I found an assessment from the Portland Public Schools.  The link below takes you to the PDF worksheet that a teacher can go over with each student.

http://www.pps.k12.or.us/curriculum/literacy/video/assessments/k-phonemic.pdf

The assessment has five different areas to assess where kindergartners are in understanding and knowing phonics. These areas include:

• Rhyming Words
• Isolate initial consonants
• Isolate ending consonants
• Blend onset and rimes
• Blend separately spoken phonemes 

Each area gives the teacher instructions as to what they need to tell their student and what response to look for. Each areas has three different dates, indicating that this is to be done at three different times. I obtained a copy of this off of a blog, therefore no instructions other than what is on the sheet itself was provided. I am unaware of the guidelines for time frames as to when the student should be assessed, but assume it is to be done throughout the semester.

What I like about this assessment is that it is a great starting point for teachers to assess where their students are with each area. The teacher can choose to do this assessment individually or in small groups.  Later in the semester, students can touch base again with students to see if they have made any improvements and in which areas. The last assessment after all the lessons have been taught, the teacher can once again go back and do a summative assessment to see how much progress has been made.

The thing I do not care for in this assessment is that it does not indicate any formative assessments. I would change the assessment so that it includes worksheets or lessons that can be done with small groups and/or individuals that are given throughout the semester so that the teacher can make formative assessment throughout their lessons given.

Classroom Management Guiding Principals

Having worked in social work for many years, one thing I have learned is that children thrive on having connections and relationships with others, structure, routine and the knowing. Children feel most safe when they know what to expect and mentally stable and healthy when they have structure. The same is exactly true for children going to school.

I plan to teach Kindergarten and know that having a good foundation of classroom management will not only make my job as a teacher a little bit easier, but also help my students feel safe, respected and will also promote healthy learning habits. I hope to work with the special education population and having positive classroom management for them will be imperative for them to have a healthy environment free of any unwarranted stimulus that could hinder their ability to learn.

Guiding Principals:


1. As a teacher, I will build a positive rapport with my students and know them on an individual level. 

If there is one thing I have learned about children is that they like to feel safe, respected, heard and important. I can't help but think back to the story Dr. Kruse told us in class about the girl who kept acting up in class and getting detention after detention. It wasn't until Dr. Kruse started speaking with her and getting to the bottom of her behaviors towards him and in his classroom that she really felt heard, respected and important. It was also a good lesson in getting to know students on a deeper level and truly hearing what they have to say.

In order for a teacher to have their students respect them, I believe it will be imperative that I as a teacher start with the basics of getting to know all of my students names on the first day and show them that I care to know who they are.  I may just have to steal Dr. Kruse's strategy of recording us saying our names so that I have a face and voice with their name. The first couple of days of the school year I will have a "share and tell" activity where each student brings in a picture of their family and works in class on a poster, picture, etc of how they want to share who they are with the class. I would ask them to include information such as their family, pets, likes, dislikes, favorite school subject, what they did over the summer, etc. Each student would have the opportunity to introduce themselves to the classroom with other students having the opportunity to ask them questions.  I, as the teacher, would go first, demonstrating the expectations of the activity. I envision doing a similar "share and tell" activity after each long break our school has so that the students are connected with one another and feel welcomed back.

Having students engage with me and one another shows them that I respect them and want to have a relationship with them. Allowing students to ask one another questions is having them engage socially which is utilizing the SLT. By having students "share and tell" they are actively mentally engaged learning about their teacher and classmates as well as thinking of questions they may want to ask. This is utilizing the CLT. By building a rapport with my students and having mutual respect, the hope is to eliminate any power struggles that may arise down the road or any out of control behaviors. I would like students to feel as though they can come to me for anything, classroom related or not. I realize that this will not be a one time activity solely done at the beginning of the year  but know that it will be a process that will take time. It will undoubtedly take several weeks and ongoing throughout the year to earn and keep that respect and trust going. I will continuously checking in with students to make sure things are going well for them in and outside of the classroom. My hope is to have that open relationship so that they know that they can come to me with anything.

