The chaos curriculum and learning disabilities

A couple of weeks ago, I was talking to a colleague who teaches high school, and she told me about a recent incident that had left her thinking. One of her students  was enrolled in a dance class (in-school) that was holding an open house, and the student invited my colleague to attend. As my colleague  watched the class, she became aware that the atmosphere was one of calm and focus. The students were disciplined and respectful, yet the teacher and students seemed relaxed, and the students were clearly enjoying the class. My colleague was struck by the contrast between that atmosphere and the far more tense atmosphere of her own academic classes, in which she alternately had to plead with, threaten, and cajole students who consistently seemed surprised if not downright annoyed when she expected them to so much as pick up a pencil and copy a couple of sentences from the smart board. How, she wondered, could this possibly be happening in the same school?   Ã‚  Ã‚   My colleague is a dedicated, experienced teacher whose former students (despite their high school grousing) regularly return from college and tell her how much they miss her class, and that their professors just don’t measure up. It’s pretty fair to assume she isn’t the problem.   Ã‚  Ã‚   She did, however, have a theory about why students behaved so differently in the dance class than in her academic class. In a dance class, she observed, students are trained to be disciplined. There is an expectation that they will show up, work hard, listen to their teachers, and conduct themselves in an orderly fashion. In the arts, that’s apparently still acceptable. In their academic classes, in contrast, students have been trained to expect chaos. In fact, the more chaotic the classroom, the happier the administration is, and the higher the teacher’s ratings. And by chaotic, I mean groups shouting over one another and students wandering in and out of the room while music plays in the background. That’s obviously an extreme example (although a real one), and I’m not implying that every classroom across the country looks like that. But the fact that that sort of classroom could be held up as exemplary at a public school is by itself quite disturbing. In that model, I suspect, chaos is seen as a sign of authenticity—an indication that students are learning naturally (the highest goal of education), without any of that boring, â€Å"rote† memorization stuff. But given that, it’s no wonder students are taken aback when they’re asked to do serious work. After writing about the way the line between normal academic struggles and actual learning disabilities has become increasingly blurred, I couldn’t help but think back on my colleague’s observations. Although it’s easy to mock a certain type of overbearing, affluent parent who drags her children from specialist to specialist, doling out thousands of dollars for an Adderall prescription and a magical diagnosis that will result in extra time on the SAT or ACT, I think this scenario is in part the result of a system that pooh-poohs anything resembling the systematic acquisition of knowledge as too unbearably stodgy and old fashioned to even contemplate. Twenty-first century skills anyone? I think E.D. Hirsch  has described the problem most accurately, so if you’ll humor me, I’m going to quote him at length here: Beginning in the 1930s as part of the advance of progressive education in the public schools and the colleges of education, there were curriculum-revision movements across the land. Over the past six decades, such vague, gap-ridden â€Å"conceptual† curricula have been developed as a reaction to earlier, content-oriented approaches to forming a curriculum. The new curricula have attempted to get beyond the â€Å"rote learning† of â€Å"mere facts,† and to gain unity and conceptual depth by following broad and deep instructional aims. But†¦[e]ven the best local guides of this type have fundamental weaknesses. The first inherent weakness is the arbitrariness of the large-scale conceptual schemes and classifications that make up all such curricular â€Å"strands† and â€Å"objectives.† Such schemes may appear to be deep and comprehensive, but most of them are indeed quite arbitrary†¦ These general objectives do not compel either a definite or a coherent sequence of instruction. That is because the large conceptual scheme and its concrete expressions (through particular contents) have a very tenuous and uncertain relationship to each other. A big scheme is just too general to guide the teacher in the selection of particulars. For instance, on multiyear science objective in our superior local district states, â€Å"Understand interactions of matter and energy.† This is operationally equivalent to saying, â€Å"Understand physics, chemistry, and biology.† The teachers who must decide what to include under such â€Å"objectives† are given little practical help. (The Schools We Need, 30) And furthermore: Guidelines developed in multiyear units are ineffective in practice because children change teachers in successive years. Vague, multiyear goals make neither the student nor the teacher responsible for gaps; a gap is always something that should have been filled in some other year! (TSWN, 28) The inevitable result of a system that so utterly disdains coherence is that students learn things haphazardly, in dribs and drabs, without sufficient reinforcement and often based on the presumption of background knowledge they do not actually possess. Exceptionally bright and motivated students may indeed absorb much of what they need to know naturally, as may children of highly educated parents who regularly discuss academic topics at home. Unfortunately, these groups are the exception rather than the rule. When I first started tutoring, I was taken aback when students told me that they’d learned more about grammar in a two-hour session than they had in the previous decade of English class.  (I’m not saying that as a humblebrag, by the way—I was basically just imitating what my teachers had done with me. Back then, I didn’t know it was possible to teach any other way!)   I might have been a novice, but it seemed to me even then that there was something really very wrong with the whole picture. It was only when I discovered  Hirsch that I found an explanation for the often bizarre knowledge gaps I kept encountering  in very bright students. So to be clear, I didnt start out as some sort of ideologue—Hirschs work provided the only plausible explanation consistent with what  I was actually experiencing.   