Chapters 5 and 7 forum activities/lessons

Suzanne,
I agree the self-awareness worksheet should be done sooner, so I have come up with other lessons to replace that and you can use the self awareness activity in one of your earlier chapters. I have also completed Chapter 7 lessons. Feedback would be helpful. Thanks! Chapter 7 is not complete - I need to do the worksheets for the toy commercials and packaging but it won't take long and I'll place them here.
Lynn

Chapter 5

After reading Chapter 5, Children, Teachers, and Creative Activities, complete the following:

1. In order to get you to think about your way of relating to and working with children, complete the “Self Awareness Worksheet” located in documents. The purpose of this worksheet is to have you observe your professional activities and reflect on them as they are related to knowledge of theory and practice in education. Self-assessment is difficult. It’s hard to be objective about habits, values, and expectations that are an integral part of one’s identity. Use this activity sheet as a start. Some of you might find it more comfortable to deal with only two or three of the self-awareness questions at a time. These questions are for you, you do not have to turn in the worksheet. However, discuss some of your reflections in the forum. Were you surprised by your responses? What are some things you would like to change? Are there things you have been doing without thinking too much about it and now you are more aware? What are they?

Self Awareness Worksheet

Answer the following questions using complete statements with examples. A simple Yes or No is not enough!

1. Do I adjust my teaching style to meet individual learning differences and developmental levels?

2. Have I extended my ideas and expectations concerning how and what children ought to learn?

3. Am I aware of my oral language and body language in my responses to children, in order to invite them to learn more?

4. Have I taken individual differences and developmental levels into consideration in planning my lessons and curriculum?

5. Have I taken individual differences and developmental levels into consideration in my teaching practices?

6. Am I able to tolerate the small mistakes children make?

7. Do I avoid telling the child the best way to do things?

8. Do I show more concern with the process than with the product in creative activities?

9. Do I make time simply to observe children?

10. Do I have a system to help children plan choices?


2. Use the outline below to plan a lesson that includes all of the multiple intelligences.

Age/Grade level:
Lesson Theme/Concept:

Logical-Mathematical: How can I use numbers, lists, classifications, logic, and scientific inquiry?

Linguistic: How can I use language (stories, poems, reader’s theater)?

Interpersonal: How can I use partners or cooperative group activities?

Spatial: How can I use visualization, art, colors, or metaphors?

Intrapersonal: How can I provide choices or involve personal memories or feelings?

Musical: How can I use music, rhythm, songs, raps, chants, or instruments?

Bodily-Kinesthetic: How can I use movement or hands-on activities?

Naturalistic: How can I incorporate outdoor activities into the curriculum?

3. With regard to young children, discuss the difference between having feelings and expressing feelings.
4. Discuss, in greater detail, important questions that should be asked to better know and work with young children.
5. Log on to the NCLB Web site http://www.teachersandfamilies.com/open/parent/nclb/q6.cfm. Click on the questions and answers section and choose at least one question to read and then present to the class. Include in the presentation your opinion of the impact of the NCLB Act on your particular teaching situation.

Chapter 7 Play, Development, and Creativity. After reading this chapter complete the following:

1. In order to think about the topic of play, look at and complete the questions below– Then share your responses. Do you find any similarities in your memories of play? Any differences? How do your memories compare to the play of today’s children?
a) What memories do you have of early experiences with play?
b) What are your very first play memories?
c) What did you play? With what did you play? With whom did you play?
d) After discussing your responses with others, tell us how these discussions help you better understand children’s play. Or do they?

2. After completing the discussion above, think about the place of play in your own life. Respond to the following questions to find out for yourself:
a) Does play benefit adults?
b) In your daily life, do you have opportunities for play? Id so, what value do you find in play? If not, how might you restore play to your life?
c) In early childhood programs you will observe three main forms of play, solitary, parallel, and cooperative. What is the value of each of these play types – for adults as well as for children?
d) Although adult play and children’s play have common elements, play serves a different role for young children then it does for adults. What are some of the similarities and differences between the play of children and that of adults? How might these similarities and differences affect your teaching practices?

3. Read the quotation below. Discuss the role of playful thinking in this man’s life. Do you think the man was a success in life? Discuss the parent’s and teacher’s roles in his life. Were they supportive of his playfulness? Why or why not? The identity of this person will be revealed in the weekly announcement.
“ I hated school. From age 12 or 13 I wanted to be a movie director, and I didn’t think that science or math or foreign languages were going to help me turn out the little 8-mm sagas I was making to avoid homework. During class I’d draw a little image on the margin of each page of the history or lit book and flip the pages to make animated cartoons. I did just enough homework to get promoted every year with my friends and not fall to the wrath of my academically minded father. I give my dad credit for singlehandedly keeping my math grades high enough so I wouldn’t be held back. My other worst subject was phys. Ed.; I failed that three years in a row in high school. I couldn’t do a chin up or a fraction. I can do a chin-up now, but I still can’t do a fraction.”

4. Playing with toys is a form of socialization. Toys can encourage children to be active or inactive and can stimulate children to model certain behaviors. For example, a hockey stick encourages a child to run or skate; board games encourage sedentary play. Obviously, each kind of toy has its advantages. Toys are also a means by which sex-typing can occur in the socialization process. For example, toys marketed for boys tend to be complex and encourage more vigorous activity than those marketed for girls. The typical girls’ toy promotes quiet, indoor play, such as “playing house.” Sex-typing through toys is well entrenched in society. Manufacturers often advertise their products along sex-typed strategies. For example, boys are featured on commercials or packaging for racing car sets, and girls are pictured with toy kitchen sets. Use the observation sheets in documents (one for toys, one for television commercials) to help you examine toy-marketing strategies. Use your observations to decide whether these strategies socialize children into traditional gender roles.