399OL:  Issues and Developments in Education

Ginger Kastor
Fall 2001

Instructed by Tom Anderson

There are a variety of psychologists that strongly believe students learn in a certain way, and should be taught accordingly. It is interesting that there are five completely different philosophies that create many different thoughts of what is best for students to learn and what should be the desired outcome. Although contracts are considered a behavioral technique, some other psychologists would think this is a valuable tool to use as educators are shaping the lives of students, and other psychologists would not find it useful. An overview of these five ways are essential to understanding why contracts work for most of these different theorists ways.

Behaviorist psychologists believe that a living organism, whether it may be an animal or a human, can be influenced totally by their environment to act the way they do. Many theorists, starting with John Watson, believe that a human can be totally shaped into the being they are by the use of outside influences (Shaw,1992). Other psychologists believe differently. Progressivist, John Dewey, found that students learned best only when something was relevant to them, not just because it was in their near proximaty, or their environment. Exestentialists, such as Jean Paul Sartre, believe that human nature is not inborn and everyone should live by their own set of values. They believe that students should be exposed to different thoughts and theories and they should decide for themselves what they believe. Mortimer Adler, a perennialist, believes that moral qualities should come second to intellectual development. Others, such as essentialist psychologist William Bagley, believe that educators should mold students into being moral and intellectual model citizens (Shaw, 1992). B. F. Skinner was a popular behaviorist whose work is still put into practice today, including his idea of behavior contracts (Charles, 1998). The use of contracts is considered to be a behavioral technique because the behavior is rewarded, punished or ignored based on the student's behavior and is agreed upon by the student and teacher (Charles, 1998). Through the use of responses and stimuli the student adjusts his/her behavior accordingly because they want the end result, which they learn because of conditioned responses (Hummel et al., 1997). Using the method, the teacher molds the student's behavior through the use of a contact, and the reward at the completion of the set goal of the contract, in order to have the student use the desired behavior.

Other types of theorists would like the use of contracts based on their views of student learning. The theorists that would accept and use the contracts would be progressivists and essentialists. Progressivists would like this because the contract would directly involve the student that it affects, which is the major idea of which they focus their attention. Essentialists would value the contracts because this method of discipline would help mold the students into what is accepted as appropriate behavior.

The other two types of theorists would reject the use of contracts as an appropriate way of disciplining students. Exestentailists would discard contracts because of their belief that people should live by their own set of rules. Students should be exposed to different ideas, but they are the only ones that can ultimately decide if something is correct or not. Their behavior is an individual thing and no rules should be enforced (Shaw, 1992). Perennialists believe that the students' intellectual behavior should come before moral behavior (Shaw, 1992). Most educators accept that proper behavior is a part of moral education; therefore perennialists would not be the biggest fans of something that is moral rather than intellectually stimulating to the student.

In my teaching experience, I have had experiences with two student contracts. Each had a contract that set forth the understanding of rules-reward-punishment (RRP) (Charles, 1998). They both seemed to work well at the start because the student was willing to put forth the effort for positive reinforcement and rewards. Once the student had a difficult time dealing with the rules, both students seemed to be driven to continue the contract because the punishment was an option. Charles has stated in his book, Building Classroom Discipline, "(T)he added factor of consequences for misbehavior makes this approach effective with older students and with students who chronically misbehave" (Charles, 1998). Contracts have worked well and seems fair to the child involved because the contract is agreed upon by the student and teacher.

References:
Charles, C.M. (1998). Building Classroom Discipline. New York: Addison Wesley.

Huitt, Bill. (1996) Classroom Management. Retrieved September 4, 2001 from the World Wide Web: http://chiron.valdosta.edu/whuitt/col/manage/manage.html

Hummel, J. and W. Huitt. (1997). Operant (Instrumental) Conditioning. Retrieved September 4, 2001 from the World Wide Web: http://chiron.valdosta.edu/whuitt/col/behsys/operant.html

Shaw, Larry J. (1992) Humanistic and Social Aspects of Teaching: Educational Philosophies; Five Educational Philosophies. Retrieved September 4, 2001 from the World Wide Web: http://edweb.sdsu.edu/people/Lshaw/F95syll/philos/phbehav.html

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Before the 1980's, classroom discipline was created by teachers and spread mostly through word-of-mouth to others about the best in practice ways to have students behave during class. Lee Canter was one of the first people to publish a discipline plan in a way that was positive, which appealed to teachers of all grade levels (Allen, 1996). While this sounded acceptable to many teachers and made the notion of Assertive Discipline popular, others did not agree with the plan. Richard Curwin and Allen Mendler's Discipline with Dignity review stated they found Canter's plan to be harsh and even damaging to the challenged student's dignity as well as only teaching students short term ways of reacting to situations rather than teaching responsibility (Charles, 1999).

The Assertive Discipline plan that Canter wrote was using several ideas together, which produced the foundation of the plan. These included the following: "Teachers have a right to teach as they see best, without disruption. Students have a right to learn in a safe, calm environment, with full teacher support. These ends are best met by in-charge teachers who do not violate students' best interests. Trust, respect, and perseverance enable teachers to earn students cooperation" (Charles 1999, 82). This type of behavior sounds like it would create a positive environment because the students know the discipline hierarchy upfront and know all the consequences of their actions because the teacher has discussed them with the students before any of the misbehaving actions occur. The teacher is to develop an atmosphere of trust and remain calm in all situations. Positive remarks are to ensure trust of the teacher because you are showing and modeling the type of behavior that is expected.

Curwin and Mendler agree with several of Canter's ideas. Defusing confrontations are similar in both plans of discipline. The major ideas of each plan includes staying calm, depersonalizing the situation so the teacher does not feel personally attacked, and knowing how the student reacts to the teacher's actions (Charles, 1999). They also agree that discipline is a major part of making a classroom environment work well. There are three steps to creating classroom discipline that are similar in the two separate plans, preventing behavior problems, dealing with the student when rules and broken, and resolving the conflict. Both plans relay strong feelings for strictly and harshly punishing insubordination. This will help the teacher remain in control of the classroom through all situations. Sarcasm, they also agree, is not useful in any situation.

The major differences in the two discipline models mostly have to do with how the students are treated. Curwin and Mendler focus mostly on the severely difficult-to-manage students. They say that these at-risk students' dignity is extremely important and fragile. Any derogatory remark made in front of other students can be severely damaging to their dignity. The teacher should also never praise or reprimand a student in front of other people. Another difference is the idea of responsibility and how it is given to the student. Curwin and Mendler believe that responsibility is even more important than obedience. This is because once the student accepts responsibility, then decision making in all situation is easier rather than only making decisions focusing on rules in the classroom. Another challenge to Canter's plan is that students should be treated differently depending on their circumstance and personality. Rather than having one set of rules and consequences, the teacher would evaluate each circumstance individually and decide a punishment or reward.

I believe that both of these discipline plans have some good ideas and some ideas that would not work with my style of teaching and my students. "Each teacher, class, subject and situation is different. No plan will fit every situation" (Allen 1996). Making sure all the general rules are understood by all the students is important. Expectations of all the students should be clear, as directed by Canter. Students that have major difficulty dealing with expectations should be dealt with differently than other students, as suggested by Curwin and Mendler (Charles 1999). Geoff Freymuth stated, "No one theory or way of using discipline will work for all students." This is why I try to keep the students' best interest in mind when dealing with individuals. I may find a way of dealing with a student that works for me and that student while dealing with other students in that same way would be not a wise decision. And another teacher may find a different way of dealing with a difficult student that is effective for that same student and a different teacher. As Vicky Romano stated, ". . . misbehavior for one teacher is not considered misbehavior for another teacher." By using several ideas and plans for discipline put together, each teacher can evaluate their situation and come up with a discipline plan that works for them. Having all the different types of discipline plans published is beneficial because teachers can gain ideas and try them to see if other parts of plans work better than others.

References:
Allen, Thomas H., Ph. D. (1996). Developing a Discipline Plan for You. Retrieved September 6, 2001 from the World Wide Web: http://www.humboldt.edu/~tha1/discip-options.html

Charles, C.M. (1998). Building Classroom Discipline. New York: Addison Wesley.

Freymuth, Geoff. (2001). Lesson 2 Question 1: Curwin and Mendler. Retrieved September 6, 2001 from the World Wide Web: http://courseinfo.cet.uiuc.edu/courses/1/EDPSY399OL_FA01/db/_27681_1/12q1edpsy399ol.htm

Romano, Vicky. (2001). Lesson 2 Question 1: Curwin and Mendler. Retrieved September 6, 2001 from the World Wide Web: http://courseinfo.cet.uiuc.edu/courses/1/EDPSY399OL_FA01/db/_277699_1/lesson2quest1.html

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The term punishment has a different meaning to all people, including theorists who try to sway the teachers to think as they do. Punishment to some theorists is the negative consequences that happen when a student does something wrong. Other theorists talk about punishment as physically doing something to the student, corporal punishment. Still others say that punishment is something the teacher does that has no bearing on what the student did wrong, but is used to make sure the student suffers and makes the teacher feel he/she is in charge (Charles, 1999). In my explanation of what I do in my own classroom, I will not be using punishment because I agree that punishment is something that does not have any logical follow through from the behavior shown and I do not use consequences to get back at the student. I believe that is not useful to the student because the student cannot learn how to correct the mistake or misbehavior without showing him/her what the next logical step is if he/she does not do something the first time.

Corporal punishment, physical punishment, is still legal in 23 of the United States (Mah, 2000). "Spanking -- or any other kind of physical punishment -- in classrooms should be outlawed in all 50 states, says the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP)" (Kelliher, 2000). This has no place in today's society. Ten years ago one of the states, Kansas, had a bill go to the Senate to stop corporal punishment in the state only to be turned down (Mah, 2000). This is punishment that should not be used. Corporal punishment is demeaning to the student and his/her logical decision making abilities would be interfered with by the fear of violence.

Rudolf Dreikurs speaks about the difference between aversive discipline and logical consequences. Aversive discipline, Dreikurs says, is set up by the teacher to let the students know who is in charge. The students have very little self-control and initiative to behave their best. Logical consequences are based on the steps that would logically follow to allow students to do what they did not do before. "Logical consequences must be explained, understood, and agreed to by students" (Charles 1996, 52). By having logical consequences, the students have order, and they can logically think what will be the consequences for their actions (Charles 1996). Logical consequences really help the student out more, and will prepare them for the future of decision making.

Most of the problems I have had with students are either about homework not being completed on time or behavior. "A vast majority of the behavior problems in the classroom are caused by the failure of students to follow procedures and routines" (Wong 1998). If the students know the procedures and practice them, and they know why they are done, they begin to feel in control of their behavior and know what is expected (Wong, 1998). For this reason, I have routines in place in my classroom that takes care of many misbehaviors, but there are always a few students who make the wrong choices. The misbehaviors of the students are actually very few. The most frequent problems are tardiness and talking in the classroom. Students have a leeway of two free tardies or not having the correct material in order to do class work, but the third tardy the student must serve a detention. I discuss this well in advance to the students so they can practice getting into the classroom on time with all their materials. This punishment has worked effectively for the entire sixth grade. If the students have a good "excuse" that was out of their control, I am willing to let it slide. This is a logical consequence because they are making up the time that they have lost in class by staying after school. If a student is talking in class, the logical consequence is to leave the room because they are disturbing others who are trying to learn.

As for completion of homework problem, the school I work for has a school policy in place for each of the grade levels. The policy states students may turn in late homework up to three days late, but the assignment will be docked twenty-five percent from the total points they earned. If this happens often, their parents are notified so some support can be given from home. After three days, the assignment is no longer accepted. This policy makes the students more responsible to turn in their homework on time.

