Ashlyn Cummings

Reflection #2
SPED 310
October 12, 2015

Aggie Honor Code:

On my honor as an Aggie, I have neither given nor received unauthorized aid on this academic
work.

Reflection #2
Academic ethos in teaching can be demonstrated through recognition, engagement,
academic and behavioral expectations, and effective questioning. Recognition is the ability to
provide specific praise to students, which gives the student an understanding of exactly what
they did right in a situation. Engagement, allows students to be actively engaged in learning.
Academic and behavioral expectations demonstrate the goals and standards to which teachers
hold their students. Finally, effective questioning challenges students knowledge and
understanding of a subject to build upon or strengthen what they already know. Each piece plays
an important part to academic ethos, by increasing the students desire to learn and participate in
class.
Recognition provides the positive specific praise that ultimately affects how students
respond in class. By providing recognition for wanted behavior, students have a desire to
continue doing that specific behavior. Lemov states, precise praise is about managing positive
feedback to maximize its focus, benefit, and credibility (pg. 434). Positive specific praise, as
discussed in SPED 310, establishes the importance of explaining to a student what she/he did
that deserves recognition (Byrns, 2015). For example, if students are sitting on their bottoms,
with a bubble in their mouth, and are actively engaged, the teacher can then describe to the
students the exact behavior that they did correctly. As learned in SPED 310, students respond
greatly to this method by being actively engaged during the lesson and wanting to do the right
thing (Byrns, 2015). Recognition, as a whole, provides a way for teachers to increase the desired
behavior that they want to see in their class and decrease any behavioral issues. Dr. Fogarty
discussed how recognition or positive specific praise, demonstrates a proactive rather than
reactive environment (Fogarty, 2015). In proactive environments, students have a desire to learn

and do what is expected of them the first time. Recognition fuels this idea by helping students
understand and see what the expected behavior is supposed to look like when receiving positive
specific praise. In the field placement assignments, students enjoy being recognized for
following directions. When students are told that they did something right, they immediately
change their attitude and participate in class. Lemov states, Its critical then to praise actions,
not traits, and further to carefully identify actions that students can replicate. You are praising
them in part to help them see the inside of the success machine: the more actionable the thing
you reinforce, the more students can replicate their success (pg. 435). The point made from
Lemov discusses the importance of being specific about how praise is implemented. This is
crucial to providing recognition because teachers need to be aware of how to use effective praise
when telling students what they like about their particular behavior in a situation. Positive
recognition helps build students desires to learn and engages them in the activities during the
upcoming lesson.
Engaging students provides the means of connecting with students in ways they can
relate, and find interesting to them. Engaging students opens the door for them to be active
participants in their learning. Jennifer L. Goeke, discusses in Explicit Instruction, Students are
likely to learn more and appreciate the content more when teachers display enthusiasm in their
teaching. Enthusiasm creates higher levels of student engagement with the lesson, thereby
increasing academic learning time (pg. 33). This means that as teachers we need to be energetic
and excited about what we are teaching. The more excited and ready to teach, the more the
students are likely to show engagement during the lesson. As discussed in SPED 310, students
who are actively engaged are less likely to have behavioral issues (Byrns, 310). This
demonstrates that when students are engaged in learning, they are participating in learning.

Engaging students is important to academic ethos because it increases the overall chances for
students to grasp what is being taught. In the field placement, when the teacher asks questions
that apply to their interest or likes, students immediately began to be interested in what the
teacher has to say. Engagement is seen through classroom management, and creating an
environment of active participation. Goeke states that, [] when students actively participate,
they are more likely to process and retain information and to engage in higher-order thinking
(pg.42). Overall engagement, builds active participation, thus, increasing chances of students
having a desire to learn and decreasing behavioral issues.
Academic and behavioral expectations allow the students to know exactly what they need
to do that day. These expectations build classroom management and teacher-student
relationships, by having open communication and emphasizing what each students role is in the
classroom. Dr. Fogarty mentioned how expectations are to be taught during the first few weeks
of class (Fogarty, 2015). During this time, teachers establish what is to be expected from their
students in different activities during the day such as bell work, being in the hallway, behavior
with peers, etc. In the field placement, this is seen when the teacher uses pre-corrections. The
teacher establishes what she expects each student to do, reminds students of the procedures and
rules, as well as models what that particular behavior looks like. This is beneficial for students
who still have trouble meeting expectations and need an extra demonstration of what the desired
behavior looks like. Another great example is using No Opt Out, where students do not get the
opportunity to refuse to answer. Using this technique, teachers make sure that the students
answer the questions, thus demonstrating the expectation of students taking responsibility for
their learning. Lemov describes, No Opt Out, as a sequence that begins with a student unable
to answer a question should end with the student answering that question as often as possible

