In this week's resources, behaviorist theory is explored in two areas. Reinforcing effort is discussed as way to show the students there is a “connection between effort and achievement” (Pitler, 2007, p.156)that can be tracked with a spreadsheet. The program we use in the computer lab called Education City, automatically tracks the effort, progress and outcomes for each class. These can be downloaded to an Exel spreadsheet to give to the classroom teacher. They can see the students’ progress or lack of progress, which can be used to keep a record for remediation plans for school based problem solving and potential student referrals. I automatically reward my students with stickers for achieving 100% correct in any given Education City activity. I also give them stickers for effort based on these spreadsheets that show improvement over time.
As far as the other aspect discussed in the text, homework and practice, I only use practice since not all of my students have computer access outside of my lab. We also use www.starfall.com to practice vowel sounds and reading, like Mrs. Metz’s class (Pitler, 2007, p.196) does in the example from the text. After practicing with their vowel sounds in the Learn to Read section, they also practice using the Key Skills program which rewards positive outcomes with virtual stickers that the students accumulate throughout the year. This can be printed up and given to them at the end of the year. The little ones really enjoy getting these rewards and counting them each time we use the software. This program also tracks their progress over time and shows their percentages for each skill set.
I feel that using these aspects of behaviorist theory helps build a foundation for the Primary grade student use in more creative projects in the Computer Lab.
Pitler, H., Hubbell, E., Kuhn, M., & Malenoski, K. (2007). Using technology with classroom instruction that works. Alexandria, VA: ASCD.
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I am going to try to use the spreadsheet idea to track my students effort for them to understand what real effort is. That is why I like the idea of them using a rubric and grading their own effort. With the program that you have, do the students grade their effort?
ReplyDeleteJenna Eklund
John,
ReplyDeleteSounds like your key skill program works real well with your students. I teach high school computer classes and if I hae figured one thing out about my students it is that they want to see when they have made progress. I'm sure your students like to see and in most cases compete against eachother in that program. Creative projects are the key to getting students engaged at any level. The more streamed videos and interactive websites we can use the better.
Matt
My school also uses educational packages that tracks students progress. I believe the point of having students create it in Excel is so they can see a picture of how they are doing and because they are giving most of the input they have a vested interest as well.
ReplyDeleteJenna,
ReplyDeleteNo, the students do not get to grade their effort with this program.
Matt,
ReplyDeleteYes the competition is fierce for the virtual stickers. I do encourage my students to get creative with their projects, it's the art teacher in me, by adding original drawings, sound bites etc.
Jodie,
ReplyDeleteI teach K-3 computer lab, so my younger students are not quite ready for Excel, but I am going to use the spreadsheets with my 3rd graders for an introduction to using Excel. I think they will enjoy it as it is relevant to their efforts.
John, after reading the material on the relationship between effort ands what I call success I intended to incorporate a program that measures my student’s effort. I have some very high achieving math students who are doing quite well academically I am curious to see how the effort scores compare with those of my other students.
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