With students that have a difficult time with the rules, I often warn them ahead of time, or give them signals to help them so they will make the correct decision, but sometimes it does not work When I give the student a detention or their other consequence for their poor choice of action, I make certain that the student understands that he/she has made the choice, and that is why the consequence is happening. Fritz Redl reinforced the idea that teachers should make certain that the student does not think the teacher is angry with him/her, but rather trying to help. The students should see the punishment as a consequence of the behavior that is unacceptable. If the teacher does this, the student will be upset at him/herself because they lost control of their actions (Charles, 1996).

My discipline has worked for my classroom. All teachers have to decide what will work for them. Hopefully teachers make the decision that logical consequences makes sense and is the right way for student to gain responsibility for their actions. I definitely agree with Kathy Schlappi statement, "It is important to me that a child understands that it is their behavior that is not acceptable, not them." The student's must always understand that the teachers care about them, so they will be able to make responsible decisions later on when involved in the same situation.

Resources:
Charles, C.M. (1998). Building Classroom Discipline. New York: Addison Wesley.

Farrell, Colin. (2000). Paddling Punishment in US Schools. Retrieved September 12, 2001 from the World Wide Web: www.corpun.com

Schlappi, Kathy. (2001). Lesson 3 Question 1: Punish Control. Retrieved September 13, 2001 from the World Wide Web: http://courseinfo.cet.uiuc.edu/courses/1/EDPSY399OL_FAO

Wong, Harry K. and Rosemary T. Wong (1999). The First Days of School. Mountain View: Harry K. Wong Publications, Inc.

Personal:
Millburn C.C. School, experiences from 1998 to present.

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Corporal punishment in schools in the United States has been around since the beginning of formal education, in the 1640's. In New England when formal schooling was in the beginning stages, citizens believed that it was necessary to break the will of all children so they know they are to be obedient to the following people in order of the most important to the least important: " Štheir mother, father, government, church, and God" (Spring, 1997). The use of corporal punishment helped the schools insure the students would be disciplined. Since then, 27 state legislatures and the District of Columbia have abolished corporal punishment in the school setting. Contradictorily, in 1977 the U.S. Supreme Court decided that paddling in schools is allowed (Holbrook, 2001).

The organizations that I found that approved corporal punishment in parental and educational situations were two different groups; one was a religious group that took the quotes directly from the Bible to reinforce their beliefs of physical punishment. Other groups that advocate this form of discipline are found in some, very few, school districts that have found success using corporal punishment (Robinson, 2001 and Holbrook, 2001). There were more organizations that were found on the Internet that were opposed to corporal punishment than advocate this kind of correction.

The Family Research Council (FRC) cannot say they are against corporal punishment because they are a Christian organization and by saying corporal punishment is wrong, the group would be implying that the quotes from the Bible that speak about the use of physical punishment are not valid. FRC does put great limits on what is acceptable even though they cannot say that it is not necessary in all cases. "They recommend that verbal corrections, time outs, and logical consequences be the disciplinary methods of choice"(Robinson, 2001). The council also relayed an age limit: Spanking should not be used until the child is 18 months old, should be less necessary after the child is six-years-old, and should be rarely used after ten-years of age. Also, the parent should never spank a child more than twice and they should always hug the child afterwards (Robinson, 2001).

There are a total of 23 states in the United States that approve corporal punishment. Paddling has decreased 58% from 1988 to 1998, according to the U.S. Department of Education. Even thought the number decreased, the number of students paddled in 1998 is still absurd, totaling 365,058. Two principles from two school districts, both in states that allow corporal punishment, had an article written about them that plainly stated that this was their preferred method of punishment after all other disciplines failed. One of these people was Principal Danny Logsdon. He was pictured smiling in a photo while holding a paddle. Mr. Logsdon stated, "I only use it when I think it will help" (Holbrook, 2001). He has 90% of the parent's approval to use a paddle with their children. In a school of 220 students, only six parents have refused to give permission to the principle to use the paddle. Another administrator, Linda Belcher, is another advocate of paddling. "When I was raised, paddling was the norm," Belcher said. "I don't remember all the violence that I see now with young people who have been raised with non-spanking" (Holbrook, 2001). A pediatrician in North Carolina, Dr. DuBose Ravenel, stated that as long as parents are involved, he is for paddling in the school setting.

Corporal punishment was involved in a bill that tried to pass at the Federal level this spring. President George W. Bush tried to pass a bill to protect administrators and teachers from lawsuits brought on by parents whose children where disciplined using corporal punishment in school. This was included in a "teacher protection" bill. According to two editorial articles, "Bush Wrong on Corporal Punishment" from the Chattanooga Times - Free Press on May 22, 2001, and "Spare the Rod--Washington Shouldn't Encourage Corporal Punishment" from the (Pittsburgh) Post-Gazetteon May 21, 2001, when the House of Representatives and Senate looked at the bill, they exempted this part of the bill (PTAVE, 2001). This is the same president, who contradictorily stated, "First, we must do everything in our power to ensure the safety of our children. When children and teenagers go to school afraid of being bullied, or beaten, or worse, it is the ultimate betrayal of adult responsibility. It communicates the victory of moral chaos... No parent in America -- no matter their income -- should be forced to send their child to a school where violence reigns. No child in America -- regardless of background -- should be forced to risk their lives in order to learn" (RNC, 2001).

Philadelphia's Temple University's school psychology school professor, Irwin Hyman, has written two books about corporal punishment. Hyman found that less affluent, rural, and conservative people are more likely to use corporal punishment. "It's mostly done to poor kids -- kids whose parents don't have power in the community," said Hyman (Holbrook, 2001).

The American Academy of Pediatrics does not advocate corporal punishment in most cases. They have deemed this treatment acceptable in the following situations: "Što protect students and staff from physical injury, to disarm a student, or to prevent property damage" (2000). The academy has stated that alternative methods of discipline have proved to be more effective. Also, corporal punishment may add to unfavorable affects on student's self image and school achievement (AAP, 2000).

Corporal punishment has adverse affects on children than what administrators, teachers and parents that use this form of "discipline" want. This type of physical violence increases aggression and depression among children. There are many organizations that are against corporal punishment for this reason, including: the national PTA, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Psychological Association and the National Child Abuse Coalition, which are two main teacher unions in the United States (PTAVE, 2001). Other organizations that side with these unions are the National Association of Elementary School Principals, the National Association of State Boards of Education, the American Medical Association and the American Psychological Association (Holbrook, 2001).

The Nospank. Organization is an organization on the Internet that hosts the following address: http://nospank.org This website is a letter to the President of the United States from the following 107 organizations opposed to the use of corporal punishment in schools: National Committee for Prevention of Child Abuse
American Academy of Pediatrics
Children's National Medical Center
American Association of Retired Persons
National Congress of Parents and Teachers Association
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
National Mental Health Association
American Psychological Association
The Menninger Foundation
The National Exchange Club Foundation for the Prevention of Child Abuse
Parents Anonymous, Inc.
Association for Childhood Education International
CHILDHELP USA
National Council on Crime and Delinquency
National Association of Counsel for Children
National Parent Aide Association, Inc.
American Association of Physicians for Human Rights
Parent Effectiveness Training
EPOCH - USA (End Physical Punishment of Children)
National Association of School Psychologists
National Council of Teachers of English
American School Counselor Association
National Committee for Rights of the Child
Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund, Inc.
Jefferson County (Alabama) Child Development Council, Inc.
California Association for Health, Physical Education,
Recreation and Dance
California Professional Society on the Abuse of Children
Greater Chicago Council for Prevention of Child Abuse
Coordinating Council for Children in Crisis, Inc. (A Connecticut organization)
Coalition for Children (A Connecticut organization)
Agenda for Children (An advocacy organization in Louisiana)
Massachusetts Committee for Children and Youth
Voices for Children in Nebraska
The Child Assault Prevention Project of Washoe County (A Nevada organization)
Child Abuse Prevention Committee of Greater Philadelphia
West Virginia Child Care Association
Northern Tier Youth Services of West Virginia
National Committee for Prevention of Child Abuse chapters in: Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Delaware, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Idaho, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Mississippi, Montana, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, Wisconsin, Wyoming
Mental Health Association chapters in: Illinois, Florida, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, New York, Ohio, Texas, West Virginia
Parents Anonymous chapters in: Alabama, Arizona, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Montana, Nevada, Vermont, Virginia, Wisconsin, Wyoming (PTAVE, 2001)

Two different studies were conducted from 1968 to1994 in the United States to see if corporal punishment attitudes change over the 26-year period. The two studies showed that corporal punishment did decrease; yet the demographics of who is still using the method of discipline conflicted, even though they were both national surveys. The 1988 General Social Survey found that corporal punishment was favored more in the West, Midwest, and South than in the Northeast. Also people were more likely to accept corporal punishment if they are black, low education rate, male or being older. The study conducted by Stark and McEvoy did not find any difference in the demographics. The studies showed that in 1968 adult approval of spanking was 94%. In 1994 the approval dropped to 68% (Mathur and Murray, 1996).

Corporal punishment is a harsh way of disciplining children. Physically punishing a child does not have a logical consequence to their behavior. These students are fearful of adults and become fearful adults themselves. Their ability to reason and problem solve is altered by the fear of the possibility of physical harm being done to them. The only situations I find appropriate to use this kind of discipline is what the American Academy of Pediatrics has deemed appropriate, which is "Što protect students and staff from physical injury, to disarm a student, or to prevent property damage" (2000). I do not advocate corporal punishment in most situations, and certainly not in an educational facility where the students are to be learning how to become loving and caring citizens along with learning academics, and are not harming or threatening to harm themselves or others.

References:
American Academy of Pediatrics. (2000). Corporal Punishment in Schools (RE9754). Retrieved September 16, 2001 from the World Wide Web: http://www.aap.org/policy/re9754.html

Holbrook, Tonia. (2001). Corporal Punishment: Schools Make Case for Paddling. Retrieved September 16, 2001 from the World Wide Web: http://www.corpun.com/uss00103.htm#7557

Mathur, Anita K. and Murray A. Straus. (1996). Social Change and Trends in Approval of Corporal Punishment by Parents From 1968 to 1994. Retrieved on September 16, 2001 on the World Wide Web: http://www.acfc.org/study/strauss1.htm

Parents and Teachers Against Violence in Education. (2001). Project Nospank. Retrieved September 16, 2001 from the World Wide Web: http://nospank.org

Republican National Committee. (2001). "Education Policy of George W. Bush, Part III: The True Goal of Education." Retrieved on September 16, 2001 from the World Wide Web: http://www.georgebush.com/Media/PDFs/edu_truegoalofeducation.pdf

Robinson, B.A. (2001). Corporal Punishment of Children: Spanking. Retrieved September 16, 2001 from the World Wide Web: http://www.religioustolerance.org/spanking.htm

Spring, Joel. (1997). The American School: 1642-1996. St. Louis: The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

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" Proper use of body language is one of the most effective discipline skills available to teachers" (Charles, 1998). Fredric Jones has developed a Positive Classroom Management plan that involves limit setting. Limit settings is using body language to show students that the teacher is in control and to make them abide by the rules so learning can take place in the classroom.

Limit settings has a series of steps in which the teacher stays calm and breaths normally while moving his/her body in order to sway the student to work on task that he/she is expected to do. Staying calm is showing the misbehaving student and the other students, that the teacher is in control and will remain in control of the classroom. Another message is also given at the same time, which is learning is important and the classroom is a learning environment. Richland, South Carolina's Superintendent Ronald Epps believes that there is a strong connection between instruction and discipline in the classroom. Superintendent Epps stated, "One of the first things you have to address in any environment, whether it's here of Los Angeles, Calif., is to ensure that there is an environment and culture in a school that is conductive to learning" (Jones, 2001). These messages are very important for all students to accept.

