The Necessity of Arts Program on Adolescent Development and Academic Achievement in American Middle Schools

It has become evident in recent years that arts programs across all ages and grade levels have fallen victim to substantial budget cuts in schools and communities in order to shift focus and resources to other areas of education, such as English and Math, as well as to other departments within the government. For example, a study that was done in 2012 indicates that 1.3 million elementary schools across the country fail to get any music education into their curriculum, as well as 800,000 secondary schools. Nearly 4 million elementary schools do not even have access to visual arts programs. Pairing this with The Trump Administration's Budget Proposal which would cut 1 billion dollars from the Department of Education to impose a 54 million dollar increase in defense spending, it is clear that the arts programs are experiencing nationwide cuts from schools. Although, to some, this may seem like a financially sound plan to cut arts programs from schools to focus education on the, supposed, “more important subjects”, this claim is not backed by factual information. Research into the arts and arts programs have significant implications that the arts allow for substantial benefits in adolescent development, academic success (especially in economically disadvantaged areas), and lower dropout rates in schools.

There are numerous advantages to exposing adolescents and young children to the arts in order to further and enhance many developmental and life skills. An article written by Grace Lynch for PBS stresses the importance of exposure to the arts on young children. Some of the benefits that she collected from various studies include advances in: motor skills of children through painting or drawing, language development through discussing their creations or referencing different shapes or words in songs, decision making through working on problem-solving and critical-thinking skills when creating, cultural awareness through recognizing choices an artist makes and why they made those choices, and finally, academic performance where students active in the arts at young ages are four times more likely to succeed in school. Exposing young children to arts programs at young ages creates a foundation for various important skills that are to be continually worked on for the rest of their lives. Not only are arts programs a substantial benefit for young children, they also have significant benefits for adolescents in middle and high school.

There is a substantial amount of research that shows a strong correlation between arts education and academic success. Robin Pogrebin discusses how music education has substantial benefits in the math classroom. This is so important for adolescents because too often in math courses student are taught how to memorize formulas, but not understand what the mathematics implies in the real-world. For example, I was always taught that I had to memorize the sine, cosine, and tangent equations paired with their graphs. However, if I was ever asked to explain what this means in the real-world to someone who does not take higher level math courses, I would not have the slightest idea as to how I should even begin. It was not until this blog when I was researching this math application topic that I finally understood what these equations can be used for. Click the link here to see how such an abstract mathematics topic can be modeled in such an interesting, fun, engaging, and interactive way.

Teaching math abstractly leaves students uninterested, less engaged, and bored because they do not see the importance of learning various math concepts. However, through the application of math and science to music in the form of sound waves, vibrations, and time signatures, students can begin to become engaged in both their math and music courses as well as develop interdisciplinary skills, an element included in common core standards. Some further skills that students develop through their involvement in arts courses include student’s ability to: see better, envision, persist, think outside the box, and learn from their mistakes. Students also improve their visual and visual literacy skills through music and art, which is important in the wake of the digital age. These programs are essential to be an active, informed, and educated members of society. Also, involvement in drama clubs impacts/improves verbal skills. In areas like Australia and Spain, schools have a heightened duty, paired with governmental support to teach students social, cultural, and peacebuilding skills. In an article written by Alberto Cabedo-Mas, he explains how the arts programs in these places are the best tools for achieving these goals. Again, this takes student’s conceptual understandings out of the classroom and creates students that have developed interdisciplinary, social, applicable, cultural, and peacebuilding skills. For example, music and art from various cultures provides insight into that culture that a history textbook or a French class could not do. Student’s education is furthered when they are involved in the arts programs in various ways, and it is essential to teach adolescents of today skills in which they can use in their careers and the real-world.

Since the early 2000s, there has been a movement to eliminate arts programs in schools for reasons other than financial disparities. For example, an article published in the early 2000s states that the arts programs do not help students in their core courses, claiming that if music helps students with math is their argument, then they should take more math. However, there is a huge difference between doing one application problem in the math classroom, than being fully submerged in the culture and practice of music. The correlation also does indeed show that students in the arts programs perform better in school, tend to have higher GPA’s, have lower dropout rates, and perform higher on standardized tests. The authors of this article also cite examples such as family life to support their argument when they claim that families that push their children to excel in school are the same families that urge their children to become involved in extracurriculars and arts programs. They also support their argument by citing that schools with heightened performance often have strong arts programs. However, this could not be more false when examining the correlation between academic success and involvement in arts programs in economically challenged and underperforming areas.

