Content Knowledge in Reflection

1.
I believe outside of school experiences are crucial to the development and interests of a learning child. Particularly in the elementary years, one must try and "dabble" in all sorts of activities to discover and find areas of interest. It is in these elementary years, that students can try out, get their hands dirty, make mistakes, perhaps fall flat on their face, and have the opportunity to try it again. With a supportive base of both in school and at home assistance, elementary students have opportunities to participate in; school funded or extra cirricular programs (academic, athletic, and artistic), and begin building a base of experiential knowledge that will develop that student into a whole being. I refer to whole being, because I find it crucial for all people to get experience in many fields of study. We have all heard the term "book smart," but there are many other elements of intelligence. One can refer to Gardner's multiple intelligence theory to understand what I mean. Yes, there is "book smart", and the education system puts high emphasis on this, but there is also; musical intelligence (sensitivity to sounds, rhythms, tones, and music,) linguistic intelligence, bodily-kinisthetic, inter/intrapersonal intelligence (working well with others, and being a self reflective learner) along with several others.  My point is, one must be given freedom to explore these multiple intelligences through an array avenues in their environment. Ideally, these opportunities would be provided in all classrooms, but with the current high emphasis on standardized assessments, we must find outer ways to deepen our content knowledge.I have been lucky enough to dabble amongst many of these outside of school experiences. I was the girl that went from the blue leotard to an african drum circle. From playing the saxophone to playing the drums. Changing from soccer cleats to basketball shorts. I was involved in music, tutoring, sports, and summer activities. I never found it to be a nuisance, or "too much," but rather I found it fun! As a multiple subject teacher, I advocate all young children to try as many things as they can. Some activities they will love, and build upon. Some they will hate and it will end there. But at least there is an effort in trying. It is important for children to have an open mind for outside of school activities because it sets a base for open-mindedness for upper elementary and seoncdary school settings. If one is willing to try, then that is half the battle. 


(#2 & #3: click on Read More)

2. Regarding the class discussion of Ball's The Subject Matter Preparation of Teachers; my opinions change in regards to Elementary preparation for Teaching. I am confident that I hold a general knowledge base in all subject matter taught in Elementary Schools: math, reading, writing, science, PE and art. However, I do agree with the Ball article that the teachers preparation programs focus on width, not breadth. There was so much content thrown at my face in the past year, that I am just now starting to process it. According to the article, "every subject matter field, although continually changing and growing, includes specific information, ideas and topics to be known" (pg 7). Many of my classmates have a luxury of putting all their attention into one subject content area. They can put all their effort in perfecting the pedagogy of that subject matter, researching deeper into the nooks and crannies of that subject. My multiple subject colleagues and I must spread our time out accordingly. We must not only research the newest science standards, but also; adhere to the new mathematics standards, the project based student learning groups, guided reading and readers workshop and everything in between. Even though we might not be so comfortable in a particular subject matter; there are five other subject matters tapping us on the shoulder vowing for our attention. Being spread thin in an understatement.
Do I believe that Ball article was a little harsh? Yes. Do i believe a large pool of opinions were represented from the multiple subject candidates? Absolutely not.




3. My line of inquiry is developing as I read articles regarding my subject matter. My broad topic of achievement motivation in elementary schools, has now narrowed down into something along the lines of; comparing achievement and motivation in low socioeconomic communities, and how their achievement compares to high performing, high achieving schools. I am also interested in the cognitive process, and verbalizations (Vygotsky) that upon examining, area said to be a way to access underlying achievement motivation. So far, I have come across two really great and extremely fascinating articles that are causing me to narrow down my focus. One of the articles is titled "An analysis of learned helplessness: The processing of success." This article compares two groups; classifiedd learned helpless, and mastery oriented. The article evaluates their orientation and attitudes towards success and failure, and how they significantly differ. The second article Ive read it titled "characterizing the achievement motivation of children from low and middle income families." This article gave me a profound base knowledge on the difference in achievement motivation between low income students from urban environments and middle income students in private schools. The results from the studies are leading me to inquire about more studies along the lines, and the article gave me a number of references to research.