Information Processing T.I.P.R.

I have been able to see Information Processing in several ways during my student teaching experience. One example, during a one on one session with a student who had missed quite a bit of school and I was helping the student pass off a standard. As they went through an assignment, I would try to make connections to how they were relevant today, and keep going over them. Going over the information, going over it together, and then having the student explain the information to me. This was a form of Maintenance rehearsal as they were going over the information over and over again. There were also examples of elaborative rehearsal by making connections from how that information in history is still relevant today. For example, immigration, as they discussed the alien act and how that is still in play in today's political sphere. The more and more these ways of rehearsal are used and connecting prior knowledge with new knowledge, those connections in the brain get stronger and easier to remember. When the student was rehearsing back the knowledge, as the teacher, I still worked as the MKO, but gave him plenty of time to think through the information and question. I would then also assist when needed. Another example, was while conducting their research, students could not sort between what information they needed to know, and what they did not need to know. So, I did a mini lesson having students sort out "need to knows" vs "nice to knows" when it came to sorting information that was essential to the unit.

The way that this unit is set up, the students are respsonible for finding information and creating a stance on the subject. In this case, the question of the unit is "was Manifest Destiny worth it?" My biggest question for these are how can we be sure that they are really retaining the information. I believe that in theory, it should work that the students are creating their own arguments and thoughts on manifest destiny. However, I am worried about the long term success of learning the information. In the end, they are still filling out study guides and answering questions. How can we link the students interest to the topic and let those connections become strong and relatable to today? I think that there needs to be some more "checkpoints" throughout the lesson to gage the understanding of the students and where the class needs are. Spacing out how the topic is done so that it is not a lot of information at once would be helpful.

When I do my mini lesson, I feel that I will need to focus on lots of rehearsing and finding ways and methods of helping the student go over. I really like having the students think about it themselves, discuss with a partner, and then a large group. This way they are strengthening and making many connections with what they know, and then what others know and can add to their own learning. I also believe this takes away anxiety and the students can actually learning something no matter what their previous level of knowledge on the content was. This can be a way of using controlled/ focused attention where the students focus together on what the question or goal is, go over it together, and prepare to contribute to a classroom discussion on the subject. I also believe that make relevant connection in history to today really helps keep those connections and have better understanding of the subject.

Student Development Profile

Identity Development:

• Trust: I will try to establish trust at the beginning of the year by always being straightforward with all my students. I will always try to keep in mind how I would like to be treated as a student. I will be fair when I can, be kind always, but always professional. My father always told me: “Be polite, but firm.” I hope by keeping that motto in mind, I can build trust with my students
• Autonomy: I will then help my students establish autonomy by allowing them to make choices about their homework/schooling as often as possible. I have read many articles stating that when students have the ability to incorporate something they are interested in into their schooling, they are more intrinsically engaged. I want students to feel that they are active participants in their learning.
• Initiative: Then I will allow students to take some initiative by not hand-holding them through every assignment. I will implement scaffolding, so that students can take more and more responsibility for their assignments.
• Industry: This will prepare students to develop industry as they have practice using the skills I help them develop in the classroom, out in the real world.
• Identity: I will engage students in exploring aspects of their identity by exploring alongside them, as we have discussions in class. I never want to tell students what to think, and if possible, I would not even want to tell them what I think. I want to help students realize how to think, and perhaps help them explore areas of beliefs and thoughts they have never encountered before. I want to help produce students who are active civilians of the world.
• Intimacy: I will help my students learn to develop true intimacy by creating a positive classroom community, where students feel safe to discuss, and share their true thoughts and feelings alongside their peers. I want to create a classroom community free of contention and judgement, and instead create a community of discussion and friendship.
• Generativity: I will provide my students with an opportunity to feel generativity by helping them to become active participants in their community, state, nation, and even the world. I want to help show students that individuals can have a massive effect on the world around them. That’s what history is after all, stories of women, men, and groups who vastly changed the world around them. Every student has the ability to change the world for the next generation. I want to teach students how to change the world for the better.
• Integrity: I will help my students feel a sense of integrity by making sure they always do their best. Another motto from my dad has really stuck with me all my life. “You will never regret working too hard, but you will always regret not working hard enough.” I want this to be a quote displayed in my classroom. Sometimes, even the smallest amount of effort can make the difference between a win and a loss. I want to help my students realize their own potential, and to always encourage them to try their hardest.

