Ecology Course Reflection

Trista Roussin

Ecology of the Human Experience

May 14, 2015

Course Reflection

Guiding Question: What is essential in child and youth development?

Over the course of the semester I learned a lot about child development. The project we did that helped my understanding of child development the most was the developmental theory paper. I think that researching and comparing the developmental theorists really helped my understanding of all of the theorists and theories. Because of that paper I decided to continue my research and do my senior project on comparing developmental theorists. This paper gave me a head start on a much larger project I had in mind. In addition to a research paper I also collected drawings from children at different ages and I interpreted them from the perspectives of each developmental theorist. It was one of the most enriching experiences I have had at college. The developmental theorist paper was a stepping stool for me to a much bigger accomplishment.

I also enjoyed how discussion based the class was. At first I was not interested in the class at all, and I participated very little. After a few weeks I started to open up more, and I am glad that I did. I have learned a lot just from the class discussions alone. However, there was a guy in the class who could have done a lot less discussing and more listening. I also think that it was the same people talking every single class. I would have loved to see more of the class getting involved with the discussions.

I also loved making the bioecological self-analysis. I thought the way that I made mine was so creative and cool. I loved being able to share it and talk about it. I also learned a lot about Bronfenbrenner's developmental theory by doing it. Which was cool. He's got some good ideas.

Getting back to the guiding question: What is essential in child and youth development? I have learned that there are a lot of essentials to help children develop successfully. First and foremost children need a good support system at home. They need parents who are encouraging and engaging. The most important years of a child's life are the first two years. They need to establish trust with their parents or caretakers when they are infants. A bad infancy can set a child up for failure in their future.

Another thing that children and youths need for development is a fan-fricken-tastic teacher. A teacher who is enthusiastic and knowledgeable, and someone who can make learning fun and engaging. I have learned that it is necessary to listen to what children have to say. Children need to feel as if their opinions and ideas are important, because they are! Children need to be heard and respected. Also, they need food, water, and a place to sleep.

As future teachers it is important to remember that every child is different. Some children may live with their grandparents, while some may have two moms. Some children may come from Korea, while others might have lived in the same town their entire lives. Children come in all shapes and sizes and each one with their very own talent. Some children may have a deficit in math, while other children thrive in that subject. As a teacher it is important to adhere to the needs of the children. If they are not getting their needs met at home, then it is a teacher's job to make up for it at school. Being a teacher comes with a lot of responsibilities, but it is also a very rewarding career. Being a teacher means having the power to impact many lives. Not just the lives of the children, but their families as well.

                Trista Roussin

Instructing Dynamics II

Topic: Money

 

How can money be used to help teach fractions, decimals, and percents, and ratios: Money can be used to teach math in an agglomeration of ways. We know that one quarter is ¼ of a dollar, a time is 1/10, a nickel is 1/20, and a penny is 1/100. This information can be used as a fraction (as shown) or a decimal (quarter= .25, dime= .1, nickel= .05, and a penny= .01). By turning the fractions into decimals they can then be turned more easily into percents by multiplying by 100 (.25= 25%, .1= 10%, and so on). These can also be turned into ratios, if you are referring to nickels and pennies a ratio could look like this: for every 5 pennies there is one nickel so the ratio is 5:1, or 5/1, or, 5 to 1.

 

What are some activities that can be used:

Strategies for Teaching Money

Coin antennas:   Students draw antennas on coin pictures to represent the value.   Each antenna is worth 5 cents.   This means a dime has two antennas, a nickel has one antenna, a penny has no antennas, etc.   This strategy capitalizes on students' strength in counting by fives.   They simply point to each antenna as they count by 5s, then count on by ones to include any pennies.   This method is also efficient because students do not need to sort and rearrange coins; they simply draw antennas on coins in the order given.   This method is especially effective for K-2 regular and special ed. students who will eventually outgrow the need for antennas.   NOTE: some teachers call the antennas "hairs" and talk about the penny as "bald" because it has no hair.   Whatever works for you and your students is the best strategy.

 

Another activity that would be helpful for student is the counting money activity. This activity is aimed for mostly kids in the second grade. You need 8 plastic cups, a sharpie, and plastic or real coins. On each cup write a different money amount that is less than or equal to a dollar, then have each child figure out how many of each coins are needed to find the amount written on the cup. This helps children learn the value of money with the dollar being a whole. Also, money is almost always shown as a decimal so this activity would help students learn how decimals work, and how anything behind the decimal point is less than one.

In another activity for fifth or sixth graders, you could give them a worksheet with items and the prices of the items and then tell them that there is a certain percent tax on those items and have them figure out how much money the tax is and how much extra they would owe after tax. This would help them familiarize with percents and how they connect to the real world. This would also help them with decimals, because as I said before, money is shown in decimals.

An activity that could be used to help with fractions is, you could put an assortment of coins in front of them, let’s say you put 3 nickels, 2 pennies, and 5 quarters, you could ask how many pennies, nickels, and quarters out of ten are there? The answer would like this: Pennies= 2/10, Nickels= 3/10, and Quarters= 5/10. Once they start to get good at identifying the fractions you could make it harder by making the denominator a larger number, such as 20, 30, 50, etc.  This activity would be for first and second graders.