Along with building a good relationship with my students, it will be important for me to never discipline a student in front of others, or overly praise another. By doing this, you are showing your students that you have "favorite" or students who are constantly in trouble. Students who are struggling in class will be individually met with, whether that be in a regular check-in I have with each student or before or after school.


2. Students will know the routine and expectations of the classroom. 

In order to achieve this principal, I will have a schedule of the daily activities/centers and the teachers expectations outlined on the wall for students to see. At the beginning of the school year I will explain to them the structure of what their classroom days will look like. Going over the schedule will not be enough alone, so it will be posted in class so that it can be referred back to as needed throughout the school year. As the school year moves forward and students are in the schedule, they will become more accustomed to this routine.

The schedule for example could be something like in the  morning when the students arrive to school they will be required to put their coats, bags, etc away in their cubby/hook. They will then know to grab a book, a puzzle or activity at their desk to work on until the class is to begin  After every has arrived, we would go over "house-cleaning" items such as what day of the week it is, any special activities that day, attendance, helpers, etc.  The schedule would be broken down into their daily activities such as reading, math, specials, lunch, recess, etc.  Having students know the structure of their day is key in helping them with keeping their behaviors in line so that they do not have any unknowns. This falls under the behavioral learning theory. I should note that I will not have things written out by time as I want to be sure not to rush my students in any area, or move on to another activity if students are grasping the information in a time sooner than I thought. If we are having really good class discussions or they need more time, I do not want any students, especially those with learning disabilities, Aspergers, Autism, etc to feel confined by those time frames. My students will grow to know that if we do not get to something in a day, it is okay and we will be sure to work on it the next day. On the same hand, I want my students to know that even though we get done with an activity/lesson sooner there is no "down" time that isn't accounted for by learning. Keeping students on a routine does not allow for much down time, thus not allowing them to be bored in the day. By not allowing students to be bored, they continuously stay actively engaged (CLT).

A second part to this guiding principal is that students will know my expectations as a teacher. For example, my students will know that when they walking in a line to go outside, to a different classroom, etc, they are to be facing forward and quiet. This will be explained to them the first few times they line up, but over time, as with the routine, my students will know that it is my expectation that they have this behavior when in line. Another example is clean-up time. At the end of each activity/lesson that has a lot of things out, I will play music and they will understand with my verbal communication of clean-up time that when this music is being played, it is time to put away what they are working on. Another expectation would be the noise level in the class. I will display a chart that shows different noise levels for different times in the class. For example: When they are working in small groups or with a partner, the noise level is expected to be little bit higher than say if they were all reading or working on an activity at their desks. In class when the noise level reaches one higher or lower then where they are at, instead of pointing out a specific student I could remind them what level the classroom should be at.  Having students know the teacher's expectations uses the BLT.  Students will be able to see the benefits of knowing and following the classroom expectations and be motivated to follow the classroom expectations.

3. Students will be taught to respect one another, be positive with one another and follow the classroom rules and routine.  
After reading the Pondering Praise article by Joe Bower, I have been thinking more about how to praise children for their efforts and not expectations as well as not overly praise them. I believe that small children thrive on knowing when they are doing well and should be able to take accountability for their actions. I thought about doing a star chart or reward system of some kind and did some research on what is out there. I didn't like the fact that you are rewarding children with little trinkets for "x" amount of days of doing well. I stumbled upon this blog  and love this teacher's clip system. Mrs. Bainbridge has a wonderful clip system that allows students to move their own clip for doing well in class or for doing poorly. I like the idea of the students moving their clip and seeing where they stand in their behaviors. I like how Mrs. Bainbridge notifies the parents for outstanding behavior as well as having students fill out a behavior modification sheet if on the bottom end of the clip chart. In having a chart like this I realize it will be important for me as a teacher not to move students higher for simple expectations, but for actions that are above and beyond. By students seeing their behaviors, interactions and efforts in a chart and being able to move the clip themselves demonstrates the BLT in that they are able to see the their positive behaviors being rewarded. This chart could also use the DLT in that the students are able to see their movements on the chart, therefore having more understanding of where they stand behaviorally.

