Teaching and lesson planning for the adolescent brain.

When I design a lessen plan I try to incorporate different activities, which will help my students reach their learning potential. We know that the underdeveloped teenager medial prefrontal cortex is directly responsible for the inability of teenager to see other’s perspectives. What that means is that somethings Teenagers don't see the lesson from their teachers perspective. So when I plan a lessen I always try to incorporate different views on subjects or idea, not only that but I try to talk about the information in several different ways. By doing so I offer students multiple ways to view the world and or the subject at hand. In this way I allow my students brains to create pathways to obtaining the knowledge. Also, when I plan a lesson I try to always give my students a purpose they can relate too. In that way they the lesson is not only meaningful but it engages them. This Engagement helps with long-term memory, which is vital when learning how to apply knowledge students have gained in new ways. Another way I access long-term retention is by having an anticipatory set, which is engaging. I try to bring in objects and or pictures to show students, which can help relate meaning to what they are about to study. For instance I showed my students how music builds tension and release in order to keep the listener engaged. In the same way they as writers needed to do the same things in order to keep their reader interested. I play music that in modern and popular so that they can relate the lesson to what I’m saying.

Management Plan 101

Whenever I have spoken to anyone who has ever been in a classroom, a common word of advice they all seem to give me is have good classroom management. It seems that the ability to manage behavior and environment in a classroom, is almost if not; more important than the lessons we as educators prepare everyday. Through our systems we teach and model not only good behavior but also how to be respectful and courteous to others. This is a key component to my educational philosophy of Social Reconstructionism, because I hold fast that we educate our students not just so that they have successful lives, not only so they can be better off than ourselves, but that as a whole they help make our society better. With that in mind, my classroom management plan consists of three main strategies preventive, supportive, and corrective. These strategies focus not just on making my classroom function, but also on teaching my students to reach their highest potential as societies future.

Preventative strategies refer to thoughts, which stop, contain, or head off classroom management problems before they even begin. One of the basic strategies I would implement in my classroom would be to give students a voice and allow them to talk about the rules and why they are important (Reading, 2001). In this way students would have a say in their education and their environment. If we expects students to treat others with respect, than we must show them that we respect their opinions, and that they all have a right to a pleasant environment.

Next, I would set a number of getting to know you activities where students not only get to know each other, but practice talking about their differences and more so that peoples perceptions even in a small class can be widely different (Nelson, 1993). In this way we begin to break the stereotypes teenagers sometimes have, and more so make the class room an open form to ask and explore social questions.

Another preventive strategy is to build a community where students interact with one another feeling supported and trusted to make right choices (Coloroso, 2003). If the community self corrects bad behavior while at the same time supports good behavior, students will feel free to explore the system with out adult intervention. Peer reviewing is a less threating experience and students are quicker to lower their affective filters.

A good preventative strategy can also come from the understanding I am a quirky human being who have likes and dislikes. I know that I don’t like loud classroom environments. Yet, I also don’t want my students to feel like they can’t ask each other questions or discuss topics freely. So one preventative strategy could be to know that sometimes I could be asking kids to conform not because they are being disruptive, but for my own quirks (Gorden, 1989). To eliminate that I could play music, and ask kids to self monitor so that the noise does not go above the IPod. In this way I’m not shushing the class for my own likes and dislikes while still establishing an inviting environment.

Another preventive strategy I would implement would be to follow Alfie Kone’s what to look for in a good classroom. More specifically I would make sure that the environment had a few of his suggestions. For example, I would make sure that the desks were set up not in a front facing position but rather in as close to a circle as I could manage so that I’m not the center of attention. In this way students can see each other and interact easily. Also, I would make sure that the walls were covered with all the kids work, so that they can display what they have done. Not only that but I would allow students to create other wall decorations so it feels more like their environment.

The last preventative strategy I would use would be to allow students to tell me their needs, and how I might be able to help them be successful in my class. I would take into consideration any requests they might have and do what I can to help them (Charles). Often times we don’t take others needs into account. If we want our children to be kind courteous members of society then we need them to know people care able them. We need to model that so that they can model it as teens then adults.

