Critical Reflection

Well, it's hard to imagine that the end of our four week coursework has finally come to end. It has been a long road, but fulfilling in the sense that I am proud of what I have accomplished. I feel that I am a role model to my four children because they can look at their mother as someone who persevered even when things were difficult. Looking at another aspect of a teaching model has also been an exciting endeavor. I would like to further explore the UBD model in my 1st grade classroom. I have already shared my Native American unit with my colleague and we will expand on the unit this fall. My principal has agreed to incorporate the Newark Museum's lending program into our school-wide program this year. I am excited about the possibilities that object-based learning can provide.
Upon reflection of my mission statement the unit design is coherent with my goals of teaching. My principles, practices, and purposes of teaching are congruent with the goals of the unit design and in essence are reflective of the performance tasks that were established. Susan and I created tasks that were based on principles of cooperative learning, critical thinking, and constructivism. The students will be actively engaged in the learning of the life of Eastern Woodland Native American life. I believe that primary grade students learn by "doing." The object-based learning model of teaching that we were taught is a wonderful way for students to have a visual model as an entry point for learning. I was a skeptic when we began our museum study three weeks ago and was told that we would be creating a table top exhibit using museum artifacts. I must admit I was amazed to see how objects can make such a huge impact on the learning of your audience. Because we were so impressed with the statement that the artifacts made and the response that we had from the museum visitors, we tried to plan lots of objects in our lessons. We believed that they would be strongly received and the message of the lesson would be more powerfully spoken by the presence of the items.
Our Understanding by Design Plan was systematically created by aligning the student goals, the student understandings, and the performance tasks. The assessments that we created directly correlate to the goals that address the themes of Eastern Woodland Native American life, basic goods and services, needs and wants, and families. The assessment provides the students with choice based on their learning preferences. The assessment requires the students to select a writing activity, speaking activity, drawing activity, and performance activity. Each task activity provides the student with a multitude of variety. It speaks to their individuality as a learner as well as a member of a group. I believe that students should should have their individual voice but they need to learn so many critical skills in collaborative learning environments. They learn how to work cooperatively, listen and talk through problem situations, and create a project. Some of our assessment tasks are designed so that the students will work in cooperative situations as well.
What I am most pleased about is the knowledge that I gained in the area of technology. I was the most technology challenged individual before this course. I would like to thank you for the knowledge that you provided me with regarding setting up a web page, navigating google docs, blogging and google sharing, and cutting and pasting with ease. I can bring this knowledge and use it with my students this year. Maybe Susan's first grade students and my students can do something using technology. I am very excited about the prospect about the world of technology that is available to us! I will expand my web page throughout the year as pertinent information arises. Thank you for enlightening my world.

Modern vs. Postmodern World

I read an article for a graduate course by David Elkind (1995) titled " School and Family in the Postmodern World." I continue to be fascinated by this article because I grew up in the modern world and I learned so much about why the world was the way it was. The article engages you to look at life years ago and life today and draw conclusions about the children that might have the better lives. The author does not directly address the question with you but you are compelled to draw this question yourself when you see the clear differences in culture, lifestyles, and values between the modern and postmodern world.
The modern family values were grounded on togetherness and the nuclear family. It was characterized by domesticity, maternal love, and romantic love. Domesticity is a belief that each family member's primary loyalty is to the home. Mothers provided the nurturing care as well as making the home a comfortable place to live. Maternal love is an instinctive need of mothers to unconditionally love and care for their family. In romantic love it is tied to the notion that there is only one true mate for us. We will meet them, fall in love, get married, and spend our lives committed to that one person.
The modern school did not have any publicly supported Kindergartens. In schools with Kindergartens, it was not a requirement to attend. Kindergarten was structured to reflect the beliefs of domesticity and maternal love with play being the focus. Many elementary schools were built without cafeterias because it reinforced the roles of the mother and her responsibility to provide her child with a lunch that she prepared. Curriculum planning was founded on the beliefs that children were innocent and naive and adolescents were even considered immature. The curriculum was guarded in what was taught and what was censored.
By comparison, the postmodern world, today's world, differs greatly. We live today's world and know the realities of the demands of life. Today's child is afforded so many opportunities that the modern child could never have imagined. The advancement of technology alone has enabled the children of today to see and do things that we never could have dreamed of. But our lifestyles come at a price. Families do not eat meals together. Children are busy engaging in "abbreviated conversation" via text messaging and instant messaging that spoken conversations between people are becoming less frequent. There are more distractions in today's world to distract from what is truly important in life- family. So, the essential question is, which children have richer lives, the modern children or the postmodern children?