More attention is being focused on the increased high school dropout rate because it leads to lower wage jobs, increased incarceration rates, and poor health as compared to their educated peers. Kathleen Thomas argues that arts programs are an effective answer because they involve active learning and are creative and engaging by their very nature. They also involve practice and performance with peers which can foster student attachment to a group and forge connections between a student and his/her school. Many dropout because their classes were too boring, but arts programs allow for a higher engagement in students. In these underprivileged areas where the arts programs are less prevalent, family involvement is lower, and economic advantages decrease, successful completion of arts programs is associated for students remaining in school. In disadvantaged or high dropout areas the arts should be one of the last programs to be cut because, although the evidence accounts for too many variables, there is a clear correlation between graduating students and arts programs.

Arts integration is at it utmost importance in the middle school years. During these years students are starting to become more responsible for their own learning and are more frequently challenged academically. By clicking the link here, there are many examples of The Kennedy Center's Artsedge Program which highlights the importance of arts integration for middle school students. Many of the examples that I have been discussing throughout this blog are prevalent in this school’s program such as: drama implementation in cross-disciplinary arts integration for students, math applications and demonstrations of shapes and the behavior of functions through dance, and the behavior of objects in space through creative dance in the science class. Arts integration is so helpful for middle school students who are beginning to encounter more advanced topics throughout their curriculum. Arts integration is a great way for students to visualize, create, and thoroughly understand their learning. Overall, arts integration and arts programs in middle schools allow students to embrace student differences, construct and demonstrate understanding, and impact teacher roles and instructions.

Michelle Obama could not have said it better in this video linked here. The evidence is clear, involvement in arts programs allows for heightened academic performance in students, interpersonal connections among students and the world as a whole, and cultural and social awareness/skills. The arts help students in economically disadvantaged areas excel in school, however these are the first areas where the arts get cut. The government needs to stop cutting funding for the Department of Education, and start realizing that arts programs are allowing our youth to prosper and succeed. It is teaching them skills and lessons that extend beyond the core subjects.

Annotated Bibliography

Middle School Teaming and Advisory Programs: The Benefits

Middle school aged students need a curriculum that transcends teaching and learning. There needs to be a strong connection between students and teachers, as well as a strong connection among teachers. This is such a crucial time for the development of students as adolescents as well as in their educational career. For students to be effectively educated at this age, they must feel they are cared for, respected, welcomed, and appreciated. The most effective way for teachers to do this is through the implementation of teacher teaming and advisory. Being a teacher who is effectively engaged in every one of their student’s lives is unrealistic, but through the implementation of teaming, it becomes more accessible to get a well-rounded view of a teacher’s students as a whole. Implementing advisory programs as an effect of teaming is essential to further team discussion and implement new areas of the curriculum to adjust to student needs. Many teachers are uncomfortable approaching students regarding sensitive topics, they are not adequately trained to address the needs and concerns of students of the middle school age, and many teachers have also not been exposed to the ideology of advisory. In turn, teachers are often ill-equipped to help adequately further student academic growth because they have no means of effective communication with their students.

That is why implementing teaming paired with an advisory period is so important. Teachers can gather insight on the feelings, attitudes, and mindsets of their students in advisory programs. Teachers can also relate to students in these periods, create a sense of advocacy and community in these periods to ensure students that students feel welcome, connect to students, and help students set academic and personal goals. All of these advisory benefits and practices are planned and addressed within the team. Teachers can then adjust curriculum to meet the needs of students, get a well-rounded picture of students’ feelings and mentalities around the school and curriculum, and, the goal, get to know their students so that school can be a fun, engaging, and common place for all students. If schools can implement these practices and ideologies that surround teaming and advisories, students will have greater success not only within their education, but in their lives to come!

