Author Question: Justin is one of the popular boys in eighth grade. He likes attention and enjoys having the younger ... (Read 83 times)

pragya sharda · **on:** Jun 20, 2018

Justin is one of the popular boys in eighth grade. He likes attention and enjoys having the younger kids look up to him. He especially likes the reputation of being the leader of the group of guys he hangs out with.One morning two girls in Ms. Armstrong's homeroom reported to her that Justin tweeted lies about them to the other students in class. He made sexually explicit claims about his relationship with them.

Explain how Ms. Armstrong might deal with the victims and with Justin and how she might effectively approach the topic with the class.

What will be an ideal response?

Question 2

McKenna Williams is a reflective teacher. She has noticed an increasing number of students not completing their independent seatwork in language and spelling. She expects students to take responsibility for working independently while she works with small reading groups. Now she wonders whether she should start allowing students to work together in pairs or trios rather than continuing to require them to work quietly on an individual basis. Her common sense tells her that she should continue to require quiet individual work. Her colleague Cal Sitton disagrees. He allows his students to work in pairs. McKenna respects her colleague Cal and knows he has more experience teaching than she does. But she doesn't want to mirror his teaching without reason or evidence that his strategies are more effective. How might she research this question in her own classroom and produce evidence to support one approach over another?

What will be an ideal response?

potomatos · **Reply #1 on:** Jun 20, 2018

Answer to Question 1

Suggested Response:
Ms. Armstrong must take the bullying report seriously. She needs to deal with the victims first and assure them that they are not responsible for Justin's cyber-bullying behavior. She needs to deal with Justin by telling him that such behavior will not be tolerated.
She needs to follow school policy for reporting the bullying and seeing that the consequences for cyber-bullying are carried out in this case.
In the classroom, she might conduct a discussion about cyber-bullying, remind students of school policy, discuss definitions and examples of cyber-bullying, and discuss appropriate ways to deal with cyber-bullying when it occurs. She might invite a guest to teach students about protecting their accounts on social media, using it wisely, and blocking perpetrators. She might work with her students to develop a set of rules and procedures related to the use of media, particularly social media.
Text Reference:Dealing with Discipline Problems

Answer to Question 2

Suggested Response: McKenna might conduct her own action research in her classroom. Action research involves systematic observations or tests of methods to improve teaching and learning. Her question might be to find out whether students learn more when they work in pairs or when they work independently. It might be to find out whether more students complete the assignments.
For her observations or tests, McKenna could try pairing students for seatwork. She needs to give students guidelines and procedures to follow. She can compare the results of students' work over a period of time. She might compare the number of completed assignments she had with her old approach to the number of completed assignments with the new approach. She might also compare grades on specific tasks such as spelling tests, writing assignments, or worksheets. She would need to set up her study to answer her questions about effectiveness of the two approaches. Is more learning taking place when students work in pairs?
Text Reference: The Role of Educational Psychology