I also started to understand why everyone was so baffled about that state of affairs. Because â€Å"natural† learning is (erroneously) held up as the norm, when students start to fall off track academically, the usual assumption is that there’s something wrong with the student. It doesn’t occur to anyone to look at the larger system. In addition, many parents—even highly educated ones—are unaware of the extent to which schools have changed since they graduated. They assume that their children are being taught largely the same way they were taught; since they came out ok, their assumption again is that their child’s difficulties must be  due to a problem unique to that child.   From what I’ve observed, the result is a glut of average to well-above-average students with academic deficiencies that two or three decades ago would have been suggestive of a genuine learning disability, but that today would likely not exist were those students exposed to a more systematic and coherent curriculum. But unfortunately curriculums are incoherent, and students who are exposed to that type of incoherence will inevitably become anxious and overwhelmed, have difficulty focusing and absorbing information, and develop odd gaps in their knowledge. It would be remarkable if there weren’t an explosion in learning disability diagnoses, IEPs, extra time requests, etc. But as Hirsch describes, the American approach to education has been incoherent for decades. So why the surge in learning problems now, especially among affluent children?  Ã‚   Technology is one obvious factor. Granted my expertise in neuroscience is limited, but having seen what the internet and my smartphone have done to my own attention span, I can barely begin to fathom the effects on the developing brain. An increased willingness  to diagnose/medicate problems is presumably another large factor.   I think there are some other things at work here, however. Part of the issue, I suspect, is the difference between the types of teachers who populated classrooms a few decades ago, and the types of teachers more likely to be teaching today. When I was in high school, during the mid-late ‘90s, the majority of my teachers were 30-year veterans who had begun teaching in the mid-1960s. Even if progressive strains of the sort Hirsch describes were already an established feature  of American education, their excesses were held in check by more traditional norms.   Clearly, none of my teachers had ever been encouraged to think of him- or herself as a mere facilitator. Bearded ex-hippie or gray-suited Reaganite,  they were all experts in their subjects and were committed to helping their students acquire a broad body of subject-specific knowledge. Their lessons were coherent, sequential, and cumulative, and their classrooms were devoid of chaos.   In addition, their assignments certainly involved significant amounts of what would today be termed â€Å"critical thinking,† but they also believed in the importance of facts, and neither they nor the administration (largely made up of veteran educators) thought or spoke in the kind of buzzwords/edu-jargon that has come to predominate in discussions about education today. Indeed, they would have snorted  with derision at such language. A lot has obviously changed since then. The implementation of No Child Left Behind in 2000 and the shift to an obsessive focus on standardized testing coincided with the retirement of the type of veteran teachers I had (the oldest baby boomers or pre-boomers). The younger teachers who replaced them, and are continuing to replace them, were themselves more likely to have been products of the incoherent system Hirsch describes, and to accept the standardized testing regime and edu-drivel as normal.  Among them are genuinely well-meaning teachers who truly believe that in some hazy, unspecified  past, all learning was acquired by rote, and who are sincerely unaware of the connection between background knowledge and reading comprehension. (Ive met some of them, and they are genuinely naive about that relationship. Well-meaning people can do an awful lot of damage.) At the same time, just as the top and the bottom Americans  have moved away from each other economically, they have moved away from each educationally as well. The result is an increasingly polarized system that advances two frequently  opposing—but in some ways equally damaging—educational philosophies, which in turn  correspond to two of the biggest weaknesses Hirsch has identified in the American education system. At one extreme, mostly disadvantaged students are offered no-excuses schools that focus almost exclusively on formal skills (e.g. identifying main ideas, â€Å"inferencing,† annotating). Because subjects such as science, history, and foreign languages, unlike English, are not covered on state tests (which determines school rankings and teacher evaluations), those subjects are either scaled back or cut entirely. Ironically, in the name of raising reading scores, schools are depriving students of the exact knowledge they need to become better readers. (Thank you, Common Core!)   At the other extreme, schools that educate affluent students tout  their progressive credentials as a means of differentiating themselves from the masses: education is â€Å"hands-on,† â€Å"student-centered,† â€Å"discussion-based,† â€Å"social-emotional,† etc. In reality, that often means an equally incoherent curriculum, in which students spend their time talking in small groups and doodling on ipads while teachers act as â€Å"facilitators.†Ã‚  Students might appear to be doing sophisticated work, but  more often than not, theyre shaky on the fundamentals.  The gaps created by this type of education are less likely to be noticed for the simple reason that affluent parents can hire tutors to plug them. Having been one of those tutors hired to plug many such gaps, I can attest firsthand to the existence of this phenomenon.   There might still be a middle ground somewhere in the U.S. that vaguely resembles what used to be known simply as â€Å"school,† but if it still exists, it’s probably on its way out.   Pretty much the only thing everyone agrees on is that more technology is always better.   Either way, rich or poor, the result is smart kids  with big, weird gaps in their basic knowledge. Kids  who don’t know what a priest is, or what â€Å"comprehensive† means, or that authors can discuss ideas without agreeing with them. Sooner or later, almost everyone is going to need accommodations. In fact, why not just  extend regular  time by 50% and be done with it?

