In the following assignments for ED631 Educational Psychology, Karin Macklin asked us to come up with how, as teachers, we would respond to the challenging situations below. Each of these scenarios involves a developmental or psychological issue.

  

MS#4. After reading Salinger’s Catcher in the Rye in your eighth-grade English class, a student comes to you and tells you that, like Holden Caulfield, he wishes to kill himself. How should you respond?

First, I would take a deep breath and remain calm.

Then, I would ask him questions. It is a fact that people who commit suicide do usually talk about it beforehand, so I would take him seriously, and seek to find out more.

-Did he ever think about killing himself before he read the book?

-Why does he want to kill himself?

-Does he have any plans to do it? How/when/where?

-Has he ever talked with someone about this desire before?

Depending on the kids’ answers, the conversation might go other directions.

In any cases, I would tell the student that, because he expressed a desire to hurt himself, that, because I care about him and his friends and his family, I am going to have to tell the counselor and perhaps other school staff. I would tell the student “we are going to continue this conversation with the counselor, (or another adult at the school if the student prefers) who might know more about this. However, I will be there, too.” Even if the kid did not really mean what he said, it is still important for him to understand the gravity of his actions. Also, because he initially opened up to me as someone to confide in, it would be important to stay involved and supportive in the process of figuring out what is going on with this kid.

I would immediately contact the front office, by sending a stapled note with another student, or sending an email. I would not allow the student to leave class alone, but would escort them to the counselor’s office, or wherever else the front office directed me to go with him. Perhaps we would stay where we were, and other adults, such as the counselor, a favorite security guard, a parent, could come to us. (It might go the direction of “Sherri is coming down [from the office] to join in on this conversation. She will knock when she gets here, and I will let her in.”)



A troubled boy in your ninth-grade class refuses even to try to do his schoolwork. He believes nothing he does will make any difference, and he sees himself as doomed to fail in school. What steps can you take to help him?

Here are some quick ideas that come to mind:

            I attempt to find out his interests and get to know him as a person. I talk with his other teachers and counselors to try and discover how he acts in other classes, if he expresses these same sentiments elsewhere, and if they have any insight or tips. I let him know that I know that he can succeed in school, and cite specific qualities about him that attest to his likely success. Based on what I know about him and his other classes, I try and subtley introduce him to learning topics that might not be directly related to school, but involve reading, writing and math. I talk with his parents to find out about his passions and what motivates him in other areas of his life. I look for cues as to career ambitions that might require school and try to help him work out a “contract” with himself to help him to complete high school. I keep an eye out for extracurricular activities to try and get him attached to the school and motivated to try, if not for academic or career reasons, at least so that he can compete in sports.

 


MS#4

Your ninth-grade class does not grasp the meaning of the term “insight.” What exercises or activities can you use to make them appreciate what insight is and why it is important in learning.

The definition of insight is “the capacity to see into the true or inner nature of a situation.”

1)   I would ask the students, in partners, to break the word into two words. (“In” and “sight”). I would then ask them to define each of the words. Then ask them which two ways they could order the words. We would go over these responses as a class, and come up with the following.

a.     “In” before “sight” means that an object is within a viewer’s perception. It is in their line of sight. Someone can see something.

b.     “Sight” before “in” implies that someone is looking into something and can then see it.

2) We would then create a class skit. Two characters would be confused about a particular situation. The student with the magical “insight” glasses can see what is going on (i.e. they look around at the students holding the cue cards explaining the situations and can read them, “I.e. Lady Macbeth fears her own mortality”. The other student acts confused until he or she gets the glasses and can understand the situation too. From then on, we can cite this activity, asking which character in the book has their “insight” glasses on and which characters are “blind” to the situation.

 


HS#2

Your tenth graders are obsessed with achieving performance-oriented goals, such as getting an A, instead of with accomplishing meaningful learning. You want them to focus on mastery of important concepts and material. How can you show your students the shortcomings of having performance goals and the benefits of mastery-oriented goals?

1) Have students design tests for one another to take. They will probably try and stump one another to get A’s rather than focusing on larger concepts. Try and discuss the larger concepts with the class afterward.  Discuss with the class what was ineffective about these students’ tests. 

2) Give students essay tests rather than multiple choice. Give them all of the possible essay questions in advance. Make them broad mastery-level questions.

3) Have a two week unit in which students are doing challenging group projects, in which their primary grade is based on intellectual risk-taking and general mastery of the material. Make the project in a media in which students are unused to working – put the whole unit’s history info into song .They will be graded on mastery of the material, intellectual risk-taking, etc.  Initial failures will be encouraged as the sign of ambition – the group with the best, most ambitious documented initial failure will be taken out to lunch with the teacher. Afterward, we would hold a series of discussions about the (hopefully) creative and intellectually stimulating output, or at least the purpose of the exercise.

4) As the class continues, dropping the lowest grade in one out of four major projects, but maintaining intellectual and artistic risk-taking as a component of the grading rubric during major projects and papers.

 

HS# 3

How would you balance the lessons of a physics unit on energy that introduces new ideas (i.e., concepts that students must change their current cognitive schemas to accommodate) with lessons that focus on filling gaps in knowledge (i.e., facts the students can assimilate into their current cognitive structures)?

In order that students do not become overwhelmed by new information that challenges existing schemas, I would seek to organize my lesson plan such that the lessons requiring the accommodation of existing schemas are interspersed with those that involve simply assimilating the new knowledge in with existing knowledge.

In presenting the lessons that require assimilation, (for example, learning what an “adverb” is) I would do my best to do a thorough review of the information whenever possible, (for example, asking “Who remembers from last year what an adjective is? A verb? What cues do these examples give you?”) and perhaps even create a diagram for students to fill out that helps them place the new information in with the existing information in a visually organized manner. This orientation would be intended to give the students confidence in their new knowledge by placing it into the “big picture” that they have already partially painted.

When possible, at the start of a particular topic or a particular day, I would endeavor to start with an assimilation-type lesson, and build from there into lessons that require more accommodation, thus building students’ confidence in their abilities as we move into the more difficult, schema-challenging lessons.

Prior to the more difficult schema-challenging lesson, I would seek to poll students (and/or their former teachers) in advance and review their existing understandings and beliefs about the topic of study. Presenting these at the beginning of the lesson, I would explain to students how the new knowledge challenges or complicates elements of their existing understandings, inform them that it may be confusing at first, but I am certain they will understand it by the time we are through, and then start into the schema-challenging lesson.