First of all, you probably got the invitation from Febe to join a cross-cohort blog conversation. I think it is a great idea especially since it is something you can use all the way through the program long after Ed 561 fades from your memories.
That said, I am going to ask you to blog here for the purposes of our class assignments. I know that is not quite as efficient for you, but it is helpful to me to have all of your responses in one place so that I can follow each of your posts and ideas.
By the way, nice job yesterday on your back to school night presentations and your discussions regarding the 4 domains. I know this is a new language and way of thinking for many and you dove right in combining experience, observation and readings in new ways. People were thoughtful about their own frames and respectfully pushed each other through both challenge and support.
I must say, what a strange end to yesterdays class. We will all remember where we were when we found out MJ died. Thanks for hanging in there with me. We are off to a great start!
Here is your prompt regarding our development discussion on Thursday. A response is due before class on Tuesday.
As you are developing your personal frames for observing and teaching children I expect you will be developing and tracking in yourself the following 5 methods of interacting with our material: Questions (that makes me wonder...), Understandings (That makes sense to me), Observations (relating to real life), Treasures(I want to hold onto that), and Easy applications( for your future classrooms).
Please pick 2 of these ways of interacting with the material that you feel you have experienced related to the Yardsticks and Developmental Milestones readings. Please post a response giving us a peek into your thinking. I do expect to see specific references to text (no need to officially cite them or anything) as well as your own reflective process.
Thanks again for your patience with all this technology stuff!
Happy weekend,
Zalika
While reading Yardsticks I kept thinking to myself, "wow this is a great resource for everyone. New teachers, new parents, even people who have had all the experience in the world with children before." I really liked how it was laid out so that me, as the new teacher, can easily go to a page about 10 year olds and see that it is a great time to start teaching more factual information. Or I can skip to the page about 8 year olds and see that it is going to be "go go go", little bundles of energy that have no ideas of their own limitations in the world.
ReplyDeleteWith these easily laid out observations, I can then turn around and use it for my own lesson planning. I can use information about their development and make a class something that will be beneficial for their minds.
I also thought it was great that they had what works best for the kids as far as the different subjects go. I feel like this is a good jumping off point, but I'm definately going to have to observe kids in my own classroom before I buy into these too much. I say this because my own childhood education was much different than this book (and I think that I ended up ok....). And just from that experience, I feel like it is good to challenge the kids to try things that are just a little in front of them, not push them if you see it is too difficult, but pose these challenges to them. I think that they will rise to meet these goals.
(An Observation)
ReplyDeleteIn YARDSTICKS when discussing tweleve-year-olds, Chip Wood talks about how teachers who hold class meetings and discussions about consequences will be more successful in getting students to take responsibility for their behavior. When I did my teaching practicum at Portland State I spent time with a 5th grade class made up of eleven year olds going on tweleve. During one class in particulr the teacher held a meeting where all the kids were involved discussing how people are treated in class. Without naming individuals specifically, the students were able to talk very seriously and air their grievances about what they thought was going well and what they thought was not going right. I was actually quite surprised how well these kids behaved. Once they were put into this kind of "grown-up" discourse they were able to really be thoughtful and responsible. The teacher also had the each kid complement another student, which I felt was pretty genuine and helped put the class in a more constructive mode.
(Understanding)
In Yardsticks Chip Wood mentions how a seven year old might be hyper sensitve to physical ailments, real or imagines. When I was working at the Children's Museum Art camp last year, I had a class working with low-temp hot glue guns and for many kids the glue guns were frightening. Many kids once used to working with them overcame their fears and were able to work with confidence. One child however was so freightened that any time he would touch the glue before it dried he'd make a noise of pain and it happened so frequently that he began to cry and was convinced that his fingers were burning. I spend a considerable amount of time observing his behavior and his injuries. He never quite mastered his fears during the week but I found that running his fingers under cold water calmed him down. Not so much because his fingers were really hurt, but because it was more a placebo effect of reversing his imagined burns.
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ReplyDeleteHey people. Type your comments in word first because you can't copy your type out of the comment boxes, and I don't think you can edit them once they're published. You can only delete them and once you do that, it leaves a trace.