A huge piece to this will be for myself as a teacher to model these positive behaviors and respect for others. This will be done not only with my students but with any volunteers, parents, principal, special guests and other teachers who I interact with. By modeling my behaviors, students will see that importance of their actions and how it promotes healthy relationships. Modeling my behaviors is using the social learning theory.

4.  Students will be actively mentally engaged throughout the day. 
One of the biggest ways to let a classroom get out of control is by having students not actively engaged in what they are doing. If a student is bored, they will find other ways to keep themselves entertained and most often those ways will not be productive. As outlined in my schedule each lesson/activity will require students to be working either individually, with a peer, with a small group or as a large group. Not only will it be imperative for students to know the routine and structure of the classroom, but also for me as a teacher to have activities prepared for students who get done with their work before others. This could be done by having a reading corner, craft corner or puzzle corner with activities that students can go to if done early. Each of these corners will have specific activities related to the content that the students have previously learned in the year.  Having students actively mentally engaged is utilizing the constructivist learning theory. During activities, it will be important for myself as a teacher to continuously asking questions. Not only will I be able to assess where my students are with information, but I will be able to scaffold their thinking to deeper levels of thinking and move them up on the ZPD (SLT). I believe it will also be important for myself as the teacher to continuously ask students questions about what they are working on. I will try to pull information they learned from previous lessons and scaffold them to apply it to this new information so that they are building off of their schema's. (CLT)

I honestly had a lot of fun working on this assignment. It gave me a chance to read a lot of different blogs from other teachers and see what ideas are out there for kindergarten classrooms. I am excited to see how my ideas will work in a classroom someday and have no doubt that while the guiding principals will generally stay the same, the way in which I instruct and go about those guiding principals will evolve over time.

Revision to Learning Theory Paper- DLT

Developmental Learning Theory

One theory under cognitive learning is Piaget’s developmental learning theory (DLT). Piaget developmental stages include sensorimotor, pre operational, concrete operational and formal operational. The DLT suggests that students in the earlier developmental stages are developmentally younger and have lower maturity levels along with fewer experiences. As children move through the developmental stages they are gaining maturity and more experiences. The DLT suggests that a student’s ability to move from concrete operational to formal operational (abstract) learning depends greatly on where they are on the developmental stages. For example, a kindergartner may be able to see through examples how water can change from a solid form by melting a bowl full of ice and then watching that water disappearing by heating it. Because of their young age, they may have a difficult time understanding and connecting that to snow, rain and fog. As that student gets older and gains more experiences, they would be able to make those connects as well as be able to apply the  concepts of solid, gas and liquid matters to other chemicals.  This is an example of how students as they get older move from concrete operational to formal operational thinking.

As a student moves through the developmental stages, by maturing in age and acquiring personal experiences, a student becomes able to move from using deductive reasoning, which allows a student to start with a general concept and then break it down into a specific idea, to inductive reasoning. Inductive reasoning allows a student to begin with a specific concept and apply it to more general ideas. When a student has reached the ability to abstractly think about a concept, they will be able to apply deductive reasoning (Learning Theories, 2012).

According to the DLT, as a student develops the ability to think abstractly about a concept, accommodation begins to apply. The student is not only taking in new information, but is also better able to apply this information to other situations or concepts. The student is using formal operational thinking to fit new information into their schema.

When creating lesson plans it will be helpful for teachers to know where their students are in the developmental stages and assess where their students are in their ZPD.   On the ZPD continuum, the top tier indicates “difficult understanding” when reached without a MKO or before a student is ready. This can also be seen when a teacher uses abstract examples prior to a student being ready. The opposite can apply when a teacher is using concrete representations, which may be “too easy,” when they could be using abstract examples to explain the concept.