Fredric Jones was aware of the fact that about 50% of class time is lost because of misbehaving students or students that are off task (Allen, 2001). By the teacher using their body to stop behavior, the teaching and learning is not being interrupted that much to get some students back on task. Jones also suggests that teachers have incentive programs and help students that need help efficiently. By using these methods, teachers can gain back some of the time lost to students needing attention to get back on track to learning.

Jones introduced limit settings so teachers do not have to take a lot of time to get students attention on the correct focus. The rules of the classroom must be clear and specific so the students know what is expected from them. Also, there must be consequences set that the teacher is willing to abide to every time a student breaks the rules. By making eye contact with the student, or looking at a student with an expressionless face, the student usually ends up focusing attention on to the task at hand. Another body movement without discussion is gesturing to the student or getting close to the student without disrupting the flow of the lesson for the sake of the other students. It is essential that the teacher's classroom is set up to easily get to each student. By using the movement rather than words, verbal confrontations are avoided in many situations.

Incentive programs are also another way of teaching students to portray the correct behavior. A goal is set before the incentive is given. The reward is also decided upon and how long the time period is both for the goal and the reward must also be set. Then it is up to each individual student to achieve the set goal for the final reward. The students have something to work towards, and it motivates them to maintain the proper behavior. The goal must be realistic for the incentive plan to work effectively.

The other way to help students to learn to function on their own as learners is to help them out with questions for understanding efficiently. Jones believes that a trained teacher could provide help in "20 seconds or less for each student, with an optimal goal of about 10 seconds" (Charles, 1998). In order to do this effectivel there are three steps to follow. The first is to find something the student has done correctly to raise their self-esteem. Then, clearly tell the student how they can get started on their problem. The most important thing at this step is not to tutor them, let them think and work out the problem. The third step is to leave immediately. This way the students has to think by themselves in order to succeed and will not be dependant on the teacher. As Jones says, "Be positive, be brief, and be gone" (Charles, 1998).

When I first started teaching in a classroom, I had to find a way that I was comfortable in dealing with students that were off task. I naturally have a quiet disposition, so to call out at a child, or discipline a child verbally, was not right for me. I quickly learned that walking towards a child that was off task and to stand next to him or her was an effective way to call their attention to the fact that I knew they were not on task and that was not acceptable. I often find myself staring at students who are off task until they look up. They usually are embarrassed that they were "caught" accomplishing something else or "zoning out". I have found the method of staring blankly to work for students when they are not close to myself as well, for instance in assemblies where it is impossible to get close to the student, or to call out their name!

I have had an experience talking to a group of teachers about fire drills and how it is hard to keep the children quiet and in a straight line when we are waiting to go back into the building. This teacher, who is a very verbal person herself, proceeded to tell the other teachers how she noticed that most of my student were in line and quiet except for a couple, and I gave them "the look", as she called it, which happened to be the non-emotional look, and my students immediately fell into place and were quiet. The students knew the routine and what was expected of them. The quick look was enough to help them realize they where not doing what was expected of them, and did it! It really works for me, in most cases.

Resources:
Allen, T.H., 2001. "Developing a Discipline Plan for You." Retrieved November 23, 2001 from the World Wide Web: http://www.humboldt.edu/~tha1/canter.html

Charles, C.M. (1998). Building Classroom Discipline. New York: Addison Wesley.

Jones, Fredric H. (2000). Discipline-Instruction-Motivation. Retrieved November 23, 2001 from the World Wide Web: http://www.fredjones.com

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When students are writing notes and listening, whether it is to a lecture or instructions, the students' brains have a hard time catching everything. Auditory registers in the brain can only hold about five the seven pieces of information for about four seconds (Bruning, et. al, 1999. Smith, 2001. Cardoso, 1997). This is a very short memory, especially while a teacher is trying to give multi-step instructions to the students. If students are trying to write information down while the teacher is talking, they only have a four second window to catch what was being said. Visual registers can only hold about seven to nine pieces of information for about half a second (Bruning, et. al, 1999). So, if students are trying to write and listen at the same time, the number of chunks of information is severely limited. One of the acts, either listening or writing, will have to suffer because the students' brain's working memory cannot hold sixteen pieces of information (seven auditory chunks plus nine visual chunks).

New information that is given to the students is very difficult for the brain to register because of the short time the registers have to investigate how it should be connected to other information the student already knows. All information that is in our memory is associated to another piece of information that we have in memory (North, 2000). For example, when you think of an apple, you might think of all the things that are connected to the apple as well, such as, "APPLE: red, round, sweet, teacher, tree, fruit "(North, 2000). If a student does not associate a piece of information within the four seconds that it is held in working memory, the information is lost.

This association could also be related to reading comprehension. If the reader is not focused on what is being read, than the association is not working, so the reader will not remember what is being read and therefore cannot comprehend the message the writer is trying to convey. In my own experience, and experiences of observing and talking to my students, if something else is going on, such as a television, radio, or a conversation, I do not understand the written material very well. My, and my students', working memory is trying to process two different things, what I am reading visually and what I am hearing, which is auditory. The brain is trying to make associations for each piece of information, and the reading is getting in the way of the auditory information. Therefore, my comprehension is not very good at times like these. This would be associated with overloading the short-term memory.

The next possibility for forgetting information is "encoding/retrieval problems involving long term memory." Forgetting information has been studied for quite some time. Physiologically the body can forget information in long-term memory because of something the body is missing. The something that could be missing could be a variety of things. One such thing is the lack of food because some vitamins such as folic acid, B 12 and tiamin could be the cause. Another suggestion is the lack of water. When a person is dehydrated, people loose their ability to retrieve information from memory. Lack of sleep is also factor. The brain has time to reorganize and revise storied memories. Medication could affect memory as well as alcohol. All of the medications that could affect memory are drugs that relax muscles or the mind and muscles, and alcohol would fit in as a relaxing drug. Smoking stops oxygen from getting to the brain. Therefore, smoking is another influence on troubles recalling information as well as caffeine, which affect people so they do not sleep (Cardoso, 1997).

An example that demonstrates this point is a friend of my dad's, Willie, had a terrible time remembering things. They were out on a golf course, a course Dad and Willie frequent twice a week; at the time it became most apparent. Willie could not remember where his ball landed every time he hit it, and he had trouble remembering where the hole was located. This episode really concerned my dad, and he told Willie's family about the occurrence. Willie later that day went to the hospital. The doctor said that Willie was dehydrated, and put him on a diet of one glass of water before each other type of beverage was consumed and to hold back on the amount of alcohol consumed. This was a frightening experience for everyone involved, and luckily it was something that could be fixed with water!

Forgetting seems to be so common in every age. Fortunately, not all retrieval problems are big problems. Information overloading is something we all go through, so people just have to learn how to better deal with how to take information and let them find their way to long-term memory.

References:
Asher, Jules. (1997). fMRI Reveals Dynamics of Working Memory. Retrieved September 25, 2001 from the World Wide Web: http://www.nimh.nih.gov/events/prfmri.htm

Bruning, Roger H. et al. (1999). Cognitive Psychology and Instruction. New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, Inc.

Cardoso, Silvia Helena, PhD. (1997). Human Memory: What it is and How to Improve It. Retrieved October 2, 2001 from the World Wide Web: http://www.epub.org.br/cm/n01/memo/improve_i.htm

North, Kevin Jay. (2000). How Memory Works by Association: How to Improve Your Memory. Retrieved September 29, 2001 from the World Wide Web: http://marriage.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?site=http://www.premiumhealth.com/memory/htiym.htm

Smith, Edward E. (2001). Working Memory. Retrieved September 29, 2001 from the World Wide Web: http://cognet.mit.edu/MITECS/Entry/smithe

Personal:
(2001) Observations made as a sixth grade teacher at Millburn C.C. School District #24, Wadsworth, Illinois.

(2001) Reflections of an acquaintance's experience in Johnsburg, Illinois.

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Memory is an incredible puzzle for all researchers to study. The memory is made up of three levels: sensory, short-term and long-term memory. Bottlenecks in memory are some things that prohibit people to collect information about everything. The mind selects only seven chunks of information, plus or minus two, within a few seconds. All the rest of the information is lost.

Sensory memory is the first level of memory. Incoming stimuli acts as a buffer to see which information really has to go on to short-term memory and which information is released from memory. Sensory takes care of incoming stimuli. The senses memory consists of iconic memory for visual stimuli, echoic memory for aural stimuli and haptic memory for touch (GIT, 2001). From the sensory memory, the brain decides whether or not the information should proceed to short-term memory.

Short-term memory is also known as working memory because this is the holding space for information. The information is finding a place and a reason to stay, or it will be released. "Short term memory decays rapidly (200 ms.) and also has a limited capacity."(GIT, 2001). The short-term memory is only available for seven, plus or minus two, chunks of information for roughly a few seconds; this idea was published by George Miller's (1956) landmark paper "The Magic Number Seven, Plus or Minus Two." (Bruning, et. al, 1999; North, 2000; Smith, 2001). Here the brain decides what is going to be in long-term memory. This process can take anywhere from under a second to several minutes before losing information or storing in long-term memory (GIT, 2001).

Processes that happen in sensory and short-term memories and can break down to become bottlenecks for information processing are the following: attention, processing automatically and controlled and construction of meaning. Attention is a very sensitive skill. It is mental energy used to perceive, think and understand (Bruning, et. al, 1999). William James once wrote in 1890, "Every one knows what attention is. It is the taking possession by the mind, in clear and vivid form, of one out of what seem several simultaneously possible objects of trains of thought. Focalization, concentration, of consciousness are of its essence. It implies withdrawal from some things in order to deal effectively with others" (Smith, 2001). If a person does not pay attention to the information that is trying to find its way into the mind, the information will be lost. Processing of information is done both automatically and controllably. Automatic processing is when very little attention is required because our minds are automatically doing the process. (ex: driving a car, retrieving word meaning) (Bruning, et. al, 1999). Controlled processes require attention to the task. Higher-order tasks are controlled processes only when basic cognitive processes are automatic (Bruning, et. al, 1999). Controlled processes use up a lot of attention. The last process that can create a bottleneck for memory is construction of meaning to the information. If done correctly, the information goes into long-term memory and original info in short-term memory is no longer there so it can make room for new information (Bruning, et. al, 1999). In long-term memory the information is held in episodic (experiences) memory or semantic (knowing facts about the world) memory to be retrieved at any time.

There are ways to improve memory so the information can be categorized correctly and can find a reason to be filed into long-term memory. Some of those suggested ways are association, mental pictures, mental maps and pattern recognitions (Bruning, et. al, 1999; North, 2000). There are proven ways and you can actually train your mind to accept these ways with new information that you would like to keep in long-term memory. These ways and various other ways can help the deletion of some of the bottlenecks that are found while trying to remember information chunks. Another way of breaking the bottleneck was suggested by George Miller in 1956. "First, the span of absolute judgment and the span of immediate memory impose severe limitations on the amount of information that we are able to receive, process, and remember. By organizing the stimulus input simultaneously into several dimensions and successively into a sequence or chunks, we manage to break (or at least stretch) this informational bottleneck" (Miller, 1956).

Resources:
Bruning, Roger H. et al. (1999). Cognitive Psychology and Instruction. New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, Inc.

