Chapter 4  

    I found chapter 4 to be very interesting and I decided to do my final presentation on this chapter. I am currently working on my student teaching for my credential but have done over a year of substitute teaching. I have completed two long-term substitution positions during that time and I tried various positive reinforcement and reward systems for the students. I have also seen a lot of approaches to positive reinforcement using the reward systems and have thought that they were pretty good. In school I was one of those students that seemed like it didn’t matter how much I tried I still ended up doing average. I attributed my success on many of the four factors ability, effort, other people, and luck and I thought a lot of it was luck when I got a good grade. If I got a good grade wearing a particular outfit I would wear that same outfit to school the next test to see if it was a lucky outfit.

    Working with my master teacher for my student teaching class I saw my teacher work on positive reinforcement and trying to establish a safe environment where students could try and if anyone made mistakes it was all right. This class was a morning kindergarten class and I also was able to watch the afternoon kindergarten class that used a reward system for good behavior. This was a very enlightening time for me. I saw first hand the results of the two being used.

     I saw children with my master teacher work harder and they were not afraid to try anything that we gave them in the classroom. If they didn’t do the task correctly it was not a problem and everything was positive. We rarely had any problems with behavior in the class but if there was they were sent to put their head on a table and that was pretty much it. The other teacher also was very positive with her class but if they had problem behavior they had to move their name to yellow, which meant no ticket at the end of the day. The ticket was given everyday when the children received ten tickets they could turn them in for a prize from the treasure chest.

     I saw many of the things that happened when I used this method of reward. Children that didn’t get the reward would cry and then it would disrupt the class for ten to fifteen minutes. I experienced the same thing with third graders. Children would behave for the tickets and they would watch for you giving them out and then their behavior would get better for about five minutes and then get worse again. I did not see these types of problems with my master teacher and the children had fun working and they were proud of their work. You could see from their faces and expressions the pride in their work as they asked you to look at it.  

    It is very hard and time consuming to use this approach and get the positive results that I have seen but as research has show in chapter 4 that it works if done correctly.

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Chapter 5

    This chapter was very interesting and informative. I have always thought homework was important and necessary however I never really new how much home work to assign or what I could do to make it interesting, instead of repetitious. This chapter really gave me ideas of how to have parents help with homework and make it fun for the student. I have seen that students had problems with specific areas of writing before but I did not think to put those specific areas in the homework. 

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Chapter 6

    I have seen lessons in several of my classes using nonlinguistic representation the teacher speaking in Spanish and giving the people in the classroom a taste of what second language learners go through everyday in the classroom. I have also been to different countries where people did not speak English but the use of graphic organizers helped me get through these situations. I know for myself that graphic organizers have helped me in those lessons in Spanish and in different countries.  I try to incorporate graphic organizers with all of my students, which I have seen helps everyone no matter what language you speak.  The students pay more attention at what you’re doing because they tell you how good or bad your picture looks like and you know that they are paying attention. The students are more engaged with the lesson and they seem to do better academically.

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Chapter 7

    Cooperative learning is very importance in a classroom and needs to be used as a part of the learning process.  In my classroom we use heterogeneous groups with varying levels of skills. I know when I first started school I wanted to be in the groups with the pretties girls in the class. This was not always helpful with my group work. I latter went into groups with whom I thought were higher levels than I was and this made me work harder but gave me ideas of how to work more efficiently. I feel that heterogeneous grouping and homogeneous grouping have there times for different times. In reading I believe homogeneous levels are important but to mix it up occasionally with heterogeneous groups. My class that I am doing my student teaching we do writers workshop, which are heterogeneous groups. Each student in the class is at a different level but there is always someone in their group that can help. They all do very well in their journals and they are not afraid to try things with their writing. The children in the groups are all very helpful and work on their own very well. The thing that is important is to use procedures for groups and get them used to procedures and be positive with all of their work.

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Chapter 8

    This chapter is like a good lesson plan. It needs to have an objective, a way to get the objective across to the student, and a way to analyze if the lesson worked. I feel the information is very important in having the students take an interest and establish their own goals for learning giving them more engaged in their learning and giving them a higher stake in their learning. I thought the ideas the chapter presented where very helpful in helping students set there own learning goals but allowing the teacher to present areas that they were to work on.