Elkind, D. (1995). School and the postmodern family. Phi Delta Kappan. 77(1), 8-14.

Creating a School Community

Eric Schaps' (2003) article " Creating a School Community" attends to the growing need and benefit of schools creating a sense of community. People have needs that drive their motivation to learn and develop as individuals. These include the need for close relationships, physical safety, or feeling that they belong to something. " When schools meet the students' basic psychological needs, students become committed to the school's norms, values, and goals. By enlisting students in maintaining that sense of community, the school provides opportunities for students to learn skills and develop habits that will benefit them throughout their lives."
Research confirms the benefits of school community building. Students are academically motivated ( Solomon, Battistich, Watson, Schaps, & Lewis, 2000); to act ethically and selfless (Schaps, Battistich & Solomon, 1997); to develop social and emotional competencies ( Solomon et al., 2000 ); and to avoid problematic behaviors ( Resnicknet al., 1997 ). The benefits of instituting a school community in the elementary grades will persist into the middle grades and even into high school. Test scores from community-based schools were shown to have been higher than comparative schools that did not implement a community base. Teachers reported more respectful and appropriately behaved students.
There are four approaches that schools can assume in order to facilitate a sense of community. 1. Promote respectful relationships among all members of the school community. 2. In addition to academic attainment, schools should focus on the value of good character, fairness, responsibility, and concern for others. 3. Provide opportunities for students to work collaboratively for the benefit of helping others. 4. Creating an environment that allows for student individuality and welcoming their ideas as a separate entity.
There are activities that can be implemented to enhance community in one's school. Establishing morning meeting, having inter-grade book buddies, parent volunteer literacy partners, home/school activity links, and PTA functions involving entire families ( Skate Night, Movie Night, Book Fairs, etc.). Community building involves all members of the school community and can bring so many advantages to its implementation. It's a win win situation!


Schaps, E. (2003). Creating a school community. Educational Leadership, 60 (6), 31-33.

Experiential Learning

I learned about experiential learning while researching one of my goals in my mission statement. One of my teaching principles is that children must be in an environment where they feel safe, happy, and respected. Teachers must establish the conditions within the classroom so that the students can feel a sense of inner security and contentment before any learning can exist. I needed to find a theory of learning that supported my principle of teaching. Carl Rogers (1969) is one of the founders of experiential learning. Experiential learning addresses the needs and wants of the learner. The qualities of this approach include: personal involvement, self-initiated, learner-evaluated, and extensive effects on the learner. Rogers believes that all people have a natural ability to learn and the role of teachers is to facilitate the learning. According to Rogers, learning can be facilitated when:" 1. the student participates completely in the learning process and has control over its nature and direction, 2. it is primarily based upon direct confrontation with practical, social, personal, or research problems, and 3. self-evaluation is the principal method of assessing progress or success."
The role of teachers in experiential learning is to establish a positive learning environment. They clearly explain the purpose of the learning. They utilize all resources that are available. They balance the intellectual and emotional elements of learning. They openly share their feelings and thoughts with their learners. Why should someone engage in experiential learning in their classrooms? Significant learning takes place when the subject is pertinent to the interests of the student. Learning which is threatening to the self are more integrated when external threats are at a minimum. Learning progresses at a rapid rate when the risk to the individual is limited. Learning that was initiated by the individual is longer lasting and more meaningful.


