Chapter 5-1ndividual JlT1"r",u'po and Special Educational Needs

.........'-''''•., is most to have .

1. recess. fights
those she has no friends. a
of alcoholism and becomes violent when gets drunk.

2. thick glasses, has trouble reading what his teacher

He squints while looking at his textbooks and often words to

3. Although a grader,
she seems happiest herself.
One of her fifth-grade "

4. plays the trombone in the IS a

He does quite well in math but is having in
~Ui"'''C''' classes, of which a fair amount of reading.
His mother reports that he at least hours doing homework night but often
finds assignments difficult and

5.
challenging
him as
like capricious,

6. tires easily a day to her

medication, and often nap. Participating in the
regular education ,.....rH'"''..,''''' ul;;;...,au~\o;;; Nadine have
endurance to keep up with

7. written work-homework assignments, compositions,

man with a of academic potential. However, Harlan is extremely
when his calls on him, has unusual difficulty his thoughts

8. As a middle school student, Sandra trouble paying attention in

at a time. is exceptionally hyperactive her age;
her seat frequently and talks to those around her. say always
this they have to several specialists over but none has been
able to a physical or emotional cause for her behavior.

9. does exceptionally well on exams; in fact, has the score

Yet during sessions, never says a unless she is specifically on,
even though converses readily with her in other situations. On several occasions
in class, her has asked Valerie questions that he knows can answer correctly, but
Valerie nothing and acts as ifshe's everything she has

77
,-,,,,,,rU' ,"1 5-1ndividual nll£'n'r:'rp~ and Special Educational Needs

10. talks in her first-grade class and most of her time alone.
with the pencils in her pencil quite upset when the class
usual routine.

11. depressed much of the describes himself as a

He spends his study hall time
and death.
Chapter 6-Learning and Cognitive Processes

Application Exercise #9: AnalYZing Cognitive Processes

Identify the cognitive processes and/or components of memory involved in each of the following.

1. When Michelle reads about the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., she associates it
with the racist attitudes that many people have toward African Americans.

2. Alex remembers that Juneau is the capital of Alaska by thinking, "D you know the capital of
Alaska?"

3. Walt studies his spelling words by writing each one three times in a row.

4. Candace has been studying the multiplication tables, including 6 x 9 = 54 and 7 x 8 = 56.
When she multiplies 7 and 8 on a homework assignment, she erroneously writes "54."
5. Dominic's physical education teacher is demonstrating how to dribble a basketball past an
opponent. Dominic thinks to himself, "Aha! To keep the ball away from my opponent, I
need to move the ball as unpredictably as possible."
6. As her teacher reads the first chapter of Stuart Little, Juanita tries to imagine the main
character of the book-a mouse-washing himself in a human-size bathroom sink.
7. Just before a math quiz, Frank looks at the formula for computing the area of a circle (A =
nr2) one last time. He repeats the formula to himself until he receives his exam sheet, at
which point he quickly writes it in the margin so he won't forget it.
8. When Kevin's teacher asks, "In what biological class are spiders?" Kevin's mind goes
blank. Later, his friend Joey mentions Arachnophobia as one of his all-time favorite films.
Suddenly Kevin remembers the answer to his teacher's question-arachnids.
9. James remembers that Ie chien is French for "the dog" by picturing a dog with a big chain
around its neck.
10. As his teacher explains how The Searlel Leller fl;;Dccts the value~ of Puritan New England,
Joel is occupied with thoughts about the fight that he had with his best friend at lunch and so
doesn't remember anything the teacher says.
11. When the music teacher asks, "Which operas did Mozart write?" her students cannot
remember a single one. She gives them a hint: "One of his operas involves a wedding." At
this point, Tom immediately shouts out, "The Marriage ofFigaro!"
12. Gail is reading about the American Revolution. To help herself remember what she is
reading, she lists the various events that occurred before and during the war on a piece of
paper; she then draws arrows to indicate possible cause-effect relationships among them.
13 . Once a week Suzanne reviews the vocabulary words she has learned in Spanish I this year.
14. Ben is reading a college-level textbook that he is having trouble understanding. "Surely I
can make sense of this ifl work at it a while," he thinks to himself.
15. Rosalyn remembers the biological classification system-kingdom, phylum, class, order,
family, genus, species-by remembering "King Philip comes over for good spaghetti."

