References

• Aldridge J., Goldman R. 2007. Current Issues and Trends in Education (2nd Ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson/Allyn and Bacon.

• Ormrod J. 2009. Essentials of Educational Psychology (2nd Ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Merrill

• Santrock J. W. 2010. Adolescence (13th Ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill

• Sadker, D. M., Zittleman, K. R. (2009). Teachers, Schools, and Society: A Brief Introduction to Education (2nd Ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill.

Grade Retention

Grade Retention is when you hold a student back for not meeting the standards for moving on to the next grade. Opinions regarding grade retention in the past 30 having varied from being good for students and students doing poorly because of getting held back. At least 3.2 Million children are held back a year, costing almost 19 billion dollars (Aldridge and Goodman).

People think that if you retain your child why their young it wont be harmful, but in fact it affects the children in the long run, and they won’t approve academically overtime. Children who are retained feel more poorly about themselves as if they weren’t good enough as the rest of their peers. This can also force them to give up or loose hope that they won’t ever be good enough as the rest of the kids their age. Children who are held back have a higher risk of having discipline problems along with psychological problems. Also, children have a higher risk of dropping out of school if they are retained feeling like they are not smart enough to graduate.

Ethnicity

America is made of up lots of different types of people Whites who make up most of the majority followed by African Americans, Hispanic, Native Americans and also 6% that is remaining is unknown of other racial backgrounds. We have come a far way from racism unfortunately it still is occurring in classrooms today. 

Institutions are responding differently now to racial ethnic diversity in schools. School officials used to expect student achievement among minorities to be lower than that of white students. This caused many minorities to be placed in remedial and/or vocational programs. (Aldridge) Education reforms now are focusing on higher standards for every student no matter what ethnicity. Unfortunately Hispanic students are still lagging behind. Not only is this occurring in our school but also affects job opportunities after finishing college. In 2003, job applicants whose names ‘sounded black’ were 50% less likely than candidates that perceived to have a name that ‘sounded white’ to receive call backs, no matter what their level of previous experience.

We are still trying to keep racism out of classroom and job opportunities and for the 21st century Asian and Latino children and parents in multiethnic schools and districts will shape education and its policies. Asian Americans are currently the best educated group in the United States.

Christina Wasson 

Classroom Management

Classroom Setup

The classroom environment should be academically and age group appropriate. An example of this would be for second grade classrooms tables instead of desks are more appropriate because the attention of the student would be easier to maintain. Classroom decorations should be appropriate as well. In a high school classroom you wouldn’t have an alphabet above the chalkboard. Instead you would have posters, charts, and other objects pertaining to that course. Desk setup will also reflect on the age group. As the student matures, more lecture style seating will become commonplace as the student is expected to maintain focus on their teacher. In younger age groups group seating and floor layout will center on the teacher in the center or at a focal point. This allows for the teacher to easily control the class, and the student’s attention more easily. 

Teacher Practices

There are nine specific teacher practices that aid in classroom management; group alerting, withitness, overlapping, least intervention, fragmentation, teaching eye to eye, availability of supplies, high traffic area control, and procedures and routines.

1. Group alerting is a technique in which teachers ask questions and then call on a student to answer the question. This works because the whole class must stay on their toes.

2. Withitness is literally having eyes in the back of your head. By being aware of what is going on in your classroom better control of the classroom will follow.

3. Overlapping is multitasking without allowing interruption.

4. Least intervention is the practice of intervening in a problem within the classroom without causing disruptions.

5. Fragmentation is when a student must move from one activity to another. Especially when dealing with younger students, this technique helps to break up the day so that the student can focus on each individual activity.

6. Teaching eye to eye is the ability of the teacher to involve every student in the lecture. By moving throughout the classroom, making eye contact with each student, and using visual aids. Even the students in the back of the room have the best seat in the house for part of the day.

7. The availability of supplies in the classroom is going to directly affect the student’s activities. A suggestion would be to set up a self-help area so that the student is responsible for their own material, this frees up the teacher to focus on instruction.