The Next major part of any classroom management strategy need to include a supportive component. Once you create a safe environment for learning one must continue to cultivate that relationship with students. We have to reinforce and model good behavior everyday. One strategy I would use to do that is through the use of none verbal communication (Jones, 1970). Often times all we need to do in order to manage a classroom is move around the room. We can learn to watch over our class with being an over bearing guard. Often times, moving over to a group and praising their work or offering suggestions is enough to keep everyone one on task. It also teaches students that your interested in their learning and not just there to burdening them with tasks.

The next strategy I would use would be to give each student positive feedback everyday. Students seem to have difficulty giving and receiving compliments especially to other students (Nelson, 1993). So to create a classroom where kids can feel appreciated, I would compliment or say something kind to each of my students each day. This doesn’t have to be a grand jester, but rather can be accomplished by simply standing by the door before each period greeting each student.

The next supportive strategy I would use is to continue to keep my students quirks and individuality in tacked.  Often times as educators we struggle to reach the student who never talks. Yet, we ignore the chronic hand riser because we feel we give them too much attention. Regardless, if the hand riser need extra help, or they know every answer, we need to support every student in our class. They need to see their question or answer is valid and not just dismissed. (Jones 1970). So while we still need to reach the quiet ones we also need to continue to respond the talkers.

Another strategy I would implement would be to keep my lessons varied and dynamic. By this I mean I need to create lessons that are not just engaging but that also differentiate in order to keep students interested in learning (Glasser, 1985).  If students are interested in what they are doing then they are less likely to act out or misbehave.

A final component to my supportive strategy  would be to talk to students and ask them about their lives. Students are more likely to care about others if they feel like others care about them (Kohn, 2001). Again these don’t have to be huge conversations but taking time to find common ground or asking about students likes or dislikes can help support the on going classroom community.

The final Major component to my classroom strategy is a corrective component.  I believe we all want our students to be as engaged and excited about their learning as we are. Yet, sometimes students in their quest to become adults, over step their bounds. When this happens we as educators have to step in and help correct their behavior.

The first strategy I would use in correcting behavior would be to treat the incident not the student. I believe that every incident needs to be handled with dignity and respect. That means not making a public spectacle of the student or the bad behavior. Students should not be reprimanded in front of the class if it can be avoided. This doesn’t mean that I would allow the bad behavior to continue, rather that the subsequent discussion doesn’t have to take place from across the room (Meddler, 1983). Students need to learn to treat people with respect and modeling how to do that is not only tactful but also respectful to them and the class.

            The Next strategy I would use is to model to my students how to let things go. That is, if I had to reprimand you yesterday, that does not mean we cannot start over tomorrow (Gordon, 1989). As adults, we learn to let petty arguments go. We learn to take responsibility for our actions and move forward. Often time’s students hold a grudge against their teachers. This hinders not only the relationship but also the students learning process. What we need to do than is show the students that we have moved on by talking to them, asking them about their day.

            Another strategy I would use would be to hand over the responsibility of the student’s life back to them. For example, if a student were being disruptive I would ask them to leave my room and come back when they believe they can handle the room again (Medler, 1994). In this way I could make the student choose which action they want to take while still saying you can’t take the negative action in my classroom. This can be done with respect while also ultimately allowing the student to choose his or her own discipline.

            The next strategy I would take follows the philosophy of the golden rule and that is to do on to others as you would have done onto you. I believe that students and teachers need to have a measure of self-control and responsibility for their actions (Coloroso,1994). With that being said we need to as educators take a moment each day and think to our selves did I handle that situation in a way that would have been respectful to me, or my child. If we are going to model how to be respectful members of society we need to start by showing that respect to everyone in every situation.

            Another strategy I would use comes from Robyn R. Jackson who runs seminars and is invited to teacher’s classrooms for management help. Jackson strategy is to look at what currency students bring In order to help facilitate learning. She says that students and teachers often bring different kinds of currency into the classroom. Teachers have one expectation as to how learning should take place while students clearly have another. The goal then as an educator is not to just dismiss student’s currency, or learning style, as bad behavior because it doesn’t translate well with ours. Rather, as facilitators of learning we should offer students a ways to cash in what they bring and help them succeed by at the very least meeting then in the middle.