With a teacher is introducing a new concept to students; it will be helpful for them to use the learning cycle model. The teacher can gain a good understanding of where their students are in understanding a concept by first introducing a concrete example and move students towards abstract thinking by scaffolding. For example, when a teacher is teaching the elements of a story, the teacher may give each of their students a copy of the story he/she is reading out loud and have them follow along. The teacher would then ask questions and have discussions about specific concepts in the story such as, “Who are the main characters?” “What is the plot?” or “Where does the story take place?”. The teacher would then ask the students to write down who their characters would be, where would the story take place and what would the story be about if they were to write a story. Once these concepts are written down, the students would then be able to use these concrete examples to create their own story. Once students are able to understand the elements of a story, they are then able to apply it to writing stories of their own, and also to other stories they are reading for understanding, reaching formal operational thinking.

Ultimately, abstract learning is the goal as it challenges students to think on a deeper level.  Once a student is able to think about a concept abstractly, the better they are able to apply more information to that concept and connect it with other concepts. Additionally, students will be able to engage in a cycle of thinking — concrete to abstract and back to concrete concepts again.  

Evaluation of article on Classroom Management

http://socyberty.com/education/effective-pre-k-and-kindergarten-classroom-management/

This article specifically addresses pre-K to K aged children. The author of this article lists several different examples of ways to promote effective classroom management.
1. Classroom Helper- Each student is given a daily duty in the classroom. This is a wonderful example of the SLT where students are engaged with the teacher and with one another at different points in the day. By not having the students bored, helps with them paying attention more.
2. Line-up Manner- When going from place to place, the students form two lines and are required to hold hands with one another. The author talks about helping to keep the line in order and so as not to lose anyone. I do not see any connections to motivation or NOL in this technique. I do see a connection with the BLT as the teacher is establishing this as a routine knowing they line up and hold hands with a partner.
3. A reward system-star chart- Throughout the day a teacher can give a student a star which they get to put in their star bag. Once the student reaches 20 stars, they get to earn something out of the treasure chest. I think this is a great way to motivate students to behaving well, paying attention and being respectful of one another knowing that with these good behaviors they could earn something. This falls under the BLT learning theory by students being rewarded for their positive behaviors thus encouraging them to continue to have the positive behaviors.
4. Good day/bad day chart- Any time throughout the day a student can be asked to move their clip down, depending on their behavior. If their clip is moved in a day, they are ineligible to turn in their stars that day. Each day the student starts over at the top with good day. While this technique motivates students to have good days, it does not give students the opportunity to change their day around. If the student has a really bad morning, they stay at that level all day, not giving the student incentive to behave. Also, the article doesn't mention any other motivating factors to stay at the good day level other than if they move down, they are ineligible to redeem their stars.  I could see students not being motivated to have a good day unless they have all of their stars to redeem. If a student doesn't have all of their stars, nothing is motivating them to have a good day. This technique seems redundant of the reward system and a little overkill. It could be tweaked to include the option to move back up to a good day status or a reward if you stayed in the good day status throughout the day.
5. Using sign language to signal needs- The students are taught sign language to signal needs such as water or using the restroom. This takes place of speaking aloud and disrupting the class when a student needs something. I am not a huge fan of this technique. While I like the idea of teaching students sign language, I feel that it breaks down positive and effective communication between a student and teacher. I do not see where this technique ties in to any learning theories, NOL or motivation.
6. Every activity associated with a song- This technique uses music to help transition students to one activity or another. Students learn the "clean-up" song or the "reading" song. This uses the SLT in that students are engaged with one another as well as the CLT in which they are actively mentally engaged to help motivate them to clean up and switch to another activity.
7. Using music to help students relax and refresh- This technique allows students to have a mini-break with singing a song or listening to music while dancing. The thought is that if students are able to clear their mind, they can easily get back on track. I have to disagree with this technique. I would be worried that students would lose motivation to whatever activity they were working on and be hard to bring back together after they are signing and dancing around. I'm not sure where the connection is to any of the learning theories, NOL or motivation.