Same Sun Here: Education Department Read and its Teaching Implications

Link to Same Sun Here Author Talk:

https://www.smcvt.edu/academics/library/research-by-subject/education/education-department-reads.aspx

Description of Assignment:

The Saint Michael’s College Education Department’s Common Text for the 2017/2018 academic year was the young adult novel Same Sun Here by Silas House & Neela Vaswani. The book is written as an epistolary novel in which the entire novel is an exchange of written letters and pictures between two young adolescent pen pals. Saint Michael’s College then held an author talk with the female author Neela Vaswani on October 10, 2017. The talk began with a Q&A for about forty-five minutes where a combination of students, faculty, and local teachers asked a variety of questions that ranged from the novel’s content, the writing process, and the social implications and impacts of the novel. The talk concluded with Vaswani highlighting some of the key elements of the presentation that she often holds for younger audiences. This powerpoint highlighted areas of friendship, sameness, equality, and acceptance.

Tagged PCs/Mission Statement:

Performance Criterion 3.2: Candidates design learning environments that support collaborative learning marked by positive social interaction.

Performance Criterion 5.1: Candidates engage learners in applying perspectives from varied disciplines in authentic contexts (such as local and global issues).

Saint Michael’s Mission Pillar Tag:

Our graduates are change agents committed to social justice and sustainability.

They provide students with personalized learning opportunities in an environment that promotes cultural responsiveness, critical consciousness, and equity for all. They facilitate projects that engage their students in finding solutions to community-based problems and global issues..

The main focus of implementing this young adult novel into our collegiate level education classes was to serve as a teaching and learning tool for us as future teachers. This novel was a great resource for teachers to target areas such as inclusiveness, discrimination, and a plethora of other social justice issues. As future educators, we want our students to be active and progressive leaders in society. This novel teaches students that no matter where they are from or what their current social, economic, or personal situations may be; you can always find a friend and someone that will value you for who you are. This is an essential mentality to place into the minds of students to foster socially aware adolescents. Students are going to encounter instances of racism, homophobia, sexism, and bullying in their lives; and novels like Same Sun Here are great tools to get the conversation surrounding these issues started. Also, a novel such as this one offers so much room for hands on projects and experiences. Tableau’s, recreation of scenes, mock letter writing, pen pals, and so many other projects can be derived from reading this novel and give all types of learners a chance to express what they have learned from the novel.

Personal Teaching Reflection:

This novel, more specifically, follows the story of a young Indian immigrant girl, Meena, who lives in New York City who writes to her pen pal, a young boy named River, who lives in a small town in Kentucky. Meena frequently has to deal with instances of bullying, paired with the fact that her parents are illegally staying in an apartment in the city with a landlord that wants to sell the room rather than rent it. River also has to deal with the mountaintop removal that is so prevalent in states like Kentucky. Both characters had to deal with some form of social oppression, whether that being institutionalized racism or climate change. Both Meena and River also play active roles in attempting to help out and stand up for what they believe in within their communities. Although I am planning on being a math teacher, I believe that discussing various social issues is an essential role of any adolescent teacher. Although my own bias must be stripped from the discussion, I believe that when it is relevant to discuss social issues with my students, then I will by all means spend some time going over some of these issues to make sure that everyone in my class feels comfortable and accepted.

I was severely bullied throughout middle school and into high school, and I remember just how impactful and important it was to talk about social justice issues in class. Whether these issues include racism, sexism, and/or homophobia just to name a few, students must be able to feel comfortable talking about these issues as well as knowing that these issues exist. For example, after the release of the various sexual assault allegations that have been arising in the media, so many young adolescents must be very confused about what is going on. With the constant access to the news and current events via social media, students are bombarded with these stories. It is my job as a teacher to create socially aware students, and if students are impacted by various social issues, it is important to discuss them to make sure students feel comfortable and safe inside and outside of the classroom. The projects aspect of the teaching experience that I received from this novel is a little more challenging to implement in the physical classroom. However, using both Meena and River as examples of socially involved individuals, I could organize various community service activities that get students involved and giving back to their communities. Meena and River were seemingly unfit friends, and as a teacher I could use them as a basis for discussion of social issues to foster inclusive, socially aware students. I will never forget of the questions that the author Neela Vaswani frequently asks her young adolescent groups. What does it mean to be a friend? The students’ answers were so thoughtful and beautiful, and so young and innocent that it gives us so much hope in a time of such negative news.