Georgia Institute of Technology. (2001). Human Memory. Retrieved October 21, 2001 from the World Wide Web: http://cognet.mit.edu/MITECS/Entry/smithe

Miller, George A. (1956). The Magical Number Seven, Plus or Minus Two: Some Limits on Our Capacity for Processing Information. Retrieved October 21, 2001 from the World Wide Web: http://www.well.com/user/smalin/miller.html

North, Kevin Jay. (2000). How Memory Works by Association: How to Improve Your Memory. Retrieved September 29, 2001 from the World Wide Web: http://marriage.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?site=http://www.premiumhealth.com/memory/htiym.htm

Smith, Edward E. (2001). Working Memory. Retrieved September 29, 2001 from the World Wide Web: http://cognet.mit.edu/MITECS/Entry/smithe

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Reading to learn is a very important skill for educated people to acquire. There seems to be three processes that people use to comprehend text. Only two of the tree processes were examined for this essay. Data-driven (bottom-up) processing refers to reading words built into sentences and then meaning is created for the words used during the sentence. Conceptually driven (top-down) processing refers to readers having prior knowledge of text. It is known that these two processes are related. "Clearly, there must be some connection between what appears on the printed page and the meaning constructed by the reader, otherwise there would be no reading" (Bruning, et al., 1999). To discover more about these two reading processes, I have found three sites to monitor my cognition and attempt to explain which process of comprehension I used through metacognition.

The first website I approached was "Learning to Read: Resource for Language Arts and Reading Research". The appearance of this site was clear and uncluttered. It had a white background with a relevant picture and a short paragraph explaining the reason the site was created. There were many links listed. The color scheme was backwards related to what I was used to seeing. The unread links were red and the read ones were blue. This was distracting because my eyes have been trained to look at blue links for new information. My eyes tended to fixate on words that were familiar to me. As I was scanning the list, my eyes fixated on words in which I had prior knowledge. These links led me to other pages to gain more knowledge about the subjects. The author's website did not help explain any unfamiliar words. The creator was writing to a focused group, which was educators, because the site is not user friendly without prior knowledge. My processing was conceptually driven because I already had background knowledge in all areas that I focused on while reading the text.

III. "Greek Mythology: A Look Back in Time" by ThinkQuest was the next site of interest that I visited. The appearance of this site was similar to the first site. It had a white background with one picture and a short informational paragraph in black text to explain what the site was about and to tell the reader to look at the links on the side that were in blue text. As I followed the links that drew my attention, I came to words and stories I had never heard. To go through some of the names of the Greek gods and goddesses in mythology, I used the bottom-up approach, data-driven processing. The phonic skills that I had were used throughout this time. Words that were pronounced in my mind incorrectly and did not fit the context of the sentence, I went over again to try again because I now have more knowledge than I did the first time I tried to read the word. Therefore, the second time around, I used more of a conceptually driven process. I also used conceptually driven processing. This was done by going on to read words that were understood to me because I already had previous knowledge of their meaning from reading other materials that I have read. My eyes tended to fixate on words that were highlighted in blue during the paragraph text. The author did this on purpose to have the reader concentrate on important words. These words did not have links, they were just colored differently to draw attention to them.

"Welcome to 'twistedgenes.org', an informative site on genetic engineering, gene therapy, DNA mapping, Genome Research, Human Genome, etcŠ " was the introduction on the third site. This sentence was not the top of the page, but it did draw my eyes to it because of the bold type. The appearance was slightly different than the other because it made use of color to attract the eyes of the reader. I choose this site because it was unique to the other two. I have very little knowledge about this topic, so I was interested to see how my approach would change. The openning page was user friendly, but it did not have a place to find out information, or a purpose of the site. The site did have a glossary and some other important information to understand genetics, but assumed that the reader already had some knowledge on the subject. While looking at different links I used both processing devices. I used data-driven processing when I did not know what the words were that were difficult to understand because I had little to no background knowledge. Conceptually driven processing was used when I knew the meaning of words in a sentence from previous readings. The two processing types worked together even in the same sentence to gain more knowledge on the subject.

I found the following quote from Bruning, et al. to be true; "Clearly, there must be some connection between what appears on the printed page and the meaning constructed by the reader, otherwise there would be no reading." Both of the processes seemed to work together when some of the information was foreign to me. My first reaction to conceptually driven processing was that it was used when readers where poor readers. As I was gathering information and looking at websites, I discovered that this processing was just a good tool to know and use for information that is unknown to the reader. I found it fascinating that errors while reading "are not necessarily a result of poor reading, but instead stem from the same processes as good reading" (Bruning, et al., 1999). The reader is just predicting what word will come next and later makes a decision whether the word is correct using prior knowledge of the word. If the child's pronunciation of the word does not fit in the context of the sentence, then the child typically rereads and corrects the error.

"Children in whole language classrooms typically show slightly greater gains on various reading tests and subtests, including subtests of phonics knowledge" (Weaver, 1996). It is apparent to me through research that both reading processes are used during whole language. I do not think that the debate on phonics and whole language relates to how children read web pages from a computer screen. Reading phonetically or using the whole language approach are reading styles that could really be used during any reading situation. I think there are ways to set up a web page that are easier to read than other sites, but the reading approach is up to each individual.

Resources:
Bruning, Roger H., et al. (1999). Cognitive Psychology and Instruction. New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, Inc.

Nemes, John. Learning To Read: Resources for Language Arts and Reading Research. Retrieved November 6, 2001 from the World Wide Web: http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Academy/4553/

Thinkquest Team. (1999). Greek Mythology: A Look Back in Time. Retrieved November 10, 2001 from the World Wide Web: http://library.thinkquest.org/18650/data/lighthome.html

(2000). Twisted Gene. Retrieved November 10, 2001 from the World Wide Web: http://twistedgenes.org

Weaver, Constance. (1996). Facts on Research on the Teaching of Phonics. Retrieved November 10, 2001 from the World Wide Web: http://toread.com/phonics.html

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 Poor readers seem to have trouble answering questions about the reading. The teacher asking a question about the passage read is a good way to see who comprehends the material and who needs help figuring out strategies to work thought the passage to get to the answers. When a student does not know an answer the teacher can assume one of two ideas: The student does not understand the text, or the student is not paying attention. This frustrates many teachers, but there is a better way to help students rather than saying, "Look at your textbook, the answer is right in front of you!" By saying this statement, the teacher is assuming that the text is easy to process for all students, the students have background knowledge of the subject that they are connecting their own experiences, and the newly discovered information is being integrated. The teacher is also indicating that the information processing and memory is working "well" for all students reading the material.

Comprehension problems are clearly indicated when student do not know the answer, if the teacher has ruled out the possibility that the student was not paying attention! Understanding and picking out the most important ideas in a passage is difficult. "Many readers, even if they can fluently 'call out' the words in a passage, have difficulty determining what is important and what is not" (Bruning, et al., 1999). The skill and strategies to do this effectively take time and practice.

Good and poor readers are different in their reading approach. The student that may have problems comprehending the text may have difficulty because of errors of comprehending the vocabulary, or the words that have been used. A good reader knows when they are not comprehending the text and will go back to fill in the words they did not know so the sentence will make sense. They many use the strategies of context clues or pronounce the word again to see if they know the meaning from the sound. Good readers also organize and integrate new information with knowledge they already had while reading. Poor readers nee help coming up with strategies to comprehend the information. They do not use strategies on their own. They may not even realize they did not comprehend the words correctly. Also, poor readers add new information rather than integrating the new knowledge from the passage. Connections are not being made, and they do not realize this fact so they cannot change.

Strategies to help poor readers are plentiful. The teacher must take time to teach the student these strategies and then help them use the strategies during times when the student doesn't realize they do not comprehend the information. The following strategies can be used: picking up on text signals to gather important information, use graphic organizers to fill out while reading, reciprocal teaching strategy, and active reading strategies. Learning to pick up on text signals, such as bold or italicized text, will help the student focus on important points in the passage. Preview sentences and recall sentences should be pointed out to students so they can later pick them out themselves for more help getting to the important information. "These results are important to teaching for three reasons: (1) Preview sentences help focus students' attention on important content, (2) information signaled by preview sentences is better recalled than signaled information, and (3) students tend to cluster the signaled content and the information in which the signal was embedded" (Bruning, et al., 1999). Written organizers help organize the readers thoughts on paper as well as in their brains.

The two formal reading strategies are important for the student to already have practiced before being used in a large group setting. Reciprocal teaching is a method of teaching students to pull out the main ideas from a passage. It is structured by the use of four strategies, which include summarizing the message being conveyed in the passage, generate questions while reading, clarifying the points being made and predicting what is coming next. Teacher and students trade places and practice strategies out loud. If a student is having difficulty, the teacher leads the student by asking questions. This would be preferred over telling the student that it is right in the reading, which does not help the student pick up cues as to what is important in the passage being read. Active reading is the second formal reading strategy that helps readers comprehend passages. Active reading include questioning the material, predicting what will happen next in the passage, connecting with the information to things that have happened in the student's life, evaluate the selection, and respond to what the author has written. These two strategies will help comprehend text and will help students understand passages.

When a student does not have the confidence or skills to answer a question by reading in a paragraph and pulling out the main ideas, getting upset at the student will only make it worse because the student will become self-conscious. This indicates reading comprehension problems, which need to be fixed with strategies that work for that student. The student will need to practice these reading strategies because his/her brain is not organizing the thoughts well enough or fast enough to answer questions. By taking this cue as a teaching moment, the student will be learning the skills to help the student become more successful next time. Other students having similar difficulty may also benefit from the teacher helping the student get to the answer by leading him or her to use strategies for better reading.

References:
Bruning, Roger H., et al. (1999). Cognitive Psychology and Instruction. New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, Inc.

Muskingum College. (1998). Metacognitive Behaviors of Good and Poor Readers. Retrieved November 11, 2001 on the World Wide Web: http://muskingum.edu/~cal/database/ReadingComp.htm

Nemes, John. Learning To Read: Resources for Language Arts and Reading Research. Retrieved November 6, 2001 from the World Wide Web: http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Academy/4553/

Thompson, Eileen. (1994). Literature. New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, Inc.

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Metacognition and Metamemory are similar to each other. Each word is about knowledge one has. Metacognition is the knowledge of your own thought processes. Metamemory is the knowledge of your own memories. Metawiting, therefore, is the knowledge you have of your own writing skills. All of these concepts are part of the learning process of becoming a mature and responsible student.

Metawriting is the goal for educators to lead student writers to accomplish. Much like metacognition, metawriting is undeveloped in young students. "In a variety of studies, children between kindergarten and sixth grade consistently show an inability to monitor their comprehension accurately and, just as importantly, to describe their own cognition (Bruning, et al., 1999). This information is vital knowledge for myself, a sixth grade language arts/.reading teacher. Sixth grade students have a difficult time monitoring their writing skills accurately because they have a difficult time realizing their own thoughts. Therefore, editing their own thoughts that are written is also difficult because they are inexperienced. I agree with Heidi L. Adreon's statement, "Very few students have the knowledge of how to successfully work through the writing process. Because my students are Š inexperienced writers, they are unable to view their pieces as a work in progress. For example, they always view their work as acceptable because they don't know how to critically evaluate their text (Bruning et al., 1999)." I find the same to be true with my students.

Researchers have studied writing and cognitive models to increase knowledge of metacognition and metamemory in hopes of helping students become more aware of their thought process and become better writers. "Researchers have applied cognitive principles to writing instruction with good effect: They have shown that such techniques as modeling writing strategies, encouraging students to plan and revise, giving students a schema for revision, and creating a supportive environment for writing can significantly improve student writing and attitudes about writing (Bruning, et al., 1999)." Linda Flower and John Hayes are one of the many research teams interested in this topic. They have a writing model that has influenced the research on writing. This writing model has three main parts to it: task environment, long-term memory and working memory.

The task environment is an important start to any writing assignment. The actual writing assignment is part of the task environment. The topic, audience and motivation for writing are handled in this area. These important facts must to clear to the student in the beginning. "Unclear assignments can produce poor or incomplete representations of writers' goals; likely outcomes for such assignments are low-quality writing or writing that is mismatched with its audience (Bruning et al., 1999)." Another part of the task environment is the external storage, or the facts that are written down. Writing or drawing messages helps the writer to organize thoughts and makes the writing process easier. This becomes the writer's resource.

