Course Contract Review #3

What am I Doing Well?

Coming to class every week with a desire to learn.

What am I Not Doing Well?

Managing the heavy workload that the end of the semester has brought.

Am I Making Sufficient Progress on My Goals?

The word sufficient would be key here.  I am glad that I am making progress at this point.  This being my first semester back in school, I think that I have learned a lot.  I have learned not only course material but also quite a bit about myself and how I learn.  I am still in a mix of performance and mastery.  As the saying goes, Rome wasn't built in a day.

Specific Things I Need to Change:

I am still working on managing my time.  This will become even more important as I become a student teacher and then teacher.  I am glad that I still have 2 semesters in school to work on this.

My Motivation:

I take it as a good sign that this first semester hasn't scared me off!  I am still motivated to be of service to my future students.  Everything I learn, including what I learn from my mistakes, can potentially benefit them.

Field Response Journal

Part I, questions 1-4

1.  What evidence do you see of specific teacher behaviors that are geared toward Piaget's theories about the developmental levels of children at particular ages? Cite specific examples and make clear connection to Piaget's work.

The class I worked with is a 12^th grade Concurrent Enrollment Shakespeare class.  The students are very bright and it was obvious to me through their class participation that they have progressed to Piaget’s Formal Operational Stage.  They can abstractly reason in both reflective and analytical ways. Also, when working through a problem, they do not need a concrete representation in order to work it out.  One example of this occurred while students were studying Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew.  The teacher, Mr. Kennington, took the students through the process of equilibration.  He proposed the idea that while the male lead was treating the female lead in what we would today consider an abusive way, he believed that this was done out of respect and that it showed his admiration for her.  This thinking was in opposition to what the students had individually concluded about the scene and put them into a state of disequilibrium.  Mr. Kennington challenged the students to reread the dialogue of the play and find a way to view the text that would help them support his theory.  The students accommodated this new information by using active learning.  They reread the text and created very plausible theories using their prior knowledge of the setting of the play, Shakespeare and his time, and their own experience. 

2. What evidence do you see of specific teacher behaviors that are geared toward Vygotsky's theories? Cite specific examples and make clear connection to this work.

          I observed/interacted with this class for two and a half months.  Over the course of that period I was able to see the differences among the students’ zones of proximal development.  As I mentioned previously these are all bright students and all of them currently have plans to attend college.  That being said, there are students who are very familiar with Shakespeare and the theater and there are those who want to learn but are starting from a beginner level.  One of the ways Mr. Kennington wanted students to experience Shakespeare was through reading character parts aloud in class.  There were several students who participate in drama and had performed on stage.  They were delighted at the prospect.  Toward the beginning of my time with the class Mr. Kennington would ask for volunteers to read parts.  When the same students would raise their hands, and the others were happy to let them do it, he differentiated.  He developed a form of cognitive apprenticeship by grouping students together.  There was a more experienced student and also those who were beginners.  These groups were asked to divide parts up amongst themselves and then read through a scene.  He circulated through the different groups and using guided participation, suggested different ways to read a character and encouraged the students to try new things.  Within these smaller groups the beginner students opened up more, and were encouraged by the experienced students and given pointers.  This scaffolding technique was used several times allowing students to become comfortable with reading parts.  By the end of my time with the class, students who would not volunteer at the beginning of my observation were some of the first to raise their hands when given a chance.

3. In what psychosocial stage did Erikson say most children in the grade level you observed are functioning? What specific teacher behaviors do you observe that either help or hinder the students to successfully navigate through this stage? What more could or should be done?

          Since the students I observed were seniors in high school, I believe that Erickson would place them into his fifth stage of development, Identity vs. Identity Diffusion.  On the surface, it might not seem that the students I observed were being encouraged to find their own identity.  They attend a charter school with a strict dress code, they are all expected to prepare to attend college and the majority of them come from homes with very specific parental expectations.   However, looking deeper I could see the more subtle ways that students were being encouraged to explore their identity.  One way is the school’s use of what they call the Winterim.  From the beginning of January through the middle of February, regular classes are suspended.  Students choose a Winterim project and are engaged in completing it.  There are predetermined projects that cover a wide range of subjects from ballroom dancing to becoming a certified nursing assistant to learning about software development.  There is also the option for students to design their own project.  This winterim happens every year and students who have completed one in the past gave very positive feedback about their experiences.  It is a chance for them to explore their interests and to try many different paths of experience that they otherwise might not have come in contact with.  Since the students’ regular classes are suspended during Winterim, students are allowed to give all their attention to their exploration.