8. High traffic areas should be clear. By doing this certain areas that need to be accessed throughout the day such as cabinets for materials, computers, and book shelves so time will not be wasted by having to get to these things.

9. Procedures and routines should be clearly laid out and taught in the same way material is. By laying down ground rules for proper in class behavior students will be less likely to do undesirable behaviors.

Discipline

Correcting a student’s wrong doing must be approached in an appropriate fashion according to the degree of the mistake. A few examples of this include temporary exclusion, calling a student’s attention to the consequences of his actions, depriving the student of whatever he has abused or misused, and restitution.

Temporary exclusion is the practice of sending the student out of the group until he or she feels they are able and ready to come back. This technique may not be appropriate with certain students as they may not come back.

Calling a student’s attention to the consequences of his actions is a powerful tool when dealing with a student that may not know they are acting wrongly, or when intervention time is limited. If this technique is used the student must weigh their mistake, and will, hopefully, see their mistake.

Depriving the student of whatever he/she has abused or misused is a step taken when the student repeatedly commits an undesired behavior. By removing the object or objects the student can no longer take part in the act.

Restitution is the act of making good that which you have harmed. For a student that has harmed another student in such a way as to damage a student’s property, harm the student, or hinders their learning experience, the wrong-doer is expected to make an effort to correct the wrong. This, of course, must be appropriately applied for certain situations would not make since for this method.

Heteronomous and Automatous Students

To be heteronomous is to be governed by others while to be automatous is to govern one’s self. Both of these are very important when dealing with a child’s future. The ability to be heteronomous allows the student to work within groups and organizations that are set on one goal, while autonomy will allow for the student to succeed on their own; these skills come into play in the classroom when dealing with projects, experiments, and testing. To encourage

heteronomy within the student a teacher can use positive and negative reinforcements, punishment and extinction. 

Positive Reinforcement

Positive reinforcement is the act of giving rewards to encourage a behavior. An example of this would be giving food to a student for doing well on a test. There are two different types of positive reinforcement, primary and secondary. Primary reinforcement is giving a need or a want, while secondary reinforcement is giving a student something becomes rewarding. 

Negative Reinforcement

Negative reinforcement brings about the increase of a behavior through the removal of a stimulus. An example of this would be finishing a project early so that you do not have to worry about it. 

Punishment

Punishment decreases the chance a behavior will happen again without any direct connection to the behavior itself. An example of this would be time out or taking away free time. Another example of this would be making a student write “I will not do blank” so many times on the board. 

Extinction

Punishment is the act of taking away certain rewards in the hopes of diminishing certain behaviors. An example of this would be ignoring a classroom clown.

Some Links and Videos for Your Pleasure

The following is a goofy, yet educational video about how to teach effectively in the classroom:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWMpgreW0po

What we have here is an interesting site about how to teach students who are easily distracted:

http://www.westfieldacademy.org/adhd/

Here is a great site with links to other sites for students, teachers, and parents:

http://www.teachthechildrenwell.com/

Gender

 
The gender of the student defines their characteristics, and their way of interacting within the classroom. Gender is not the sex of the student; rather the sexuality of the student. It is important to remember that a student that may be male by sex could show characteristics of a female. This, in a nut shell, is the student’s sexuality. To understand how gender plays a role in the classroom one must make known the influences of gender.

 

               The one variable that a person has the least control over would be the genetic makeup of the child. In this sense we will focus on the beginning of puberty, and not the argument that sexuality is determined by genetics. The onset of puberty brings with it hormones that begin to change a person from a child to an adult. Women typically begin puberty earlier than males, and therefore tend to mature faster. This may not always be a positive thing though. The insecurities of puberty and the fact that students can be very cruel bring upon bullying to those that stand out. Because of the lack of control of the onset of puberty, many students find themselves being the center of cruel jokes just because they began maturing faster than the others in their class. With this brings stress and insecurity that can take away from the student’s education.

