Keystone Assignment

Below you will find my Keystone Assignment Presentation based on a 4th grade lesson plan that involved tigers.






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Keystone Assignment

ISTE Technology Standard Assignmen tCurriculum Design


This is my  ISTE Technology Standard Assignment Design for the NYT Lesson plan:
 Gliding High: Designing Paper Airplanes Based on the Physics of Flight ( gliding-high-designing-paper-airplanes-based-on-the-physics-of-flight)

Motivation

Mary Spanos

 

 

The educational game I selected was a website subscription to “ABC MOUSE”.  It is an application on an iPad that my children have played and after reading the material I realized it uses the 6 C approach.

Choice:

 It gives children a choice of topics and they can pick different modules to interact with. There are games, puzzles or stories about a vast amount of subjects that interest children.  They can tap on the zoo link or go to a farm they can feed their fish in an aquarium or clean it. They have a choice of options subject matter that would appeal to their particular interests.  My middle child has a love for animals so he would always select the zoo or the farm.  My oldest loves puzzles and art so he would always select the puzzle option or art module.  My littlest liked the songs and music module.

Challenge:

This application is broken down in many different levels you begin on the easiest and as you move through you get to more complex modules.  As you complete a task you get tickets like tickets at a “Chuck E Cheese” in your “bank”, with these tickets you can get things to decorate your virtual room or your aquarium.  It has many lively sounds and stars that indicate you did a job well done which allows the user to feel a sense of accomplishment.

 

Control:

The only control the children have is how long they want to play and what modules they want to pick they are assigned skills based on age range so the application controls the information they can learn and forces them to move on the alphabet or numbers.

Collaboration:

There is no collaboration in this application and it is not meant as a group activity. There is a teacher that acts as a classroom teacher and there are times you have to help another person to find something but it does not look at individual strengths and help the individual work as a team.  However keep in mind that children that typically play this type of game are younger and still do not possess skills that can be split up as a collaborative team effort.  Parallel play is more appropriate at this age. 

 

Constructing Meaning:

At this age the value of knowledge is their ability to recite an alphabet identifies animals, colors, and shapes.  They are rewarded for correct choices and when they begin to recite them to an adult they receive the extrinsic motivation form a parental figure when they are group of their new acquired skills.

Consequences:

The children that use this application have a world that they can decorate with various things like toys or special fish for their aquarium.   They run up to me and say “Mommy I got an angel fish for my aquarium” they have a section that they can show off all the things they were able to buy based on their accomplishments.  They look forward to showing off all their stickers and new items and look forward to having others appreciate their efforts. 

Conclusion:

ABS mouse has effectively used extrinsic motivation with their rewards program and the intrinsic element is that they find internal satisfaction learning about subjects they love. My children are always very engaged in this program and lave learned a tremendous amount.  Because of the reward system it allows them to feel accomplished and they continue on their own to go to the application willingly.  Since this is a virtual classroom in a sense, I would apply a similar structure to my classroom.  It is important to have varied subjects and the ability to reward for completing satisfactory tasks, and the ability to have varied levels so they feel a sense of accomplishment and work with them slowly till they get to the level needed for completion of the set amount of skills. 

 

Intervention Strategy

Mary Spanos

Intervention Strategy

 

Kennedy’s story appealed to me as I have a child with Asperger’s.  Although the specific reasons why they bullied him are unclear, knowing something about Asperger’s I can deduce that because of his disability he was different from the typical children.  The complete letter is not public but from the video you can take a glimpse at the letter and he apologized for having outbursts, which are common with individuals with Asperger’s because they overload of different types of sensory information. The parents indicated that he was empathetic and he felt more than others, felt others pain and enjoyed helping others.  Knowing someone that has this I can attest that it is true.  There was an underlying depression that may or not have been caused by bullying, as children of Asperger’s tend to be depressed slightly more than others, the bullying may have made those feelings more pronounced. Students with disabilities are often targeted as victims because of their lack of social skills and low self-confidence and are often bullied much more than their peers (Garcia, Biggs, Simpson, & Gaus,136)

 