Long-term memory is the knowledge the writer embrace in their memory prior to the newly created facts. Prior knowledge about the topic, and knowledge about how to write effectively are an important part of the writer's model. To be an effective writer, the writer must make connections between external storage and long-term memory. The younger the writer, the more challenging this is to the student.

Working memory is where the connections between external storage and long-term memory work together. Planning is one of the factors involved. Planning includes setting goals, generating ideas, and organizing the structure of the written assignment and ideas. Translating is next, which includes converting the ideas of a passage into their own thoughts, and generating their ideas into a written form. Reviewing is to make sure the message is up to standards with the goals for the writing assignment. Part of the reviewing process involves evaluating, judging the quality, and revising, changing the written message to meet the quality expectation of the assignment.

The terminology of the writing process shows up in a large percentage of classrooms today. Prewriting I have found benefits the students so much! The outlining, drawing a picture, or writing words at random helps the students to put their initial thoughts down in external storage, which later helps to organized their thoughts. Long-term memory is important as well. The more the students write, the more knowledge they have in order to write affectively. After researching the amount of time students spent on writing, Donald H. Grave stated, "Our data show that children need to write a minimum of 4 days a week to see any appreciable change in the quality of their writing. It takes that amount of writing to contribute to their personal development as learners. Working memory of students while writing is crucial. This is where students need the most practice. The marriage between long-term memory and the task environment is crucial to having good writing skills. Teachers can reinforce the process of becoming effective writers by not only modeling for them, but also having them organize their thoughts prior to writing, teaching them the skill of writing in their own words, and the all important review, evaluate and revise process. The working memory is the part where student put their brain to work to produce a piece of art!

My students use the writing process that is explained here. My students also go one step further in thinking about their writing, or the metawriting process. Each student picks one of their own written pieces that has been worked on sometime during the semester. Look at a similar example of a metacognitive writing experience written by Steve Pawluk:

My Metacognition

Student's Name:

Date:

This sample of my work shows my ability to (statement of the objective)

The steps that I took to produce this work were:

I think that this piece illustrates my ability to do the following things especially well:

If I had more time to work on this project, I would have. . .

I probably could use a little more practice or help in the following areas: (2001).

By using this writing process after the students have written a paper, the students can think about their writing in an external way. This may help the students develop their metawriting skills and become better at expressing their thoughts on paper, which is the entire goal of metawriting.

Resources:
Bruning, Roger H., et al. (1999). Cognitive Psychology and Instruction. New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, Inc.

Grave, Donald H. (1985). All Children Can Write. Retrieved on November 11, 2001 from the World Wide Web: http://www.Idonline.org/Id_indepth/writing/graves_process.html

Adreon, Heidi L. (2001). Blackboard: Discussion Board: Lesson 9, Question1: Meta. Retrieved on November 12, 2001 on the World Wide Web: http://courseinfo.cet.uiuc.edu:80/courses/1/EDPSY399OL_FA01/db/_31944_1/edpsy399ol_meta_19q1.html

Pawluk, Steve. (2001). Student Metacognition. Retrieved on November 13, 2001 on the World Wide Web: http://homepages.wwc.edu/staff/pawlst/metacog.htm


Personal:
Millburn C.C. School, experiences from 1998 to present.

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Writing conferences are a wonderful way for teachers and students to discuss the progress of the writing process. Compared to the teacher writing on the rough draft and the student reading the comments by him/herself, conferencing is a better way to improve writing skills. During the conference, the student and teacher discuss ways of improving writing. Ms. Dawn Harris Martine has portrayed in the video, "The Writing Conference", how she discusses writing skills with a student who struggles in writing.

Conferencing with students on writing can be done in several different ways. Sharon Kingen has written about four styles of conferences for teachers and writers. The four ways include idea generation, reader response, technical expertise, and evaluation. Idea generation conferences are strictly when writers suffer from writer's block and cannot think of ideas for writing. The teacher proceeds to ask the student a series of questions to help the writer think of an idea. Reader response conference can be the most difficult for a teacher because the writer has not yet completed the writing piece, but the writer asks for support for one reason or another. The teacher has to think quickly on his/her feet and has to appear genuine so the student does not think that the teacher is just picking apart the paper. The paper will not be complete yet, so no editing has been done to the written piece. Technical expertise conferences are accomplished after the writer has completed the piece and have had time to edit the writing. The teacher then has to figure out what the student does not know that would help the student to write more effectively. Evaluation conferences are the final method of conferencing. This conference is frequently mostly teacher centered and has little student input into the response of the writing. The teacher explains the problems in the writing and tells the student how to fix it. The student does not reflect on the piece and, therefore, is not a part of the process other than sitting at the same location of the teacher.

Ms. Dawn Harris Martine's conference with the second grade student is considered an evaluation conference. Ms. Harris Martine heard the boy read his story and then summarized the story to see if that is the message that the boy wanted to get across. The teacher continued to say how it was okay that the boy took ideas from a popular story and made it into his own story. Ms. Dawn Harris Martine did not ask the student for his input at all, other than answering yes/no questions about the message of the written story. Although some of the conference in the video was appropriate, a different approach would have been more beneficial to the student.

Reading the story aloud to the teacher was valuable to the second grade writer. This shows the writer that writing for an audience can be satisfying and an overall positive experience. Obviously, the writer is proud of his work. This can be seen from the way in which he read the story aloud. The boy was enthusiastic and willing to share the entire story without hesitation. Reading aloud is a helpful tool so the writer knows that an audience will be listening to the story and is likely to write well in future writing pieces.

The next step of the conference could have been improved. Evaluation conferences have little involvement for the writer. After researching conferences, Sharon Kingen stated that because of a lack of involvement from the student, "Šthe writer probably has little interest in or commitment to the paper. It is unlikely that the writer will learn from further work on the text. We have all seen the results of these non-efforts: errors repeated, new errors, nothing altered except exactly what was pointed out, and generally haphazard and lackluster papers"(2001). For a more effective approach to conferences, Ms. Dawn Harris Martine should have asked the writer questions so the student could evaluate himself rather than having a one-sided conversation where the teacher did the majority of the talking. "As much as possible, the teacher should use questions which lead students to draw insightful conclusions about their own writing." (Kingen, 2001). The second grade writer could have answered questions about how he thinks the writing could improve so he starts to think about his own writing skills.

In the book Cognitive Psychology and Instruction, the third step in the revision strategies is to teach writing strategies directly so the writer will increase the quality of writing. "Graham and Harris (1993, 1996), for instance, have developed a multistep approach to teaching strategies that results not only in students' increased use of given strategies but also in students' understanding how and when to apply them" (Bruning, et al., 1999). I realize that the student is in second grade, so the boy would not have much experience in using metawriting strategies, but the teacher could lead the writer in evaluating his own writing, and she could have made it easier for him to learn about his writing skills and how to improve. This will be a slow process to learn well. "In a variety of studies, children between kindergarten and sixth grade consistently show an inability to monitor their comprehension accurately and, just as importantly, to describe their own cognition" (Bruning, et al., 1999). Keeping this fact in mind, the following quote from Conferences between Teachers and Writers makes perfect sense. "In considering evaluation, it is important to remember that growth and improvement in composing is slow and erratic" (Kingen, 2001). The second grade student's mind would be starting to make connections between what is being learned and processing it in written form, if he had the chance.

Effective conferences should be a series of open-ended questions for the student so they can learn to evaluate themselves. Here is a sample of questions published in 1998 by Sharon Kingen that could be used in order to lead the students in conversations about their writing:

1.What do you think of what you wrote?
2.What do you like best about the paper?
3.Is there anything about the paper that bothers you? Why?
4.Before I read the paper, can you tell me what you were trying to do in it (i.e., what was your purpose)?
5.Is this still a rough draft or is it a finished piece? How do you know?
6.Would you like a general response or do you want some specific help with something?
7.Why do you want me to read your paper at this particular time?
8.Do you really like this paper? Why or why not?
9.Do you plan to work more on this paper? If so, what do you think you will do? Why?
10.If I find something that bothers me or that I know is wrong, do you want me to mark it or should I just read the whole thing and tell you what I think?

Conferences for writing are a worthwhile learning experience for students of all ages. Ms. Dawn Harris Martine did do some important confidence building during the conference by letting the student have and audience when reading the story and by pointing out some good points in the story. The conference could have been made more effective by leading the student through questions to help the student evaluate his own writing skills in order to develop his own metawriting ability.

Resources:
Bruning, Roger H., et al. (1999). Cognitive Psychology and Instruction. New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, Inc.

Kingen, Sharon. Conferences between Teachers and Writers. 2001. Retrieved on November 18, 2001 on the World Wide Web: http://www.writeenvironment.com/OnTeachingWriting.html

"Writing Conference" Retrieved from the World Wide Web on November 1, 2001. http://courseinfo.cet.uiuc.edu

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Generating a story together can prove to be a positive experience for all levels of students. Ms. Dawn Harris Martine seems to keep her second grade student's attention when she involves the class while she is modeling the writing process by generating a story. While writing the story, it is difficult to allow all students a chance to integrate their ideas, but Ms. Dawn Harris Martine has done just that in the video. She has coached them through the process and has taken all of the ideas to create a fun and interesting story. In the book Cognitive Psychology and Instruction, it stated, "According to Schon, students cannot be taught what they need to know, but they can be coached toward self-understanding" (Bruning, et al., 1999). Indeed, Ms. Dawn Harris Martine has done just that in the video "The Story Generation".

Using the Flower and Hayes writing model, Ms. Dawn Harris Martine goes through most of the steps of writing with the help of her second grade class. At the start of the session, she describes the writing assignment. A character, a place, and a beginning are already included in the story. It seems that the class is continuing on with the plot line on this day. While the students are generating ideas, external storage is used so all students can see what they should be thinking in their working memory, even though they are not aware that the working memory is being exercised. The teacher transforms the ideas of the story on the paper as the students are generating the ideas.

The students are using their long-term memory while they are helping Ms. Dawn Harris Martine create the story. The situation in the story would be quite familiar to most of them because it is a pretty common event (getting to bed too late and having bad dreams). "In modeled writing you demonstrate the writing of a text. During shared writing, you and your students work together first to discuss and then to compose a common text related to an experience they have had or something that they are studying" (Fountas, and Pinnell, 2001). It is important that the children can draw on knowledge that they already have in long-term memory. "No matter how well developed a writer's composing abilities are, the ultimate quality of writing produced depends on the writer's ability to apply both content and discourse knowledge of a particular writing task" (Bruning, et al., 1999). When the students already know the topic, they would be more capable of producing a well-written story.

The last step of the Flower and Hayes writing model was not completely done during the video, but the teacher did do some of it, which is important for second grade students. Having the entire class reading the story they created aloud was accomplishing the goal of reviewing the piece written. The video did not show editing, revising, or evaluating of the story, but for second grade, rereading the story as a review is a good introduction to this step in the writing model.

The writing model is helpful for students to learn how to write so they are transforming their knowledge and not just telling what they know. "...(W)riting clearly is closely linked with higher-level cognitive processes‹elaboration of ideas, problem solving, and reflective thought‹and can become a tool for learning in any subject area" (Bruning, et al., 1999). By following the writing process, the students must think about their writing before they write. By prewriting, the students have a better chance to have an organized and well thought out written story. This knowledge transformation process will help the students in all subject areas.

Modeling the writing process is important. Ms. Dawn Harris Martine accepted all ideas positively and therefore kept everyone's interests alive. She proved through modeling with the class involved, that writing could be fun and exciting, and even entertaining. The students also learned what work and thought goes into the writing process. The story generation in this second grade class was a success.

Resources:
Bruning, Roger H., et al. (1999). Cognitive Psychology and Instruction. New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, Inc.

Fountas, Irene C., and Gay Su Pinnell. (2001). Guided Readers and Writers. New Hampshire: Heinemann.