 

              Another influence of gender is the social side of the child’s life. This includes gender roles and common perceptions of proper behavior for both male and female students. A common gender role would be that males are typically strong and assertive where as women are weaker and more mild mannered. A student that does not fit into these norms may find themselves in an awkward spot. In fact some students may find these norms to be uncomfortable, and unbefitting of their character and self image.

 

                Parents also play a huge role in defining a student’s gender by introducing and reinforcing, through action and example, what may be deemed as gender appropriate practices. In fact parents help to stir on socially accepted gender definitions simply by the actions they take toward their children. For example the majority of sons are given much more independence than of daughters of the same age, and daughters are monitored much more closely. This is due to the common perception of men being strong and women being weak. As the student’s sexuality matures parents tend to believe that daughters will not be able to keep themselves out of harm’s way due to their weakness.

 

                It is important to understand that there are other influences to a student’s gender, but to understand how gender plays a role in the classroom is even more important. Typically, due to the fact that males are more assertive, male students will be more likely to speak out in class. Female students are more affiliative and cooperative so females may not participate in class discussions as often. With this said the above qualities give female students an advantage in group activity where as male students find confrontation in groups.

 

                According to the Education Research Center males have a 66% high school graduation where as females have a 73.6% graduation rate. This is a very strong difference between genders, and there is no simple answer to this. Once one adds in the variables of maturity, socioeconomic status, and intellectual ability there is no clear cut answer. There is an interesting contrast to this statistic though. A recent longitudinal study that followed valedictorians after high school found that there was a, “steady lowering of women’s aspirations and goals, accompanied by a drop in their self-esteem” (Aldridge).  This could be due in part by the effect of gender role and the corporate glass ceiling that is still in place in many professions.

 

                The effect of gender in the classroom can be a murky one because gender is not defined by the sex of the student. Students identify their gender by identifying their characteristics and behaviors. The further various levels of such behaviors can make it confusing even for the student to identify their gender as some may be sexually confused. As the teacher it is important to put these confusions to ease in the classroom by involving all students as often as possible in classroom activities to insure an equal and unbiased education.

Culture

Culture is defined as “a set of learned beliefs, values, symbols, and behaviors, a way of life shared by members of a society. (Sadker and Zittleman 60)” Culture is a broad term that covers a very wide range of things. There is a National Culture and then there are also microcultures or subcultures. Culture can be related to class, religion, or sexual orientation. Each culture or subculture is made up of values and behaviors that make it different from another culture or subculture. A culture can be the same or different in each nation or community. Within a community the population may share some cultures and values but also have completely separate and different cultures in each family.

“The willingness of people to understand and appreciate different cultures, races, and ethnicities is often at the heart of the diversity issue in the United States.” (Sadker and Zittleman 60)

A challenge for educators is to make sure each student in your class understands and appreciates the differences within these races, cultures, and ethnicities. And to make sure each student despite their ethnic background achieves their full potential in learning.

Statistics:

“Hispanic, Native American, and African American students score consistently lower on standardized tests than do their Asian and white classmates.”

“Almost half of the nation’s historically under-resourced populations, Hispanic, African American, and Native American, are not graduating from high school.”

“In Houston, Oakland, Cleveland, and New York, with large populations of poor students and students of color, between 60 and 70 percent of the students do not graduate high school.”

“Students from low-income families are six times more likely to drop out of school than the children of the wealthy.”

All pulled from (Sadker and Zittleman 60)

Teaching culture in your classroom

Three types of cultural literacy

1. Mainstream- Culture from one viewpoint

2. Marginalized- Culture from multi viewpoints

3. Critical- How to evaluate the different viewpoints of culture

In order to teach students to see culture in a marginalized view meaning to view culture from different perspectives we need to teach them how to be critical of it. This means they will know the right questions to ask. Ex: “Who said it? Who is serviced by this perspective? Who is marginalized? Who has been left out in telling their side of the story?” (Aldridge and Goldman 176)