Moral Reasoning:

When discussing history, it is impossible to avoid discussions about political parties and issues that may be controversial. I would like to engage my students in multiple discussions about the differing political parties, about their ideologies and beliefs, and encourage (but never dictate to) the students to consider how their personal beliefs and ideologies fit in with the various political parties throughout history, and even the common ones today. I also want to show students how to engage in discussions with people of the differing opinions, because that happens all the time in the real world.

The Model of Instruction I like to use, and I think is very effective in helping students to learn critical thinking skills as well as learning to think objectively, would the Academic Controversy model. I know this would take quite a bit of practice with students, but it would help them develop their own thoughts and opinions, while being able to appreciate and accept that others will have different views, opinions and reasons for their feelings.

Social Development:

This will be one of my favorite areas in Educational Psychology to watch the students grow and develop as learners!

I want my students to understand that as their teacher, I don't expect them to know everything and be perfect. This will not only be in relation to the content and subject matter that I am teaching, but as human beings as well.

I will be teaching Geography to 9th graders. They are still very much developing as young humans and trying so hard to find themselves. I expect in every way that life for them is difficult and confusing. The first year of high school can be exciting and scary at the same time. I take it as my responsibility, at least within the walls of my classroom, to help and guide them along. I want to teach them to develop their own abilities and find their own strengths that will help them in my class, and every other class they take throughout high school and into their adult lives!

I will also be teaching US Government to 12th graders. Social Development is going to be critical in this age group. They need to develop critical thinking skills. If they don't know how to do it when they walk into my class on the first day, we will work together, and I will ask them how I can help them, at the same time, being careful to not do the work for them. At the end of the process, we will all look back at they can do on their own, and help them carry that out of my class, into the college classroom, and into their adult lives!

Piaget

In my student teaching experience, I experimented with allowing the students to be in command of their own learning when it came to the new unit we were starting. I gave them access to resources to allow them to research the material and find the information for the unit. I ran into a problem when the students were using google searches. I assumed that they were able and knew how to properly use google to find information. Instead, they would type in one thing, and get millions of sources on the topic and was not what the students were looking for. I felt the students were in disequilibrium with how the students were to do their own research. To help fix this, I taught them how to do a proper google search in a 10 minute mini lesson. I taught them about using quotation marks to narrow down the search. Use addition symbols to add another topic, or subtraction to take out information that they did not want or need. I introduced a topic, saw it was then out of balance, and then helped fix this. This brought them equilibrium.

The students need guidance and a lot more practice to be able to more effectively be self efficient in doing their own research. It took a little bit of time for them to be able to understand what they were to be doing and how to find the answers. However, the more practice that the students had, the more they got a hang of it and were becoming stronger in finding their own information. Being able to use adaptation on both the students and the teacher to learn was very prominent in the learning on both sides. Setting up scaffoldings as well for the students as they go along will help also help guide them to be able to eventually feel comfortable doing the research on their own.

When teaching my lessons, I need to be aware of what it is I am asking my students and make sure that the have the prior knowledge to accomplish what it is that I am asking them to do. This does not just mean for google searches. This means that whatever I am having my students do, that they have that prior knowledge that will help them be successful in there learning. I need to adapt or use assimilation to make sure that the class knows what I am talking about. Then if I have to, prepare to adapt to the students instead of them having to adapt to me.

Kohlberg

One week in my Sports History class I noticed that the students in a little bit in all the levels of Kohlberg's level of moral development. I heard some seniors talking about another class, STATS 1040 class asking if scores were going to be out up soon so that they could show their parents their current grade in the class. They might have done this in fear of punishment if they didn't do well which would be stage 1 in pre-conventional. They might also being doing their homework and wanting good scores because they want to be seen as the good girl/boy in class. This is the Conventional level stage 3.

Metacognition

This week in the class, I tried to implement the use of metacognition a few times. I passed out homework assignments and then instead of just grading them and handing them back, I made notes on the side and handed it back and allowed the student to go back and see what they needed to improve on and hand the homework back in with the new corrected work. This allowed students to go back and look at the problems they needed to redo, then ask how they could fix those problems, and evaluate how they did and what they can change for a test or the next time they work on their homework. This is the metacognitive skills being put to use.