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Classroom meetings are a large portion of William Glasser's classroom management focus. Classroom meetings are an open forum for students to talk to their teachers. This meeting allows the students to have ownership in the classroom decisions. The topics can and do vary from what is being taught in class to finding solutions to problems that may occur (Charles, 1999). This allows students to have input into the class and have a sense of ownership so they will feel more responsible and, therefore, care about the class more than if the teacher made all of the decision and did not allow students to have input. Glasser has stated that he believes students choose how they are going to act and that they should be encouraged to make wise decisions. Who is going to encourage these young minds to make the wise decisions? Yes, the classroom teacher. One way to encourage students to make wise decisions is letting them have a forum for expressing thoughts and discussing those decisions, problems, and help plan events to give them practice for making other decisions in their life. Class meetings are the forum the students need. This event makes students feel more involved and the teacher can show their concern for the student's feelings. The class can run more smoothly if the students feel that their thoughts and feelings really do matter to the classroom teacher.

Jane Nelsen, Lynn Lott and H. Stephan Glenn have developed a classroom discipline plan that involves class meetings as well. This plan was published in a book titled Positive Discipline in the Classroom. Class meetings were affective not only in school, but in all areas of the students' lives. This meeting helped students achieve the skills of "social skills such as listening, taking turns, hearing different points of view, negotiating, communicating, helping one another, and taking responsibility for their own behavior" (Charles, 1999). The authors also believe that this forum can help students academically as well because the students must use "language skills, attentiveness, critical thinking, decision making, and problem solving" (Charles, 1999). The classroom meeting also communicates clearly shows the students that the teacher cares and can also use help in his/her life as well. Respect is nurtured in this type of environment.

Alfie Kohn also considers class meetings very important and valuable. This time should be spent making decisions, sharing thoughts, planning class activities, and reflecting about what progress could have been better or what progress was good. Holding class meetings is a must in Kohn's standards. Every teacher should make time for class meetings whether they have a set time in their schedule, or if class time has to be used. He feels that class meetings can bring "social and ethical benefits, foster intellectual development, motivate students to become more effective learners, and greatly cut down on the need to deal with discipline problems" (Charles, 1999). This forum enables the students to become part of the decision making process, and it give the students the ability to communicate ideas with one another.

In my own classroom, I have my class involved in some decision-making. When assigning projects I ask them what is a fair time allowed for this project. The class discusses the other projects or tests coming up in all their classes and then makes a decision based on what other activities are going on in their lives. I do not, however, have a set time for a meeting and run it as a discussion about a wide variety of topics like all the three discipline experts have suggested. I really like the idea of having the class and myself sit around in a circle and discuss issues that they and I find important. I can see how this would develop trust in each other and they can always use practice in speaking effectively and clearly, and respecting another person's ideas. I find that I could benefit from class meetings. My students love to discuss issues and help each other. The students have also thanked me whenever I leave planning decisions for projects and tests up to them. They find that they can communicate with me because I am open to changing schedule of workload around to help them out. Class meetings are going to be used in my classroom!

Resources:
Allen, Tom. (1998). Optional Elements of Discipline Plan. Retrieved October 11, 2001 from the World Wide Web: http://www.humboldt.edu/~tha1/index/html

Anderson, Thomas. Power Point Presentation. Retrieved October 11, 2001 from the World Wide Web: http://courseinfo.cet.uiuc.edu:80/bin/common/course.pl?course_id=_1519_1&frame=top&bbatt=Y&bbatt=Y&

Anderson, Thomas. Some Impressions of Glasser's Work. Retrieved October 11, 2001 from the World Wide Web: http://courseinfo.cet.uiuc.edu:80/bin/common/course.pl?course_id=_1519_1&frame=top&bbatt=Y&bbatt=Y&

Charles, C.M. (1998). Building Classroom Discipline. New York: Addison Wesley.

Personal:
Millburn C.C. School, experiences from 1998 to present.

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Student based management for a classroom is an idealistic way of managing any classroom. Glasser has developed a management plan to involve the students in as many decisions as possible by having class meetings. Would this work in all situations, including inner city schools? It would be extremely challenging. There are some parts of Glasser's plan that would seem to be more challenging for a stereotypical inner city classroom. Anne Catey stated her experience teaching in a Chicago school with at least seven different gangs within one middle school was difficult. "The thought of conducting classroom meetings with Vice Lords, Latin Kings and Insane Deuces (just to name a few), sitting in a circle, staring daggers at each other is incomprehensible" (Catey, 2001). Unfortunately, this is the reality of real inner city classrooms and Glasser's model would be next to impossible to fully incorporate in a classroom because of the outside relationship among the students.

One challenge in an inner city school incorporating Glasser's management plan would involve setting the discipline plan. Glasser proposes that the teacher should have the students help decide what "class rules they believe will help them get their work done and truly help them learn" (Charles, 1999). Glasser is taking for granted that the students want to learn and do their best. He is also assuming that the students will agree on the rules and consequences of breaking the rules. "Include students' views on the formulation of a few, inclusive classroom rules and associated consequences. The consequences should not be punitive or coercive, but rather gives opportunity for the offender to remedy the problem" (Anderson, 2001). While it is important to have student input and present to the students that there is a remedy to all problems, this may seem more difficult when students are possibly in opposition to each other socially and when tension between students are high, as in a stereotypical inner city school.

Another dilemma that is possible to occur is the possibility of each classroom teacher having different set of rules and punishments, assuming the students agree and help create the guidelines and consequences of behavior. In a middle school or secondary school situation, students have the possibility of having seven or eight different teachers within a school day. That would be seven or eight different rules and consequences that each student must remember and follow. While this way could be effective, the plan may also cause confusion and inequality within the school. If the entire school district would change over to the Glasser technique entirely, the school would not have a standard discipline action for some misbehavior. This would create inequality because some students may have chosen a more harsh consequence than other classrooms. Therefore, if a student did a misbehaving act in one classroom, the act may be more tolerated than a student doing the same act in a different classroom. This could be okay, but on the other hand, this could cause problems for administration and teachers in the long run. The students would not have set standardized rules for misconduct.

Curriculum and quality of work is also a concern in the Glasser technique. "The old curriculum should be revised so that is consists only having learning that students find enjoyable and usefulŠ" is understandable (Charles, 1999). Teachers should make learning as enjoyable for the class as possible to create an eagerness to learn and to show the students that learning can be fun. If students enjoy the learning experience, they are more likely to want to continue learning. The part that is troubling is the remainder of the quote, which reads, "(T)he rest should be discarded as 'nonsense' (Charles, 1999). What students may find to be not enjoyable now is not necessarily something that should be disregarded. Teachers have a responsibility to teach students necessary lessons that the students may find less than intriguing at the moment, but the knowledge will help set a foundation for later lessons.

Glasser has researched student involvement in classrooms well. He has also produced many fine ideas into classroom management procedures. Getting students involved in any way in the classroom is a great idea so they feel the classroom is safe and they are each respected. The difficulty comes into play when the students have very different points or view and cannot integrate their ideas together. Also, the school unity in some discipline must be considered so the same action, when the action is rebellious, has a consistent consequence.

References:
Anderson, Tom. (2001). Some Impressions of Glasser's Work. Retrieved on December 9, 2001 from the World Wide Web: http://courseinfo.cet.uiuc.edu:80/bin/com...T&render_type=DEFAULT&content_id=_45231_1

Catey, Anne. (2001). EdPsych 399 OL - Fall 2001, Lesson 13 Question 2. Retrieved December 9, 2001 from the World Wide Web: http://courseinfo.cet.uiuc.edu:80/courses/1/EDPSY399OL_FA01/db/_38660_1/cityschool.html

Charles, C.M. (1998). Building Classroom Discipline. New York: Addison Wesley.

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All stories have conflicts in their plot to make a story more entertaining. The problem is solved in some way each time by the resolution of the story. The book Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt is a novel that is a book my sixth graders read for reading class. The quick synopsis of the story begins with Winnie Foster, from a well-to-do family and who is very over protected, sneaks out to the woods one-day and is taken by the Tuck family. The Tucks have a secret that they share with Winnie while she is at their house; The Tuck family drank magic water, which prevents them from changing ages and dying. Winnie is in conflict with herself because she is trying to understand if she should drink the water and never die or be a true member of society and have death at the end of her life. An unnamed stranger knows more than he should about the water and bribes the Foster family to exchange knowledge of Winnie's whereabouts for their woods that they own so the stranger can sell the magical water and become rich. When the stranger and a constable go to the Tuck's, the family is more protective of the water because of the stranger's intentions and ends up killing the stranger while the constable appears. Now Mrs. Tuck is in jail and will be put to death, or at least the authorities will do their best to kill her. Now the Tucks and Winnie have to get Mae, Mrs. Tuck, out of jail because they do not want anyone else to know that they cannot die so other people will not make the mistake of drinking the magical water.

This story has many different conflicts through the use of many different characters. When the story of Tuck Everlasting begins, Winnie Foster is in perceived incompatibility conflict with her mother and grandmother. Winnie's mother and grandmother keep a very close eye on her and will not even let her sit in the grass. Winnie does not think she needs to be watched that closely and therefore is in conflict with her family. At this point in the story, Winnie owns the problem because she is the only one that is being affected by the problem. She is having problems with herself too, because she does not think she should put up with the way she is being treated, and therefore has an intra-personal conflict (Anderson, 1999). Winnie's coping mechanism was to submit to the conflict, or give in to what her family wanted even though she does not agree with the solution. Winnie's family thinks that Winnie's behavior is acceptable because she is not causing them any problems (Charles, 1999). But soon after the story begins, that changes.

After Winnie decided to go to the woods alone, without telling anyone, the Tuck family takes her away. Now the Foster family owns some of the problem because Winnie has disobeyed them, and now they have to find her. She has transferred the problem from herself to her family because she is doing what she wants, and that is not what the family wants. Winnie is no longer "submitting" to the expectations, but has "taken flight", "broken off", or escaped the situation (Charles, 1999; Anderson, 1999). But now a different conflict occurs.

The Tuck family has a secret that they perceive as dangerous if anyone finds out. Winnie saw one of the sons in the family drink from a fountain in the woods, but when Winnie asked to drink, she was forbidden a drink. Rather than dealing with the problem at the original location, the Tuck family decided to take Winnie from the situation and bring her home so they could explain themselves and the secret without having the water tempting Winnie. This is a "taking flight" or "breaking off" coping mechanism as well (Charles, 1999; Anderson, 1999).

Back at the Tuck's house, the family agrees that Winnie should not drink the water, but Winnie is not so sure. This becomes an intra-group conflict because the group, which is the Tuck family and Winnie, are not agreeing on certain goals they all think are important. This problem was solved when the leader of the group, in this case, Mr. Tuck, and Winnie decided to go out fishing on a quiet pond and talk about the danger of the rest of society knowing of the magical powers of the water in the woods. The first was negotiating because the two in conflict faced each other in a neutral context where they could talk about the conflict freely (Anderson, 1999). This resolution worked in this situation. Winnie was able to express her thoughts, and Mr. Tuck was able to explain to her the dangers of society knowing the secret they held. Going to the pond to talk was helpful because Winnie did not feel intimidated in the Tuck house with four members of the family telling her what to think. This way, in negotiating, Winnie was able to think for herself and understand the problem at hand. Negotiating seemed to be the best way to resolve this conflict.