Back to Back Lessons

Link to Factoring Lesson Plan:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1eHpDq7fnNeuuY7pGbp7pVLTsgtAyJXw5q3Kpesfe6zY/edit?usp=sharing

Link to Assessment of Lesson:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1C6AQQx2rtbIls8UaaY4Rd6S4khF1Kbs9Pt9iZCsXKT8/edit?usp=sharing

Link to Assessment Rubric:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/16IsIsD6unHKqGXP4NnfzXg8jqvgVD3g6LO1uJvdpiNQ/edit?usp=sharing

Description of Assignment:

In my Literacy and Curriculum courses at Saint Michael’s College, each student in the class was assigned the task of designing back to back lessons that focus on just one topic or aspect of an entire mock unit that we are designing for a middle school class. I chose to focus on Algebra 1 in my unit, and for the back to back 20 minute lessons I chose to focus on factoring. There are many different ways and formulas that are used to factor a quadratic equation, but I only had twenty minutes to teach the lesson. I decided to base this lesson as an extenuation from the vocabulary lesson that can be analyzed in the previous blog post. I had students recall what was discussed in the vocabulary lesson, and then I went into a discussion of how to factor in the general form, how it relates to FOILing, and what it means graphically. I had a class with three of my peers who not only participated in the lesson, but they also gave feedback for areas of strengths as well as areas of improvements for future lessons. The lesson was concluded on the second day with an essay-based quiz that had students factor equations and explain their thinking processes.

Tagged PCs/Mission Statement:

Performance Criterion 3.1: Candidates design learning environments that support individual learning marked by active engagement.

Performance Criterion 3.2: Candidates design learning environments that support collaborative learning marked by positive social interaction.

Performance Criterion 6.1: Candidates implement multiple methods of assessment to monitor learner progress to inform instructional practice.

Performance Criterion 7.2: Candidates plan instruction by drawing upon knowledge of learners to meet rigorous learning goals.

Saint Michael’s Mission Pillar Tag:

Our graduates are reflective and contemplative practitioners.
They thoughtfully implement curriculum and assessments, drawing from a solid

theoretical base to guide their instruction and leadership decisions. They balance action

with reflection to stay centered and purposeful in active environments, offering a role

model for students.

Prior to our lessons, we made an accommodations matrix as a class. We were asked to pick a group of students with similar educational struggles, and design a lesson that accommodates some of these students’ needs. I chose the students Shelby and Avery who have anxiety. It was the main focus of my lesson to teach the material in a way that made students feel comfortable and calm. I wanted my lesson to be a comfortable space for all students and I did not want any students to feel overwhelmed at any time. To do this, I had to create a confident poise that was also comfortable and relatable for my students. I allowed students to have private reasoning time to formulate hypothesis on their own about their learning. I made sure all students had a chance to volunteer, and often encouraged students to think through their work outloud with a friend, with the teacher, or as a class. Math is often viewed as boring for many students, however it is my goal as a teacher to be able to tap into student’s prior knowledge to encourage them to make conjectures about the math by themselves to foster an investigative classroom environment where students understand where the math comes from and why it matters. I also implemented a variety of assessments such as entrance tasks, exit cards, class/group discussions and presentations, and a summative quiz at the end to ensure that all students have a chance to succeed as well as showing me areas of class-wide confusion so I can adapt and further the learning in future lessons.

Personal Teaching Reflection:

Beginning in my middle school career, my math classes seemed to strip all of the student curiosity and investigation out of the courses to focus on a more fact-based, teacher led lecture. Rather than have students build on their prior knowledge to enhance their understanding as to how all of the material from previous lessons, units, and math courses are interconnected, the facts were just presented to us and we were told to take them at face value. This strips student ownership of their math work from the class and completely disengages students. My goals for these lessons were to promote student inquiry of the math, build on their prior knowledge, and create a comfortable environment where student investigation and hypothesis are encouraged and accepted. After the first lesson, it was clear that some students were not feeling comfortable with the math language and calculations. In turn, I adapted my second lesson to review some of the vocabulary from previous lessons as well as previous math courses (ex] real numbers, factoring, factored form, and the standard form of a quadratic expression). I had students rewrite some of these terms in their vocabulary journals paired with examples and nonexamples to ensure students are beginning to grasp the concepts. I then allowed students to retry some calculations on their own and present their findings to the class if they felt comfortable doing so. Creating a comfortable environment means having poise as a teacher, but it also means feeling able to adapt to student’s needs to ensure students are not overwhelmed with the material. Often times students feel as if they’re bad at math because teachers are trying to rush through the content and they feel left behind. I want my students to be proficient and understand where the math comes from and why it matters rather than have my students become memorizing robots.