Rogers, C.R. ( 1969). Freedom to learn. Columbus, OH: Merrill.

The Authoring Cycle as Curricular Framework for Inquiry

Is the authoring cycle the framework as process of a subject area curriculum or is there a more effective way to approach the teaching of these core subjects? Kathy Short's Creating Classrooms for Authors and Inquirers (1996) identifies the authoring cycle as the supportive framework for the process of the curriculum area. Another way to approach the teaching of the curriculum is through the use of theme units. These are the curricular framework for content exploration. There was a growing sense among the author and her colleagues that the theme units were deficient in integration and cohesiveness. Kathy Short and her colleagues believed that there was a disconnect between the system processes and knowledge systems in classroom learning experiences for students. Through further study Short (1996) and her colleagues discovered moving away from the authoring cycle as process and migrating toward an inquiry cycle which assimilates process and content.
In inquiry based learning the learner's focus is not only on solving problems but "wondering" about something we want them to investigate and become engaged in. Short (1996) and her colleagues recognized three sources of knowledge that inquirers extract in their quest for meaningful questions and their investigation of those questions. " These sources include: 1. personal and social knowing through life experiences; 2. knowledge systems as structures of knowledge and alternatives perspectives on our world ( history, biology, psychology), and 3. sign systems as alternative ways of making and creating meaning about the world ( art, music, movement, language, mathematics). The central feature of inquiry is personal and social knowing. Inquiry can enable a learner to know, observe, and feel. Short ( 1993) describes this exploration as " wandering and wondering." Students are offered opportunities to wander and investigate a topic and wonder about all of the different ideas that they develop before having to acquire a question for exploration.
Inquiry exploration can be used in places beyond journals. Students can record their inquiries on charts, webs, charts, graphs, and diagrams. Inquiry exploration can take place in the form of inquiry groups. These groups can work cooperatively to create skits, songs, poems, and other creative forms of writing. "As students engage in inquiry activities, they will require opportunities that will enable them to reflect on what they know (content), how they come to know ( process), and why they inquire ( purpose and goals)" ( Short, 1996).
I have always subscribed to a theme-based method of teaching. I felt that the students were provided with a strong sense of the central concept because of the connectedness within the curriculum subject areas. After reading this article and several others like it I am wondering if the students are making true meaningful connections to the concept or are the activities enjoyable and isolated from significant relevance to the concept. I am interested in exploring inquiry based learning in my first grade classroom. Because my students are naturally inquisitive and knowledge-seeking, this type of learning should be something that appeals to my students and they respond positively to. I would like to see my students engaged in critical thinking activities where they would have to think " outside the box." I would like my students to actively be thinking about thinking. What are the things that they want to know? Some of my units this year can set the stage for inquiry-based learning. My social skill action research unit, my unit on Native Americans, our new unit on habitats, and multiculturalism, to name just a few. Working cooperatively in an inquiry setting can provide the students with a multitude of learning opportunities. These will enable them to build off of each other's prior knowledge in order to formulate new understandings, new insights, and the motivation to dig deeper into the investigative process.