When reading through this article, a lot of the techniques use positive motivators to get students reach a certain goal. The star chart and the behavior chart (if used correctly) are great ways to teach the children about self-efficacy and that they are in control of things they earn through their behaviors. This could also focus too much on extrinsic factors and motivators for students. By giving rewards, the students are  not learning for themselves, but rather for their teacher.

When thinking of these techniques and how they apply to the nature of learning, I am struggling. If you were to use the reward chart and reward students on their effort on learning something or effort on an assignment, you would be teaching the students that leraning takes time and effort and doesn't come easy. The teacher could explicitly tell their student that is why they are earning that award.
 

Further Evaluation and Implications of a Lesson Plan

http://teachers.net/lessons/posts/2730.html

This lesson plan I evaluated is about teaching children how to connect letters with their sound. When I first evaluated this lesson, I felt that it used the CLT well by having the student's actively mentally engaged when speaking the letters when they are writing them down.

To change the lesson based on the theories we have learned in class, I would not use clay for the children to mold the letters out.  I would use the Gradual Release of Responsibility Model by having objects to show the students and saying the word and letter it matches with. I would then have the students tell me the sounds the letter makes with different objects. The students would then be paired together with a peer and work on flashcards with pictures and the letter the sound makes. After the students have been able to work in pairs, they would then have a worksheet where they are required to cut out the letters and pictures and then glue them in matching fashion. They would be encouraged to say the words and letter out loud as they are cutting and glueing them.  By having the peers work with one another I am utilizing the SLT. By having the concrete examples of the object, flashcards and then the worksheets I am utilizing the DLT. By having the students actively mentally engaged by using the GRR, I am utilizing the CLT. While working with the students as a class, I would ask them questions such as what does the lowercase letter look like and then have someone go to the board to draw it. Or the the uppercase letter. By asking these questions, I am using scaffolding and having the students think further about what they are learning. By having such a mixture of ways of learning, all students across the board should be able to connect with one of theories and learn the material.

During the time of me working with the students and the student's working together, I will be making formative assessments and then making necessary partner changes based on those assessments. This will allow students to work with a MKO and help those who may have not grasped the concepts.

For the Nature of Learning I am a not sure how to do this explicitly for Kindergartners. I feel that drawing their attention to the NOL and to boost my students self-efficacy, I will not praise them for the results of what they are doing, but make specific positive comments about their effort towards their work. For example I would say; "Sally, I like how you wrote the capital A a couple of times until you got it to look like the example" or "Billy, your sounding out of the letters keeps getting better the more you say it. Continue repeating it when you see objects that start with that letter". By them hearing the positive on the work they are doing instead of the results, they are hearing that I am pointing out the work they are doing is coming from them and not something I am telling them.  (Source of Knowledge). They will also hear that their repeated effort takes time to get the result they want.  (Rate of Learning). After asking these questions, I could then point out and discuss with the students that they learned that the information they are learning is coming from them doing the work themselves and that it is through their effort that they are learning the material.

Evaluation of iPhone/iPad application.

The iPhone and iPad application I chose is the Phonics Easy Reader. This app allows children to choose between two different modes. The first one being, "Read to Me" and the second one,  "Let Me Try". During the "Read to Me" mode, the child can hear the story being read to them as they follow along. During the "Let Me Try" mode, the child can read the story themselves with having the option to tap on a word to hear it out loud. There is also a section called "Memory Words", where it gives you words that are not pronounced phonetically and what I assume for the child to memorize.

This app does a good job of using the Developmental Learning Theory. By having the words printed out and allowing the child to see them as they are read aloud under the "Read to Me" mode is a concrete example. This app doesn't allow for abstract thinking in the app itself, but if the child does learn the words they hear and read, it would then allow the child to retain the words in their schema and apply it when reading a different story.