Some areas of focus that I will need to address for my future teaching as well as for my overall unit design for these classes definitely starts with time management. Apart from fostering a comfortable environment for students, I also have had issues with time management. The plans that I had for this lesson included a graphing activity as well as discussion of real-world problems which are both included in my standards (model with mathematics) and my overall unit essential question (what does factoring mean in the real world applications?). However, there was some confusion in the material from the first day as seen in the exit card, so I had to adjust the lesson for the second day. Although my essential question and some of the standards were not fully targeted in my lessons, I believe the review in the second lesson allowed for better mastery of the factoring skills which will better help the students answer the questions more fully in the future. I am never going to get through all of the material that I would like to, but if I want to create an environment that reflects the student's understanding of my essential question and the standards, I need to be able to allow for more time in lessons in which students need a little extra time to persevere in their solving of equations. Throughout the semester in these two courses I have been working on ensuring that students understand the math language, as well as allowing more time for certain aspects of lessons to enhance overall student understanding, and time management. All of these were targeted in these lessons, and I would like to say that I improved in all of these areas. There is still a long way to go, and I cannot wait to see where the rest of my educational career and essentially the rest of my adult life takes me!

Teaching Math Vocabulary

Link to Lesson Video:

https://photos.app.goo.gl/MANQK1cwVLDX4VrT2

Link to Vocab Lesson Plan:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1gJBph3vQEQ6wK75R56CAQnQKQuLCK1jHR6OhGl-FDIQ/edit

Link to Video of Lesson:

www.youtube.com/  

Description of Assignment:

For my Literacy in Education pre-licensure course, my classmates and I were instructed to create a lesson based on a vocabulary word that is relevant to the overall unit that we have been planning all semester. The unit that I have been planning revolves around factoring quadratic equations, thus the vocabulary term that I chose to use was factoring. The lesson was supposed to be fifteen minutes long and could be about one word, parts of words, or a group of words. Since there are so many ways to factor, I decided to solely present the definition without any further calculations to conserve time and connect a new topic and its definition to topics that were previously discussed in class (ex] factoring is like undoing FOILing).

Tagged PCs/Mission Statement:

Performance Criterion 3.1: Candidates design learning environments that support individual learning marked by active engagement.

Performance Criterion 3.2: Candidates design learning environments that support collaborative learning marked by positive social interaction.

Performance Criterion 6.1: Candidates implement multiple methods of assessment to monitor learner progress to inform instructional practice.

Performance Criterion 7.2: Candidates plan instruction by drawing upon knowledge of learners to meet rigorous learning goals.

Saint Michael’s Mission Pillar Tag:

Our graduates are creative and integrative educators.
They are adept at both discipline-based and interdisciplinary teaching methods, using

emerging technologies, social interaction, and imagination to support students’ achievement of rigorous academic standards. Understanding the connection between intellectual and emotional-social growth, they help their students gain self-knowledge and assume responsibility for their own learning.

This lesson was definitely more collaborative than some of my previous teaching episodes. I believe I really tried to draw in on what my students already knew to better steer the lesson to their strengths as well as highlighting their differences. Each student had a different educational background and learning style, so I tried to harness these differences and prepare a lesson that is personalized to what the students already know in order to steer them towards what they need to learn. I also created a learning environment that was collaborative, frequently having discussions as a group, asking for student input, and having students talk amongst themselves. I tried to engage students as often as possible so not only would they not be bored, but they would be more invested in the learning and take responsibility for acquiring new knowledge. Finally, I tried to create a lesson that included various forms of assessment: pre-assessment and formative assessments (exit card).