The school system implemented a no-contact agreement with the bully.  They failed to address the verbal element of bullying. Verbal bullying is much more prevalent than physical bullying (Demaray, M. K., & Malecki . 484). They could have amended their said “contract” to include no more verbal abuse, however I feel it would have been more appropriate that they had a sit down and explained that other people are different and have different skills and preached tolerance of other individuals.  Maybe they could have sat down and pointed out each other’s positive traits and how if they were friends how it would complement each other. It has been found that parents of bullies often exhibit similar behaviors and that children have and in essence mimicked their reactions to a similar scenario (Cross & Barnes, 296). It would have been helpful to have a sit down with both sets of parents to explain what is occurring in the school and possibly explain other ways to approach the handling of it. Children are in school for a large part of their waking lives so the teachers become the role models that can help change the perception of acceptable behavior (Newman-Carlson & Horne, 260). With a teacher that focuses on “zero tolerance” for this behavior and teaches empathy and acceptance of individuals differences,  I feel it would have been instrumental.   The school social worker is usually the point person to coordinate with a case manager and other school members to develop a team approach to address and design effective interventions with and for a child with Asperger’s (Garcia, Biggs, Simpson, & Gaus, 139).The social worker could also take time to meet with the bully to ensure that they are coming from a nurturing and loving environment.   The bullying Kennedy experienced also seemed to have occurred during unstructured time such as at recess. The most popular place for bullying occurs in the playground with it occurring on average of once every 7 minutes and that recess supervisors only intervened only 4% of the time (Anderson-Butcher, Newsome & Nay, 136).

 

Biggs, Garcia, Simpson & Gaus (139,140) have provided excellent steps to help educate teacher and students about bullying and the steps needed to help encourage tolerance.

 

“1. Provide staff development to school personnel so that they can be aware of the specific needs of children with Asperger's syndrome (AS) in relation to bullying. The staff development should focus on not only the characteristics of bullies and victims, but also the prevalence and types of bullying that occur. A strong emphasis should be placed on how individuals with social deficits are at a greater risk of bullying. Involve community leaders in staff development when addressing the specific needs of students with disabilities in relation to extracurricular and community activities. Teachers can be a student with AS's strongest advocate when addressing on-campus bullying.

2. Educators should enforce a no tolerance for bullying policy for all students and enforce the policy to the full extent.

3. Establish a buddy system to assist the child with AS. This will allow for another individual with higher social Functioning to identify "life-threatening" bullying instances. This individual should be selected by an adult, with input from the student with AS.

4. Teach children with AS specific areas where they are most vulnerable to being bullied, identifying these locations will help the student with AS to avoid instances in which limited visibility by adults exists. Once these specific areas are identified, the child with AS can be instructed about ways to avoid these areas and be provided with alternative sites where he or she is less likely to encounter bullying acts.

5. Role play bullying situations in which the student with AS is specifically taught to respond to bullying. Prevention of bullying is a primary goal, but it cannot be relied on in every instance. Children with a limited ability to understand social cues may misinterpret acts of teasing and bullying as attempts by peers to establish friendships. Reading social cues can pose difficulty for children with AS and should be practiced on a regular basis.

6. Teach children with AS that safety exists in numbers. Students should be encouraged to play in areas near peers or where large numbers of students are present. Children with AS should be encouraged to participate in supervised activities. Supervised activities not only provide a safe house from bullying, but also create opportunity for social interactions.

7. Facts of bullying take place, they must be investigated. Simply asking the child to ignore verbal taunts is not addressing the issue at hand. Students who are perpetrators in bullying acts (toward students with or without disabilities) must receive consequences as outlined by the student code of conduct.

8. When developing games and activities for use in instructional and physical education settings, avoid activities that are exclusionary in nature. For example, a physical educator can select teams instead of having students select teams. Some children with AS are the last picked for activities that involve sports/athletic skills due to poor gait, balance, and motor coordination. Activities should be designed to include all children.

9. Educators should avoid elimination games—for example, games such as knock out, in which skill level determines the last student remaining in the game. This type of game may signal a child out for being seen as being "weaker" than his or her peers. Students perceived in this manner are often targets of bullying acts.

10. If bullying acts occur, teachers can use the opportunity to talk with the child or children performing the act of bullying to educate them not only about the ill effects it has on the child being bullied, but also about how that behavior can be detrimental to the child performing the act if used in society.

11. Educators should talk with children about individual differences and how these differences are not to be exploited. Teaching all children that everyone deserves to be treated with respect may help in reducing the number of incidents.

12. All children should be encouraged to report acts of bullying. Reminding students of the benefits that a safe environment has on their own well-being could help them commit to reporting bullying events. It is important not only for the child who is bullied to report it, but for the children who see it occurring toward other individuals, especially a child with AS who may be reluctant or fearful to speak up, to report it as well.”