92
Chapter 6-Learning and Cognitive Processes

Application Exercise #10: Identifying Effective Classroom Practices

Decide whether each of the following teaching practices is consistent with concepts and
principles of cognitive psychology, and why.

1. Mr. Hendricks asks his students to multiply 623 x 59 in their heads.

2. As Ms. Ziolkowski describes how Japanese culture is different from her students' own
culture, she occasionally stops to ask a question for students to think about and answer.

3. Even though Mr. Stolte's students are now studying multiplication and division, he
occasionally has them do problems requiring addition and subtraction.

4. Ms. Tipton warns Sam, an avid reader, that he may be reading too much. She tells him, "I'm
afraid that your mind will get so cluttered with the things you read that you won't have room
in your brain for the things you need to learn in school."

5. Before beginning a lesson on vertebrates, Ms. Thomas asks, "How many of you have pets at
home? How many have dogs? cats? fish? birds? lizards? Can you think of ways in which
all of these animals are alike?"

6. Ms. Durocher teaches in a Boston suburb, close to where many early events of the American
Revolution took place. When she begins to talk about the revolution in a history lesson, she
describes each local event as it comes to her mind.

7. Mr. Urquhart reminds his students, "All eyes should be on me as I explain tonight's
homework assignment."

8. Mr. Palermo's class has just read Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter. "I don't think
Hester Prynne did anything wrong," says Karen. Mr. Palermo waits several seconds to see if
other students agree or disagTee before sharing his own opinion about Hester's behavior.

9. As Mr. Gotthardt describes World War II's D-Day, he passes around pictures from an old
issue of Life magazine that show Allied troops landing at Omaha Beach.

10. Mr. Davis says, "Now that we know the properties of acids, let's think about things acids
might help us do. In what ways might we use acids to address everyday problems?"

11. Ms. Gibbs is preparing her students for a standardized achievement test they will be taking
next Monday. "Listen closely and put this in your short-term memories," she advises them.
"Be sure to get a good night's sleep and eat a good breakfast before you come to school that
day."

12. Mr. Nakamura wants his students to be as relaxed as possible while he describes a difficult
concept, so he gives them paper and crayons so that they can doodle as he talks.

13. Mr. Li' s class is studying South America. He has the class study a different aspect of the
continent each month-topography in September, culture in October, major cities in
November, economics in December, and so on-so that students won't confuse these things.

94
 Chapter .<'.W'flUIY and Cognitive Processes

14.
ann out

large end baton over your ann.

both the small end under ann. Then

baton goes up, your arn1 goes down,

practice the in slow motion and encourages them to say

they do so.

15. basic elements,

potassium, silicon,

"

16. attention, Ms. jJ&>jr",..c,,,,,, engages in a presentation of

17. When students' physics Tobias gives only when students

as presented book. This way, can score their answers
fairly.

18.

19. second graders reading commonly English words over and

over agam. practice sometimes involves responding to cards, but more often, it
involves many shorl stori~.:; inc,lude the words.

studied three simple wedges, and

'''''''lH1.l'' an axe is?" the students don't
"
Ms. Sanderson students in her that they can that marcher means
"to walk" by about "marching.

Mr. Wolfe is reviewing yesterday'S of poctry. "What

poem's patternT' When no one responds after several he says,
you can It begins with the M." At that point students shout out,
"Meter!"

23. Ms. Flanagan is to give an idea of how

earth. She them, "Think of the history as being a
have only in existence between 11 p.m. and midnight.

24. In an attempt to foster creativity, a teacher divides into five groups

gives each one a creative activity to pursue (writing a play, a new gadget,
composmg a and so on). She a two-hour period activity, then pulls
class back to find out what accomplished.
 Chapter 7-Knowledge Construction

Application Exercise #11: Analyzing Constructive Processes

Explain each of the following situations using concepts or principles related to knowledge
construction:

1. James is trying to remember how to spell the word permanent. He can remember the first
four letters (p-e-r-m) and the last four letters (n-e-n-t), but he's not sure what the middle
vowel is. He correctly decides that the middle vowel must be an a based on how the word is
pronounced.

2. As a third-grade teacher begins to read Black Beauty to her class, eight-year-old Casey
pictures the main character-a horse-with a shiny coat, flowing mane, and long black tail.