This app could use the Social Learning Theory depending on where the child is at their level of reading. This app uses a great deal of modeling when it is in the "Read to Me" mode. By having this option, the child is hearing someone "model" reading the word, in turn allowing the child to hear and know how it is to be pronounced. This is also using the Zone of Proximal Development in that it is allowing the child to follow along to learn the words phonetically.

Another aspect of the Social Learning Theory is that the screenshots they give as examples appear to have the pictures concretely showing what the student is reading. This is a great way to allow the student to not only read the words, but look at the pictures and tie them together with the words.

The flip side of this app and where it's downfall is in regards to the Social Learning Theory is that it would not be a beneficial tool if it is too easy and does not challenge the child enough. In order for this app to be used effectively under this theory, the teacher would need to know their students reading level prior to having them use this app.

This app does not allow for any peer to peer interactions as it is made to be done individually. If I were using this app as a teacher and wanting my students to have more social interactions, I would pair them together and have them take turns using the "Let Me Try" mode and read to one another.

This app could only apply to the Constructivist Learning Theory if it is in fact actively mentally engaging. This would once again rely on the teacher's knowledge of where their child's reading level is and if they are able to work with their schema to help them continue to read. It would be an ineffective tool if the child is beyond what stories they are reading.

I am struggling to find any of the Conceptual Change Theory in this app. In order for this app to apply to this theory, the app and activity would need to create some sort of dissatisfaction with old ideas that the student may have. This app doesn't necessarily create any new ideas or solve any problems.

This app does not allow a teacher to ask many questions other than having the student read the story aloud to her/him in order to make a formative assessment as to what words they know by using phonics.

If teachers were to use this app without knowing where their students reading levels are and really knowing if these stories are too easy or too difficult, the app would then be used ineffectively. On the other hand, if the teacher has made formative assessments prior to using this app, then it could be used effectively as a second teacher in the classroom for short periods of time. One example would be a teacher dividing her class into reading levels and when she is working with one group, she could have the other group using this app and working on their stories at their level.

Interview on Compound Words

For this assignment, I interviewed first grader Isaac, and his sister Anna, who is in the third grade. Both attend Crossroads Park Elementary. I asked them the following question, "What is a compound word?" I was curious as to how they would answer the question, and if I would get the same response from both.

When I asked Isaac the question, he didn't say anything. After a few seconds of silence, I asked him if he knew the answer. He said "no". I told him I was going to give him two words and asked him to tell me something about them. I said "newspaper" and "firehouse". He then responded with, "One word would be fire and one word is house". I told him this was correct and explained to him they are compound words.

I then asked his sister Anna the same question. She responded by saying, "I don't know." I then gave her the examples of "ladybug" and "eyebrow". She responded with, "Two different words that are put together to make one word". I told her she just gave me the definition of a compound word.

When asked this question, both Anna and Isaac seemed genuinely confused. Only after giving them examples were they able to tell me more about the word, but still unable to make the connection that the words they heard are in fact compound words. I honestly wasn't that surprised when hearing their answers. I would imagine both of them use compound words on a regular basis without knowing the technical term.

With Anna being in the third grade, this is a lesson she should have already had in an earlier grade. Isaac, on the other hand, may have not had this lesson yet. When thinking about the hurdles students may have had, or moving forward while learning this concept, I believe the students would need to have a vast range of vocabulary in order to put the two together. Students would also need to learn this concept in a way that is mentally engaging so that it stays with them for future lessons and application.

If I were going to teach this lesson, I would start by having examples of the words written on the board. I would then ask specific students to read the words out loud. Next I would ask the students if anyone knows what is unique/different about these words. I would engage the class as a whole, prompting them with questions to help them arrive at the definition of a compound word. The students would then be paired up and given a bag that contains cut outs of single words. With their partner, the students would be instructed to put together as many words as they can. As they are working, I would walk around the classroom, helping any pair who may be struggling. After the students have enough time to practice, I would pull everyone together to discuss the words they put together.

Engaging the students and giving them time to arrive at the definition themselves would help them retain that information more than had I just given it to them. Having them work in pairs is also a great way for them to work with others and build off of what their peers know.