The stranger finds out the secret about the water and also knows the Tucks kidnapped Winnie in the woods. The stranger leads the town constable to the Tuck house. The stranger is in conflict with the Tucks and Winnie when he arrives at the Tuck house because he tells them the plan of selling the water to everyone he can to make a profit from the magical water. Mrs. Tuck, Mae, confronts the stranger with the use of the "fighting" coping mechanism (Charles, 1999). This coping strategy could also be considered "striking back" (Anderson, 1999). Mae knew the seriousness of the stranger's intentions and hit him with the end of her gun. Mae killed the stranger because she could not cope with "owning" the problem. Mae reacted using her primary feelings, which happened to be anger. Mae had a difficult time reacting to the stranger's opinion. She felt the stranger was putting up a communication roadblock by telling them what he intends to do with the magical water. The stranger had not intended on talking about the plan, and he was expressing a win-lose conflict resolution in which he was the winner and the Tuck's were the losers (Charles, 1999). Mae had a difficult time with the conflict and therefore struck back at the stranger, literally, and killed him.

Of course the constable was there and he became the mediator and demanded that the conflict resolution involve litigating, or appeal to laws in the village (Anderson, 1999). Mae was put into jail, but soon escaped with the help of her family and Winnie. When Mae escaped from jail she was taking fright and running away from the true conflict, which was having the people in the village know she could not die. So, yet again, the Tuck family, and now Winnie, own the problem that is tearing the Tuck family apart. The problem of the magical water is the only people troubled by the situation.

Winnie is accepted back into her family. The conflict between her and her family is resolved when Winnie's parents and Grandmother "give in" to the conflict and start treating Winnie as a child who can make some decisions on her own (Anderson, 1999).

This story is a neat story for sixth grade students. There are so many moral issues to discuss. The conflicts in the story are always changing and seem to have a different way of solving each problem. This story has been fun to analyze using the different techniques of problem solving.

References:
Anderson, Thomas. (1999). A Treatise On Conflict In The Classroom. Retrieved October 1, 2001 from the World Wide Web: http://courseinfo.cet.uiuc.edu/bin/common/course.pl?course_id=_1519_1&frame=top&bbatt=Y&

Charles, C.M. (1998). Building Classroom Discipline. New York: Addison Wesley.

Thompson, Eileen et. al., (1994). Literature. New Jersey: Prentice Hall.

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Are good readers more proficient in writing than students who struggle with reading? While researching material for Forum 8 - Lesson 8: Some Psychological Aspects of Reading and Forum 9 - Lesson 9: Some Psychological Aspects of Writing, this question came to mind. Through analyzing my own students, this theory would be correct. Students who are capable of reading well can analyze text; therefore, they can use this same ability in analyzing their own writing. Students can find a variety of skills in the written words while reading and apply the newly found skills in their own writing. By using written text to observe a skill of writing, students are making use of modeling. Many great educators reinforce that modeling is the best way to teach children. "Modeling is a key ingredient of instruction" (Harvey, 1998). Reading books of authors are a perfect fit for a model of how to write. As stated by Don Murray, "Readers don't have to be writers, but writers have to be readers" (Harvey, 1998).

Children can read about something, whether it is knowledge about a subject, word choice, or sentence/paragraph structure, and apply it to their own writing. Applying knowledge gained to written work is a higher order thinking skill in the Bloom's Taxonomy of Cognitive Domain. Knowledge, comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis, and evaluation are the steps in the hierarchy of the classification of active learning (Huitt, 2000). Reading to find skills and applying the skill to writing includes several higher order thinking skills. First the student must read the text to analyze what part of the writing is worth using as a model (analysis). After the student concludes what important information is in the reading of the content, then the student integrates the concepts of the writing that the student analyzed into their own writing (synthesis). The student combines the newly learned skill from the reading and the student's prior knowledge to develop writing skills. By using the analysis and synthesis process, students would learn how to use higher order thinking skills and improve their writing skills.

In an observation written about by a researcher, Donald H. Graves, in All Children Can Write demonstrates that students who read really use their knowledge to write. Billy was a student that wrote in class about gardening. "(W)hen he read the published books of other children in his room, he began to realize that his book on gardening was read by others when he wasn't present" (Graves, 1985). Through the message of this passage, Billy's classmates used his writing about gardening as a model to write their own stories. The students gained knowledge about the subject of gardening and applied it to their own written work. "Teachers can encourage kids to watch and learn from one another. Students are frequently their own best models" (Harvey, 1998). Billy validated this thought through his use of informing other students about his subject through his written work.

"Extensive exposure to print and reading helps children internalize not only the spellings of particular words, but spelling patterns. Just as children learn the patterns of the spoken language from hearing it, children learn patterns of the written language from reading and rereading favorite texts" (Weaver, 1996). It is important to read often for students of all ages. "At least in grades 3-6, it is not clear that spelling instruction has much of an effect beyond what is learned through reading alone, if children are reading extensively (Weaver, 1996). "Good readers know the meaning of many words...the wonderful thing about reading is that we learn more about the meaning of words as we encounter them repeatedly in continuous text" (Fountas and Pinnell, 2001). Reading enriches vocabulary and spelling abilities.

Visual registers in memory can only hold about seven to nine pieces of information for about half a second (Bruning, et. al, 1999). Therefore, the more reading that is done, the more information can complete the transition into memory. As stated in the response to Forum 5 ­ Lesson 5: Forgetting, "All information that is in our memory is associated to another piece of information that we have in memory (North, 2000). For example, when you think of an apple, you might think of all the things that are connected to the apple as well, such as, "APPLE: red, round, sweet, teacher, tree, fruit "(North, 2000). If a student does not associate a piece of information within the four seconds that it is held in working memory, the information is lost" (Kastor, 2001). To combat the information processing lack of time, teachers need to "(p)rovide opportunities for students to elaborate on new information." Student must "(c)onnect new information to something already known." They should also "(l)ook for similarities and differences among concepts" to relay into long-term memory (Huitt, 2000). Once the knowledge is included in long-term memory, the student can now use this knowledge to improve writing skills.

Reading "places demands on working memory and requires that children draw on their long-term memory to understand what they are reading" (Bruning, et al, 1999). The information that is read must be processed and must find a connection to the already obtained knowledge of the long-term memory. "(R)eaders read to find answers to specific questions. They also read to increase a body of information" (Harvey, 1998). If the reader is having trouble comprehending written text, the student will not find connections as fast. Therefore, the student would have less knowledge in long-term memory than a student with better comprehension skills that is able to make connections well.

Writing is the opposite direction of information flow, yet uses somewhat of the same process. The writer must be able to take what they have learned from reading out of the long-term memory and bring it to the working memory in order to plan, organize, set goals and generate written work. The skill of writing is higher level of thinking and performance than reading because the student must write out the information being held in long-term memory and make sense of the knowledge. "Writing is a medium with which people communicate with themselves and with others at other places and times. When I write, I write to learn what I know because I don't know fully what I mean until I order the words on paper. Then I see ... and know. Writers' first attempts to make sense are crude, rough approximations of what they mean. Writing makes sense of things for oneself, then for others" (Graves, 1985). Writing ensures that the student has read, comprehended, and is able to demonstrate the knowledge through writing.

"The writers we read are our best writing teachers. Teachers can demonstrate how they read as writers, notice good writing, and share strong nonfiction writing models, encouraging kids to do the same" (Harvey, 1998). Modeling this style of learning from writers, student can pick up useful skills in order to "evaluate books and know the characteristics that define high-quality books" (Blachowicz, 2001). When students use this high level thinking skill, they are demonstrating good reading skills and then applying the knowledge to their own writing, which means that proficient readers have the skills to become well written students. Students that have difficulty reading would have difficulty evaluating books, therefore would have difficulty increasing writing skills in this way. Conversely, any reading would increase the writing skills. The two skills, reading and writing, do depend on each other because they are so closely linked. "Generally, good readers are better writers than poor readers (Bruning, et al., 1999).

References:
Blachowicz, Camille and Donna Ogle. (2001). Reading Comprehension. New York: The Guilford Press.

Bruning, Roger H., et al. (1999). Cognitive Psychology and Instruction. New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, Inc.

Fountas, Irene C. and Gay Su Pinnell. (2001). Guiding Readers and Writers: Grades 3-6. Portsmouth: Heinemann.

Graves, Donald H. (1985). All Children Can Write. Retrieved on November 11, 2001 from the World Wide Web: http://www.Idonline.org/Id_indepth/writing/graves_process.html

Harvey, Stephanie. (1998). Nonfiction Matters: Reading, Writing, and Research in Grades 3-8. Portland: Stenhouse Publishers.

Huitt, Dr. William G. (2000). Bloom et al.'s Taxonomy of the Cognitive Domain. Retrieved on November 29, 2001 on the World Wide Web: http://chiron.valdosta.edu/whuitt/col/cogsys/bloom.html

Kastor, Ginger. (2001). EdPsych 399 OL - Fall 2001, Lesson 5 Question 1. Retrieved December 5, 2001 from the World Wide Web: http://courseinfo.cet.uiuc.edu:80/courses/1/EDPSY399OL_FA01/db/_29314_1/l3q2.html

North, Kevin Jay. (2000). How Memory Works by Association: How to Improve Your Memory. Retrieved September 29, 2001 from the World Wide Web: http://marriage.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?site=http://www.premiumhealth.com/memory/htiym.htm

Weaver, Constance. (1996). Facts On Teaching Skills in Context. Retrieved on November 28, 2001 from the World Wide Web: http://toread.com/skills.html

Personal:
(2001) Observations made as a sixth grade teacher at Millburn C.C. School District #24, Wadsworth, Illinois.

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Introduction

Every teacher needs to have a classroom management plan. A smoothly running classroom makes it easier for the students to learn in the environment. Students know the expectations and their responsibilities within the class. There is also less time spent on discipline, in most cases, and more time for learning to take place. This is my third year teaching sixth grade. Each year my classroom management has improved because I can build upon the knowledge I gained in the prior year. This way I can find what works well for my classes and myself. There are some set things that I believe work well for me and other aspects have changed according to the personality of students in the class.

I find it quite interesting to visit other classrooms to see what their classroom management plan is like. The first year I taught, the vice principle thought it was very important for new teachers to observe other teachers to gain knowledge of how to run a class well. The vice principal was my substitute for a period so I could visit a fellow teacher and observe. That year the offer to have the vice principal substitute for this reason was made to 18 new teachers. I believe that experience, as well as observing different classes during college courses and student teaching was beneficial. I have taken what I liked from each of these observations, and then read books to help lay the groundwork for a functional classroom management plan.

Classroom Management Goals

The goals I have set for my classroom management are the following: To maintain a safe environment for all students and teacher To show respect for all people and ideas To achieve goals set by student and teacher To support each other in gaining knowledge To create an environment for the optimal learning to take place To communicate with students and parents effectively

My classroom management plan is in place so these goals will be accomplished. I have discussed with the students that the procedures followed in the classroom take place so these goals can be achieved. The students know their expectations, and some days this works better than others. The pattern I have found for days when the students have trouble with the expectations are right before dances that take place once a month, and vacations. All other times of the year, the students are pretty well adapted to the expectations of my classroom.

Classroom Context

Millburn Community Consolidated School consists of kindergarten through eighth grade. The student population has grown from 750 students to just under 1200 students in the three years I have been teaching at the school. The growing numbers of students have been a result of the growing housing developments in the area; therefore, many students are new to the district. Most parents have college educations and expect their children to accomplish the same. The economic status of the majority of the school is upper-middle class. The parents have high expectations for their children, which help in the classroom management because the students have a desire to meet their parent's expectations.

Sixth grade is the first year in the middle school section of Millburn. The middle school teaches in teams that share approximately 115 students. The sixth grade team meets every day to explore curriculum issues as well as student concerns. When meeting with parents, it is frequently done before school. The middle school team meets once a week to discuss pertinent issues and service projects. Although the middle school shares a building with the elementary, there is little interaction between the grades. The middle school is just starting volunteer work and the middle school classrooms adopting a younger grade to do activities with the students.