The Purpose of Building a Portfolio Assessment

A portfolio assessment is a collection of student works that are associated with standards you are required to learn. This collection of work is often gathered over a long period of time to reflect what you have been taught as well as what you have learned. Each piece in the portfolio is selected because it is an authentic representation of what you have learned and is meant to demonstrate your current knowledge and skills. A portfolio by nature is a storybook capturing a students progression of learning as they move through the year. What Goes Into a Portfolio A portfolio can include classwork, artistic pieces, photographs, and a variety of other media all demonstrating the concepts that you have mastered. Each item that is selected to go in the portfolio is chosen within the parameters of the purpose of the portfolio itself. Many teachers require their students to write a reflection that correlates with each piece in the portfolio. This practice is advantageous for the student as they self-assess their work and may set goals to improve. Finally, the reflection helps reinforce the concept for the student and it provides some clarity for anyone reviewing the portfolio. Ultimately, the most authentic portfolios are built when the teacher and student work collaboratively to decide which pieces should be included to demonstrate mastery of a specific learning objective. The Purpose of Developing a Portfolio A portfolio assessment is often deemed an authentic form of assessment because it includes authentic samples of a students work.  Many advocates of the portfolio assessment argue that this makes it a superior assessment tool because it is demonstrates learning and growth over an extended period of time. They believe it is more indicative of what a students true abilities especially when you compare it to a standardized test that provides a snapshot of what a student can do on a particular day. Ultimately, the teacher guiding the portfolio process helps determine the purpose of the final portfolio. The portfolio may be used to show growth over time, it may be used to promote a students abilities, or it may be used to evaluate a students learning within a specific course. Its purpose may also be a combination of all three areas. The Pros of Using a Portfolio Assessment A portfolio assessment demonstrates learning over the course of time rather than what a student knows a particular day.A portfolio assessment provides an opportunity for a student to reflect on their learning, to self assess, and to formulate a deeper understanding of the concepts they are learning beyond a simple surface explanation.A portfolio assessment requires a great level of individual interaction between the student and teacher wherein they are always collaborating about the requirements and components going into the portfolio.   The Cons of Using a Portfolio Assessment Developing and assessing a portfolio is time-consuming. It takes a lot of effort from both the teacher and the student and is a demanding endeavor in which you can quickly fall behind.Portfolio assessments are very subjective in nature. Even if the teacher utilizes a rubric, the individualized nature of a portfolio makes it difficult to remain objective and stick to the rubric. Two students working on the same learning standard may have two totally different approaches thus learning may not be the same.