 

References

·         Holt, M. (2012). Education.com. Retrieved from http://www.education.com

·         Kawas, T. (2006). Math wire. Retrieved from http://mathwire.com/money/money.htm

·         Presidents on coins. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.marshu.com/articles/presidents-on-us-united-states-coins.php

·         Elembis. (2007). Assorted coins. [0]. Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Assorted_United_States_coins.jpg

stages of spelling

Stage 1: Emergent Spelling

                Not yet reading, understanding of writing varying considerably. Some may pretend write with scribble or random marks. Looking at other children that can write and they try to mimic them with similar lettering of the name, ex: Trista, Travis. No relationship between letters and sounds, this is called prephonetic spelling. “Understanding alphabetic principle, which letters stand for speech sounds”. Phonemic awareness.  Teachers often foster this understanding by pointing to words as they read.

Stage 2: Letter Name Spelling

                Starting to read familiar words and repetitive text and word patterns, “Is your mama a llama”. Spelling words wrong, vowels are less important than consonants.  

Stage 3: Within Word Pattern Spelling

                Students are able to read words they have never seen before based on the knowledge they have of familiar words. Students do what feels comfortable to them.

Stage 4: Syllable Juncture Spelling

                Most students have become proficient readers and can process print with considerable proficiency. Students have difficulty with social studies and science because of the new and bigger vocabulary and those subjects expose them to more complex spelling patterns. Favorite authors drive student book choices. Not only do students learn science and social studies but they also learn new vocabulary.

Stage 5: Derivational Consistency Spelling

                Last stage of spelling development and continues through adulthood. The earliest this stage is reached is by fourth grade, and the latest should be eighth grade. They choose to read stories that indirectly relate to them, such as age, interests, gender, and so on.  

Miller Ch 5

Trista
Instructing Dynamics I
Miller Chapter 5
10 connections
• “I thought that once I had became aware of the thought processes going on inside my head as I read,” (pg 54). This reminds of the book I am reading for my Literature for Children class, the book talks about being aware of the thoughts going on in your head as you read and to teach children to do that too so they get the most out of their readings. When I was observing in Mrs. Edgerton’s class she would read out loud to the children, and as she was reading she would pause and ask the kids what they were thinking.
• “The next morning in class I heard myself rambling on, unsure of what to say and making things up as I went.” (pg 54). During the summer I was reading a picture book version of The Wizard of Oz, but since there were too many words for me to want to read I just made up scenes about the illustrations. I found myself looking for what to say instead of it coming naturally.

• “Mark those places before your lesson, and think about what you will saw and how you will say it.” (pg 55). I was reading Globalization of Education for my contemporary schooling class and my assignment was to be a discussion leader. I found it important to mark specific key points in the book that I felt passionate about in order to lead a successful discussion.
• “Authenticity matters. I can’t fake it,” (pg 55). “When I begin to teach children how to think out loud,… I want their think-alouds to be genuine, their language to be precise, their responses thoughtful,” (Pg. 55). Any book I would read in high school my teachers would want me to have thoughts about it. I think that if I had started that critical thinking earlier in school, like these kids are learning in the first grade, then I wouldn’t have had such a hard time in high school, or even now. I feel like I have a hard time connecting to books, which is why I don’t like reading. Nothing inspires me to want to read.
• “Later, as read-alouds and children’s thinking grow in sophistication, thinking through text together also allows real opportunities for constructing meaning, reflection and insight,” (pg. 56). Mrs. E read Silly Sally by Audrey Wood aloud and she provides opportunity for the children to reflect on the pictures, words, and based on their schema, she gives them the opportunity to guess what is coming next.
• “Thinking about what you already know is called using your schema, or using your background knowledge. Schema is all the stuff that’s already inside your head, like the places you’ve been, things you’ve done, books you’ve read- all the experiences that you’ve had that make up who you are and what you know and believe to be true,” (pg. 57). I read about schema in a child development class I took last year. Ever since I learned about what schema is I’ve been referencing back to it in almost every class I have this semester.
• “’I’m going to read a story to you; its title is The Relatives Came by Cynthia Rylant.’” (pg 57). I read this book in my Literature for Children class. In class we do reading circles, where we pick out books and talk about why we think children would like them. I said I thought that children could relate to the book.
• “’Sometimes it was so hot and sticky at night that we’d all pile down to the living room,’” (pg. 58). This reminds me of when I was a child and it was summer and it was too hot to sleep upstairs. Me and my siblings would all bring our things down to the backroom and we would grab a flashlight and read whatever picture book we could find.
• Chrysanthemum by Kevin Henkes- pg. 59. I used to look at that book when I was a kid and now Miller is reading it to her kids. I liked how she didn’t like her name because it was so much longer than everyone else’s and she couldn’t fit it on a name tag. By the end of the story she loved her name because it was unique and beautiful. My name is unique and beautiful too.
• “When most children are able to make meaningful text- to- self connections—primarily in response to read-alouds and small group work, but sometimes also in their own reading,” (pg. 63). Another reference to my Lit. for Children class, in The Pleasures of Children’s Literature we are learning to make text-to-self connections so can better to relate to the texts we are reading.

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