Holly Morgan

EDSS 531

2/23/12

Prof. Brandenburg

What I Know and What I Believe About the Development and Learning Needs of Adolescents

“The principal goal of education is to create men who are capable of doing new things, not simply of repeating what other generations have done.”

Jean Piaget (1896-1980)

Introduction

                One of my goals for my future students is to create independent, logical thinkers. I want to teach students how to apply the scientific method to a variety of situations so they can learn to reason through a problem and come to a conclusion. I know that only 2% of the students I teach will actually continue into a scientific field, but teaching my students a logical thought process is a life skill that will benefit all students. By fostering independent logical thinkers I can better prepare my students to go into the future and build upon what they find, instead of merely existing in societies current architecture.        

Factors That Influence Instruction: Physical, Social, and Emotional

                Adolescence is a time of change. Teenagers are dealing with changes in the changes in their own bodies and minds and dealing with pressure from parents and teachers to do well in school, sports, or after school jobs. During these years teens can quickly gain height and weight, development of secondary sexual characteristics, and completing brain development (Morgan). These physical changes can lead to clumsiness and sensitivity about weight or developmental changes. Adolescents are becoming more independent and create a separate identity from their family while still trying to fit in with their peers.  Teens are also still developing their abstract thinking and reasoning skills as well as their metacognitive abilities.

                As a high school teacher, I have to be aware of the way these students are still developing. This means being a non judgmental adult to talk to about issues they may be facing, by having a trusted adult outside of the family teens will feel like they can talk about problems they may not be comfortable bringing up to their parents. I also want to be encouraging and offer ways students can get involved at school or in the community to help students develop their sense of self. Most importantly I want to help develop rational thinking and metacognitive skills by using deductive teaching styles and practice applying the scientific method.

Learning Environment

                Creating and maintaining a positive learning environment is very important to me. Students must feel safe and encouraged in order to optimize learning. I plan on letting my students help to create a set of class rules at the beginning of the year, so that they will realize that they have a voice within the classroom. One rule that will always be enforced is respecting others, I will explain that to me this means that other students are not laughed at, and no one is allowed to call others names or intentionally make them feel bad. Students should treat others the way they want to be treated. I want all students to be comfortable to make mistakes because when using an experimental teaching philosophy, students will make mistakes along the way. As long as there is logic behind how they arrived at a conclusion, we can build from it and continue to move forward.

                Additionally, students will have opportunities to meet and get to know each other through different team building exercises and games. This will hopefully help to create a friendly learning environment where students will all work together and have no trouble when placed in different cooperative learning groups.

Expectations

                I have high expectations for all students. I expect that assignments will be done to the best of their ability and if they are having trouble I expect them to seek help from a peer, tutor, or myself. Since the experimental teaching philosophy and the inquiry based method of teaching science requires students to think and work through problems with minimum guidance, students will be accountable for much of their own learning in cooperative learning groups. Hopefully with the exercises at the beginning of the year and group work throughout, students will quickly become accustomed to participating and learning in these conditions. Students will be held accountable for all of their choices. Once the rules and class norms are set at the beginning of the year, all students will be expected to continue to abide by these rules.

Classroom Management

                The best preventative classroom management is an engaging lesson. By creating learning activities where students can work together on hands on activities I hope to avoid some behavioral issues. Additional preventative management strategies involving the class in setting up classroom rules, creating a classroom contract or syllabus that explains that by being in the class they agree to follow the listed rules, and by simply explaining the expectations of the students Gordon (1989). When students understand both the rules, expectations, and why they are important, they are more likely to display positive behaviors in order to meet the standards set for them. Additionally, interacting with students in additional ways helps increase trust and the student teacher relationship. This can be done by tutoring, coaching sports, or creating after school clubs and activities.

