EDG4376 Reflection #11

I completely agree with J. Doug McGlothlin in that it is almost impossible for adults to learn new languages. In my past, I have taken numerous Spanish and Italian classes and still have trouble holding a simple conversation in any language besides English. Even with an Italian background, I cannot seem to grasp comprehension. And ironically, I understand more Russian than anything, simply because I was surrounded by the Russian culture when I lived in Brooklyn, NY. I am a true believer that learning a new language as an adult takes time, energy, and effort. Furthermore, to me, one must immerse himself or herself in the culture for quite awhile in order to achieve true understanding.
For young children, language development is a completely different story. And again, I agree with the author of “A Child’s First Steps in Language Learning” in that language environment and the strategies utilized to obtain verbal communication are key concepts in how a child obtains this essential skill. To break it down, children have all the time in the world to learn how to communicate, but because communication is vital, they have an innate motivation to learn to mimic what they hear. They do not have to deal with the pressure of tests, as an adult might, but they are given the unique opportunity to learn vocabulary and grammar as they discover more and more about the world. A child’s language environment directly coincides with the world he or she is learning about, and curiosity is the powerful underlying factor in his or her ability to learn how to communicate. Furthermore, the adults raising the child simplify the language, provide reinforcement, and make corrections when necessary, which further aids in language development. In terms of the strategies children use to obtain communication skills, I found the author’s thoughts interesting. McGlothlin feels that language development is of secondary importance to the child, since his or her immediate environment takes precedence. Toys, family, and friends are much more interesting, and communication only aids in learning more about these things. It is natural for the child to want to call objects and people by name, but apparently, children are undisturbed if they don’t understand certain words immediately. Repetition and curiosity aid in their eventual comprehension of foreign, challenging vocabulary words. As a young child actively participates in the world around him or her, the small communication development steps that are taken build confidence, which drives the child to continue to learn.

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EDG4376 Reflection #8

Any curriculum designed for any school needs to focus on combining student needs, state frameworks, and national standards. However, to me, covering state and national standards can be quite a tedious task within any given school year. It can be done, but it is imperative that school administrators make the curriculum engaging and interesting for the students. Students might be able to store facts in their short-term memories for test purposes, but I assure you, if the information is not relevant or appealing to their lives, that information will be gone by the very next day. Therefore, learner relevancy is imperative to the curriculum designer. For instance, as schools become more and more diverse throughout America, administrators need to combat prejudice and discrimination by integrating tolerance, compassion, and acceptance into students’ everyday lives. Students’ thinking processes, emotions, cultural backgrounds, and developmental stages need to be addressed in curriculum design as well. At the end of the day, it is a collaborative effort on the teachers and administrators to ensure that students are being taught what they need to know in an effective manner. If learner relevancy is made to be a significant concept in curriculum design, everyone will benefit. Students will be engaged in the discovery process and excited to learn, which will make the teaching process easier and more rewarding for educators and administration. Furthermore, if students are learning, as opposed to just memorizing facts, state and national standards will be met with ease. There are many different views on exactly how a school’s curriculum should be organized and integrated, but the majority of educational researchers agree that course content should be connected in such a way that the student benefits and feels that they are learning to deal with real world situations. Therefore, to the curriculum designer, learner relevancy is everything. I think the demographics of the student body in any given school should play a large part of how the curriculum should be designed. It is up to administration to determine whether the curriculum is fragmented, connected, nested, sequenced, shared, webbed, threaded, integrated, immersed, or networked. However, administration definitely needs to put learner relevancy first.

EDG4376 Reflection #9

The interdisciplinary model, the problem-based model, and the theme-based model are three different forms of curriculum integration that have developed in recent years. Many educational researchers believe that integrated curriculums in schools can help boost intellectual interest and curiosity in students, as well as critical-thinking and problem-solving skills. According to them, if the subject matter is relevant to students’ everyday lives, then students will become motivated to seek out understanding for themselves.
In the interdisciplinary model of curriculum integration, a variety of different teams of teachers are responsible for specific groups of students. There are four periods each day, consisting of about 175 minutes each. Teachers are encouraged to use their blocks of time any way they choose, as long as the four core subjects, English, Math, Science, and Social Studies are covered. In this approach, students and teachers have the opportunity to get to know each other on a personal level. However, teachers need to work closely as a team in order to ensure state standards are being met. This is also an issue in the problem-based model of curriculum integration because it is based on the utilization of hands-on technology. The problem-based model focuses mainly on integrating science, mathematics, and technology with the ultimate goal of applying problems to real world situations. Students learn to work in collaborative group situations and make use of authentic assessment, learning Language Arts and Social Studies as they proceed through the curriculum. In the final approach, the theme-based model, it is easier for teachers to address state and national education standards. However, researchers suggest that many key concepts that are addressed in the theme-based model have little to do with a specific discipline, which ultimately results in irrelevant learning for the students. In general, the theme-based model covers three to five key concepts, including mathematics, science, language arts, technology, and/or social studies. All three of these integrated curriculum concepts are based on a Constructivist approach. The students will eventually build their own knowledge base, assuming that the educators are working as a team with the students’ best interests at heart.