ReplyDeleteYardsticks and the Development Milestones summary put my thinking about children into a clearer picture. I laughed out loud at some points when reading the text because I could place what Wood was saying into an actual kid that I know. I have been lucky enough to be friends with a little girl who has now developed into a wonderful young woman. I met her when she was seven and riding a pony at the barn that I worked at. She was definitely "conscientious and serious" and would make it known her likes and dislikes at the time. She let me know that she liked to know exactly how much time she had left on the horse. She did not want to be asked to get off without any warning. We started the count down system, were I would let her know when she had five minutes left and at the minute intervals I would give her a heads up that she was down to four minutes, three minutes, ect. This made getting off of the horse easier for her and ended the struggle I had with trying to get her to transition from riding to cleaning up and heading home. She is now fourteen and the countdown system has been left in the dust. She knows when she has to be off and gauges her time on her own. She has developed her own "distinctive sense of humor" and is really witty. And yet she is fourteen and like the development article states "early adolescents are emotionally labile with exaggerated affect and frequent mood swings" , this is indeed true for her.
ReplyDeleteI liked our experiment into creating a back to school night for parents. I especially enjoyed the group experience of developing a curriculum for the grade that we had been assigned. This showed to me that yardsticks is going to be a vital resource in my future classroom. We used the developmental stages of a typical fifth grader and this is what we used as a stepping stone to get the dialogue started on what we wanted to teach in the up coming year. It made the process clearer for me and also showed me that by basing the curriculum on the developmental stages of children they would then be inclined to want to learn, they would be excited about the prospect of school.
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ReplyDelete*So, apparently I am having trouble sending this as myself and not "The Irvine Family," a blog-pseudonym. A little embarrassing for me, potentially confusing for others. I think I have figured it out.
ReplyDeleteChild development is a fascinating field of study. I find it interesting, however, that more people who work with children, or have children of their own, don’t take the time to learn about the “milestones” of development and learning.
During much of the reading for last week I found myself saying, “Wow. That makes sense now.” For instance I have observed five year-old falling out of their chairs sideways, and seven year-olds with the tendency to be fickle friends, both examples are clearly mentioned in Yardsticks. Even a brief glimpse into child development theory can clarify so many questions, or at least bring light to those age-specific issues in child behavior. Although I am still very early (okay, very beginning) in my career, I wish that I had taken child development more seriously before.
For three summers I cared for three boys, starting from their summer after kindergarten until they started third grade. During this time I watched their behaviors change quite a bit. One summer they could spend hours happily getting along acting out Harry Potter. The next summer, they would spend so much time concerned with their own tasks, and truly offended when a piece of their LEGO construction was broken in a moment of careless play. I assumed that it was just product of their age, these changes, which our reading validates, however, I did realize the specific ways in which their development coincided with their age. Now, I am trying to think of how I am going to bring these theories into my classrooms, knowing that they definitely connect to the experiences of real children.
I wonder what happens, considering the research, when educators decided that they just don’t understand their students. Is it that they are bad teachers? Overwhelmed? Out of ideas? Or is it that they are expecting things from their students that just are not developmentally appropriate? Of course, I understand that teachers can go through seasons, and that perhaps sometimes the research and the theories don’t seem to address the particular struggles that you are experiencing. However, I hope that I can be the kind of educator that thinks not what is wrong with my students, but rather, what do I need to do differently.
Understanding/Observation: Transitions
ReplyDeleteOne thing that Chip Wood talked about in Yardsticks that really made sense to me was the idea that calm transitions from one activity to the next must be planned for in the schedule (pg. 20). He gave a funny example about a teacher who hurried her students through the day, and before rest time she said something like, “Hurry everyone we need to rest!” I think at this point she realized how frazzled she had become, and that she might be stressing out her students. I think we’ve all been there, where we’re trying to fit too many things in at once, and we’re hurrying kids through an activity. We’re more focused on the quantity of activities that we can get to and less on the quality of those experiences.
I worked as a special education assistant in Beaverton, and transitions for the students could be really hard. I think we can learn some things from special education, where learning about transitions is just as important as any math or language arts lesson. All students need enough time to process the lesson, begin to clean up, and move onto the next thing. I hope that in my classroom I can make transitions a solid 5-10 minute process so kids can start to move themselves to the next activity.
Treasures/Easy Applications (Although these applications may not always be Easy!)
1. Class meetings
I agree with Aron about the benefit of class meetings that Chip Wood writes about in the section on 12-year olds. When I visited my mentor teacher, who teaches kindergarten, she talked about the value of class meetings, even for kids at such a young age. She talked about laying ground rules, such as a time limit of 30 seconds to 1 minute for each child to talk about their grievance. It’s important to go over these ground rules before you have even one meeting. Another rule that we talked about was that once the child decides to bring an issue to the table, they must accept the advice given by the other kids, or “community.” Sometimes a child might come to the next meeting with a problem stemming from the last meeting. The kids can learn about conflict resolution, and they can gain confidence and language skills from solving problems on their own.
