CM6.4.b

Some of the things that Ms. James could implement into her classroom during the first few days are as follows. She could integrate some signals into her structure. Attentions signals would be helpful to her when the class has gotten to loud and she needs to get their attention. This would be good because it is inevitable that the class will sometimes get too loud. She also might have each student evaluate the other members of their group to help her get a better idea of their performance in the class. She could also have them write problems for other member in their group to work. This would give them practice teaching and performing. Lastly she could incorporate some rewards for doing good group work.

CM6.4.a

In the case study Ms. James uses many strategies, in which sure specific purposes. She sets the room up in groups on a permanent base, so that the desks don’t have to be moved around. She sets rules for being out of your seat, so that the other students do not get distracted by student movements. She monitored the class by walking around and giving motivation and encouragement. Next she assigned groups as well as numbers to each student so that all have tasks to perform. She assessed the groups with both individual points as well as group points, this made it so that all had to participate. By using groups, she increases students’ social skills, leadership skills and explaining skills. She taught group skills by explaining ways to interact, such as listening, explaining, asking questions, encouraging and sharing. She tried to ashore students that asking for help were a good thing, and that no question was stupid. These all functioned by keeping students on task, allowing them to participate, taking some pressure of students, allowing them to develop social skills all while learning a content area.

CM7.1

Some of the items in the case study that I would adopt in my classroom are as follows. I would have a Washington or Lincoln award, where the person with the -top grade from all the classes at the end of the year will have their name posted for all to see permanently. So if they are freshman they can see their name posted till they graduate and after and give them something to be proud of. I would award bonus points to a group who receives the most points on review games. Next, have a competition to see what class can get the highest grade average on a test. (This is assuming that I have more than one class on a subject.) They will be rewarded with bonus points, snacks, movie, video, or something else, but all have to be relevant to the class. Next I would allow students to correct missed questions on assignments, and they can be resubmitted and graded to help their grade, but only if the assignment had been completed and turned in on time in the first place. I would have a list of books pertaining to topics discussed in class that students could read for extra credit, after demonstrating to me through a test or review that the book had been read. I might allow twenty minutes on Fridays for students to use as they wish with reasonable guidelines, like a historical game, if they had been on task, worked quietly, and participated throughout the week. I would also have students keep track of grades on a record sheet in their notebooks so they can decided if doing an extra credit activities would help them. Lastly, I would have a weekly extra credit question on a bulletin board. For every two you get correct you receive one extra credit point. I would however not use all these at the same time.

C.M.7.2

Most schools have rules along these lines that as a teacher you would have to also comply with. No food drink in classroom, No weapons, Adhere to dress codes, Adhere to backpack, purse policies, Tardy policies, Respect for materials and school property, Rules on falsifying information, No Drugs use or possession, Sexual harassment. Most school also has detention policies and ISS, OSS, and other programs to deal with unruly rule breakers. All this things I would have to keep in mind. When rewarding students I would have to make sure that if my school has a rule about food and drink in the classroom that I hold class in an area where it is allowed or I don’t allow them to have it. I would also have to go by school rules when dealing with drugs, weapons and other things I find in my classroom. If I let these rules slip in my class then the students think that they can get by and not uphold any of my classroom rules or the school rules.

CM5 Case Study 1

In this case study Ms. Carpenter is having trouble with students not getting all the information she presents to them. So she decides to write all the important information on the board during the lectures so they will get the information that she believes they should understand. By displaying the key concepts, terms, major points and other information she is showing the class there importance, and this will guide the notes that the students take. This will lead to a decline in the amount of questions and the number of times that she must restate information that has already been covered.

CM 5 Case Study 2

Mr. Miller is having trouble getting class started and getting the students to transition from one activity to another quickly. He has already talked to the class about the problem but it hasn’t helped. He should then have an activity ready for the students as they walk in the door. Something that they are to begin working on immediately, like an essay question they are to have started and almost completed when he finishes roles. He should also tell students how much time they have left while doing activities giving them time to clean up or finish the projects before he expects them to move on to a new activity. This would give the students some transition time to switch gears themselves

CM 5 Case Study 3

Ms. Kendall has a problem, she is to teach a science class and she has never done that before. Her first steps should be to consult with the other teacher who is teaching the other fifth period class. Maybe they could work together, and maybe she could use the lessons that the other teacher has prepared for the class, or she could adapt them. She should go over all her science materials from her science classes in college and high school to see what was taught in them, as well as look at the states standard for science so she can incorporate them into her lessons. In addition she should do some internet investigation as to what kinds of sources are available to her on the internet, and find some lessons that she could incorporate into her class.

