, for their view of learning and school is the deeper root of the problem!

I realize that this was a post of questions and no answers, but I am still in the process of trying out my own ways to motivate, combat stress, and implement CARE for school.