Personal Teaching Reflection:

Two elements of my teaching that I was trying to improve on in this lesson were time management and saying “um” throughout my teaching. In terms of saying “um”, I have really narrowed down the amount of times that I said it (I only counted four), and this fosters a presentation that displays elements of confidence and ease. Time management is probably my most prominent teaching weakness where I often omit major parts of lessons due to a misjudgement of time use. However, during the planning process I consciously attempted to ensure that I would use all of the time that I have efficiently and effectively. I struggled with the decision of whether or not to implement calculations into my presentation, and determined that there was not sufficient time to delve into the various ways to factor and that solely the theory was enough to get the ball rolling. This proved to be effective, and I am sure that the students know the ideology and the reasoning as to why we factor, which is essential to foster an overall student understanding of the topic. I am sure of this because not only could you see the A-ha moment in the student’s faces, but not one exit card showed any sign of confusion or misunderstanding. Each student clearly conveyed the concept back to me in their own words, using pictures, or through the use of equations and relationship to the FOIL method. Math vocabulary is essential to understanding the “why it matters” of math and relate mathematical topics to each other. Keeping a math vocab notebook with examples is also useful to have a dictionary of math concepts. In the future I will continue working on time management, saying “um”, but also begin working on my overall clarity in relaying concepts. Math is challenging to explain, and in order to ensure that all of my students learn to the best of their ability, I must make sure that I am sufficiently explaining all elements of a mathematical concept, as well as providing a sufficient amount of examples and definitions of important terms.

Semester Refection on WMS Visits and In-Class Learning

It is hard to believe that my sophomore year is already coming to a close. It seems like just yesterday I was walking into my WMS classroom to observe and help tutor the middle schoolers. Now, I have a classroom nickname of “Tiger”, I have made so many lasting relationships with many of the students and faculty in the classroom, and I have learned so much about what it means to be a teacher both in the seminar classroom and through my placement.

In the seminar course itself, I have began exploring my first real teaching experiences and abilities, as well as learning and growing regarding how to be the best teacher that I can be. Within the lessons that I have taught, I have picked up on some strengths and weaknesses that I can build on in the years to come. I often talk a lot and run out of time which means I will have to work on how much content I should include in my lessons in the future, while also working on time management in the classroom. I also learned that I have a hard time relaying concepts to a full classroom, and need to work on slowing down and explaining difficult concepts efficiently, but thoroughly. Some strengths that I have seen in my teaching include creativity and enthusiasm. I am very far from being labeled a “morning person”, but lessons are much more effective and enjoyable for everyone in the class (including me) if I am upbeat and excited about the learning. I also think some of my activities (especially the graph shifting activity with the string and the masking tape, which is an area of my lessons that I am most proud of when I look back on the semester) are very creative and can foster some new, fun, and engaging activities in the future. I learned so much through the content in the course as well. One of the biggest takeaways is that math can actually be very fun, and erasing the stigma that “math is hard” or that “math is boring” in my future classrooms will actually benefit student engagement levels and overall learning. I also learned that teaching from the textbook is not that beneficial for students, but rather explaining where concepts are derived from and how things come about it essential for students to understand the problems they are given. This is something that I was not really taught in my experience (I could have never told my class why a negative times a negative is a positive), but can use in the future to ensure my students are understanding the concepts.

Although a lot of learning was done in the Monday morning class, I also learned a significant amount through my visits to WMS. These students were a lot more rambunctious than any class I had been in in my K-12 career, and I learned a lot from the teacher that I was assigned to as to some ways to refocus students and engage them in their learning. Some examples of these practices include: taking a break when I get frustrated to show students that I am overwhelmed and that they need to focus in on their learning (an extremely effective tactic that my teacher used), taking one day off from a challenging lesson to get students to practice skills such as problem solving and teamwork to refocus the class, and to have a variety of different activities. Having many different kinds of activities that can range from individual Khan Academy work, to investigation activities that involve students walking around the room and finding answers to different problems in teams, to individual problem sets and worksheets; all of these activities can benefit any type of student with any style of learning their mind favors. Finally, I learned how to be a friend and be there for students, as well as putting my foot down at certain times when students were misbehaving. I have not necessarily had a chance to practice this skill, but the teacher that I was placed with did an amazing job at this. Students often think that if they misbehave in class the teacher will not like them. This teacher, however, rewarded students’ good work with great kindness and gratitude that would make any student want to succeed. But, at the same time rather than yelling at misbehaving students, she would encourage them to take a break in the back of the room to refocus on the material. This is an amazing and effective tactic that allows students to take themselves out of the situation that they could be misbehaving in, and allow them to quietly refocus by themselves.