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Chapter 9

    According to the authors engaging the students in the most powerful and analytical of cognitive operations of generating and testing hypotheses. There are two generalization given for use in the classroom for these theories. The first type of generalization is that hypothesis generation and testing can be approached using inductive or deductive ways. Deductive thinking is the process of using a general rule to make a prediction as to what will happen regarding a future action or event. Inductive thinking is the process of making new conclusions based on information we know or are presented with. Students need to be engaged and experience experiments to evaluate and make their hypothesis. If the students cannot experience the process of the experiment it is better for teachers to present the principles to the students directly and then ask them to generate hypotheses. The students should be required to clearly explain their hypotheses and their conclusions.  Explaining their thinking helps students to deepen their understanding of the principles they are using and engages them at a higher level.  The method being used is the scientific method and it develops a higher level of thinking and engages the students. This gives the students a better understanding of the problem and helps with problem solving skills.

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Chapter 10
    This chapter is aimed at assisting students to retrieve information that they already know about a topic. The teacher can assist students retrieve prior knowledge by the use of cues and questions. Cues are hints of what the students will experience. Questions are asked to try to illicit a topic that the students are familiar with and have experienced. The following four generalizations can guide a teacher in using cues and questions:
(1) Cues and questions should focus on what is important as opposed to what is unusual.
(2) Higher level questions produce deeper learning than lower level questions.
(3) Waiting briefly before accepting responses from students has the effect of increasing the depth of students’ answers.
(4) Questions are effective learning tools even when asked before a learning experience.

    The teacher I feel should always try to promote critical thinking in the students answers. I do this in my classroom by asking open ended questions that have no right or wrong answer. The students have to think and give their opinion in order to answer the question.

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Chapter 11

    This chapter focuses on teaching the five specific types of knowledge. Those introduced and supported by research are vocabulary terms and phrases, details, organizing, ideas, skills and tactics, and process. We beginning with the theory of vocabulary terms and phrases, systematic vocabulary development. This has been researched and is one of the most important forms of instruction in schools. Teachers are encouraged to use as interventions for low-achieving students with vocabulary. The following is a general guide to teach vocabulary terms and phrases:

Chapter 12

    The text has introduced the nine categories as identifying similarities and differences, summarizing and note taking, reinforcing effort and providing recognition, homework and practice, nonlinguistic representations, cooperative learning, setting objectives and providing feedback, generating and testing hypotheses, and questions, cues, and advance organizers. The instructional planning that the authors have developed are important and will develop good practices for me in the teaching profession.  I feel that it has given me many strategies to help me in teaching and setting goals for myself and will be able to have my students set goals for themselves. I feel that it is important to have learning goals and for students to develop learning goals based on what the teacher has given the students to develop which engages students in their learning and develops higher thinking skills. Students gain more responsibility for their work and develop a better understanding of what they are doing.

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Jonassen, D. H., Peck, K. L., & Wilson, B. G. (1999). Learning With Technology: A Constructivist Perspective.

Chapter 2.

     I agree with the information presented in the text, however it is very hard to use this information if there is no technology available to students or they have one hour a week to use the computers. It also does not help that teachers are afraid to use the technology in their classroom or feel that it would not benefit the students because of wrong programs that are offered.

Chapter 3.

    This chapter is very interesting and informative about using visual production media to interact with students. I would really be interested in using these techniques in a classroom setting. I am not sure of what is available to the teachers at the school that I am doing my student teaching at but it would be interesting to see if the school has the capabilities of using this type of technology with the ideas that were presented in the text.

 Chapter 4

    This chapter deals with the use of multimedia in education. Why do most educational software programs fail to teach students? Because many teachers are afraid to use multimedia in the classroom and if it is not required they won’t do it. I know many teachers that are afraid of email. Teachers take time to prepare for their days, but if they are afraid of computers they make up excuses as to why they can’t integrate the two. All research in this chapter points to the same thing. Multimedia programs have to engage students, which is important in any type of educational activity. Accessing and using the information to stimulate interest in subject matter. Then assess the students as to what has been learned. If programs are not simple to run for teachers they probably won’t be used by teacher that are afraid of using computers. This creates a problem for students because they are not challenged by many of the programs.