In Today’S Technologically Advanced Society, Data Is An

In today’s technologically advanced society, data is an extremely valuable resource that is used daily by individuals and large corporations. Data is stored within databases to allow the process of retrieving and supervising data simplistic and efficient. Data plays a crucial role in today’s society and must be protected from all threats to maintain the data’s integrity. Security is one of the most important and challenging tasks that concerns the entire world but provides safety and comfort for those it defends. Similarly, security in the world of technology has great significance. Protecting the confidential and sensitive data stored within a repository is the sole purpose of database security. Database security is the mechanisms that†¦show more content†¦A database’s confidentiality associates with the protection of data information from being disclosed to unauthorized parties. Users who are given access to the data should be able to view certain data according to their given authority. For example, an employee should not be able to see the salaries of their managers however the managers should be able view an employee’s criminal history. A loss of confidentiality means that the data or system is unsecure and unauthorized personnel have the ability to transfer or leak any unsecured data. A method to thwart this threat is through data encryption. This security option uses mathematical algorithms to render a network message unreadable to unauthorized users. The encoding of the data becomes protected and the only way to gain access to the data is through a decryption key. Encryption prevents unauthorized users from reading encrypted data and prevents d ata leakage. The protection of a database system’s integrity should be a top priority within its security structure. The integrity of a database refers to the protection of information from being tampered with or manipulated by unauthorized personnel. The data and information found within the database must be accurate and consistent at all times. Thus, its integrity must also be protected from authorized users to ensure that the user isShow MoreRelatedAdults Crave Literacy Essay795 Words   |  4 Pages In today’s world, there are a numerous amount of issues that plague our society. Ones that range from obesity to economic issues. A certain problem that is highly talked about, but left in the dark is the problem of illiteracy. Illiteracy is the lack of the ability to comprehend or make sense of knowledge. A deeper look into America’s adult illiteracy problem reveals what we need to change, how we should change these problems and how we can get ahead of this compet itive world race forRead MoreBenefits of Technology Incorporation into a Classroom Setting1519 Words   |  7 PagesToday, our society is more technologically advanced than it has ever been, and our schools have become more technologically progressive over the past few years, but does having technology in the classroom help or hinder the students from learning? A quote by John Dewey from his book Democracy and Education stated â€Å"If we teach today’s students as we taught yesterday’s, we rob them of tomorrow.† Integrating technology into classrooms is not only essential in preparing the students for the future, butRead MoreTechnology And Its Impact On Education904 Words   |  4 Pagessort of replacement in the way students learn today. With the use of the Internet and little to no interaction with physical books, people can become uneducated rather easily. In today’s society, most everyone has access to the Internet; however, it is the way we use it that helps determine our success. Technology has advanced immensely throughout the past decade and will continue to do so. With these advancements taking place, educational programs are cutting down on books and upgrading their technologyRead More‘Examine the Reasons Why Some Sociologists Choose Not to Use Questionnaires When Conducting Research.’947 Words   |  4 Pagesthem, and the full-time working people will not have time to fill it out, so the researcher will only get a minimal perspective on the society he’s viewing. A higher response rate could be achieved if follow-up questionnaires are sent out or if the researcher collects them in person, but this is time consuming and costs more money. In today’s technologically advanced world, researchers can send out questionnaires in the email which is very handy for all people as they can sit from their own home andRead MoreUpgrading Data Communication At The Classroom1662 Words   |  7 PagesUpgrading data communication in the classroom would be an appropriate technological advantage because research indicates that broadband and cloud computing are transforming education. The outdated teaching tools that we grew up with (i.e. chalkboards and hardback books) are now being replaced with interactive digital content delivered through high-speed broadband using blackboard and e-books. This means elementary school students can explore the surface of the sun through high-definition video asRead MoreEffects Of Technology On Society s Society1246 Words   |  5 Pages Effects of Technology on Society Many years ago, historians believe the future would be an amazing technologically advanced place filled with robots and time traveling. But today no one seems to be shocked by all of the advancements (Negative Effects of Technology). The computers are controlling minds, and humans are acting more as robots than citizens. Over the last few decades, there has been a dramatic improvement in the development and use of technology. Workplaces have goneRead MoreEssay on The Importance of Technology Education in Schools835 Words   |  4 PagesThe Importance of Technology Education in Schools The education world has been greatly influenced by rapidly changing technology and the increasing availability of information. Schools have advanced by leaps and bounds when it comes to incorporating technology into the learning environment, however, many more advances need to be made. In all areas of the country, educators are trying to help students keep up with technology, but there are more changes that are essential for preparingRead MoreGlobalization is the International Integration of Trade, World Views, Products, and Ideas1256 Words   |  5 Pagesinternational integration arising from the interchange or trade of world views, products, ideas, and other aspects of culture. Peter Dickens refers to globalisation as â€Å"†¦ ‘Qualitatively different’ from internationalization... it represents ‘a more advanced and complex form of internationalization which implies a degree of functional integration between internationally dispersed economic activities.’