Ch 10 #9

 How might self-efficacy and self-regulation contribute to the intervention plans you use in your case study?

 

I can increase Lisa's self-efficacy by showing her that I have confidence in her abilities and that I know she is capable of working well with others. Lisa will need to see her progress at collaborative group work, so it is important that her peers can provide positive feedback to her. The website I talk about below explains that even at the college level, students are unaware of the progress they make. This is because of past experiences. If Lisa can learn how to work well with others, she will feel better about herself and can have higher self-efficacy, which leads to success in the future.

This is a great website about self-efficacy. Be sure to click the arrows at the bottom because there are multiple pages. At the bottom of each page there are Checks for Understanding to see if you have understood everything. This can be great to help with your CSEL and Personal Learning Theory.
 

Self-regulation with Lisa needs to be modeled because it is apparent she does not know how to control her behavior or emotions. Promoting self-talk, such as, "Ok, am I doing what I am supposed to be doing? Am I staying on task?" are ways for Lisa to check herself. Self-monitoring is important when it comes to self-regulation, so I can give Lisa a checklist and a small timer. Every 10 minutes, the timer will beep, and she will give herself a smiley face is she is working well with others or a frown if she has not been doing what she is supposed to be doing. This way, she has a visual of her behavior and can see what it looks like. 

Emotion Regulation is an aspect of self-regulation and this can help when Lisa gets angry when she doesn't get the part she wants in a project. I can give her a small stress ball that she can use whenever she has negative feelings. We also could have a "cool down" spot in the room for anyone, not just Lisa, to go to when they feel like negative emotions are taking control.

All of these are ways for Lisa to improve her self-efficacy and self-regulation.

PLE #8 Ch 9

Consider your CSEL intervention case study. Are there tools from a behaviorist view for either encouraging productive behaviors or discouraging undesirable behaviors that you could apply to the case? What are they?

There are many tools from a behaviorist view that I could use with Lisa to both encourage productive behaviors or to discourse undesirable behaviors. Before I put my students in their groups, it is important to discuss the correct ways to behave when doing group activities. Making a list on the board and brainstorming ideas about how to treat each other would be a good way for Lisa to see what is expected of her. Once everyone knows the type of behavior that is expected in the classroom, the students will go to their groups.

I will pay attention to Lisa's group and whenever she behaves, doesn't get angry at others when she doesn't get her way, and contributes to the activity, I will praise her and will point out what she is doing that I like. For instance, if she doesn't interrupt a classmate, I will say "Lisa, I like how you are listening to John." This way, Lisa will know the behavior that is attached to the praise.

If this is ineffective, I can meet with her one on one and design a contingency contract. We will discuss the behavior that is inappropriate and decide on what behaviors will be appropriate. We will also discuss reinforcers for the good behavior. For instance, if Lisa can get through the group activity without talking out of turn and without getting angry when she doesn't get her away, if she contributes and helps prepare for the class presentation, she will receive a sticker that she can put on her behavior chart that I will design. If she reaches 10 stickers for positive behavior, she will get a larger reward (such as getting extra time on the computer). Hopefully this reinforcement will help Lisa behave appropriately. Eventually, I would like to take away the reinforcers and hope that Lisa can behave this way on her own.

I could also make this a class-wide token system, and if all of the groups work together and behave, the class will receive points. Every group has to behave in order for the class to receive points. This way, everyone will help each other, and hopefully Lisa will be reinforced as well to behave. Once the class reaches a certain amount of points, they will have a pizza party.

From a cognitive viewpoint, I've been having a hard time trying to think of how I would go about dealing with Lisa. Thinking about Piaget's stages, Lisa is at concrete-operational, meaning that she should be able to realize that other people have viewpoints and their own way of thinking. Perhaps I could use this to show her that everyone wants to have a certain role in the group and that we all need to take turns?

An important aspect of constructivism is that students reflect and talk about their activities. They also set their own goals. Lisa can construct her own ideas about what a good student looks like and how a student should behave during group work. She can construct her own goals and ways she can meet these goals. 

I feel like a cognitive viewpoint has the most deficits because it doesn't really apply to behavior--so if a child is misbehaving, it is hard to figure out how to deal with the child just based on cognition. Behaviorism is a great way to deal with Lisa because, obviously, we are dealing with her behavior and can use conditioning and reinforcement to get her to behave appropriately.

I think constructivism would be the best way to go about classroom management in my classroom because it involves both behavior and learning. Students need to know why they are behaving a certain way and need to be involved in ways they can change their behavior. Having students involved in the process helps them learn more. If Lisa can construct goals that she wants to attain, she will be more likely to follow through because she played a part in creating them. Also, with constructivism, I can look at her background knowledge to see if there are reasons why she is misbehaving during group time (perhaps her parents don't give her enough attention at home so she acts out in school, or she could be used to getting her own way at home and thinks the same should happen in school.)

All of the theories have positive aspects, but I think constructivism is the most effective in the classroom.  

I liked this article because it talks about both constructivism and behaviorism, comparing them, and discusses real-life examples in the classroom based on a video of preschoolers.

PLE #7 Ch 8

To teach my students metacognition skills in the classroom, it is important to model effectively these skills. For instance, in Reading class, I can talk to my students about how it is impossible to remember every little detail in a story--our brains cannot hold on to that much information at once. Because of this, it is important to pick out the main ideas of passages. This is something that will take practice, so for the first time we do this, a student will read a page and we will stop as a class and discuss the main idea of that page. I will write on the board what the students think the main idea is. We will continue to do this until the passage is finished. The students will be able to learn the process of picking out of the main ideas and will see how it is easier to remember what you read when you pick out the key concepts.

It is also important for students to be able to stop when they are reading and ask themselves if they understood what they just read. It is so easy to read something and not know what you read. Students need to be able to realize that this can happen quite often, and that by stopping periodically and asking questions can help you stay on track. To teach this, I will model this practice while we read together as a class. I will stop after I read something and say out loud, "Let me check to make sure I understand what I just read." This way, students can see what a comprehension check looks like and will learn the importance of it.

Problem solving skills are especially important in the classroom. If students do not know how to go about solving a problem, they will not be able to succeed. An important problem solving skill is writing down important information needed to solve the problem and possible solutions/approaches to the problem. For example, if a student is solving a math word problem, he/she needs to write down all the elements of the problem that will be needed to solve it. If the problem says something like, "Molly has $1.00. A candy bar is $.20 and a tootsie roll pop is $.30. How many of each piece of candy can Molly buy? Is the more than one option?" The student needs to write down the total amount Molly has to spend, the amount of each piece of candy, and the options. In the beginning, I can give them fill in the blanks for this so they have some structure, but by the end of the unit the students should be able to do this on their own. This will teach them organization when dealing with problems with more than one answer and will let them see their thinking process.

These Problem Solving Skills can be beneficial to both you and to your students.