Overall, I am so glad, privileged, and humbled that I was allowed to have these experiences this semester, and I hope to return to WMS or WHS one day to see what these students will achieve in the coming years!

Nearing the End of the WMS Visits

The entirety of class today was a learning experience in itself. The teacher put the student aids under the impression that the students were just as misbehaved, unfocused, and disrespectful towards the teacher on Wednesday as they were on Tuesday. This being said, rather than attempt to continue with the lesson of dividing fractions, the instructor decided to take a two day break to focus on respect, cooperation, and teamwork as a way to not only further the students’ ability to act respectfully in the classroom, but also to advance their common core skills. The common core skills in math include teamwork, the ability to listen and understand direction, the ability to put their knowledge of the material into his/her own words, and to think critically. Keeping these ideals in mind, the teacher decided to do a team activity in which the students were divided up into groups of four. Within these groups, one teammate was assigned to be the builder and the remaining teammates would give the builder instructions. The teams were given twelve colored blocks and six instructions (two per instruction reader) for the builder to organize the blocks in a certain fashion. The only restriction is that the builder is not allowed to read the cards.

This activity forced students to cooperate with each other in a team setting. It also allowed the builders to listen carefully to what the other students are saying, and apply their instruction. On the reader side of things, these students had to read their card, understand precisely how the blocks needed to be organized, and then relay it to the builder in a way that makes sense. This is a great activity not only to further students listening, reading, and problem solving skills, but it also allowed students to develop multiple ways of stating information so that the entire group would be able to understand what he/she was saying. Besides furthering positive qualities within the classroom, this activity also gives students a few days of break from fractions so they can come back next week refocused and ready to learn.

I thought that this was an excellent way to address the disrespect problems that were occurring in the classroom. It takes a lot of courage for a teacher to take a break from the curriculum in order to give students a chance to work together and develop qualities such as listening and problem solving that they will need to use for the rest of their lives. Even the students that were getting frustrated learned that using different methods of explaining can actually lead to the correct answer in the end, so it was even a learning experience for those who seemed unhappy. Because of these reasons and my knowledge of how rambunctious these students are, this is an activity, even a mindset that I can see myself using in my classroom in the future.

WMS Visit #8

Today the students at WMS were learning how to divide fractions. Building on their learning from last week, the teacher decided to create a “Do Now” worksheets focusing on problems the students struggled the most with during the previous week. The two main sources of confusion for the students revolved around changing mixed numbers to improper fractions and further multiplying, as well as dividing fractions with mixed numbers. The teacher allowed students to have some private think time to develop some ideas on how to respond to the two questions on the paper, but it was clear that the students were still very confused. The teacher ended their think time, and began going over some algorithms and corresponding diagrams for the problems. However, the overall confusion of the students persisted. It was not until the teacher used visual materials and fraction magnets from around the room that the students really became engaged in their learning, and began to understand the mathematics behind multiplying and dividing fractions.

The teacher ended up relating the problem (where the students were dividing fractions) to baking. She explained that in order to make this batch of cookies she would need 1¼ cups of flour, but she only had a ½ cup for measuring. Thus, she asked how many half cups would she need to measure 1¼ cups of flour. She used beakers and a bowl to demonstrate the problem which proved to be a good visual but not entirely effective for the students’ understanding. She then shifted to using equivalent size fraction magnets. The magnets are rectangles and signify equivalent fractions. There is a 1 associated with the largest magnet, and underneath this magnet are two ½ magnets which when combined are equivalent to the 1 (or the whole) magnet. The magnets went all the way down to 16 little 1/16 magnets which when added together equal the entire 1 magnet. When she placed the ½ magnets underneath the 1¼ magnets, it was clear that a light bulb went off in each of the students heads as they began to understand the concepts.

The utilization of visuals is sometimes completely essential for success within a classroom and corresponding topics. The students had diagrams, charts, and algorithms on their papers, but they still were not fully grasping the concepts. However, the beaker visual combined with the fractional magnets proved to be an extremely beneficial visual for the students. It allowed me to witness a teacher persevering through a very challenging lesson with low student engagement and understanding, but persisting nevertheless and utilizing many teaching methods to arrive at a teaching style that was effective to the students understanding of the topic. This taught me not only to utilize a variety of resources and teaching methods within the classroom, but also to never give up when teaching because there is always a way to break through to the students and further their understanding!

