Moodle Two...Woohoo

Week two module includes chapters 4, 5, 6 and 8. These chapters talk about learner differences, learning needs, language development, language diversity, and immigration education. The last two chapters talk about culture, diversity, and cognitive views of learning. I found the first of the chapters, chapter 4 interesting because it talks about how people learn differently and have different needs when it comes to learning. There are many important aspects when it comes to a person’s learning and much to take into consideration. My oldest daughter did not like going to high school even though she was very smart and tested into honors classes. She eventually dropped her honors classes and finished high school at a military school receiving her GED. I never thought she had a behavior disorder, but she may have. She was never labeled as having a behavior disorder but spent a lot of time with the school counselor. Her education was greatly hindered by her view of high school and the teachers. Some students are not able to learn for other reasons like disabilities. "A disability is just what the word implies an inability to do something specific such as pronounce words or see or walk." (pg. 122). My daughter may have thrived in a different setting and could have possibly finished high school in a traditional way if the school figured out how to teach my daughter or adjust the way she learned.

Chapter 4 talks about the student and how they learn. Not everyone has the same abilities and some people have handicaps. It does not mean these students are unable to learn but that their learning needs are going to be different. Students have different levels of intelligence also. The chapter talks about nine types of intelligence or multiple intelligence - Logical-Mathematical, Musical, Interpersonal, Naturalist, Existential, Linguistic, Spatial, Interpersonal and Bodily-Kinesthetic. Each of this intelligence is important in schooling but Howard Gardner says two are the most important. One involves differentiated instruction and the other says “anything worth knowing has different representations and multiple connections to various ways of thinking.” (pg. 128). My girlfriend always tells me there is more than one way to do things and this chapter reminds me of that. I may look at a solution to a problem in one way and she does in a completely other way but both with the same solution. I may look at it in an analytical way while she is looking at it in a creative way. Every person is unique and learns in their own way. The range of people’s intelligence or IQ is going to vary greatly, and some people have learning challenges or are gifted and talented. I think my girlfriend is very smart, but she is a different kind of smart than I am and uses a different process to figure out the answer to a problem.

Chapter 5 talks about the English Language Learner students and students who are immigrants. The United States is very diverse and is made up of people from all over the world. The chapter also incorporates students who talk with a dialect and how teachers should take dialects into account. It seems that everyone’s family had to learn English or to enhance their English skills at some point in their family. My grandparents were from Hungry and Russia and learned to speak English. I remember them speaking with an accent and sometimes it was hard to understand what they were saying. It is a shame that families lose this identity after living here for a couple of generations. I never was able to speak Russian or Hungarian.

Chapter 6 focuses on Culture and Diversity. Living in Chicago there was a lot of diversity. You could tell someone’s nationality by their street or area they lived in. It seems that people group together by their nationality and then eventually just blend it. I had friends who were Polish while growing up and one particular friend lived by 63^rd and Pulaski which was a Polish community. Over the years the neighborhood changed, and his family moved out to Burbank which is another Polish community. After his grandparents died the family moved to Arizona and lives in an area that is not Polish driven. I feel that as we get older peoples identities get lost and families become Americanized. As a teacher, I will be open to students’ backgrounds and encourage them to embrace their culture. My family once had stronger roots and now my children are a mixture of nationalities that I do not even know what they are. I often think about having them take one of those DNA tests to see exactly what makes them up.

Chapter 8 focused on Cognitive Views of Learning. I found it interesting the chapter talking about the human brain. “The human brain is made up of many different modules with specialized functions recognizing faces, processing auditory information, extracting meaning from pictures, representing categories and concepts, forming new memories, coordinating movements, and many more.” (pg. 300). I had a friend who was in a bicycle accident and hit is head damaging his brain. I did not know this friend before he hit his head, but my friends who did said he was a different person after his injury. He died a little over a year ago and while talking to his mom at the funeral she said when he came out of his coma, he spoke Spanish fluently. The family was so confused and could not understand what he was saying because he did not speak Spanish before the accident. The brain is a marvelous thing and contains knowledge that we do not know we even had. I believed my friend took Spanish in high school but not to the point where he could speak it fluently. The chapter talks about implicit memory which is memory we are not conscious of recalling which was probably the case in this situation. My friend's Spanish teacher made an impact on my friend and he recalled everything he had learned and more from their class.