3. Ms. Forbes explains that objects are buoyant in water when they are, overall, less dense than
the water they displace. YVOIme misinterprets the teacher's statement as confirming
something she already "knows:" Light things float and heavy things sink.

4. Several students get together to read and interpret William Shakespeare's Julius Caesar.
One student describes the benefits of the group discussion this way: "I like hearing my
friends' ideas about what the characters are really trying to say. Shakespeare isn't always an
easy guy to understand."

5. When asked to explain what a nurse is, five-year-old Jeremy says, "The lady who's nice to
you at the doctor's office."

6. As students in Nadia's band class are warming up to play their instruments, an

announcement comes over the school intercom. Nadia catches bits and pieces of the
announcement- she hears "Student Council" and "Thursday"~-and guesses that the Student
Council must be meeting Thursday after school.

7. Mr. Holder shows his sixth graders a large map of Africa and explains that the Nile River
flows north to the Mediterranean Sea. Although his students hear what he says, his
comment doesn't really "register" with many of them. In a class discussion a few days later,
Paul describes the river as rUlming south, away from the Mediterranean. "No, Paul," Linda
responds, "I used to think that was true. But rivers must run toward the sea, not away from
it. So the Nile must run north."

8. When asked to explain the various phases of the moon (new moon, halfmoon, etc.), Misty
explains that the earth casts its shadow on the moon during most of the month and that
sunlight has an unimpeded path to the moon only for the full moon. Misty illustrates her
explanation by drawing several diagrams on the chalkboard. In fact, Misty's explanation is
incorrect: The earth comes between the sun and the moon only rarely; such an occasion is
known as a lunar eclipse.

9. Maureen remembers this "fact" from a previous lesson about the French Revolution: "Marie
Antoinette had her head chopped off because she couldn't bear Heruy VIII any children."

107
 nn""l!7/1.crp Construction

1O. about a family going to a fast-food restaurant for lunch. The story never
the family members order pay at the counter before sitting
down to eat. Nevertheless, Sam assumes that

11. to what a musical answers, "Well, let's see, it

a trumpet, or a violin, or a xylophone, or ... I that's all I can think of." Her
teacher "Are drums musical instruments?" "No," Ronetta responds, "a drum isn't an
"

12. mistakenly believes that a falling object (rather than increases) in speed as
ground because air near the it up" to some extent. To test
drops a ball from a second-story window. "See? Did you notice how
down just before it reached

13. several buildings in Josh insists that the

punishment for a casino in the area.

1
Chapter 7-Knowledge Construction

Application Exercise #12: Identifying Effective Classroom Practices

Decide whether each of the following teaching practices is consistent with principles of learning
related to knowledge construction, and why.

I. Ms. Forbes discovers that despite instruction to the contrary, Yvonne still believes that
heavy objects cannot possibly float. "What will happen when I put a heavy casserole dish in
a sink full of water?" Ms. Forbes asks her. "It will sink, of course," Yvonne replies. Ms.
Forbes places a large ceramic cooking dish in water; contrary to Yvonne's prediction, it
floats.

2. Mr. Goldberg's class has already learned that insects have three body parts, six legs,
antennae, and an exoskeleton. Then he says, "Let's take a look at a picture of a wasp. See?
It has all the parts that insects have, so it must be an insect."

3. In a unit on clouds, Ms. Lavoie shows a picture of a cloud and says, "One type of cloud is a
cumulonimbus cloud. Here is what a typical cumulonimbus cloud looks like." She then
moves on to a discussion of cumulus clouds.

4. Mr. Sawyer has his middle school students read a short story that involves events at a Bar
Mitzvah. Knowing that many of his students are not Jewish, he first describes what a typical
Bar Mitzvah is like.

5. Mr. Rochelle knows that he needs to move quickly ifhe's going to cover all the material that
he has planned for his pre-calculus students. So he introduces two or three new topics or
procedures each day, giving his students homework problems every night that allow them to
review and practice the things they are studying in class.

6. After a hard practice session after school, Coach DiStephano calls the members of the girls'
soccer team together and asks them to discuss and debate various strategics,for defeating the
Westview Warriors-a team whose defense has a reputation for being almost
impenetrable-in next Saturday's game.

7. Mr. Robichaud decides that his geology students will learn general principles of geology
most effectively if they discover everything for themselves, so he dispenses with a textbook
for his class and devotes class time almost entirely to hands-on experiences with rocks.