Physical Arrangement of Classroom

My classroom the past two years was spacious with tall ceilings that gave the feeling of being larger than it really was. This year is my first year in a new classroom. I have 24 desks arranged differently for the type of activities that are going on. I have small computer lab of seven in the corner of the room. The white boards are on the front and back wall of the classroom. My desk is in the front for the sole purpose of being close to the telephone that is attached to the wall. I also have a small carpet and pillow area where students are welcome to do some small group activities or read with comfort. In the back of the room, beside the computers and in front of the white board is a round table used for conferencing and small group work. There is also a long table in the hallway for small groups to work quietly while others are participating in activities in the classroom.

At the moment I have the 24 student desks in eight rows of three desks. Four of the rows are facing the other four rows. This way the students in the back of the row only have to look around two people to the middle of the class where presentations are given, and each student can see both boards on either side of them.

Classroom Rules

• Accomplish your best thinking and work
• Be respectful to others
• Remain quiet while others are speaking
• Have all the necessary materials for class
• Use time wisely
• Have assignment book with you at all times
• Leave the room as clean or cleaner than you found it
• Participate in class discussions
• Stay on task until bell rings

   

  Daily Procedures
  
  

• Arrive on time, or as close to on time as possible
• Come in quietly and begin working on DOL (language arts only)
• Come in quietly and get the homework out to hand in (reading and social studies)
• Have homework completed in ink and cursive unless otherwise instructed
• Sharpen pencils before or after lesson has begun
• Use the restroom between classes
• Raise hand and wait to be called upon to voice your answer/question

   

  Team Expectations
  
  The sixth grade team has agreed upon some expectations for all students to follow. The late homework policy is strictly enforced for most students, unless the student has issues of completing homework on time. We try to work with the students that are having difficulty, so gradually the expectations are raised to the level of the other sixth grade students. Typically, student's homework assignments are due during class when asked. If the student does not have the assignment, they have three days to turn it into the teacher. Twenty-five percent of the total grade will be subtracted from the final grade earned. If the assignment is more than three days late, the student will receive no credit. This is a policy that some students and some parents have trouble accepting the first quarter of the year, but soon except the expectations as we move on through the year.

  The middle school team also has a couple policies that all students in grades sixth, seventh, and eighth grade follow. One policy is students must have their assignment notebook with them at all times. The assignment notebook is also used as a hallway pass. If the student does not have the notebook, they are not allowed out of the classroom unless it is an emergency. Another policy is the expectations of a written report. It must be typed or handwritten in cursive and ink with two or less mistakes. The heading must follow a certain pattern that is posted in every middle school room. The middle school policies allow some consistency through the three years they are in the program.

  Discipline
  
  The classroom management plan that I use is a mixture of many different discipline plans. The Fredric Jones model of setting limits is the basis of my management of discipline. Setting limits involves using body movements in order to gain order and maintain order in a classroom with very little verbal cues. "Proper use of body language is one of the most effective discipline skills available to teachers" (Charles, 1998). I have found that students respond very well to body language and looking at the offender. This is a quick and nonverbal way of communicating to the student that they are doing something that needs to be turned into a positive way of behaving properly. I have found this method works well in classrooms as well as large group situations. The only time I have found it ineffective is when the student does not make eye contact with me. Then, I either say the student's name in the conversation or instructions. Another way is to touch the student's desk or talk quietly to the student quickly to get their attention focused correctly.

  Another Fredric Jones method I use is incentives. I rarely do this because I do not want the students to feel their actions must be rewarded every time they do something correctly because I expect them to behave and do the correct action. Conversely, sometimes incentives are needed to help motivate students to do well. I will always to the "Grandmother rule" which means that the students must first do the act I have asked them to do, and then, if done correctly, they will receive the reward (Charles, 1998). Usually the reward is playing a spelling game or a grammar game that they enjoy.

  Classroom involvement in William Glasser's discipline plan is like mine. I really like to create a unity of the students in the class and classroom involvement has done wonders in promoting this feeling between students. Each student has a responsibility in my homeroom. My students have been generous in their helping each other complete the task, politely reminding them to do it, or volunteering to do the task for the student responsible. I also request classroom involvement in certain decisions about what we should explore in certain subjects, and when big projects should be due. I also differentiate assignments often so each student has an option of assignments to complete for credit.

  The classroom management plan in my room also meets all of Glasser's idea of all the needs for students. These include the following (and ways that students meat the goals):
  1. Survival (freedom from harm: no put downs aloud and they may not physically harm another person)
  2. Belonging (each person is cared for; gathering homework for each other when absent)
  3. Power (sense of importance with input and responsibility)
  4. Fun (try to get classroom to interact and enjoy learning)
  5. Freedom (lots of differentiating of lessons)
  These goals help to create a smooth running and caring classroom of students.

  Punishment for a student's action should be a natural and understandable consequence. Punishments, which rarely happen in my classroom, must fit the crime. A punishment that has nothing to do with the student's action will not be acceptable because the student will not see the relationship between their action and the consequence. Glasser agrees with this point in classroom management as well as Fritz Redl and William Wattenberg.

  Richard Curwin and Allen Mendler's creative responses are used in my classroom infrequently and sparingly. I know only some students can handle criticism with the use of humor or other creative retort. Some students are mature enough and have the self-confidence, as well as the personality to accept this type of response to their actions that are not acceptable. I try to stay away from sarcasm with misbehaving students just as Curwin and Medler suggested.

  Another philosophy that I use in my classroom is Jane Nelson, Lynn Lott and H. Stephen Glenn's mutual respect position. One part of the mutual respect is limiting choices for the students. I like to involve the students in decisions, but limiting their choices helps the student's focus on the correct area and makes more appropriate choices. When students have a conflict, I make them be fully involved in the settling of the dispute if it is appropriate. I also like the idea of having behavior of the teacher become a model of how appropriate behavior should look like, and use fewer words to explain it. This idea fits Glasser's setting limits concept too.

  Conclusion
  
  I never really formally studied discipline plans for classroom management. William Glasser has policies that I find useful in my classroom and right on track with my beliefs of making students responsible. I have found that I do take what I like about different discipline plans and make use of them in my classroom. Some minor changes may be used to fit the dynamics of the students in each class, but for the most part, the policies do not change. I feel comfortable with the plan, and the students react well.

  
  
  

  Reference:
  Charles, C.M. (1998). Building Classroom Discipline. New York: Addison Wesley.
  
  Personal:
  (1999-2001) Observations made as a sixth grade teacher at Millburn C.C. School District #24, Wadsworth, Illinois.

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I think you have expressed many important points in your response to L3-Q1. I really liked your statement that reads, "It is important to me that a child understands that it is their behavior that is not acceptable, not them." I agree that it is very true that children must understand what is unacceptable behavior and that there are consequences. Once they know this, students that get in trouble still must have to be handled with care by teachers words and actions, but they also must understand that their actions where against the rules, or were not following the routine, and therefore, they must serve the consequences.

I was a little confused at the bottom of your response as to how this fits in with your expressed thoughts in the rest of your reaction.

Overall, you did a good job on expressing your thoughts!

I found your article to be very thought provoking. I was enlightened by the quotes you chose from "When to Spank" by Lynn Rosellini and Anna Mulrine. I did not find any articles that stated the idea that spanking alone cannot be a studied. All other aspects of punishment are involved when spanking, and the child's mannerisms have so much to do with how the child reacts.

I enjoyed your challenge to find scientific research to prove that corporal punishment makes a fearful child. Your research is contradictory when finding that spanking and physical punishment cannot be researched alone. I guess the researchers just figure that the parents that hit their children beyond a consequence for their actions, where hit themselves, therefore the cycle continues. I would have to find research to back this up though!

I find it hard to believe that this "bandwagon" is not a good one to be on. Physically punishing children cannot be okay when we teach children that they are not supposed to use force themselves when their peers do not agree with their views. We teach students to talk out their problems rather than using their body to make their point. Adults are the role models for children, whether it is in school or at home.

Did students in the Japanese schools that you have experience in and witnessed the corporal punishment behave better than students in a non-corporal punishment school in the U.S.? Did you find that there were more fights and anti-trust issues in the Japanese schools between the students? Did you find that it is okay that teachers in Japan were not following the rules because the students had less deteration of behavior in schools?

Also, one more questionŠWas Beating the Devil Out of Them by Straus a book or an article? That was a little confusing in the article. Overall though, your response to the questions raised some good points about research. Subject: Re: L3Q2: CP Bandwagon?

Good Job!

Your explaination of short-term memory overload in conferences really hit home with me. There is so much good information to retain, and not enough time to register it all into long-term memory. I even find it helpful to look over notes after I am out of the conference so I have a second chance to retain the information. You have created an excellent response.

Your message was clear, concise, and to the point. Your examples fit well with your message you were conveying. I also combat forgetfulness with lots of lists and reminders throughout the day. Assignment notebooks really seem to help students because so much is on their minds. Good job.

Isn't it amazing how many reading strategies there are? They seem to all lead to the same outcome in basically the same way, just different words and names to the process. Your thoughts and research made me interested to do my own research on this topic. I also could fit in names of my students who have this comprehension problem and do not have the skills down in order to help themselves. I found it interesting that students with poor reading comprehension do not always realize that they don't understand!

I enjoyed reading your response to the writing conference. I am glad to see you pointed out so many positive things about the conference. I agree that the way the teacher handled herself while the student was reading his story was good. Her eye contact and listening without interuption really helped the student gain confidence and enjoy the sharing part of the conference.

On the other hand, I found that the student did not have a chance to tell what he thought about the story. The teacher did not ask any open-ended questions to the student. The only questions that was asked was answered with a yes or no. The teacher did not have the student practice the metawriting techniques which will enable the student to think about his own writing and improve upon it.

I really like your conclusion paragraph. I too had that same discovery a few weeks ago while I was planning for another writing assignment for my students, and then do a paper for this class. Isn't amazing how automatic the writing process can be? Our students would never believe it!

I enjoyed your thoughts on the peer editing. The book, Cognitive Psychology and Instruction seemed to really hit peer editing a lot. Good job of tying this idea into your paper. I enjoyed reading it.

Just one thing to bring to your attention...did you mean to link the paper or leave it as a document for each reader to upload to their computer? I thought maybe you did not realize this.

I agree with your idea of metawriting. I really liked your breakdown of where in the writing process metawriting would be accomplished. They will "...analyze the difficulty of the writing (EOW)...allocate time and a writing strategy for the assignment...look back over her writing to analyze it for a variety of effective writing aspects like flow, voice and grammar...make corrections as necessary...analyze the writing for effectiveness and how it 'feels' (FOW)...(and) decide what to re-write and correct in the final draft." In reviewing these parts of metawriting, I was confused how metawriting would hinder the writer's style. Is it possible that the student could actually use metawriting to analyze and realize their style of writing? I would think style would be part of a complete metawriting, or thinking about their writing and knowing more about it. Just a thought. How do you respond?

I found you topic to be interesting. I teach some struggling readers in both of my reading classes. I found it interesting in the difference of when the student asks questions. "9.Answering adjunct questions-Answering questions before reading during reading leads to intentional learning (knowledge necessary to answer the questions).  Answering questions after reading leads to intentional and incidental learning (learning not required by answering the questions) (Bruning, 1999). I never really thought about the connection with when the student is asking questions and why. Thanks for the enlightening fact!

Wow Mark! That report was really interesting. I was shocked to see that standards only recently started and that the testing is at such a low level of thinking skills. I wonder if this is to help out the schools that cannot reach high standards. I wonder what the outcome would be if the students and schools would be held more accountable with higher level thinking skills. Would the schools that cannot succeed be denied govt. money? Would they close down eventually and have to spread the students out to other school districts putting a financial burden onto them? I have this suspicion that it has to do with money the way everything else in the government does. Although there is no way to find out what the real thinking is behind this, it is interesting to ponder. I really enjoyed reading your clear report of the standards.

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References:

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