Module 2 - Connections
Another week filled with extensive reading and learning or reinforcing of concepts related to education and teaching. Chapter 4 mainly dealt with intelligence, learning styles, learning challenges and identification of gifted or talented students. Chapter 5 addressed language development, diversity within language, language impact to the classroom and teaching and educating students who are English Language Learners (ELL). Chapter 6 discusses the concepts of diversity and cultural impacts within the classroom and impact to teaching along with concepts of gender identity, roles and bias. Chapter 8 wraps this weeks reading with cognitive views of learning and how it works with memory, short and long term.
During this week's reading, I related more to Chapter 4 especially when discussing students with learning disabilities. I was enlightened with Table 4.5 on page 147 that identified Reading Problems of Students with Learning Disabilities. Both my sons have their own learning disabilities and this table reinforced some tendencies that each one has exhibited at one time or another. My oldest, who was an avid reader in elementary and middle school, changed in high school. He now exhibits anxiety around reading which I think is due to his experiences with his high school English classes. In elementary and middle school, he got to choose his books to read even if it had to be from a larger list. He found books that suited his interest and he found engaging and understood the message of the author. In high school, the books read are chosen for the student. In most cases, these are traditional books that I even read when I was in high school such as The Catcher in the Rye or To Kill A Mockingbird. He feels forced to read these books and gets upset when he has to read and answer study guides. I have seen where he procrastinates having to read and it is a battle to ensure he has done his work. For my younger son, his issue lies with recall of facts and understanding the main ideas. This is especially true in math with all the word problems that have multiple layers of questions. My son struggles with answering the question because of all the steps within the problem. In addition, he struggles with recalling the equation needed to solve the problem and understanding the different vocabulary that can be used for one particular operation.
I have also seen where learning disabilities affect a student's approach to their education. Anxiety shows itself in many ways that I am constantly learning as a parent. I did not realize that procrastination or lack of organization can be an indicator of anxiety. It explains a lot with regard to myself and to my oldest son. As a parent, I am working to find ways that leverage my son's strengths and work with him to establish habits to make other tasks easier. For subjects my son enjoys, there is no issue writing down the homework or executing it. For the non-enjoyable subjects, my son forgets homework, fails to write it down in his assignment notebook or just doesn't do the homework. In some ways, he is creating his self-fulfilling prophecy that I am not good in the subject when in essence he is just anxious because the material is not coming to him as easily as in other classes.
Finally the Point/Counterpoint in Chapter 4 regarding "Pills or Skills for Children with ADHD" had some interesting points. I know this presented an either/or discussion but I find you need both pills and skills. The one consistent message that my husband and I stress to our sons is that pills do not cure or make everything better with their ADHD conditions. We emphasize the tools they have learned through talk therapy and experience as well. There have been some days that our youngest son has forgotten to take his medication. Every day during dinner we discuss what went well and not so well that day. On the days our son forgot his medicine, he would state that he was able to manage himself during the day and found ways to overcome his behavior or thinking when it went astray. We also found that when he was part of a sport or gym class was very active, he was much more focused at home for his homework. Again it was another teaching moment to emphasize the importance being active. We would explain that activity releases chemicals to help our minds focus better which is a natural form of the medication. We try teaching our sons that everything is a balance and that we have to establish strong habits to overcome where we are deficient. I create lists and realize I need to take written notes to best remember information. I had stopped taking such detailed notes during business meetings or when I was doing my analytical review of revenue variances. When I stopped doing that and relied strictly on memory, I had a harder time with recall. I went back to taking notes and find I can remember it better because I can picture what and how I wrote the note. I create lists to remember what I need to do for the day or upcoming days. It feels good to check off those items. Does it always work successfully? Not always but I do my best to demonstrate this to my sons and show that it can work. Both had to adopt written assignment notebooks because strictly relying on their memory for homework or using electronic sticky notes or taking a picture of the homework board did not work. They realized writing it down and having something more concrete to refer to worked plus they have the satisfaction of crossing it off or checking it as done. While the medication helps balance the chemicals or open pathways within their brains, they still have to do the task and focus. The medication only does so much and talk therapy helps give them a place to discuss their challenges or fears to manage even the small tasks in their life.
Overall this week had much information to impart on me that I will find useful in my teaching career. It reminds me to be open to new experiences, be creative to connect with my students, realize we all have challenges and that we can work through those challenges but it is not one size fits all.