2. Connect with the family
The second treasure/easy application that I got from reading Yardsticks came from the introduction section, where Chip Wood talks about the importance of getting to know the families of your students and their culture (pg. 28). Last year I talked to the school counselor where I was working, and she had an opportunity to visit a family at their home. Visiting the family created a more trusting environment for the family to talk with the counselor, and for the student to feel fully cared for and supported. I hope that I can be available in this way for my students and their families, and whenever possible to visit them at home when I am welcome, and in some way to bring my family into the classroom to meet my students. I hope to call the parents frequently, especially when I have compliments and praise for the student! I want to learn about the families’ culture, and invite them to share their culture in the classroom.
It had been a long time since I had thought about child development, so I was happy that the "Developmental Milestones" article laid it out so clearly. I was reminded about the four domains, physical, cognitive, social, and emotional, and how each child's development is different. I took this basic foundation of development and moved on to Yardsticks, which is a book we will definitely be using in our own future classrooms. I was impressed by its accessibility and the amount of practical information it contained.
ReplyDeleteAlthough certainly full of easy applications, the one that spoke to me the most was having quiet time immediately after lunch. I think the moment of silence we hold before we begin class is incredibly helpful in clearing the environment of any unnecessary stress, and we are at an age level where we can control that stress (well, most of the time). Children, at least collectively, don't have that luxury. Taking even 5 or 7 minutes to sit and read or draw quietly can calm the class back into a learning frame of mind. When I visited my mentor teacher's classroom, she showed 5 minutes of a Disney movie to the kindergartners after recess. I'm not sure I like the idea of stupefying the kids with television, but it did the trick, and they were ready for the rest of the afternoon.
Wood stressed the importance of scheduling, both within the classroom and within the school structure. He discussed the changing sleep-schedule of adolescents as something that should be applied to the school system by starting the middle and high schools an hour later, not an hour earlier, than the elementary school. I understand now why I was so tired during middle and high school, and why I just could not function in jazz band at 6:45 in the morning! I know that having time after school for sports and clubs is important, but isn't being awake enough to learn more important? I don't know why more schools haven't realized this.
The Back to School Night activity showed that it is possible to create a curriculum based on the developmental information in Yardsticks. Not only is it possible, it is surprisingly quick and easy! I also found out that the Back to School Night concept is very scary to me. I relate well to adults and children, but parents are an entirely different matter. I know this program will teach us to engage our students, but I hope that it will also help us relate to parents.
Easy Application
ReplyDeleteWhat I loved about reading Yardsticks was how practical all of the information in the book seemed to be. Each chapter gave new insight into the development of a certain age with the things to look out for and be mindful of. I also thought that the suggestions he had at the back of each chapter would be very useful when planning a curriculum. I liked the ideas for themes, which I think are a great way to incorporate all subjects into one larger idea. Many of his suggestions I do not think I would have thought of on my own and I will be use to go back to his ideas when I am planning my student teaching. The book will be helpful to getting a glimpse at what I should expect when I am in a 1st/2nd blend this fall, since I have never worked with this age group before. I think that I am really going to use this book when I am out there teaching on my own and it will be a great resource to quickly check and see what to expect when working with a certain age group.
Observation
This past school year I had been volunteering in a 5th/6th classroom in Lake Oswego, so I spent lots of time around 11 and 12 year olds. When I was reading the chapter on 12 year olds I could not believe how almost everything the Chip Wood said I had experienced in my year. For example the students need for organization and their search for identity, all the basic ideas that Wood addressed I had observed. Also Yardsticks proved to me how much the curriculum at Bryant Elementary was geared towards the developmental development for these children. We worked on large projects that had visible products at the end, one unit was on Egyptian Pharaohs and all the students made masks and wrote papers and gave speeches on their pharaoh, and each student had was a mentor for 1st/2nd grader in the school, both of these ideas were key parts of Wood’s chapter on 12 year olds. Wood also discussed how important ceremonies were for 12 year olds and to me this was obvious in the excited of our students for their elementary school graduation. This rite of passage was a time for them to proud of all they had accomplished in elementary school and helped to give them a sense of importance. After reading Yardsticks and then thinking about my experiences last year, I reconfirmed my ideas about the accuracy of Chip Wood’s book and how easily his suggestions can be incorporated into a curriculum.
