Blog 2: Chapters 1 & 2
Role:Rigorous Research
Natalie Gregorski
One of the major topics of discussion in the first two chapters of this book was memory, and how it is used in learning and retrieving information. There are three types, short term, long term, and working memory, all of which are important to thinking and education. The topic that I found the most interesting was working memory and how there is very limited space, yet we can pull from long term memory to help sort through out tasks and information given to us. After researching more information I found the following to be useful in exploring working memory more.
Working memory is a system for temporarily storing and managing the information required to carry out complex cognitive tasks such as learning, reasoning, and comprehension. Working memory is involved in the selection, initiation, and termination of information-processing functions such as encoding, storing, and retrieving data. ( MedicineNet.com )
The following passage was taken from the American Psychological foundation on how working memory would be the cause of some behavior symptoms of ADHD and how those might be remedied through training
"It could be that working-memory problems give rise to observable behavioral symptoms of ADHD: distractibility and also poor academic achievement," she says. Working-memory deficits might also underpin some reading disabilities, as it controls the ability to recall words read earlier in a sentence, says Tannock.
But how--or even if--working memory can be expanded through training remains a topic of hot contention among psychologists. Some argue that working memory has a set limit of about four items, and that individual differences in working memory arise from the ability to group small bits of information into larger chunks. However, new research suggests that working-memory capacity could expand with practice--a finding that could shed new light on this central part of the mind's architecture, as well as potentially lead to treatments for ADHD or other learning disabilities.
To learn more visit the Association Website
http://www.apa.org/monitor/sep05/workout.aspx
Natalie Gregorski
Monday, January 31, 2011
Why do we think when the brain is not made for it?
Blog 2: Chapter 1 and Chapter 2. Stacey LaFountain, Vocabulary/Concept Vitalizer and Essence Extractor.
Vocabulary/Concept Vitalizer:
1) Working memory - is the current contents of a person's consciousness.
2) Long-term memory - is the memory that involves the storage and recall of information over a long period of time (as days, weeks, or years)
3) Procedural knowledge - is the type of knowledge someone has and then demonstrates through the procedure of doing something.
4) Chunking -is the grouping together of a number of items by the mind, after which they can be remembered as a single item, such as a word or a musical phrase.
5) Knowledge - acquaintance with facts, truths, or principles, as from study or investigation; general education.
Essence Extractor:
Brain's aren't for thinking and act as a filing cabinet.
Vocabulary/Concept Vitalizer:
1) Working memory - is the current contents of a person's consciousness.
2) Long-term memory - is the memory that involves the storage and recall of information over a long period of time (as days, weeks, or years)
3) Procedural knowledge - is the type of knowledge someone has and then demonstrates through the procedure of doing something.
4) Chunking -is the grouping together of a number of items by the mind, after which they can be remembered as a single item, such as a word or a musical phrase.
5) Knowledge - acquaintance with facts, truths, or principles, as from study or investigation; general education.
Essence Extractor:
Brain's aren't for thinking and act as a filing cabinet.
Blog 2: I think I can, I think I can....but it takes too long to think.
Chapters 1-2: Creative Connector:
1. "Thinking is the hardest work there is, which is the probable reason why so few people engage in it." (pp.4) I had good chuckle after the author wrote this because it is very true! Thinking takes time and effort and people would rather bypass the thinking stage and just be given the answer. In the text the author poses sample problems and asks the reader to solve them. One example is the question with the candle, tacks and matches. The problem is how does one light the candle and have it 5 ft off the ground without holding it. I read the question and comprehended it, I even thought for a whopping 15 seconds before giving up and reading the answer. The truth was I didn't want to think of the solution because it was "too hard." Most would chalk it up as laziness (which it might be a little too) but Willingham states that thinking takes much more time for the brain to do, so we try to do less of it.
2. "Using memory doesn't require much of your attention, so you are free to daydream, even as you're stopping at red lights, passing cars, watching for pedestrians, and so on." (pp. 7) The Author is explaining the brain and how memory (long term & short term) are quick and easy for it to do, while the act of thinking is slow and time consuming. This passage reminded me of the many times I had to drive to work at 7:00 am on Saturdays. It would still be dark out and I'd climb into my car and the next minute (or so it seemed) I had arrived at work. I actually asked myself one day, "Alex, how did you get here?" I had been daydreaming the whole time I was driving! My mind/ memory worked as an autopilot, so I was free to daydream. Believe it or not, this happens to me quite frequently...