† (p. 1). Communication is of paramount importance, especially in the business world. Effective globalRead MoreArtificial Intelligence and Cognitive Reasoning1597 Words   |  7 PagesIn today’s fast paced technologically savvy society, everyone wants the most advanced technology, this thirst for the next big thing is what makes technology fields the fastest changing and growing sectors. In countless movies, television shows, and novels, there is a representation of a humanoid character that is in fact a machine functioning and learning new skills with artificial intelligence. The problem with these shows is that the representation of modern day artificial intelligence is largelyRead MoreReengineering The Corporation : A Manifesto For Business Revolution1437 Words   |  6 PagesCorporation: A Manifesto for Business Revolution, Michael Hammer and James Champy discuss a concept that he originated known as â€Å"reengineering†. The process of reengineering involves coming up with new ideas, specifically processes, which are technologically advanced and extremely effective in completing corporate work. Companies must think ahead so that they will not only succeed today, but also set the rules for future business. A critical part of reengineering involves ignoring the current procedures

Journal of Policy Analysis and Management

Question: Whether the childs custody in the said case will be granted to the childs father or the childs grandmother? Answer: The law in United States of America presumes that the custody of legal parents or what the legal parents decide regarding the custody of the child is in the best interest of the child. The other individual claiming custody of the child has to prove with clear evidence that the custody of legal parents is not suitable or would be detrimental to the interest of the child. Thus, in the said case, the grandmother has to convince the Court that the custody of the child granted to her would be in best interest of the child (Laura, 2012). Statement of Facts In the present case, a grandmother took informal custody of her grandchild as the childs legal parents were unable to take care of the said child because of their involvement with drugs and criminal convictions. However, the childs father later applied for the custody of his child. The grandmother however intervened the said proceeding and under the Oregon Statute ORS section 109.119 requested the Court to deny the father his childs custody and grant her the childs permanent custody. The Oregon Statute ORS section 109.119 provides about five factors which are considered by the Court in determining whether an individual who is not a legal parent but has a significant relationship with the child should be preferred granting childs custody over and above the legal parents. Thus, the issue in the said case can be resolved by reviewing how the Court will look at the said five factors in determining whether the father or the grandmother should be preferred in being granted the custody of t he child. Discussion The Oregon Statute ORS section 109.119 permits an individual who is not a legal parent of the said child but has a significant relationship with the child to apply to the Court for a petition for custody and visitation. Under the said section, the Court presumes that the custody of the legal parents or what the legal parents decide about the custody of their child is in the best interest of the child (Pimentel, 2012). The individual applying for the childs custody other than the childs legal parents has to convince the Court otherwise. Thus, any individual including but not restricted to foster parents, stepparents, grandparents or relatives by blood or marriage who have established emotional bonds or personal relationship with the child can apply for custody or visitation. In determining whether the said custody should be granted to anyone except legal parents five factors are considered (Schetky et al., 2012). The first factor is whether the individual applying for custody of child has been the primary caretaker of child in recent times. This is considered by the court to determine whether the child is comfortable around the applicant and has a personal relationship which can be equal to a parent-child relationship. In the present case, grandmother of the child was looking after the child until the father applied for childs custody. The second factor is whether denial of the relief would create any circumstantial detriment to the interest of the child (Weisz Kazdin, 2010). This factor is considered as in custody cases childs interest is the most important. Thus, in the present case as the childs parents were involved in drugs and crime, deny grandmother custody would be detrimental to the interest of the child. The third factor is whether the legal parent has fostered or granted consent to the custody of his child to the applicant. The said factor is important as the consent of parents is considered in the best interest of the child by the Court. The forth f actor is when granting relief would not interfere with the custodial relationship. In the said factor Court considers whether granting custody to the applicant would not change the childs relationship or present living condition. Thus, in the said case, as the child was already living with his grandmother, the custody to grandmother would not change the custodial relationship (DeGarmo, 2010). The last factor is whether the legal parent has intentionally denied or limited contact between the applicant and the child. In case of relations like grandparent, if the parent restrict visitation, the court will consider it as a factor against granting custody to parents. This list is not exhaustive (Ha, Cancian Meyer, 2010). Conclusion In the present case, custody should be granted to grandmother as the legal parents are involved in drugs and crime and the grandmother has been the recent primary caretaker of the child and living in an environment away from drugs and crime would be in the best interest of the child. Reference List DeGarmo, D. S. (2010). A time varying evaluation of identity theory and father involvement for full custody, shared custody, and no custody divorced fathers.Fathering,8(2), 181. Ha, Y., Cancian, M., Meyer, D. R. (2010). Unchanging child support orders in the face of unstable earnings.Journal of Policy Analysis and Management,29(4), 799-820. Laura W. Morgan. (2012).Child support guidelines: Interpretation and application. Aspen Publishers Online. Pimentel, D. (2012). Criminal Child Neglect and the'Free Range Kid': Is Overprotective Parenting the New Standard of Care?.Utah Law Review,2012(947). Schetky, D. H., Angell, R., Morrison, C. V., Sack, W. H. (2012). Parents who fail: A study of 51 cases of termination of parental rights.Journal of the American Academy of Child Psychiatry,18(2), 366-383. Weisz, J. R., Kazdin, A. E. (Eds.). (2010).Evidence-based psychotherapies for children and adolescents. Guilford Press.