CM 5 Case Study 4

This teacher has a lot of problems. Mr. Case needs to get organized. He should have had his day mapped out precisely so he new what was going to need to be addressed. By doing this he would be able to transition from one activity to another smoothly. This would also help him to stay on track, so that there are less times of confusion for himself as well as for his students. When the new student was introduced he should have directed the students to be working on something while he dealt with the things necessary to go over with a new student. Or he should have welcomed the student had him sit down and you continue with the activity and deal with the administrative things at the end of he hour. Mr. Case also demonstrates three problems in his teaching. He left topics dangling not concluding activities, he flip-flopped back to a finished activity to add new information, and he thrust in information at bad times which interrupted the students work. He should have planned better so that these problems would not have occurred.

CM 5 Case Study 5

In this study Ms. Grant should have taken some steps to have mad the class run smoother. She should have had the desk arranged before class so that time was not taken away from instruction and the noise that comes with students moving desk would have been eliminated. She could have passed out the papers and given instructions before the students moved into their groups, this would cut down the number of times Ms. Grant had to interrupt and quite the students. She also should have walked around the room monitoring students and posing to them questions to spur other ideas in their heads. By doing this she would have given the student more direction and kept them quieter and on task. She could have told the students that they had a specific amount of time to work on the project so they would have started faster and she should have informed them when to be rapping things up. This would give students a since of urgency to complete the task, and would help cut down on the time spent waiting for all groups to finish. She could have had extra activities for those who finished early so that they did not start to gossip and chat, which would cut down on the noise level. Or she could have looked over their work before they presented the information to the class. She should have made students accountable for the information given by the other groups so that they had a reason to listen to their classmates. And lastly she should have had more of a discussion about the purpose of the activity while conducting this she could have had the books passed out. This would not leave an opening for the students to start chatting because they did not have to wait for the books. Over all preventing the behavior before it started.

C.M. 4.4

Some of the things that Mr. Davis might do to establish better behavior in his class would be first, to set down specific rules other than the vague rules he stated the first day. He should have setup a routine to start class out, so that the students knew what was expected of them. He needed to demonstrate what he meant by respecting others rights, along with modeling how mature people should act. He should then remind students of the rules every time a chance occurs, so that students do not have the excuse that they did not know. In the same way, rules should have been posted or printed and given to each student. He should have a set procedure for the beginning and end of class as well. In the study, he put a question on the board that the students were to write a paragraph in response, this was a good thing because it ideally would give him time to take role, pass out papers and other beginning activities. However, if he did not do this everyday the students may not have known exactly what was expected of them. Leading to student confusion and as well as them not completing the assignment.
Next, boundaries or a procedure needed to be set up on how students were to answer questions or interact during whole class discussion. This eliminates some students blurting out answers randomly and cut down on all the chatter. When students started talking about personal things, he should have taken measures to stop it. He should have a consequence for students who do not follow directions. It goes back to an old saying, you have to “nip it in the bud,” meaning that you must stop the bad behavior before it starts and gets out of hand.
I think Mr. Davis let the student get away with little things that eventually led to gigantic problems in discipline. In today’s culture, many believe that if you can get away with it, then it is ok. The students in Mr. Davis’s class knew that they could get away with things so they did. I also think that he should have picked up the assignments that students were to be working on and give some extra credit to those who had been working on them when they were given the time to. This would implement a positive reinforcement for the ones that were actually doing the work.
Another problem that Mr. Davis faced was the problems with students looking at and passing around magazines. It states that they were told to put them up but did not do so. He should have then taken the magazines from the students, then return them when the period was up. When the magazine is given back, remind the student what your policies are on magazines. In addition, remind them that if you see the magazine again, that it will be taken away permanently. Moreover, recap that if they would have just put the magazine away, when ask to the first time, it would not have had to be taken away.
All in all Mr. Davis should remind students of the rules. Set consequences for misbehavior and enforce them every time bad behavior occurs. He needs to show the students again that he is the one in charge.