Understandings and Observations
ReplyDeleteIn ski instructor training we have the developmental stages drilled into us. We have to pass written tests proving that we know how those stages relate to our sport. It’s interesting to see how those cognitive, physical, affective, and social realms that I worked with every day on the ski slope can translate into a classroom environment.
For example, as a sports instructor, the importance of nutrition, hydration, and care for a student’s physical self is as important as whatever skill I’m trying to teach. It’s great to see an authority about child development tell me that these factors are as important for “classroom” learning as they are on the hill.
Another example would be the tendency of six year olds, as described by Mr. Wood, to engage in more dramatic and cooperative play than five year olds. I often taught the more skilled five and six year old skiers and it was often easy to tell the student’s ages by their participation and enjoyment in many of the games. One game, a variation of Red Light Green Light that involved performing a variety of different actions while skiing (hopping, dancing, touching the ground, etc)
A
Questions
How much harm can be done to a child or classroom by well-intentioned educators and parents trying to improperly apply these practical theories of development? Where do the kids who have undiagnosed disabilities fit in? I’m thinking specifically of students with autistic disorders, but it seems like there are so many kids in the classrooms I’ve been in that are major outliers to these milestones. How can we as educators make sure that we don’t use this material as doctrine, but rather as a guideline. I appreciate Leah’s reticence to buy in too much without direct experience. It seems like the annals of educational theory are full of ideas that seemed really sound at the time, but were later shown to be everything from useless to tragic. (Nope, no concrete examples beyond the common schools movement, but I’m sure they are out there.)
All I can say is that I so wish that I had this book before going to Taiwan. I started teaching ESL in Taiwan with no teaching experience or formal education other than a TESOL course, so the social, cognitive and physical developments of children were pretty foreign to me and I just learned as I went. So many of the things the children did just made me scratch my head and respond the best way I knew how.
ReplyDeleteFor instance, I would be doing coloring activities with my first graders and almost before I would get done handing out the papers I would hear from behind me, a student yell, "Teacher, I'm finished!" I was so surprised and that fact that it happened frequently was frustrating at times. Now after reading things like the six year olds always wanting to be be first.
And wondering why my students all of a sudden decided to start writing really really small. Now I see that seven year olds tend to write smaller and are more careful with their writing and projects and wanting things to be perfect. All those mountains of eraser droppings make much more sense now.
For me when I am learning these new things in the classes I am getting a strong "Understanding." All of these things I have been teaching with children are giving me much more understanding as to why they were doing that and reacting to me and their friends in that way. I look back on it now and a little light bulb goes off in my head.
This book also holds many treasures and easy applications. I can see myself using this book in the future with my students to continually reference behavioral patterns as well as social interactions and how to do things in the classroom. I now see why you said that this book is a reference that many teachers use for many years.
Another part of the book that I really enjoyed, which I agree with Heather, is the transition between subjects. I experienced first hand what a tight hectic schedule that quickly transitions for subject to subject and how hard it was for the kids to transition between them. It often took them a while to get into the next subject and usually I had to play a game or two to get them ready for the next class.
And lastly, I strongly agree with Gloria G. Rodriguez on children's ability to thrive in bilingual environments. Seeing first hand these young children's ability to learn multiple languages, proficiently and quickly while growing up. If they are presented with constant practice at both of them with good support they can do more than most people believe.
Observations
ReplyDeleteWhile reading Yardsticks, I found myself relating it to many children that I have worked with in the past. I babysit two girls that are 5 and 8 so reading about the different ages in Chip Wood’s book was extremely interesting for me. I have watched these two little girls grow since they were born and it seems that Wood’s perception of how children develop is spot on! In the section about five-year-olds, Wood talks about how children at this age “do not think the same way about the world as adults do” (Wood, 58). When I last watched the five-year-old, she asked me how close heaven is to us. I answered her by telling her that it is very far away and it is something that we can’t see. She replied by asking me if it is taller than the trees. This question proves that young children aren’t able to see the world the way that adults do. Wood also talks about how children at this age love to engage in playing dress up. The five year old that I babysit could spend hours just trying on different clothes and engaging in an imaginary story that she made up. It is important for us to remember the things that children enjoy at each age and Wood helps us do just that. This book will be especially useful as I relate it to the children that I will be working with in the future.