I would have liked to incorporate the items above as mentioned by Biggs, Garcia, Simpson & Gaus  in working with Kennedy’s situation.  As a teacher I would have recommended extra eyes during recess and other unstructured times.  Make sure parents were informed of the precautions and what measures the school was taking.  I would recommend a DVD about bullying be sent home with all children to have the parents watch with their children so not to exclude just the parents of the bully. Inform and request the school social worker meet with Kennedy and the bully separately. If it was possible I would try to arrange a guest speaker to attend for an assembly regarding bullies.  I know that in my child school they have a kindness week that stresses the importance of being a good friend and being kind and accepting everyone. Unfortunately, for children with disabilities that are not easily seen, such as Asperger’s it can be hard for people to understand and there needs to be more education on all types of disabilities. 

 

 

 

 

 

References

Anderson-Butcher, D., Newsome, W. S., & Nay, S. (2003). Social Skills Intervention during Elementary     School Recess: A Visual Analysis. Children & Schools, 25(3), 135-146.

 

Cross, D., & Barnes, A. (2014). Using Systems Theory to Understand and Respond to Family Influences on Children's Bullying Behavior: Friendly Schools Friendly Families Program. Theory Into Practice, 53(4), 293-299.

 

Demaray, M. K., & Malecki, C. K. (2003). Perceptions of the Frequency and Importance of Social Support by Students Classified as Victims, Bullies, and Bully/Victims in an Urban Middle School. School Psychology Review, 32(3), 471-489.

 

Garcia Biggs, M. J., Simpson, C., & Gaus, M. D. (2010). Using a Team Approach to Address Bullying of Students with Asperger's Syndrome in Activity-based Settings. Children & Schools, 32(3), 135-142.

 

Newman-Carlson, D., & Horne, A. M. (2004). Bully Busters: A Psychoeducational Intervention for Reducing Bullying Behavior in Middle School Students. Journal Of Counseling & Development, 82(3), 259-267.

 

Whitted, K. S., & Dupper, D. R. (2005). Best Practices for Preventing or Reducing Bullying in Schools.     Children & Schools, 27(3), 167-175.

Critical Reflection Paper

Mary Spanos

October 3, 2016

 

Upon watching the movie “Waiting for “Superman”” I was deeply disturbed by the amount of children that the system failed.  I saw in examples that indicate that tenure educators are hindering the success of our education system.  Although I understand the unions’ beginnings, I feel that over time the system has become corrupt and has become the type of job that once attained, one no longer need to apply themselves.  Of course, this does not apply to the masses, however it is happening.   This film also had an underlying common denominator with all the parents and caregivers that were followed.  Parental involvement was the most impressive as each and every parent or guardian present gave everything they had to make sure their child succeeded. The sat and read, discussed or monitored homework contacted their child’s teachers for feedback. This posed a question in my head, how does Parental involvement affect students’ performance?   There were two examples in which one single mother was a college graduate and the other was a guardian of her grandson with little to no education.  The both had the same goals, drive and determination to help that child succeed and it was apparent by the child’s desire that they understood the reasoning of applying themselves and worked hard to achieve good grades.

 

Parental Involvement includes several forms of participation such as attending school functions, providing encouragement, arranging for appropriate time for homework and monitoring their progress and assessing their weakness (Cotton & Wilelund, 1989, pg 1, 2). They are the child’s advocate. Researchers have found that the more active forms of parent involvement produces greater achievement benefits than a more passive parental approach (Cotton& Wilelund, 1989, pg 4). 

 

You might argue that almost all of the individuals in movie “Waiting for Superman” were located in low-income neighborhoods with the exception of one.  Researchers have found that parent involvement supports students learning behavior and attitudes regardless of factors such as parents income, education level, and whether or not the parents are employed.  All parent involvement works regardless to the benefit of the child (Cotton & Wilelund 1989, pg.5). Researchers discovered that minority or low income parents are often misrepresented among the ranks of parent involved schools. There are multiple reasons, lack of time due to job responsibilities, energy, embarrassment about ones owns education, communication difficulties, lack of acceptance by teachers and the assumption of parents inability to help with children’s schooling (Cotton &Wilelund 1989, pg. 7). In the movie we saw a mother that appeared to only speak Spanish and that the father spoke English.  Had she been a single mother would the system fail her? Would she be able to assist her daughter with her school work? She would not be able to understand any of the literature or any of the parent conferences or the home work to provide adequate parent involvement, which would then put her child in a disadvantage.  It has been found that in low-income communities the parents were less familiar with the school curriculum, engaged less in teaching at home and attended less school events. They also have stated that they have been more concerned with meeting their child’s basic needs for clothing, emotional support, socializing manners and they deferred education to the teachers (Drummond & Stipek, 2004, Pg. 198). 