      I remember a time when I was in high school and my physics teacher co-regulated with us on how to build bottle rockets. She would give us a plan and a time line and would ask if we were staying on track. She also asked what we needed help with and helped us come up with different designs. She also let us try out the bottle rockets a few times before the actual test to let us see what worked and what didn't and to see what we could do to improve on the design. This helped us to use the cycle of self-regulated learning and really helped us develop the metacognition skills.

T.I.P.R.- Modern Constructivism

In the class I'm observing, the teacher had the students participate in an inquiry/jigsaw based lesson about early Colonial America. He started the class by asking them about what they thought life in early America was like (based on their prior knowledge from previous lessons). He allowed the students to respond, and then he helped them to dig a little deeper. He asked them to think more specifically about what life was like for early colonial American women, children, patricians, men in the army, and slaves. What was their daily life like?

The students had some general ideas, and then the teacher had the students split up into their preassigned groups. He assigned each group to take on different roles of the groups they discussed to research. They were to learn, as best they could, about the daily life that these people experienced. He gave them some primary documents to read, and some secondary sources as well. He allowed them to use technology to find more information. The groups were allowed to research for 35 minutes.

After the groups became "experts" on their group assignment, they were then split up and reorganized into new groups with people from other groups who were the "experts" on their  roles. They were then assigned to take turns describing and teaching their new group members about the daily lives of the roles they were assigned.

I observed as some of the students were really excited and engaged in the activity. Learning was taking place, and they were teaching each other. I saw students express empathy, amazement and even more curiosity. At the end of class the teacher handed out exit slips which asked the students to describe something new they learned from class that day. I did not see any of the students' slips, but I can imagine that there were many who had great responses.

It would have been so easy for the teacher to lecture and use direct instruction to explain the daily lives of early colonials. It was much more effective for him to allow the students to step into that world, and also teach other students about their topics. It was fun to watch, and something I want to incorporate into a lesson plan!!

T.I.P.R.- Vygotsky

I have observed this teacher model Vygotsky's Theories of Cognitive Development on many occasions in his class, particularly with the use of the Zone of Proximal Development. The students are pretty self-sufficient with this teacher's classroom procedures, but it came with practice. I talked to this teacher about how he makes sure to ingrain the use of his classroom procedures, and he says they are always established by the 2nd week of school with little reminders whenever he feels they are needed. The students are expected to know classroom procedures and can perform them without any aid.

In one particular class that I observed, the teacher was introducing a new model of instruction. He explained to the class that they would be arguing for or against the American Revolution. With some scaffolding, the students learned that not everyone was in favor of America declaring independence from England and engaging in war for the cause. The teacher had some primary documents from early American colonials that argued either in favor or against America's war for independence.

The model of instruction introduced was the Academic Controversy model. He explained that the students were going to split up into their preassigned groups. Each side of the table would be assigned a side to take, whether for or against. He explained that each side would have time to read their documents. Each side would then take turns explaining and arguing for their position. The teacher made it very clear that the discussions were to be very polite and respectful. He also explained that after their initial turns, they would then switch positions and argue the opposite side.

He asked 3 other students to come to the front. They would model how this discussion was to take place, as the teacher participated in this demonstration. He showed the students how to respectfully listen to each person talking and how to ask or express rebuttals. The teacher also had each step of the process listed on the Smart Board so the students could reference the instructions any time they needed. The teacher explained that there would be time limits to presenting arguments and rebuttals.

The teacher walked around as the discussions were taking place and gave assistance and gentle reminders any time he felt some of the students were starting to get out of control. It was a great learning experience for the students. After class I asked the teacher if he planned on using this model of instruction again, and he said he would. He enjoys this model when the students get the hang of it. He also says that it really affects their learning in a positive way.  He also said that there were certain other class periods that this model of instruction may not be as successful in. He said that you have to know your students, adjust, and make sure to help them be successful in the ways that help them the best!

In observing this teacher, I've learned how to make sure my students are aware and knowledgeable of classroom procedures to the point where they can complete the task unassisted. Helping them learn through scaffolding and support to increase their Zone of Proximal Development will be an ongoing process. I will also need to know that there will be some things that will work with some classes and some that won't work with other classes. In this way, I will be aware of things that are out of reach. I also believe that some students will believe that there are things that they are unable to do, but for me to be an effective teacher, I can help them with a growth mindset. I will help them know that although they might not be able to do it now, if they continue to put in effort and hard work, they will be able to do it at some point.