China: A Sexuality and Gender Equality Focus

Although there are not many statistics which delve into how many homosexual, transgender, or bisexual individuals within China. homosexuality is a social discussion that has divided the country. Based on a survey taken in China, over 54% of citizens do not accept homosexuality. This is more than half of the entire population who do not approve of same sex relationships. To further this lack of acceptance, homosexual couples are prohibited from marrying in China. The government also limits many other aspects of same sex couples rights such as prohibiting adoption of children, and not restricting or regulating discrimination against homosexuals. There is an ongoing increase within acceptance of homosexuality due to social media access, entertainment, and globalization, but the Chinese government still limits access to such sources, and thus furthers the argument that China has a long way to go to further acceptance of LGBTQ people throughout the country. 

Premarital sex is another controversial social issue in China, and is also regulated. China seems to be a semi-restrictive society when it comes to premarital sex in that it is regulated, but often disregarded and worked around. It is in accordance with Chinese tradition that a woman remains a virgin until the night of her wedding, and that night there is a ritual where the woman bleeds on white sheets during sex to symbolize her virginity being taken from her by her husband. Although even this ritual is often faked to ensure a lasting marriage and impression, the Chinese government looks down on premarital sex. Sex Ed is often not even taught in schools, rather the only real talk of intercourse education comes through the discussion and strict policy regarding abstinence. Again, attitudes regarding premarital sex are changing due to the same reasons stated above, but a shocking 70% of Chinese citizens have admitted to having premarital sex even with the strict ideology regarding the act. There is also a double standard in which women are primarily blamed for giving up their virginity to the man before marriage, and some textbooks even target women for being the leading cause behind the large number of premarital sex cases in the country. Women are, in turn, viewed as slightly inferior to men in China. China still has a long way to go in accepting women's rights and the rights of homosexuals, but I would argue that they are moving in a positive direction. 

Winooski High School: My Fourth Visit

Today at my fourth Winooski High School placement I had the opportunity of working with one of the students in the English Language Learners (ELL) program. For my Adolescent Development class this semester, my professor is gearing the curriculum around the aspects, challenges, and teaching approaches needed when instructing a class that may include ELLs. Today the students were working on adding and subtracting fractions. The ELL student that I had the privilege of working with was from China. China uses a very similar mathematical system when compared to the United States. The greatest and most beneficial similarity is the base-10 system that both of our countries use. It simplifies learning how to add and subtract using a number system that is based on counting by tens. My student seemed to be years beyond learning fractions, often having no difficulty adding fractions without a common denominator, a topic that most of the class seemed to struggle with. It was remarkable to witness a student who knows very little English excel beyond other, native speaking students in the field of mathematics. Mathematics can often transcend the language barrier. The greatest challenge that I had with this young student was the communication barrier.

Although the student could string together very basic sentences, often times directions, clarifying questions, and conversation with fellow neighbors about a math equation seemed to be a challenge for this young Chinese student. However, it was remarkable to see this student implement technology into the classroom to eliminate any miscommunication. There is an app that can be downloaded for an iPhone or an iPad called “Baidu Translate,” in which students whom are learning English as a new language can translate sentences into English from their native language. Unlike Google translate, the accuracy used within this app is said to be much higher. This implementation of technology proved essential not only for the students’ understanding, but also for my own personal understanding. I was able to establish a personal relationship through asking him questions about where he is from using the app. I was also able to provide aid for challenging problems (even though this student did not seem to struggle all that much) as well as give praise for the student’s success.

Technology is becoming essential for teacher’s use within the classroom. This app proved to not only benefit the student’s learning, but also to benefit the student socially. The most useful feature in the app is that the student can take a picture of the directions to a problem, highlight the words, and the app will translate the directions into the student’s native language. Remarkable! Although this app needs to be used in moderation so the student does not become dependent on the iPad, it still has so many benefits for ELL students to become assimilated within the American classroom. Searching for different ways to implement technology in the classroom is essential for teachers to educate, relate, and coexist with twenty-first century students. Finding ways to implement technology in my own math classroom will prove to be a challenge, but technology can sometimes transcend areas such as language barriers to create an engaging, inclusive classroom.