These chapters talked about Principles and Systems, and Enhancement of Self Concept. First tell us about one of your learning experiences. Was it a system or principle approach? How did that work for you and the other students involved? Second, tell us why you think enhancing the student's self concept is important. Share one thing you do in your class that works or something new you plan to try this year!
Assignment #3 Chapters 9-11
8 comments:
While I understand the difference in effectiveness between systems and principles techniques, I'm confused by the terminology. ha! It doesn't really matter, I guess. My mind doesn't work well with the "systems" approach because I can't recall all the rules and consequences myself! I like to have it open ended and keep the kids wondering.
An example of using a L and L approach might be when a smart, friendly child could not control his impulses during community circle. I tried having him listen and observe only, do so from a distance, be in timeout, reflect about TRIBES, apologize, talk to mom, nothing worked. Someone would share "My parents are getting divorced" and he would immediately quip and stop the process with laughter, whenever he was in the room. Finally I told him I understood he simply could not control his mouth, given an opportunity to be within listening distance, so he would wait outside the door until we were done. Then he would come back in, and have a smaller version of community circle with 3 other students. It worked great! They used the circle spinners and he was able to be successful. It didn't take energy away from me, because the students with him were focused and caught up work easily.
Another child trying to emulate the clown responded much quicker. When I gave him an "out" from community circle, he replied it was his favorite part of the day, and he would do whatever it took to stay. He never disrupted the circle again.
I like the Pearl at the end of chp 7: Shift your thinking from, "What do I say?" to, "What do I ask?"
That also goes for teaching content these days. I plan to post that so I can remind myself.
A systems approach does not work because it does not allow for differentiation, and, like Melanie said, there can be too many rules and consequences to keep up with. That just becomes one big mess. Keeping it simple is important for all concerned.
The exchange on page 121 between a student named Connie and a teacher shows something that works for me. I try to use "I" statements, instead of the accusatory "you." It leads to a calmer discourse and tends to consume less time on behavior and more on learning.
The differentiation that is needed at times is largely due to self-concept. Consequences for students with low self-concepts may not be as successful for students with high self-concepts and vice versa. And contrary to most teacher books, I do not believe there is an epidemic of low self-concept. Self-concept comes from within (hence, SELF), often with little respect to outside factors. To give an example: I taught second grade for four years at an Orthodox Jewish school much like the Amish school discussed in the book. All of those children had two parents, siblings, a close-knit extended family. They were very much wanted and valued and had no preoccupations with things such as parent divorce, parent losing a job, etc. Yet, despite this, the ratio of high to low self-concept is no different from other students I have taught who live under far more dire circumstances. Self-concept comes from within.
As with the first 5 chapters, semantics is key. Knowing how to incorporate the nuances of language can make or break a difficult situation.
A learned experience.
The story about the humanitarians and the Hindus (L&L ch 6, pg 86) approach was very enlightening. We tend to forget that the rest of the world does not operate under the same premises and forget there are differences. The belief that pain and suffering during ones life needs to be worked out so that the next one will be a better life appears in other literatures. For example, it appears in Pearl S. Buck’s book, The Dream of the Red Chamber. This is an extreme example of pessimism, but there are other more subtle things that we may not be able to atune to in the classroom environment.
We do not have the luxury of one-to-one time with all the students we feel we want to reach. Our perception of what is and the student perception of what is, may be very far apart. Atuning ourselves with our students' perception is not a simple task.
A case in point is Marcos (not his real name). Marcos is a very smart student, but never did his homework (lost it, left it at home or at school). I tried by all means to get him to do his homework including conferencing with mom. The more I tried, the less interested he was. He wasn't failing, but he had a lot more potential. My level of frustration over the inability to get him to be interested in being his best was pretty high. Then I just stopped talking about it. Instead, I invited Marcos to stay after school to work with other high performing students so that he could study and work on his homework during that time. He didn’t stay every time, but he did stay some of the times. He continued to improve and did well that year. Other students in class noticed. He continued improving until the end of the year. I didn't follow a system's approach by just marking him off for homework, I got him involved in making choices. It was the principle, how much more he could do.
Two of my other colleagues and myself, gave the opportunity to our lowest performing students to work together outside of the classroom on Saturdays during two months last year to prepare for math and reading TAKS. These students had very low self-esteem. They were convinced no matter what they did, that they would fail and gave up the race before starting. After the Saturdays' interventions, they were able to pass at least one and in a few cases, both, of the two exams. On Saturdays they did not have to be concerned with other students being impatient with them, or making comments of their low performance, or pretending they knew when they really didn't. Every accomplishment was celebrated no matter how small. They became more eager to practice, read, question, and truly felt that the most important thing was not so much how they did, but did they do their best. We will be getting together to study what we did well and what we can better so that we can continue to approach our strugglers next year.
Several years ago I had a difficult student that would refuse to do work and caused a lot of disruptions in the classroom. I tried everything with this child but what finally worked was when I started giving her choices. Giving her the control to choose gave her the power and gave me much more time to spend teaching instead of disciplining(spelling????). This year I also had a student that was very uninterested but when given choices he always stayed on task and even completed work!
I really like the quote from the book on p. 100 "Fair" is often not identical treatment, but, rather, giving what is needed. I think as teachers we need to determine what students need and treat them accordingly.
I had both. Systems in Elementary and a Principle Approach at College. I always have a good memory from my College but never realized that this was their approach, no wonder why I still remember them with joy.
It work pretty nice for all of us because specially one teacher, Angela Godoy, she would make us think about every single consequence of our actions in very funny and human way. I know that most of us would be in her class and never skip it.
All of us are equal because all of us are different. Equality doesn't mean same treatment but same consideration. Next year I want my students to feel accountable of their positive actions "You should be proud of..." instead of the classic "I am so proud of you" comment.
I, like frasianlat, thought the example of how the Hindus view suffering very interesting. (chapter 6) We must be more compassionate and empathetic when working with others and not just assume that things are as we perceive them. Getting to know more about my students' cultural backgrounds will help me to develop a better relationship and hopefully even become one of those "magic" people in their lives.
In chapter seven, the statement, " Equal treatment may be completely unfair," brings to mind how we are to differentiate and individualize learning for each student. I often explain it to my students by using the illustration of the doctor giving what is needed for each patient. When you get a cut you get a bandage, but when your sister is feeling sick at her stomach does she also need a bandage?
I totally agree with the comment on the loss of the importance of the extended family. In my opinion that is very sad that we go to strangers for advice instead of our grandparents. Also, I can see where the pendulum has swung to where parents are so afraid of hurting a child's self esteem, they do not allow him/her to solve problems or handle any frustration. In the long run, that hinders the child's ability to later handle grown-up situations.
Yes, Not Gaffney, it is all a matter of semantics, and it is my desire to learn this new language. My desire is to better provide my students with more choices, so they will feel like they are contributing more to class and to their own education.
In my experience, I was a very self-motivated and compliant student so, I don't think for me, it made much of a difference whether it was more systems or principles based. Even moreso, my parents, particularly my dad, kept me to a very high standard in both academics and behavior, that, again, how they approached it in school was not really relevant.
Now when we talk about our students we've had over the years, or our own children at home that I would like to try more "natural consequences" and thinking of logical and adhereable choices. At home, especially, I think it is easy to come up with "threats" that can not easily be implemented. So, to calmly set limits, but to allow the child to come up with a logical consequence and most importantly, empathize, with the child. That's what I want to improve on this year.
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