Reflections on EDCI 7520

Costa, A., & Kallick, B. (2000). Habits of mind: A developmental series , Vermont Consultants for Language and Learning Montpelier, Ve rmont, Alexandria. Main Points: 1.  Habits of Mind consist of 16 dispositions in which learners react to problems. 2. The focus is  on student reactions and performances when confronted by challenges. 3.  They center around how students create and produce knowledge through these sets of dispositions rather than how just the knowledge itself. 4.  Closely related to metacognition, self-regulated learning, and critical thinking skills, but most are applicable to more than one area. 5.  Applicable and serve beyond just school into all areas of life including work, relationships, and organizations. Discussion: I appreciate the common threat of questioning and posing problems throughout each of the described Habits of Mind. Critical problem analysis and questioning skills that anyone, including myself, benefits from. Teaching stud...

Hammond, Z. (2015). Culturally responsive teaching & the brain: promoting authentic engagement and rigor among culturally and linguistically diverse students. Thousand Oaks: CA: Corwin. Main Points: 1. S chool systems write off the “culture of poverty,” which further perpetuates the achievement gap. 2. Educator l abels and create a “pedagogy of poverty” which dumbs down the cognitive skills, rigor, and engaging work, by underestimating what our “labeled” children are capable of. 3. A growth mindset would foster resilience in our students and can be accomplished through the vehicle of culturally responsive teaching. 4.  The singling out of children, even with the best of intentions, causes them to feel as though they do not belong, and students will, therefore, withdraw from the learning community, perpetuating gaps and stereotypes. 5. T he brain, and especially the amygdala and neocortex, play crucial parts in the detection and minimizing of social and physical threats.   ...

Fox, E. & Alexander, P. A. (2017). Learning to read. In Mayer, R. E.  & Alexander, P. A. Handbook of research on learning and instruction (2nd ed.), pp. 8-32. New York: Routledge. Main Points: 1. Through a developmental lens, reading is behavior as opposed to a skill or process.  2. Research from the past 10 years fits within the framework of six broad principles by Gray (1951). 3. These principles are "recognition of the changing role of reading as communication practices evolve; broadening the concept of reading beyond word recognition; an acknowledgment that growth in reading continues throughout the lifespan; consideration of students' developing interests and needs; instruction in domain-specific reading practices; and attention to reader's individual differences" (p. 9). 4. More research and longitudinal studies should be conducted to better understand what children are learning about their reading as they continue through the learning process over the ...