Introduction to Behaviorism - Essay Example

? Behaviorism – Task LESSON PLAN GENERAL INFORMATION s English Topic or Unit of Study: Literature – “We Real Cool” A Poem by Gwendolyn Brooks Grade/Level: 8th Instructional Setting: regular classroom setting, students are paired for the writing task STANDARDS AND OBJECTIVES English Language Arts Standards for California Listening and Speaking Strategies 1.2 Paraphrase a speaker’s purpose and point of view and ask relevant questions concerning the speaker’s content, delivery, and purpose. Speaking Applications 2.2 Deliver oral responses to literature Writing 2.4 Write persuasive compositions Lesson Objective(s): Students should be able to: 1. Demonstrate comprehension by orally paraphrasing the lines of the poem 2. Provide critical analysis of the situation of the persona (i.e., reasons behind their experience) 3. Write a speech to be delivered in front of politicians, appealing to them to act for a drug-free state MATERIALS AND RESOURCES Instructional Materials: Copy of the poem Pad paper for writing Ballpen Pictures of street people doing drugs Resources: “We Real Cool” A Poem by Gwendolyn Brooks INSTRUCTIONAL PLAN Sequence of Instructional Procedures/Activities/Events (provide description and indicate approximate time for each): 1. Review/Assumptions Students already know the basic concepts in analyzing a poem such as persona, addressee and situation. They should know that the persona and the author are different. Although there are times when the situation in the poem relates closely with the experience of the author, it should be assumed that the author is thinking of another persona as his poem’s persona. 2. Presentation of New Information or Modeling: The teacher provides a brief introduction about the author, Gwendolyn Brooks and how famous her poem is (5 minutes). 3. Guided Practice: The teacher shows the way to write a speech by asking students to think of a thesis statement they can use to start the speech and asking them to identify three points for discussion. The teacher checks if the students are able to write these four ideas before they proceed with the writing (5 minutes). 4. Independent Student Practice: Students work in pairs to write a persuasive speech based on their reaction to the poem. After writing, one of the students in the pair reads the speech in front of the class (20 minutes). 5. Culminating or Closing Procedure/Activity/Event: Students choose the best speech and tell the reasons why they like it (5 minutes). Pedagogical Strategy (or Strategies): Partner work; Reader-response Approach Differentiated Instruction: Students with difficulties will be paired with those without difficulties, in the same way that those who are good in English writing will be paired with those who are not. The students are encouraged to think of three points to discuss in their speech but there is no requirement as regards the length of the speech. Student Assessment/Rubrics: The following rubrics will be used to evaluate the speech made by students: Criteria 1 2 3 4 5 1. The speech has a well-defined thesis. 2. The speech contains three main points that support the thesis. 3. The speech is persuasive; its main points are clear and true to the real-life scenario. 4. The speech is free of grammatical errors. 5. The speech is free from biases and fallacies; direct to the point and informative. “We Real Cool” A Poem by Gwendolyn Brooks The Pool Players.  Seven at the Golden Shovel. We real cool. We Left school. We Lurk late. We Strike straight. We Sing sin. We Thin gin. We Jazz June. We Die soon.  B.  Discuss how you could modify the lesson plan you provided to incorporate behaviorism. 1.  Justify a curriculum content modification in the lesson plan that incorporates behaviorism. Setting the mood of students is an important feature of the behaviorist classroom (Wheldall, 2012). Behaviorists try to avoid negative behaviors by reinforcing positive ones (Wheldall, 2012). In the given lesson, the teacher could say, “Today, we will read a cool poem. When we read, I want you to tell me what the author is saying and why I say it’s cool.” These statements give students a lead on what they are going to do; in particular, paraphrasing the lines of the poem. Taking into consideration the importance of reinforcements, the teacher may use them to promote comprehension and learning. These reinforcements may include positive remarks from the teacher and classmates in reading the poem and writing a speech addressed to politicians. The teacher may ask students to read the poem and put in some feelings when they recite. After which, the teacher should give positive verbal remarks like, “I like that,” “That was good,” etc. At the end, as students write and deliver their speech, the teacher could ask the students to give positive remarks about the speech. Considering the grade level and personality of the students, it is better not to give negative remarks to avoid criticism. Moreover, the teacher in the behaviorist classroom should act as a model to the students (Berry, 2009). Thus, the teacher should recite the poem first then let students read the poem after her. This ensures that students will recite the poem with appropriate pronunciation, tone, and emphasis, thus achieving better comprehension on the part of the students. Using serious tone towards the end of the poem, the teacher indirectly suggests that the poem contains a serious theme, which is the problem of alcoholism among the youth (Brooks, 2012). As such, reciting the poem first, the teacher could lead students to comprehend the poem’s serious message. 2.  