                Some supportive management strategies include getting to know about your students and their lives, have open and honest dialogues, any all questions to the best of my ability, and let students know that I am there for them as both a learning resource and an adult they can trust.  Kohn (1996) explains that classrooms with a sense of community are more likely to develop students who are caring and responsible.

                The corrective approach eventually needed if you need to get involved because students are making the wrong behavior choices. This approach includes strategies like enforcing consistent disciplinary consequences, asking students to step out of class or moving to an isolated desk within the classroom. Curwin and Mendler (1983) explain that by asking a student to step outside and return only when they have finished talking makes being in class a privilege not a right. Additionally, the disciplinary hierarchy developed by Canter and Canter (1976) explains a system of warning and correcting student behavior in order to ensure the same procedure is used every time. Another important strategy is having a conference with the student. That way you can discuss and get to the heart of any disciplinary problems. You can also include a parent or other staff members as needed and perhaps create a behavioral plan to help students recognize explicitly what will not be accepted.

Meeting The Needs of All Students

                With the diversity found in most classrooms, teachers need to find ways to make content accessible and challenging to all students. Teachers may find that they have several levels of English learners, gifted students, special needs students, reluctant learners, and average students all in one class. The key to making content accessible is differentiation. By altering the content, process, or product for specific students you can tailor to individual students needs.

                Sheltered instruction or SDAIE strategies will help ELL students gain access to the content. Previously I have used strategies like word sorts, think-alouds, grouping configurations, graphic organizers, modeling and explicit directions to help my ELL students. To help my special needs students my first step is to look at the recommendations on the IEP, also a chat with the special education teacher and phone call to the parents to get a little more information about the student and how they best learn can be helpful. But differentiation for these students varies from student to student but I have used graphic organizers, grouping strategies, breaking class into small segments, and one on one tutoring to help IEP students. I have not had much experience with gifted students, but I think that possible differentiation for these students would include letting students work at their own pace and if they master content earlier than other students they can move into a deeper material on the same unit. This way everyone is studying the same material but those who can will go more in depth. These students should also be challenged with more higher order questions so they can evaluate and apply new information.    

Conclusion

                As a future teacher there are many factors to consider. But by creating an educational philosophy and having a plan for all parts of teaching, not just content, you will be better prepared to step into the classroom and lead.  The factors that I have outlined here will help me focus on helping students to become rational and independent thinkers who will be better prepared to create new ideas in the future.

Works Cited

Canter, L., and Canter, M. (1976). Discipline through assertive tactics. . In C. Charles                 (Ed.) Building Classroom discipline (pp. 65-69). Pearson Allyn and Bacon.

Curwin, R., & Mendler, A. (1983). Discipline through dignity and hope. In C. Charles                 (Ed.) Building Classroom discipline (pp.168-183). Pearson Allyn and Bacon.   Gordon, T. (1989). Discipline through inner self control. In C. Charles (Ed.) Building                 Classroom discipline (pp. 79-84). Pearson Allyn and Bacon. 

Kohn, J. (1996). Beyond discipline: From compliance to community. In C. Charles                 (Ed.) Building Classroom discipline (pp. 84-89). Pearson Allyn and Bacon. 

Morgan, E. (2012) Virginia Cooperative Extension. Adolescent Growth and

                 Development. Retrieved on February 20th 2012 at

                http://pubs.ext.vt.edu/350/350-850/350-850.html

 “What I Know and What I Believe About the Development and Learning Needs of

Adolescents”

Have a peer rate a draft of your assignment.  After you have made revisions, rate

yourself and provide an explanation for your ratings using the following rubric.  Post

your assignment online and submit the peer and self evaluation to Cougar Courses as

an assignment.

Name_____________Kenny Vexler___________________

Peer Review Comments:

 Include examples from your teaching experience to go to exceeds.

“What I Know and What I Believe About the Development and Learning Needs of

Adolescents”

Name: Holly Morgan – self review

Writer’s Comments: Not all of my sections have real examples some are just based on readings & philosophies.