While reading chapter 4 the idea that the language that you learn as a child can affect the way that you talk and interact as an adult. This whole thought really gets my mind thinking about the things that we as teachers need to present and teach them. The things that we are teaching the student about language can either help them in the long run or really hurt them. This really makes me kind of nervous because I want all of my students to have success and I want all of my students to have a fair chance. I don't know what you all think but this makes me pretty nervous.
Another part of the chapter that really stood out to me was the behaviorist theory. On page 98 of the book Skinner defined language as the observed and produced speech that occurs in the interaction of speaker and listener. Also on page 98 Skinner defines thinking as the internal process of language; both language and thought are initiated through interactions in the environment, such as those between parent and child. The reason why I though this was so interesting was the thought of language and thinking. Put yourself in one of your young students shoes and you are just starting to learn about reading and new vocabulary words. These students really have to take their time to think about what they are going to say, unlike adults sometimes we say things before we think about saying them. To understand language students have to be able to think and process what is being said to them. children learn language through imitation but they really don't start applying language to their lives until they think about what is being said and understand what they are actually saying.
The behaviorist theory also states that we should give our children positive reinforcement. I grew up in a very positive environment growing up. Whether it was sports or academics my parents were always very positive. i did have some coaches and teachers that were not as positive as my parents and i will be the first to tell you that my experiences with negative people never made me a better student or made me a better ball player to be honest I think i became worse. So what I'm trying to get at is we need to be positive towards our students and they will more likely be successful than if we are negative to them. In what ways are you going to make your classroom a positive environment and in what ways are you going to make your students lives a little better each day they step into the classroom?
Ozzie, that was such an insightful post. I think it is important for future teachers to think about what practices they are going to implement in their future classrooms. I know I always go back to my experiences working in preschools and daycares but those are the experiences that have helped me shape my imaginary future classroom. To make my classroom a positive place I will make sure to always have structure. After college, I believe I will work in a daycare or preschool classroom if I do not go to graduate school. I have seen that classrooms often get out of control if there is a not a set and structured plan of how each day is going to go. When this happens the teachers in the classroom often develop negative attitudes towards the students. Just because you are in a daycare setting does not mean that free play is to be had all day. Some other ways to keep the classroom positive is the tone of voice used when talking to children and guiding children using positive sentence structure rather than negative. I believe that if I implement these ideas then my classroom will be a positive place for each of my future students.
ReplyDeleteOzzie,
ReplyDeleteI completely understand why you would be nervous about the insurance of your students learning language correctly. I have some of the same fear, but I can say Ball State seems to be preparing us very well for when the time comes. :) I really agree with your statement: that "to understand language students have to be able to think and process what is being said to them." This is so true, we cannot expect children to understand language right off the bat and be able to recite everything we say to them. When learning new vocab words I personally believe in offering praise to students and continuously encouraging them. I can remember really struggling with language development, I had a speech impediment for a long period of time so it was very hard for me to repeat language back to my instructors. I also agree that children learn a lot through imitation, but obviously they have to understand the language to apply it to their lives. It is clear that you really appreciate Skinner's behaviorist theory, and like I said before I really think positive reinforcement is the way to go. In my future classroom I plan to foster students' ideas and encourage as much language development as possible to create a positive environment.
Ozzie, knowing that the things we teach can help or hurt our students is very nerve wrecking. I also want my students to succeed and knowing that I could be the reason why they might not really makes me nervous as well. I agree with you that students need positive reinforcement. I have had my fair share of positive and negative reinforcement and like you the negative did not help and made it worse at time. I think I can make my classroom a positive environment by not putting a student down. Instead of saying "this is worng, you should do this" tell them "i like this but maybe this could make it better." I think that I can make my students lives a little easier by just being there for them and letting them know that I support them.
ReplyDeleteOzzie, I definitely agree on your first thought about teaching children and how we are either going to hurt them or help them in the long run. And yes that is scary to thing about as future teachers since we do make such a huge impact on our students lives. As future educators, we just have to take what we learn and be a positive reinforcement in our students lives. I also never thought about putting myself in a young students shoes and thinking about language in that aspect. We need to have knowledge of the students language as well as our own to become proactive teachers. Positive reinforcement is one of the key elements to the success of our students whether that be academically or socially. As teachers we are there to be a positive influence in the lives of our students because they may not be fortunate enough to have that at home. Being a positive reinforcement and being a model to a student can excel them tremendously in the classroom.
ReplyDeleteOzzie,
ReplyDeleteI love your immediate point on how a child is stimulated in the beginning of their lives and how it effects them even into their adult years. That first sentence just explains the extreme importance of our job as a teacher. We now know that from birth up to 3 years old that is when children are suppose to be gaining language skills that will prepare them to continue that education into their school years. If they don't receive those language skills us as teachers have to help the children gain those skills as well as building onto those. I also loved your point about the importance of positive reinforcements when teaching children. When you are positive with a child and you support and encourage them they have nowhere to go but up. With that, I also agree with the negative impact that negative teachers and other adults can have on a child. We need to always remember to be positive and help the children and that is setting them up for success.