Justify an instructional strategy in the lesson plan that incorporates behaviorism. Modeling is an important component of behaviorism (Berry, 2009). Through modeling, teachers will be able to emphasize the correct behavior that students should follow. This avoids negative behaviors from arising, and ensuring that the lesson would flow smoothly. In terms of skills, modeling helps to guide students to do a new activity or skill that they have not encountered before (Berry, 2009). In the given lesson, the teacher models writing of the speech by directly teaching students how to formulate the thesis statement, give the supporting statements, and add ideas to explain their points. Applying behaviorism, the teacher should teach the students how to formulate a thesis statement first, then give points to support the thesis. This is a way of guiding students towards an expected goal. Modeling or direct instruction should be done in front of the whole class. This means trying to come up with a thesis statement and supporting ideas using the classroom board, which every student can see. The students will offer their ideas, and the teacher accepts correct ones and writes them on the board. This also ensures uniformity of understanding and output. In the evaluation part, the students will choose the best speech and express their views why they like the speech. This part reinforces good behavior of those whose speeches were nominated. Being chosen should inspire them to write again on the next lesson/activity. For those whose speeches were not nominated, the chosen speeches will serve as samples or models to guide in writing a different task. C.  Analyze the effectiveness of incorporating principles of behaviorism into the lesson plan you provided. Principles of behaviorism should be part of every elementary classroom (Monchinski, 2008). Although not all activities or ideas are behaviorist in nature, it will help to incorporate behaviorism in some parts of the lesson. The reason behind this is that students in grade school are not yet mature and they need guidance in order to learn proper behavior and skills. Activating prior knowledge, providing models for activities, and giving rewards are some ways to incorporate behaviorism in the given lesson. Incorporating behaviorism into the lesson plan serves the teacher in three ways. First, by activating prior knowledge, the teacher will have the chance to check students’ understanding of the previous lesson. Likewise, by doing such, the students will feel the need to review past lessons, thus reinforcing good study habits among students. They will be inclined to think that past lessons should not be taken for granted; thus taking down notes, reviewing them, and even memorizing will help them get a better grade. Moreover, activating prior knowledge will make students see the link between the previous and the current lesson (Monchinski, 2008). Using principles of behaviorism, the teacher also provides model for learning a new skill. In the given lesson, students will be taught directly how to work on the thesis statement and subsections of the speech. This effort could guide students to perform the task appropriately and produce the expected output. Also, telling students what to do or what is expected to happen prior to performing the activity could lead them to write the best speech. The key is to condition learners to act as expected. Modeling and direct instruction also serve to promote positive behavior among students. When a teacher models how to write the thesis statement, all eyes will be focused on him/her and students need not to resort to other sources of information (i.e., asking students to do a research). Direct instruction helps in classroom management because compared to doing research, students are focused and well-guided in the behaviorist classroom. In the other, students interact with each other and take some time to finish the task because of too many distractions in the environment. Direct instruction in the teaching of thesis statement is recommended because unlike other topics, this one entails correctness and uniformity of students’ knowledge (Monchinski, 2008). Making the teacher the main source of information thus ensures that students will carry out their task accordingly. Similarly, if the teacher recites the poem for modeling, students will not laugh or make a joke out of what they will read; rather take the lesson seriously and easily comprehend the implications that the author wants to convey. Modeling and direct instruction are therefore some good aspects of behaviorism. Third, choosing the best speech maximizes the ability of the students to write. By recognizing their talent, the teacher can inspire students to make speeches or write essays later on. Such experience could lead them to become good critics, public speakers, news anchors or commentators, journalists, teachers, and other productive professionals in the future. Furthermore, choosing the best speech will let the teacher realize if the students really know what a good speech is. The task serves as an evaluation not only of the way students write but the way they judge a certain speech. Behaviorist activities that are incorporated in the lesson plan provided, conform with the ideas of Skinner of regulating behaviors or reactions to a given stimuli (Monchinski, 2008; Woollard, 2010). With modeling techniques, direct instruction and peer evaluation, a teacher can successfully achieve a focused discussion, establish a well-managed classroom, and develop good study habits among students. D.  Discuss how behaviorism could be incorporated into your instructional setting. 1.  