During this week's reading, I related more to Chapter 4 especially when discussing students with learning disabilities. I was enlightened with Table 4.5 on page 147 that identified Reading Problems of Students with Learning Disabilities. Both my sons have their own learning disabilities and this table reinforced some tendencies that each one has exhibited at one time or another. My oldest, who was an avid reader in elementary and middle school, changed in high school. He now exhibits anxiety around reading which I think is due to his experiences with his high school English classes. In elementary and middle school, he got to choose his books to read even if it had to be from a larger list. He found books that suited his interest and he found engaging and understood the message of the author. In high school, the books read are chosen for the student. In most cases, these are traditional books that I even read when I was in high school such as The Catcher in the Rye or To Kill A Mockingbird. He feels forced to read these books and gets upset when he has to read and answer study guides. I have seen where he procrastinates having to read and it is a battle to ensure he has done his work. For my younger son, his issue lies with recall of facts and understanding the main ideas. This is especially true in math with all the word problems that have multiple layers of questions. My son struggles with answering the question because of all the steps within the problem. In addition, he struggles with recalling the equation needed to solve the problem and understanding the different vocabulary that can be used for one particular operation.
I have also seen where learning disabilities affect a student's approach to their education. Anxiety shows itself in many ways that I am constantly learning as a parent. I did not realize that procrastination or lack of organization can be an indicator of anxiety. It explains a lot with regard to myself and to my oldest son. As a parent, I am working to find ways that leverage my son's strengths and work with him to establish habits to make other tasks easier. For subjects my son enjoys, there is no issue writing down the homework or executing it. For the non-enjoyable subjects, my son forgets homework, fails to write it down in his assignment notebook or just doesn't do the homework. In some ways, he is creating his self-fulfilling prophecy that I am not good in the subject when in essence he is just anxious because the material is not coming to him as easily as in other classes.
Finally the Point/Counterpoint in Chapter 4 regarding "Pills or Skills for Children with ADHD" had some interesting points. I know this presented an either/or discussion but I find you need both pills and skills. The one consistent message that my husband and I stress to our sons is that pills do not cure or make everything better with their ADHD conditions. We emphasize the tools they have learned through talk therapy and experience as well. There have been some days that our youngest son has forgotten to take his medication. Every day during dinner we discuss what went well and not so well that day. On the days our son forgot his medicine, he would state that he was able to manage himself during the day and found ways to overcome his behavior or thinking when it went astray. We also found that when he was part of a sport or gym class was very active, he was much more focused at home for his homework. Again it was another teaching moment to emphasize the importance being active. We would explain that activity releases chemicals to help our minds focus better which is a natural form of the medication. We try teaching our sons that everything is a balance and that we have to establish strong habits to overcome where we are deficient. I create lists and realize I need to take written notes to best remember information. I had stopped taking such detailed notes during business meetings or when I was doing my analytical review of revenue variances. When I stopped doing that and relied strictly on memory, I had a harder time with recall. I went back to taking notes and find I can remember it better because I can picture what and how I wrote the note. I create lists to remember what I need to do for the day or upcoming days. It feels good to check off those items. Does it always work successfully? Not always but I do my best to demonstrate this to my sons and show that it can work. Both had to adopt written assignment notebooks because strictly relying on their memory for homework or using electronic sticky notes or taking a picture of the homework board did not work. They realized writing it down and having something more concrete to refer to worked plus they have the satisfaction of crossing it off or checking it as done. While the medication helps balance the chemicals or open pathways within their brains, they still have to do the task and focus. The medication only does so much and talk therapy helps give them a place to discuss their challenges or fears to manage even the small tasks in their life.
Overall this week had much information to impart on me that I will find useful in my teaching career. It reminds me to be open to new experiences, be creative to connect with my students, realize we all have challenges and that we can work through those challenges but it is not one size fits all.
I have learning disabilities and received accommodations throughout my school years. One of the things that got overlooked when I was in school was that procrastination and lack of organization is an indicator of anxiety. I wish that was given more consideration, I feel like it would've benefitted me and my peers more if we had that support. That being said, relearning about learning disabilities was one of the biggest take aways for me because of my own experience. I felt learning about the strategies and learning styles to assist these students will also help me in my career. Your closing paragraph basically sums it perfectly.
ReplyDeleteYour take on the "Pills or Skills..." section of the reading is greatly appreciated. I really enjoyed reading your personal experience with utilizing both and the impact that can come from. The support that is needed, which seems is obviously abundant with your family, I believe to be crucial. Without the support from the teachers, family and the individual him or herself, then we are just continuing around in circles rather than creating a new path for the individual.
DeleteYour first section regarding your sons enjoyment for reading in the elementary and middle grades but how that diminished in high school really upset me. Especially as a future English teacher I hope I can only make appreciation for reading grow. That is an issue I foresee within my classroom with wanting to implement choice but running into problems trying to do so.