4. At which of Kohlberg's levels of moral development are the students in your class functioning? Cite specific evidence and explain your reasoning for selecting these levels. What might be done to help the students advance to higher levels?

          I think, in general, the moral reasoning level of the students is at Kohlberg’s conventional social reasoning stage.  These students are performing their school work and adhering to their school’s policies because of the expectations that are set up by the rules of their teacher and the rules of the school.  I think that they are being encouraged by their teacher to advance their thinking in to Kohlberg’s post-conventional morality of social contract stage.   This is being done by class explorations of their texts, specifically their study of Shakespeare’s Henry IV parts 1 and 2 and his Henry V.  Through these plays, the Henriad as they are sometimes called, students watch a character, Prince Hal, move through the post-conventional stages.  Mr. Kennington made this character come to life.  Each stage and the transition in between were explored.  In the beginning of this sequence, this character is often seen breaking family or societal rules and in long soliloquies explains to the reader/audience why he is doing so and what his ultimate goals are.  In the last play in the sequence, Prince Hal, who is now King Henry, has transformed himself into a great king who is looking for the betterment of his country.  Through class discussions, students’ exploration of these plays and their own connections to the text allowed them to vicariously transition within Kohlberg’s post-conventional stage. 

         

Part II 

Application

          The student I worked with, I’ll call her Dominique, is not a member of the class I observed.  However, she is a senior at that charter school.  The reasons I chose to work with her are that she is actually a neighbor of mine and Mr. Kennington asked me to help her work on an essay that would accompany a college application.  She was really struggling with completing this essay.  She had the ability to do it she just doubted herself and had problems moving forward because of her insecurities.  She had built the whole thing up to the point that she was paralyzed.

          I decided to utilize a mix of modern constructivism and behaviorism because I wanted her to discover how to complete this project, hopefully realizing how much she already knew, and yet I also wanted to be there to give her specific answers to her questions because I knew that at first she would freak out if she thought it was all up to her.   Through this process my greatest hope was that she would develop confidence in her own abilities.

          I started out by asking her what help she felt she needed.  She told me that she wanted me to explain the process of writing a personal narrative essay.  I developed a presentation outlining the steps and presented it to her one evening.  We went over each step and I answered all of her questions.  I had a huge smile on my face when at the end of the lesson she commented that she hadn’t realized that she basically already knew the steps for writing the essay.  She had supposed that writing an essay for college would involve a totally different process than the one she used to write essays for her high school English class.  I encouraged her to think about a topic she wanted to write on for her essay and asked her to contact me when she had decided.

          Approximately a week later, I received an email from her saying that she had decided to use a paper she had previously written and modify it to fit the requirements of the application essay.  She wanted to send me the essay and have me basically do this for her.  That wasn’t going to happen.  I thought that with the confidence she had gained the night of my presentation, that I should encourage her to find a solution to the problems of modifying the essay.  I asked her what the biggest obstacle was and she responded that her paper was 4 pages long but that the essay was supposed to be fewer than 200 words.  I asked her what she thought she could do about that, and at this point she was somewhat frustrated because she wanted me to tell her.  I decided to back off and offer a small suggestion but allow her to contextualize it.  This I did and she made progress on the essay.  We went through this step one more time and further improvement was made.  At this point she hasn’t gotten back to me again even though I have sought her out to ask how she is coming along.  The application isn’t due until after the New Year and I know that she has other work to get done so I won’t pressure her.  I will, however, check up on her and make sure that she knows that I honestly want to help her.

          As I reflect on this experience, I think the goal of strengthening her confidence in herself was partially achieved.  I can see how she might have interpreted my switch from behaviorism to modern constructivism as abandonment.  I regret that, especially since she didn’t realize that she was my guinea pig.  I can recognize the symptoms of perfectionism in her because I have had to acknowledge them in myself.  She would much rather be given the magic words to create her essay than go through a process that will enable her to create this essay and the many that are in her future.  As a future teacher I am making it a goal to have my students clearly understand that I am on their side.  That way, when the learning is difficult or different than what they are used to, they will trust that I believe it is for their ultimate good.