8. As Ms. Valentine describes an upcoming quiz in her language arts class, she tells her
students, "Yesterday I gave you a list of definitions for the week's new vocabulary words.
As long as you learn those definitions, you should be in good shape for the quiz."

9. As Mr. Perez's class studies the topic of weather, different groups of students conduct
research on different topics (cloud formation, hurricanes, the effects of high- and low­
pressure systems, the effects of the Gulf Stream, the meanings of meteorological symbols,
etc.). Mr. Perez gives the groups guidance about how to proceed in their research but makes
it clear that he himself is not necessarily an expert about all the topics they are studying.
After a couple weeks of research, students in each group teach their classmates what they
have learned.

110

 Chapter 7-Knowledge Construction

10. In her French class, Ms. Malnati makes sure that her students have frequent opportunities to
converse with one another in French about everyday situations and problems.

11. Mr. Harris is teaching a unit on buoyancy and asks his students why it's easier to swim in
salt water. Marla replies, "It's easier because the salt holds you up." Mr. Harris realizes that
her understanding of buoyancy isn't quite right, but he lets it go because he figures that a
more correct understanding will evol ve over time.

12. When Mary refers to the Great Lakes as having salt water, her teacher responds by saying,
"You know, a lot of students think that's true. It's a very reasonable thing to think because
the Great Lakes are so big, and sometimes the waves get as big as the ones we see at the
beach here in Atlantic City. But in fact, the Great Lakes have fresh water, not salt water."

13. Ms. Blackstone's kindergartners occasionally ask questions that get her lessons off-track.
F or instance, on one occasion, she reads her class a story that takes place in the 1800s and
shows them a picture of a horse-drawn carriage that appears in the book. When Amal asks,
"Why does the horse have those things by his eyes?" Ms. Blackstone responds, "Oh, those
are blinders," and then continues reading the story.

III

 Chapter (1-'rIn", Processes

Which of the following techniques are likely to promote more effective learning and
which are Defend your choices.

1. Randolph her graders they should taking notes in

throughout the class "',","''''L~'''. she identifies concepts ideas that

should include in their notes.

To simplify her lessons, Ms. Benn Dn~sents historians' depictions historical events
as rather as the educated guesses often are.

3. Mr. begins a unit on mountains by telling "Before we look at how

mountains are formed, I want you to try to erase from your memories anything you think you
already know about all begin as blank on this subject and start from
scratc:h"

students they should ask '11'"""""'",,' as they the chapter on cell

division homework.

5. the last minutes of day, students out a sheet

summary of the day's

6.
course,
to use

7. on World II, Mr,

class: why the United
""")'1>-'1"1 had on war's final outcome,"
 Chapter X_HU'ha,,_ Processes

successful transfer or problem solving is

the and theories of and

1. When Clarence learns about law of inertia in his it suddenly makes sense
to him his motor boat to move forward after the is turned off.

Mr. Mantey teaches students in middle school math class how to calculate the area of a
(area = Ih base x height). presents an of how to use the formula with a
triangle that of 4 and a height of 7 centimeters and makes sure that all
students correct answer of 14 to a
discussion of how to calculate a

3. Mr. dictates this algebra problem and students to solve x in their heads:
+x 3 + 84

4. Ryan has been studying Spanish for three years now. He is hoping that his knowledge of
Spanish will help him learn Italian when he on a student program to Rome
this summer.

5. one-semester high _~.,,..,..~.~ to an introduction

to the ."o',,__.n physiological perception, child development,
perception, mental illness, and so on.

6. Janice is learning to sew cuffs on the the shirt is in Skills

class. that the is very similar to attaching a collar to a shirt-something
already knows how to do.

7. studies the state capitals until knows them at a of automaticity.

8. When Ha.'u,,~. asks what he is in history, bunch of It's

all just

9. In a unit on softball, Ms. Warren teaches her students to keep their eye on the ball as it
comes toward the and to swing the out to meet the ball. She is hoping that her
students will use same when they the telmis in two

10. woodworking how to use a

comers a picture is working on. Next week,

box when Mr. Nesbitt shows the class how to a doorway.

2
11. Heath memorizes me and it perfectly. knows that E stands for
energy and m stands mass, although e refers to.