3. "You may have experienced something similar when traveling, especially if you've traveled where you don't speak the local language. Everything is unfamiliar and even trivial actions demand lots of thought.....That's one reason why traveling is so tiring: all of the trivial actions that at home could be made on autopilot require your full attention." (pp. 8) I lived in Italy for a year and during that time I took the proximity to other European countries to my full advantage. On long weekends, I'd venture out of Italy and into France or Germany. However, I don't speak French or German! While I visited France I was forced to play an ugly game of charades in order for the French to understand what I wanted and needed. For instance, I walked into a bar (which also serves food) and wanted to express that I was hungry and wanted to eat. Something so trivial but I did not know the verb "to eat" in French. So I first tried Italian "mangiare? mangio?" but they didn't understand. Then, I resorted to the next best thing, closing my hands around an imaginary hamburger and biting into it while saying "eat" and then rubbing my tummy "hungry". To this the man understood and then brought me a menu. My brain really had to think of how to get the things I needed because this country was new to me and I couldn't run on memory or autopilot.
Idea Illustrator:
1.
Curiosity - Willingham writes about the necessity of "hooking" our students. We have to make our students curious so they want to learn and think. I chose this picture of the cat peeking up and over the frame not just because it's cute but because we want our students to be like that cat. As educators we should be able to give them a challenging yet solvable problem and they should be curious enough to want to solve it.
2. Einstein - Willingham describes a poster in his dorm depicting Einstein's quote, "Imagination is more important than knowledge." The author disproves this quote in chapter 2 by saying that without having previous knowledge of something, one couldn't possibly be able to imagine anything. Background knowledge, even shallow knowledge, is necessary.
3. crossword - The last image I chose is the New York Times crossword. Willingham specifically mentions this crossword in the text when he states that, " If the student routinely gets work that is a bit too difficult, it's little wonder that he doesn't care much for school. I wouldn't want to work on the Sunday New York Times crossword puzzle for several hours each day." (pp. 13) Teachers need to challenge their students but within the student's level of comprehension.
Alex Pergolizzi
1. "Thinking is the hardest work there is, which is the probable reason why so few people engage in it." (pp.4) I had good chuckle after the author wrote this because it is very true! Thinking takes time and effort and people would rather bypass the thinking stage and just be given the answer. In the text the author poses sample problems and asks the reader to solve them. One example is the question with the candle, tacks and matches. The problem is how does one light the candle and have it 5 ft off the ground without holding it. I read the question and comprehended it, I even thought for a whopping 15 seconds before giving up and reading the answer. The truth was I didn't want to think of the solution because it was "too hard." Most would chalk it up as laziness (which it might be a little too) but Willingham states that thinking takes much more time for the brain to do, so we try to do less of it.
2. "Using memory doesn't require much of your attention, so you are free to daydream, even as you're stopping at red lights, passing cars, watching for pedestrians, and so on." (pp. 7) The Author is explaining the brain and how memory (long term & short term) are quick and easy for it to do, while the act of thinking is slow and time consuming. This passage reminded me of the many times I had to drive to work at 7:00 am on Saturdays. It would still be dark out and I'd climb into my car and the next minute (or so it seemed) I had arrived at work. I actually asked myself one day, "Alex, how did you get here?" I had been daydreaming the whole time I was driving! My mind/ memory worked as an autopilot, so I was free to daydream. Believe it or not, this happens to me quite frequently...
3. "You may have experienced something similar when traveling, especially if you've traveled where you don't speak the local language. Everything is unfamiliar and even trivial actions demand lots of thought.....That's one reason why traveling is so tiring: all of the trivial actions that at home could be made on autopilot require your full attention." (pp. 8) I lived in Italy for a year and during that time I took the proximity to other European countries to my full advantage. On long weekends, I'd venture out of Italy and into France or Germany. However, I don't speak French or German! While I visited France I was forced to play an ugly game of charades in order for the French to understand what I wanted and needed. For instance, I walked into a bar (which also serves food) and wanted to express that I was hungry and wanted to eat. Something so trivial but I did not know the verb "to eat" in French. So I first tried Italian "mangiare? mangio?" but they didn't understand. Then, I resorted to the next best thing, closing my hands around an imaginary hamburger and biting into it while saying "eat" and then rubbing my tummy "hungry". To this the man understood and then brought me a menu. My brain really had to think of how to get the things I needed because this country was new to me and I couldn't run on memory or autopilot.
Idea Illustrator:
1.
Curiosity - Willingham writes about the necessity of "hooking" our students. We have to make our students curious so they want to learn and think. I chose this picture of the cat peeking up and over the frame not just because it's cute but because we want our students to be like that cat. As educators we should be able to give them a challenging yet solvable problem and they should be curious enough to want to solve it.
2. Einstein - Willingham describes a poster in his dorm depicting Einstein's quote, "Imagination is more important than knowledge." The author disproves this quote in chapter 2 by saying that without having previous knowledge of something, one couldn't possibly be able to imagine anything. Background knowledge, even shallow knowledge, is necessary.