(pg.28). This strategy demonstrates the responsibility that the students have to be actively
engaged in their learning. Lemov also discusses the impact the 100 percent technique has for
overall classroom compliance. This is extremely important for teachers to grasp in the classroom,
so that there is an understanding of how students should follow directions. In Teach like a
Champion, the author states, many teachers who fail to approach the 100 percent standard stop
noticing whether they are achieving full compliance. Remedying this is the first step to achieving
the highest behavioral expectations: to wield power justly but firmly, you must be keenly aware
of how students respond to your directions (pg.168). Due to this, it is important for teachers to
pay attention to how students are following directions because it reflects how the teacher is being
understood from the students. For example, if the teacher does not give directions to how
students should answer questions during carpet time, the teacher will not get a good result of
understanding from the students because they are unsure of the procedure. Lemov states, one
consistent finding of academic research is that high expectations are the most reliable driver of
high student achievement, even in students who do not have a history of successful achievement
(pg. 27). This demonstrates the overall impact academic and behavioral achievement has on
students and their learning. Academic and behavioral expectations helps even the most
challenging students strive to meet that goal. Using academic and behavioral expectations
benefits students overall learning, and even helping them to answer and ask beneficial questions
during class.
Effective questioning is an extremely important contributor to academic ethos because it
helps students use higher order thinking when working out problems. This method allows
students to be challenged about the different lessons they are learning that day. When effective
questioning is in place, students are able to broaden their understanding and pull from

background knowledge, and experiences. When using higher order questions based on the levels
of blooms taxonomy, teachers are establishing a better idea of building upon their knowledge. In
Steven W. Gilberts article titled Systematic Questioning, he stated that, Blooms taxonomy is
hierarchical: that is, performance at each level requires that the student be able to operate on the
learned information at subordinate levels (pg.42). This is critical when asking effective
questions because if teachers do not build students comprehension through different questioning
strategies, then students lack the skills to think in different ways. In the field-based assignments,
the teacher uses the application level of Blooms taxonomy, to help them see how they can use
their science lesson or math lesson in real world examples. This allows students to build upon not
only their knowledge and understanding of the subject but also their background knowledge by
linking it to something they have learned. When asking effective questions, it builds the
foundation of students understanding through critical thinking skills, thus being extremely
important to academic ethos in teaching.
Overall, academic ethos is built around several major qualities of effective teachers.
Teachers need to understand that by implementing recognition and engaging their students, they
will be more active in their learning and have a desire to participate in class. The teachers also
need to understand that academic and behavioral expectations need to be clear and helpful to the
students, by providing them with the knowledge of what they are supposed to do. This allows
students to self-monitor their own behavior, thus decreasing the undesired behavior. Lastly,
effective questioning helps to build upon their knowledge by facilitating problem-solving
strategies. When asking effective questions teachers need to know how to use and ask different
levels of Blooms taxonomy to help students understand what they have learned. Each strategy

builds upon how teaching should be implemented, and how it strengthens their academic ethos
demonstrated in their classroom.

References:
Fogarty, Melissa (2015). Class Discussions.
Byrns, Glenda (2015). Class Discussions.
Gilbert, S. (1992). Systematic questioning: Taxonomies that develop critical thinking skills. The
Science Teacher, 59(9), 41-41.
Goeke, J. L. (2009). Explicit instruction: A framework for meaningful direct teaching. Upper Saddle
River, NJ: Pearson Education, Inc.

Lemov, D. (2015). Teach like a champion 2.0:62 techniques that put students on the path to
college (p. Page #s). San Francisco, California: Jossey-Bass.