            Finally the last strategy I would use involves giving students the ability to discuss how they will solve their own problem. In this win win approach students take primary responsibility for their actions and decide how they can correct their behavior (Gordon, 1989). In this way they have to examine not only what they did but also how saver the punishment should be. By giving students respectful control we can teach them personal responsibility.

            As Educators we sometimes forget that what we are doing is teaching more then content. It is not knowledge for knowledge sake rather it is knowledge with a purpose. We want our students to learn to be better people, to respect others and to learn personal responsibility. We use content to expand their perceptions of the world so that their futures and their realities can be grander than ours. Managing a classroom than is not about discipline, but rather about showing them how to test their own limits in a safe environment.  

i+1 ELD Instructional model

When working with English Language students it is important to understand what their CELT scores mean. For instance, if one has an EL student with a CELT score of 3 which represents Intermediate level, the standard that students is trying to meet must correspond to the i+1 Model. By this I mean the student already has met all the skills needed for Celt score 3 and they need to move on to CELT score 4 level learning. To see what this might look like follow the link below to access a vocabulary lesson plan that I created. In box 3a. You can see I identified an EL students with a CELT score of 4 which represents early advanced. Then if you look at box labeled 6) You can see the ELD standard I listed is for an Advanced or CELT level 5 student.  In order to meet this standard and help my ELD student advance I simply added required the whole class to use a dictionary to define a given word.


VOCABULARY LESSON

SDAIE Stratagies

One of the Strategies that I have seen used in our classroom is the KWL chart. It really helps to access students prior knowledge by finding out what students already "Know" so that their learning can be focused on "What they want to know". Then a quick informal assessment of what they have "Learned".

Picture of Social Injustice

This is a picture of three computers which can be found in a classroom for resource students. The computers are so old that they can not be connected to the internet or even any modern printer. They lack the ability to do little more then type and even then are slow. They break down often and are said to be the oldest computers in the district not just the school site. This is socially unjust especially considering these are in class these are in a class with students already struggling to write let alone type.

My Name

What’s in a name?

The brown desk was so high I could just barley see over the top as I sat there. A name shouldn’t be this much trouble. The principal sits across from me, probably looking over some new school law I think. Probably trying to discover a harsher punishment for my crime. My heart is beating so fast that I dare not look to my left at my teacher’s face probably still red with anger. I guess I’m getting ahead of my self though; I should start at the beginning.  

It was the first day of kindergarten our unbroken souls stood in the school room, nervously watching the teacher call out our names and assigning us a seat. A few parents stood near the windows of the classroom, waiting to see if the teacher would notice how well they taught their child to sit. “Bob Gonzales,” she called and a boy small boy took his seat in the center of the room, happy he wasn’t in the first row. “Laurel Smith,” the teacher called and the pretty girl took her seat in front happily. Then a pause and a confused look, one I would get to know very well for the rest of my life. “Herrybeetoe” she said confused.   She tried it again, louder, hoping volume would make it clearer. “HERRYBEETOOOOE” I remember thinking to myself “bee toe,” and images of bees poking toes filled my thoughts. The teacher looked around the room when no one replied; slowly scanning the name tags on our chest. She walked to me. “Harry?”

            I didn’t answer.  I figured there was a monkey-like boy behind me and I started thinking about bees stinging his hairy boys toes. Then a voice broke though the image like lightning. “Pay attention.” I looked up; there was no doubt my new teacher was speaking to me.

“Yes?” I squeaked, shy and terrified with the room looking at me.  Parents were shaking their heads, no doubt proud that I wasn’t their child.

“Why didn’t you answer me when I called your name?”

“I didn’t hear you call my name.” I said softly.