3. crossword - The last image I chose is the New York Times crossword. Willingham specifically mentions this crossword in the text when he states that, " If the student routinely gets work that is a bit too difficult, it's little wonder that he doesn't care much for school. I wouldn't want to work on the Sunday New York Times crossword puzzle for several hours each day." (pp. 13) Teachers need to challenge their students but within the student's level of comprehension.
Alex Pergolizzi
Saturday, January 29, 2011
Who Knew- The Mind is Not Designed for Thinking
Blog 2_Ch 1 Why Don’t Students Like School? & Ch 2 How Can I Teach Students the Skills They Need When Standardized Tests Require Only Facts?_Melissa Lochner: Literary Luminator
A passage from the first chapter that caught my attention was on page ten, half way into the first paragraph. It said, “When you solve a problem, your brain may reward itself with a small dose of dopamine, a naturally occurring chemical that is important to the brain’s pleasure system.” Later in the next paragraph it talks about how “working on a problem with no sense that your making progress is not pleasurable.” This idea fits right into the classroom. When students do not feel a sense of accomplishment they feel like the problem is to hard and they will shut down. By making, not easier, but more achievable problems that fit their learning style, the students will feel this reward of pleasure.
Another Passage in the first chapter that I marked was on page 20, fourth line down from the top. “Overloads of working memory are caused by such things as multistep instructions, lists of unconnected facts, chains of logic more than two or three steps long, and the application of a just-learned concept to new material.” When I read this my thought was that ‘this is what is happening in every classroom right now.’ If this is what is holding students back from grabbing the concept or ideas that they are supposed to be learning, then teachers need to readjust their lesson activities to prevent working memory overload.
There were many passages that caught my attention in “ah-ha” moments but the last one I chose to write about is on page 27 in chapter 2, third line up from the bottom. Willingham mentions something that we have all heard before, “You don’t need to have this information memorized--you can always just look it up.” This may be true for high schoolers or adults but for younger students they should learn to memorize some information. They need a base to their education, and mentioned later in the chapter they need background knowledge which they would not have in their later years of school if they were able to look everything up, and not memorize information, when they were younger.
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
Alex, this is your life.....
What did I do today? I assessed my life and the experiences I've had with other cultures, my exposure to individuals with disabilities and whether or not I'd survive in poverty. The results are in...
Slightly multicultural. Really? At first I was surprised I scored this. I assumed I would have scored higher since I have lived in another country for a year and while in that country traveled around to other countries. However, I was brought up in a predominantly white neighborhood in the suburbs, only recently have two African American families moved onto the block. I went to school and while I had some friends, most were white. I realized I took a multicultural dive when I attended Naz for undergrad. Naz, while predominantly white females, also is a pretty diverse culture. During my undergrad I met individuals with disabilities and individuals from very diverse cultural backgrounds. So, I suppose my results are valid.
The next test was the personal contact exposure with individuals with disabilities. I found myself never even writing "O" for often. Numbers 1-17 are scattered assortments of "Sometimes" and "Never". The inexcusable truth is, I can count the number of times I've been able to interact with an individual with disabilities on one hand. This doesn't mean I don't want to or that I've been living under a rock for 23 years, it's just the way it has happened.
Could I survive in poverty? No. I didn't circle even one statement. At one point I did circle one, then I asked myself if I was really telling the truth or just circling because I didn't want to look spoiled. I had to erase my mark. I've never had to do or know how to do any of those statements. How to defend myself physically? I'd probably run and fall! My life and the lives of individuals, worse, my students living in poverty are two totally different perspectives. While I'm sitting on my warm couch, cuddling with my dog (who has a full belly), wondering what I need to buy from Wegmans for lunch tomorrow, there are people wondering how they're going to survive the month.
I believe taking these surveys really opened my eyes and gave me a chance to reflect on my life and the lives of others. With this information I feel more aware and feel like I have a better understanding of individuals in my community and classroom.
-Alex
Slightly multicultural. Really? At first I was surprised I scored this. I assumed I would have scored higher since I have lived in another country for a year and while in that country traveled around to other countries. However, I was brought up in a predominantly white neighborhood in the suburbs, only recently have two African American families moved onto the block. I went to school and while I had some friends, most were white. I realized I took a multicultural dive when I attended Naz for undergrad. Naz, while predominantly white females, also is a pretty diverse culture. During my undergrad I met individuals with disabilities and individuals from very diverse cultural backgrounds. So, I suppose my results are valid.
The next test was the personal contact exposure with individuals with disabilities. I found myself never even writing "O" for often. Numbers 1-17 are scattered assortments of "Sometimes" and "Never". The inexcusable truth is, I can count the number of times I've been able to interact with an individual with disabilities on one hand. This doesn't mean I don't want to or that I've been living under a rock for 23 years, it's just the way it has happened.