Chapter 5
    People are social creatures and the forming of communities for exchanging and learning knowledge come in different interconnecting and overlapping forms. Presented in the chapter are the discourse community in which knowledge is exchanged face-to-face, through newsletters, magazines, and the media of radio and television. The community is the emphasis and it stays in contact through their interests. Students eventually start to own their knowledge, rather than the teacher or the textbook, they become committed to building knowledge, rather than merely receiving and reprocessing it. Knowledge then becomes the building of a social activity not a solitary one of retention and regurgitation. Technology has become a key role in building knowledge in communities by providing a medium for storing organizing, and reformulating the ideas that are contributed by each community member. As people we acquire knowledge by the context and customs of where we live and with who we interact. These interactions become a part of our identity and actions which become part of the social fabric of the community. As we grow are foundation that was built by our community is not solid and may be influenced as we move out to other areas and activities that will continually shape our existence. Learning communities can consist of classrooms and schools. When a classroom can develop a social organization of people who share knowledge, values and goals then the concept of a learning community has been achieved. In the classroom I try to instill values that are appropriate without infringing on religious, or other value systems. I try to develop self worth in children and to do what is right. Teachers are seen by students as role models and it is important to remember that there are always eyes on you and what you do. It is critical to act according to what you are trying to teach, because students can see through the acts.
 

Chapter 6

    Mindtools are the technologies that we use for teaching and they create ways for better critical thinking in students. Many see using technology as a way to exploit the capabilities of the technologies and less work by the students. The tools of technology assist the teacher and the student to learn interactively with technology. There are several conceptual and practical reasons why computers should be used as Mindtools. Students can use technology for their individual uses. When students use design instructional material they are engaged in deeper analysis and expression of the subject. When a learner only reads material they are not fully engaged with the material it may become just words on a page.  If the learners uses the tools of technology to construct knowledge, reflect, and represent what they understand about a concept the learner is engaged and takes a role in his learning. Technology mindtools require higher order critical thinking skills and students must use evaluation and analyzing of information to make a connection to the ideas that they will present.

Chapter 7
    This chapter presents learning goals and problem solving activities. The learning environment needs to present activities that are complex and relevant to the problem at hand, and work towards learning goals. Through technology supported learning environments several components can be utilized for student learning and supported from problem solving activities. As a teacher the activity or project presents should be interesting, appealing, and engaging to all students. Students must be engaged with the questions at hand and to be productive in the construction in the learning environment.

    When a teacher sets objectives for a lesson the teacher must consider the social/contextual support at hand, learning process, students roles, teacher's roles, and the assessment of learning. The following questions need to be presented to check for student understanding.
* Do data that student provide support their explanations?
* Were the data challenged?
* Were student questions based on accepted laws and principles?
* Were student conjectures testable?

    It is always important to engage students and asses them for understanding using technology to have students develop problem solving skills, and engage themselves in an activity will only increase the experience of a lesson creating a more effective tool to learn with. 

Chapter 8

    Setting objectives or goals is important for both students and teachers. The goal of a lesson is to establish a direction for learning and teaching. People who have mastered this technique are successful in achieving their short-term and long-term goals. The key to obtain these goals is to focus their goals into their learning and being prepared. It is also important to provide feedback or reflection as a strategy that is a powerful for enhancing achievement.

    Feedback has four generalizations that require noting. (1) Feedback should be corrective in nature. Students are provided with an explanation of what they are doing that is correct and what they are doing that is not correct. The best effect on student learning and comprehension is when the student is given an explanation as to what is accurate and what is inaccurate in terms of students response. (2) Feedback should be timely. The timing of feedback is critical to its effectiveness. Feedback right after a test is best. The more delay involved, the less the improvement in achievement. (3) Feedback should be specific to a criterion. Criterion referenced feedback tells students when they stand relative to a specific target of knowledge or skill. There is an impact on the student learning that is more powerful than that presented in the norm-referenced criterion. (4) Feedback can be provided by the students. Students can monitor their own progress as research indicates. The use of student feedback in the form of self-evaluation has been strongly advocated by researcher Grant Wiggins.
    Classroom practice in providing feedback can be done with the use of rubrics. Teachers can utilize a generic rubric for information to a topic of study. Rubric adaptation is also a way of getting away from the norm-referenced standards that are usually used for assessment. Feedback for specific types of knowledge and skill are also necessary for teachers to have their students realize their highest potential and assessing students prior knowledge.