Easy Applications
I find it helpful that Wood adds curriculum ideas at the end of each age group. I know how important it is to think of developmentally appropriate curriculum; so the ideas that he includes in the book will be something that I will reference during student teaching and into my career. Because I will be interning in a second/third grade blend, the section on the seven and eight year olds will be something that I need to remember. I wasn’t aware that it is important for seven year olds to do less partner reading and more individual reading. This is definitely something that I will remember. I think that it would be a good idea to have the kids read on their own and then reflect on what they read in a variety of ways. Incorporating Wood’s ideas into my curriculum plans will be something that will be very helpful for me. I found this book very enjoyable to read and it is something that will be useful to me in the future
Questions
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed reading the history timeline of educational extremes as they related to situations that were pertinent at the time. For example, Russia’s launch of Sputnik prompted America’s “space race” academic era because our country felt a legitimate fear in the global race to space. From that point forward, it seems we swung from one educational extreme to the other. In the 1960s a child-centered approach to teaching was used, in the 1970s we went back to sticking strictly with academics, in the 1980s developmentally appropriate programs were used, and in the 1990s we switched back to a focus on academics only with the No Child Left Behind Act. This information made me question what event will take place so that we can swing back to a more child-centered, student-led, developmentally appropriate approach to teaching. The historical pattern shows a switch every decade, so it would seem that we have given this “teach to the test” approach ample time, and that we can expect a change in education to be approaching.
Treasures
I consider the entire Yardstick book a treasure, and will keep it on my bookshelf as a readily available resource. As a parent, I am grateful for the insight into what is coming next, though I have to be honest and say that I am also fearful as my oldest is approaching ten. My fascination with child development has given me ample experience with and an understanding of children from birth to 7 years of age, but the years following that seem to be a mystery to me. As an educator, the insight into the age and stage of your students will not only help my understanding of who they are and where they are, but also allow me an opportunity to taper their educational experience accordingly. I love that Chip Wood gave us a tool to look into the life of a child at each specific age, their abilities in the classroom, and the types of lessons that would allow them to enhance their developing qualities.
Hey everyone.
ReplyDeleteI was super inspired and wrote this without reading what other people had written first so my posting is a little bit different but I'm happy with it. I ended up really connecting it to another book that everyone should read in their free time (ha ha! that's a joke) but seriously though--it's a really great book. See you in the morning!
I have recently become very interested in the idea of play. This newfound interest was sparked when I read a wonderful book by Dr. Stuart Brown entitled, Play: How it Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul. The main thesis of the text is that play is an important part of how our brains develop in childhood and continue to grow through our lives. He advocates for play to be a mainstay in the classroom. I felt a strong connection with Theories of Childhood because all of the developmental theorists we read about seem to know intuitively, without the neuroscience to prove it, that this is true. While reading about their lives and ideas, their theories on play made sense to me. In the last chapter, Mooney writes, “Vygotsky believed that much learning takes place when children play.” (page 83) In the chapter about Piaget, she writes, “it is largely the influence of Piaget, building on Montessori’s work, that encourages uninterrupted periods of play in early childhood classrooms.” I agree with this but it also raised some questions, specifically the phrasing, “early childhood classrooms”.
Often we associate play with small children and slowly reduce they amount of play as children get older, sub-consciously telling that as they age, school, work, and ultimately life becomes less fun. I wonder what middle school, or even high school, would look like if there was time for teenagers to play in ways that inspired their learning, and what sorts of activities and materials could teachers provide to engage students in that mindless, timeless, relaxing flow of play? Other questions I have are more self-reflective, what do I do now that meets my need to play? Will taking time to play and have fun make me a better teacher, wife, daughter, and friend? How will I find time for the things I enjoy outside of work or school? It’s tricky to find balance and balance is something I certainly don’t have when it comes to my free time but I think it’s necessary and something I plan to pursue through out the year.
I found Yardsticks to be a useful and practical tool for understanding what to expect from children as they reach their different developmental milestones.
ReplyDeleteI treasured the idea that I should be sure to understand that children reach developmental milestones in the same order, but not at the same rate. Each child in my classroom will be different, and through observation, I can understand which stage they are at. As the teacher, I need to maintain a nurturing, healthy balance for each child.
Although Yardsticks gave plenty of information *about* the milestones, I do have many questions about how to *apply* this knowledge to my interaction with my students. How do I console a nine year old who is feeling like he/she is in a serious, dark place? How do I help a twelve year old through an identity crisis? How do I help an eight year old harness his/her energy but still allow plenty of space for learning and creativity? I am hopeful that my time as a student teacher in the classroom will give me practical skills to assist kids with the difficulties they may encounter as they reach developmental milestones.