Could I survive in poverty? No. I didn't circle even one statement. At one point I did circle one, then I asked myself if I was really telling the truth or just circling because I didn't want to look spoiled. I had to erase my mark. I've never had to do or know how to do any of those statements. How to defend myself physically? I'd probably run and fall! My life and the lives of individuals, worse, my students living in poverty are two totally different perspectives. While I'm sitting on my warm couch, cuddling with my dog (who has a full belly), wondering what I need to buy from Wegmans for lunch tomorrow, there are people wondering how they're going to survive the month.
I believe taking these surveys really opened my eyes and gave me a chance to reflect on my life and the lives of others. With this information I feel more aware and feel like I have a better understanding of individuals in my community and classroom.
-Alex
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
Slightly multicultural......fail at poverty
Blog 1
Before taking this assessment I always felt that I had contact with multiculturalism. What I learned is that most of my experience have come from my work habitat and not while growing up. The results were that I was "slightly multicultural" but that was only by 4 points. I had better results on my personal contact inventory. Again, that is due to working with students with disabilities. I think that these two assessments will help me as a teacher to understand that I still have a lot of learning to do when it comes to other's cultures. Also, the more you are exposed to differences, I think, the easier they are to understand.
Before taking the "Could you survive in Poverty" questionnaire I felt confident that if need be I could make it work in that situation. Now I realize that i could not just make it work. Students from poverty have completely different life experiences then those who are not from poverty. I think that using those different life experiences from all of your students could help your classroom to grow above and beyond what "should be taught". I also think that students would be interested to learn more about their classmates.
Stacey
Before taking this assessment I always felt that I had contact with multiculturalism. What I learned is that most of my experience have come from my work habitat and not while growing up. The results were that I was "slightly multicultural" but that was only by 4 points. I had better results on my personal contact inventory. Again, that is due to working with students with disabilities. I think that these two assessments will help me as a teacher to understand that I still have a lot of learning to do when it comes to other's cultures. Also, the more you are exposed to differences, I think, the easier they are to understand.
Before taking the "Could you survive in Poverty" questionnaire I felt confident that if need be I could make it work in that situation. Now I realize that i could not just make it work. Students from poverty have completely different life experiences then those who are not from poverty. I think that using those different life experiences from all of your students could help your classroom to grow above and beyond what "should be taught". I also think that students would be interested to learn more about their classmates.
Stacey
I guess I'm not very diverse
After doing the diveristy surveys I came to realize that my life is pretty monocultural. While I also liked to think a little diversity in my life I now realize I don't. I grew up in a pramily white neighborhood and went to school with primarily white people, I did have friends in both middle and high school of different races. In college I worked with a variety of students with special needs as well. I don't think that I view people in a negiative light that are different from me, I simply just don't have alot of interaction with, "the others." I also noticed when completeing the survey about people with disabilities in the media that after reflecting very rarely is that population present and that I have no had one teacher in all 17 years of schooling that had a visible disability. When completeing the survey about surviving in poverty, I already pretty much knew I would be dead meat if that was the case. Money is such a huge part of our society and just trying to get by now and pay my bills is a challege. I can't imagine if I didn't have a car how I would get to my job everyday. The only thing that I really knew how to do was apply for food stamps and aid because I had to help my friend figure out how to last yeat.... which by the way they made him jump through so many hoops it is a pain in the butt for anyone that didn't know. In the future I am going to try to be more aware of my monoculturness and try to push myself in a more multicultural directon in life and spice things up a bit!
Natalie
Natalie
Saturday, January 22, 2011
Assessing My Life- Not what I thought it was
I like to think of myself as quite a diverse person at least until I completed the survey assessing my life experiences. As I was going through completing the survey I had one 10, some 7’s, but mostly 1, 2, 3, and 4’s. After this I realized my life is more monocultural then I ever realized. I’ve been to New Orleans, twice, to help rebuild houses and was exposed to an entirely different culture, I’ve had an African American and Hispanic roommates, I’ve been in classes with students with disabilities. These are all things that I was exposed for a short period of time and have never surrounded my self by these experiences long term. I know evaluate myself and how I live and hope to surround myself by more diversity in my everyday life.
Reading the “Could You Survive in Poverty?” survey, my thought was I totally have this. I am such a bargain shopper and hate to spend money. However, that means that I already have the money and am not fighting to survive without it. I was only able to circle two options: I know how to live without a checking account, and I am very good at trading and bartering and can get by with out a car. In the end, I would never be able to survive being in poverty and have a respect for people that are able to fight through it every day to live on.
Melissa Lochner
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)