EDSC340 Blog

  3. How your attitudes about diverse learners or communities have evolved.   What assumptions or beliefs are being challenged for you? I used to assume that students who were not yet proficient in English would naturally receive the extra support they needed outside of the classroom. I also believed that learning English had to come before they could fully participate in academic content. My experience as an aide challenged this belief. At the school where I worked, some students lost valuable instruction because of the idea that “the English will come later” (Nordmeyer). Research shows the opposite: “(R)esearch confirms that English learners develop English most effectively while also mastering knowledge, skills and literacies needed for college and career success” (Nordmeyer). Seeing this in practice made me realize that waiting for proficiency before including students is harmful. Not all schools provide designated ELD time, and those that don’t leave students further behi...

  1. Key Ideas or questions from the reading connected to course goals.  What ideas or arguments stood out most to you in this week's materials? In the handout, "Students: Habits of Mind Explanation", the first habit is "metacognition", or "thinking about our thinking" (Costa, Kallick, and Zmuda). Metacognition is a habit that is largely ignored as a skill- humans react and reflect, and we take it from there. Still, it is not common to think strategically before engaging in a conversation or activity to the point of habit . Having self-awareness in this way takes time and "training". We take reactivity for granted, even though it is unreliable and can cause more issues than needed. When we are arguing with a loved one, for example, we simply respond to each other, over and over, until one person "wins". However, metacognition is a skill that many therapists teach couples so that during arguments, they don't seek to "win...