The Arts as the Central Learning Methodology

Using the arts as the primary source of teaching modality can provide your students with an array of learning opportunities in which they can exhibit their own unique creative expression. In Karen Gallas' Arts as Epistemology: Enabling Children to Know What They Know (1991) she states that " the arts offer opportunities for reflection upon the content and the process of learning, and they foster a deeper level of communication about what knowledge is and who is truly in control in the learning process." The arts encompasses a wide spectrum of mediums including drama, movement, poetry, music, and visual arts. The arts can positively impact a wide range of students spanning wide ability levels as well as interests. For students who might not excel in the area of reading and language is affording them the opportunity to express their abilities using another learning medium. The goal of the educational process is to enable our students to be successful learners. As educators we need to find the creative ways to enable our students to be those successes.
The arts can be a successful piece of the learning process because it has been a fundamental part of the development of the child throughout their formative years. As a toddler and into preschool they explored music, artistic expression through a variety of ways, dance, and dramatic play. The tasks within the concept can be varied as well as the level of difficulty. You can tailor the activity to meet the learning style or intelligence preference of your students. By providing your students with the opportunities to work cooperatively on some of the activities, they may engage in activities that might take them out of their comfort zone and and give them the confidence to try something new.
I am very excited about the tabletop exhibit that Susan and I are planning on creating. We are using art as one of our central themes in creating this exhibit. From our exhibit the students will be engaged in writing, creating works of art, and interpreting art. I can't wait to use this unit with my students this fall. I already spoke to my good friend and colleague and told her about my tabletop exhibit theme. I would love to share this with my first grade colleagues as well. This year my first grade colleagues and I are going to be doing an in-depth unit on land habitats. Each class will study one habitat and will transform their room into that habitat. We will study the animals within that habitat, the plants, climate, etc. I would love to incorporate the concept of art methodology in that unit of study. There would be so many wonderful things that I could incorporate in the unit to enable my students' creative voices to be heard and seen. All children can benefit from the educational process through the arts. It provides opportunity for all students, regardless of ability, to participate and be successful in the learning and expression of knowledge.

Bridging Practices

Many teachers have grappled with the importance of either subject knowledge or pedagogical methodology in determining what teaching and learning depends on. Although there has been mounting controversy regarding this issue, teaching and learning rely on both beliefs. Dewey (1904/1964) believed that good teachers were those who could create "genuine intellectual activity" in students and that these activities were directly tied to teaching disciplines. He also believed that subjects were an extension of the mind, the products of curiosity, investigation, and the search for truth. A significant factor that affects the learning experiences of our students is the content knowledge that we bring to the educational situation. Can we effectively teach a skill that we ourselves are not skilled in? A good teacher looks beyond the content that needs to be taught and finds ways to make meaningful connections that all students can understand. How can we take a difficult concept and present it to our students in a variety of ways that will enable them to understand the concept more effectively? Successful educators are those who assess what their students know and in essence work backwards in designing what activities they will teach and how they will teach them. Our students can dictate what you would need to know and be sensitive to in regard to content knowledge in teaching.
Two features from the perspective of practice and the application of teaching is: 1. analyzing one's knowledge into a less refined form 2. being able to use the knowledge one has that Schulman and his colleagues ( Schulman, 1986, 1987; Wilson, Schulman, & Richert, 1987) called "pedagogical content knowledge:" a combination of knowledge that connects content and pedagogy. There are three problems that continue to plague teacher content preparation. By addressing what teachers need to know, how they need to know it, and helping them learn to use it, we can develop well-rounded educators who are open-minded about the new techniques and teaching strategies that will benefit their students.
It is difficult to step out of your comfort zone and teach a skill/concept that is either new or one that you are not comfortable with. In addition to your assessing what your students know before the actual teaching of the concept, your colleagues can be wonderful resources. Last September my district began a school-wide guided reading program. I was unfamiliar with this approach because I had always taught reading using novels and basal readers in conjunction with a phonics approach. I must admit I was very apprehensive about undertaking such a huge year-long project. My own knowledge of the guided reading program was quite limited and I did not have any experience with it prior to beginning the program. I called upon my colleague who was trained in guided reading. We met on several occasions and she answered many of my questions. I observed some of her guided reading groups in session so that I could get a sense of what one looks like. I did some reading on my own and I began to feel a bit more confident. I started to assess my students by administering a running record to determine their reading level. This would enable me to put my students into guided reading groups.
I began meeting with one group a day until I gradually worked my way up to two and finally three. Your own experience and observing your students' responses in various learning situations can provide valuable insight into the knowledge that you can provide your students.