Analyze the effectiveness of behaviorism in addressing specific learning behaviors in your instructional setting. Behaviorism is one of the most important learning theories that continuously shape educational history. Behaviorists believe in what Skinner proposed called “operant conditioning,” (Casas, 2011). This means that any stimulus is conditioned by immediate reinforcement or reward (Casas, 2011). In teaching, behaviorists usually lay down the rules to the students at the beginning of the year. This helps to avoid misbehavior. Teachers also use positive and negative reinforcements to affect students’ behavior. As such, it is imperative for teachers to know their students’ behavior and plan out reinforcements to influence negative behaviors and make them positive. Rewards that are meaningful to the students should be in place to strengthen positive behaviors, and rules must be set at the very start to avoid negative behaviors (Woollard, 2010). Classroom management is one aspect that a behaviorist teacher focuses on (Woollard, 2010). Students have different personalities but when they come to school, they act in uniformity according to the policies and regulations set by the school and its teachers. Establishing classroom rules is thus the first step to a well-managed classroom (More, 2000). Teachers should make it a point to establish rules at the beginning of the year and have them posted. Doing this will give them direction. In particular, classroom rules may be memorized by students and recited as part of routines. Rules may be posted on the bulletin board to remind students of their responsibility. In terms of assignments, it is best to make contracts for parents or guardians to sign. There should be an assignment notebook where students will write all their assignments. The teacher signs the assignment page, whether it was completed or not, and students will ask their parents to countersign the page so as to monitor students’ effort in doing their assignments. Practicing routines is another beneficial aspect of the behaviorist classroom (More, 2000). Routines help to make students become organized individuals. Students who learn routines in school will learn to keep a routine at home and eventually, in their professional field. With routines, performance and processes will be perfected. As part of everyday routine, students should greet the teacher and their classmates, check attendance by counting off (each should be assigned a class number), recite classroom rules, and report current news. The reporting of current events should be done in turns, based on the class number. These routine activities are supposed to prepare students for the day ahead, and to condition them to behave the way they should in school. Setting the mood of students is a must in the behaviorist classroom (More, 2000; Woollard, 2010). In every lesson, the teacher should always give students some idea on what to expect for the day. This gets the students in the mood for activities, games, etc. For example, if the teacher says, “Today, we will play a game.” The students will know how to behave or react, and they will respond accordingly to the situation. If some serious activities need to be accomplished, then the teacher could say, “Have you made a Diorama? Today, I will teach you how to make one.” This statement prepares the students to concentrate on making a diorama. Posting the days activities on the board helps set the tone of the day and students will know what to expect. Reinforcements also help to promote good behavior. Examples of reinforcement include praises, awards, tokens, prizes, etc. False praise should never be given, even when something is not perfect, a teacher can still say thank you for participating or I appreciate your hard work. On one hand, varying reinforcement could help to motivate students more; on the other, the teacher should still establish a system in giving awards, prizes, etc. In this regard, it would be best to have chips students will collect every time they do something good. These chips will be equivalent to some prizes, awards, or recognition of efforts. Reinforcing good behavior could promote positive behavior in the future, thus the teacher should always reward positive behavior of students. Managing behavior is the key to having a behaviorist classroom (Woollard, 2010; Ryan, Cooper & Tauer, 2010). Teachers should always exert effort and find means to promote good behavior and do away with the bad ones. Catching students doing the right thing in class reinforces for them that good behavior will be rewarded. Particularly, to ensure good classroom management, every teacher should establish and regulate rules, apply routines, set students’ mood to learning, and provide positive reinforcement of good behavior. References Berry, R. (2009). Assessment for Learning. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press. Brooks, G. (2012). We real cool. The Bean Eaters. New York: Literary Licensing, LLC. Casas, M. (2011). Enhancing student learning in middle school. New York: Routledge. Monchinski, T. (2008). Critical Pedagogy and the Everyday Classroom. New York: Springer. More, A. (2000). Teaching and Learning: Pedagogy, Curriculum and Culture. London: Routledge. Ryan, K., Cooper, J., & Tauer, S. (2010). Teaching for student learning: Becoming a master teacher. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin Wheldall, K. (2012). The Behaviourist in the Classroom. London: Routledge. Woollard, J. (2010). Psychology in the Classroom: Behaviourism. New York: Taylor & Francis. Woollard, J. (2010). Psychology in the Classroom: Behaviourism. New York: Taylor & Francis. Read More