 

In the movie Geoffrey Canada mentioned “Baby School” and allowing parents to expose children to basic concepts from birth on in order to prepare those entering public schools.  Many children did not meet basic qualifications in order to keep up with some of the other students.  I had always heard of the “Head Start Program” and it wasn’t till this video that I looked into it further.  It was a program that was started in 1965 to promoter readiness of young children from low income families though agencies in their communities for children birth to 5 years old.  However, even though these wonderful programs exist, the skills they learned to help them keep up with other peers in other communities dissipate by the end of grade 1, leading us to believe that either parents, educators or both are failing the students (Ho, 2001, Pg 17).  Part of the reason why the Head Start program is so effective in bringing students up to speed is that the program is heavily focused on parental involvement (Ho, 2001, Pg. 18).  Another initiative was the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB) which reauthorized the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) to design and implement parental involvement programs.  However, they never had a uniform plan on how to implement this and each area was initiating their own programs that had no quantifiable results so that is still not producing the type of change that is needed  (Washington, 2011, pg 18).

 

The Movie kept discussing drop out factors and how many of them will never graduate and most of them will end up in jail, and the cost of jail is exponentially larger than investing in a good education from the beginning.  Although I do believe that a good foundation is important and that we do have to fund more programs in school, it has been found that parental involvement has a major role in adolescent truancy and delinquency (Hu, 2002).   

I would like to say that a parent is a child first teacher; I know this as my son was nonverbal till three.  I taught him sign language in order to have him be able to express himself.  There was no teacher around to help him learn this only me, when he approached school age I made sure I had the tools to make sure he was ready, the alphabet, his name, numbers shapes, I taught him all that. I sit with my children during homework to make sure they finish it and review it and if it is wrong I assist them.  I am fortunate I am home when I they get home but I know many other parents that do homework at 8 pm cause that is when they can help.  I know non-English speaking parents that barter services so their children can go to a friend’s house to do homework with a mother that understands English.  I know that our system is corrupt and there are a lot of teachers that need move on but I think we are missing the big picture.  I think the bigger picture is the community.  I have always lived by the motto “It takes a Village” and I feel that in the education system, the parents and teachers need to work closer together. More programs need to be in place to assist parents that don’t have the means to help their children, whether that is free voluntary after school programs that help parents make sure children understand and complete their homework in a more relaxed environment, or programs to help parents understand the material.  The other point that has not been discussed that in more affluent areas many parents hire tutors to ensure their children make “the grade” this definitely changes the ability for all children to be equal.  This can be seen as money replacing part of their parental involvement.

In conclusion I found this movie very insightful and have recommended it to some of my friends; it really gets you wanting to change the world for these kids, either by being a better teacher and wanting to work in these communities or be the one to implement community change.  It has offered a perspective that I would not be able to see as I am not in a low-income community.  I told my children how fortunate they are to have the schools they go to and all their wonderful teachers.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

References:

1.       Cotton, Kathleen, & Wikelund, Karen Reed, (1989) Parent Involvement in Education, 1-17,retrieved by Google Scholar http://www.nwrel.org/scpd/sirs/3/cu6.html

 

2.       Drummond, Kathryn V, & Stipek, Deborah (2004), Low-Income Parents’ Beliefs about Their Role in Children’s Academic Learning, The Elementary School Journal, Vol 104, No 3, 197-213

3.       Ho, Hsiang-Yeh (2011), Effects, Attributes, and Predictions of Parental Involvement During Early Transition: Does Race/Ethnicity Matter? Evidence from the faces 1997 Cohort (Doctoral dissertation), University of Pittsburgh, School of Education, 1-122 Retrieved from Google Scholar (UMI 3472017)

4.       Washington, Alandra, (2011),A National Study of Parental Involvement: Its Trends, Status and Effects on School Success (Doctoral Dissertation),Western Michigan University,1-206, Retrieved using Google Scholar

 

5.       Xu, Jiangmin, (2002), A Longitudinal Study of the Effects of the Parental Involvement on Adolescent Deviant Behavior (Doctoral dissertation), Brigham Young University,1-172, Retrieved by Google Scholar ( UMI 3077576)

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This is the start of the second chapter of the story of my life.  A new page/leaf. I'm so excited about all I will learn, and where the journey will take me!