“Well. Try to pay more attention! Take your seat.” I sat there terrified the rest of the day, and I paid attention like no kindergartner had before me. A few weeks passed and everyday would start out the same.  The teacher would take roll, get to my name, and make eye contact with me to say she saw me. She would make just about every effort not to say that long confusing name. It wasn’t just role, she wouldn’t call on me at all, she wouldn’t pick me to help, or ask me how my day was. Don’t get me wrong, I was quite happy with the situation. You can’t really blame her.  The name sounds like a reject from a Mary Poppins movie, but it did start to affect my grades. F’s, how I knew them well. It turned out that in that class, that if you didn’t put your name on top of your paper you would lose the points for that paper. If it was not on top of a test or art project you would Lose more points. Let’s not even get into how the name wouldn’t fit on the top of the standardized test bubble box, throwing the whole machine off. So one day, I’m sitting in a corner of the playground shy and as quiet as ever, happy just to be watching everyone else play when Bob walked up to me. Bob was good-looking, fit boy, taller then the rest of us, but not tall enough to make him awkward looking. He had wavy black hair and if there was ever a poster boy for what a biker’s kid should look like, he was it. “My name’s Bob.  What’s yours?” I took a deep breath, hoping I could roll the R and not spit on him. “Heriberto,” I said, in grand accomplishment. His eyes blinked and he looked at me trying to take the sound in. “That…isn’t a good name.” he said.  I never thought of my name as being good or bad.  It just was. “I’m calling you Eddie.” He added. In retrospect when your do say my name the first part does sound like Eddie but I didn’t understand where he had pulled the name from at first. But I didn’t have time to agree or disagree. Soon, Bob was over at the dodge ball courts with other guys yelling my new name for me to go join. And with that I became Eddie.

By now you must be wondering what all this has to do with the principal’s office. Two weeks had passed and I had grown attached to my new name at school. I was doing better in school; kids were able to call me something other then hey you.  The teacher even started to call me Eddie. One day, however, she called me into the classroom and told me she had a meeting with my parents. She had told them I wasn’t keeping up with my homework and that I would be losing recess for a week. Now believe me I assured her that I was doing my work that I did it every night, and I turned it in every morning like we were supposed to. Okay, so it was more of a whiney sound that came from my lips and it wasn’t very elegant. I was five! Cut me a little slack! This was a week’s worth of recess we were talking about!  Well, I guess just to stop my whining she started fumbling through the papers and it suddenly hit her I had been signing my homework Eddie. In a fit of embarrassment, she waves the papers at me.

“Why weren’t you signing your real name?” she asked, irritated she hadn’t noticed it before.

“Cause this one’s easier!” I said. “You have to call my parents and tell them I did my work!” I pleaded. “I am going to!’ She said. “But you are still getting a week with no recess.”

“But why!” I said, “You found my work.”

“Because you didn’t sign your name too your homework” she scolded.

“That’s just not fair!” I stood up looking at her eyes giving her the five year old death stare. “Keep it up and I’ll make it two!” she threatened.  

“You’re being a witch!” I said.

Now let me explain I really did say witch; but she didn’t hear that, she heard something worse. Something so terrible… well lets just say she grabbed me by the arm and dragged me across the floor, my feet struggling to keep footing.

So there I was with the principle his hand on the phone ready to call my parents.

“Why did you call your teacher a bad word?” the principal asked me finally breaking the silence.

“We had just learned about witches.” I said softly “It just came out.”

“Your teacher said you called her something else.” His eyes narrowed, as if they were able to shoot laser beam at lying children. I shook my head with a feverous no, wondering all the time if a few of the glorious words some of the guys had taught me had slipped out with out my knowing.

“Why hadn’t you written your name on your homework?” He said moving on.

“Because, everyone calls me Eddie, even the teacher.  It’s just easier.”  I responded, wondering how long it would take before he sent the kid-killing dogs after me.

 “You should be proud of your real name your parents gave you that name for a reason.” He said in as important a tone as he could muster.

 “My mom said my dad accidentally put his name in the wrong box and now two of us are cursed.

The principal laughed despite himself. “Okay, well I don’t see why we should involve your parents, but I want you to apologize to your teacher. Calling her any name is wrong”

I remember turning and saying I’m sorry and leaving the office not looking at my teacher. I remember her yelling at the principle about letting me get off to easily as the door shut. As an adult now however, I wonder if I should have also received an apology. We carry our name it defines us in a ways tells people were we come from and who we are. Mine has always been something I shy away from. A thing I don’t tell many people or share openly. I get people to call me Eddie whenever I can the other name used so infrequently that it’s strange for me to even hear. I just wonder if I would have loved my name my father gave me if that teacher has spent a second trying to learn it. I wonder if it would have given me the confidence to tell the boy at school “no Eddie is not my name.” I wonder if I would have the same pride in it, as I’m my father did when as he confessed to me years later purposely placed his name in the birth certificate box instead the one my mom and chosen.